Latest / Influencer Confidential / Paid Brand Deals Are Out There. Here's Where to Find Them! | 2027 Edition #315

Transcript

Paid Brand Deals Are Out There. Here's Where to Find Them! | 2027 Edition #315 · Influencer Confidential

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Influencer Confidential by Sidewalker Daily. My name is
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  Speaker 1: Nina Zeta and I will be your host. I love
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  Speaker 1: working with brands and influencers on all things business strategy.
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  Speaker 1: Are you ready to learn what it takes to work
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  Speaker 1: in this influencer industry and see behind the curtain? Well,
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  Speaker 1: let's jump in. If you're on the hunt for brand
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  Speaker 1: deals and you don't want to just rely on Instagram
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  Speaker 1: to find them, I'm going to share with you different
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  Speaker 1: places and ways to start locating these partnerships. Okay. I
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  Speaker 1: will preface by saying this, you guys, I have a
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  Speaker 1: creator community. I have 167,000 creators that I support collectively.
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  Speaker 1: I am in this game. I've worked on the brand side.
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  Speaker 1: I pay creators like all of it. And I just
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  Speaker 1: have to stress that having an inbound only business is
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  Speaker 1: really stressful and you don't want to be in that position.
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  Speaker 1: So We're gonna talk about where to find brand deals,
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  Speaker 1: but the most important piece that I could ever leave
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  Speaker 1: you with is outside of finding them, you need to
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  Speaker 1: go and pitch them. You need to put yourself out
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  Speaker 1: there and reach out and not just wait for people
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  Speaker 1: to come to you because that is not a business,
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  Speaker 1: that is a wishlist, that is a hobby. You gotta
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  Speaker 1: be an active driver in your partnerships, okay? And you
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  Speaker 1: wanna pitch them. Now, obviously, I could not talk about
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  Speaker 1: brand deals and where to find them without plugging in
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  Speaker 1: the paid creator. So if you guys have been living
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  Speaker 1: under a rock, We launched a creator job board. It's
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  Speaker 1: literally a simple, keep it simple type of job board
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  Speaker 1: where we categorize these jobs into different categories like UGC
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  Speaker 1: or travel or beauty or fitness. You can literally scroll
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  Speaker 1: through the different tabs and find different opportunities. We are
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  Speaker 1: getting these opportunities from PR agencies, from casting companies that
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  Speaker 1: come to us, from different third-party platforms that send us opportunities.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes we're researching them on our own. Sometimes we find
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  Speaker 1: a job that we're like, oh, we need to let
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  Speaker 1: people in on this. We're the ones doing the work.
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  Speaker 1: We have a team dedicated to finding these opportunities. Sometimes
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  Speaker 1: we also don't post like a job per se, but
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  Speaker 1: we post something that we think is interesting. So for example,
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  Speaker 1: there is a launch of a new, I don't know,
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  Speaker 1: beauty product or a cruise line or something. And whenever
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  Speaker 1: I see a launch or something fresh in the market,
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  Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, creators need to pitch that. So I
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  Speaker 1: also include those on my job board and I include
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  Speaker 1: the contact person of who to pitch. So if you're
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  Speaker 1: someone who just wants three opportunities in your inbox every
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  Speaker 1: single morning, Monday through Friday, sign up for our job board.
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  Speaker 1: It's the cost of a coffee literally for the whole month.
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  Speaker 1: And you're going to get three opportunities a day in
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  Speaker 1: your inbox. So that's first literally is something we are
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  Speaker 1: putting so much effort into. We're constantly sharing these opportunities.
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  Speaker 1: You can also follow us at the paid creator daily
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  Speaker 1: on Instagram at You just want to follow and see
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  Speaker 1: the opportunity of the day because we always post them
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  Speaker 1: there as well. We are doing all of this work
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  Speaker 1: because we know our industry, we know our community, we
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  Speaker 1: know what you guys need, and we're literally just handing
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  Speaker 1: it to you in a silver plate. Now, the second
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  Speaker 1: thing you want to obviously really keep mind of are
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  Speaker 1: the brand partnerships that you are seeing happening online. If
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  Speaker 1: you see a creator do a paid partnership, save that
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  Speaker 1: in a collections board, write it down. Anytime you see
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  Speaker 1: people doing brand partnerships, even searching the word ad on
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  Speaker 1: Instagram or or hashtag paid or hashtag partnership, you can
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  Speaker 1: start seeing partnerships that are lining up because creators should
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  Speaker 1: be disclosing who these partnerships are. So if you are
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  Speaker 1: starting to see those, I would strongly add those to
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  Speaker 1: some sort of Trello board or Google Sheets or a
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  Speaker 1: little collection board on Instagram directly so you can know
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  Speaker 1: to pitch them. Same thing with ads. Anytime you see
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  Speaker 1: a brand running ads on Meta, on Instagram, TikTok, ads, ads, ads.
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  Speaker 1: Ads mean budget. I once recently saw that a brand
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  Speaker 1: was running like 60 ads. And I was thinking to myself,
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  Speaker 1: how much money must they have to be running 60 ads?
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  Speaker 1: So this is a huge indicator that there is budget.
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  Speaker 1: This is a huge indicator that I would pitch them
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  Speaker 1: if they are running ads. It means they need fresh creative.
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  Speaker 1: It means they need fresh videos. You know, maybe there
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  Speaker 1: is a promotion going on or something that is really
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  Speaker 1: interesting for them. I would go in and also include
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  Speaker 1: that as something that I would say in my pitch.
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  Speaker 1: Like I noticed you guys are running ads. Do you
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  Speaker 1: need fresh videos? Right. Use that in your outreach. Now,
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  Speaker 1: another indicator that a brand is doing partnerships is checking
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  Speaker 1: out on their website. Like literally they have a section
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  Speaker 1: that says like creator program. or affiliate program or whatever.
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  Speaker 1: I would not use that as a way to get
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  Speaker 1: in because you guys know I'm team pitch direct. I
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  Speaker 1: would not just fill out some form on a brand's website.
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  Speaker 1: I feel like it will go into the abyss and
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  Speaker 1: you're never gonna hear from them. However, doing that research
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  Speaker 1: and even seeing if they have it will be very helpful. Now,
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  Speaker 1: what if they don't have it, right? What if they
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  Speaker 1: don't have, oh, creators apply here? That could also be
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  Speaker 1: an opportunity. Do you know how many companies, locally, small businesses,
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  Speaker 1: have never worked with a creator before. They've never done UGC. Heck,
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  Speaker 1: they don't even know what UGC is. Go to a
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  Speaker 1: local mom and pop and ask them if they know
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  Speaker 1: what UGC is. They have no idea. What they do
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  Speaker 1: know is short form videos, social media. So sometimes as
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  Speaker 1: a creator, guys, keep it simple. Use the words that
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  Speaker 1: they know. Hey, I noticed you guys haven't posted on
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  Speaker 1: social in a few months. Do you need short form
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  Speaker 1: video content? I can come once a month and shoot it. right?
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  Speaker 1: A lot of times creators make this mistake of when
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  Speaker 1: we talk about brand deals, only working with national companies,
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  Speaker 1: there is also a really big importance to pitch locally.
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  Speaker 1: So maybe that means meeting your local chamber of commerce,
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  Speaker 1: seeing the businesses that are the members, you know, what
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  Speaker 1: are the local businesses in your community that could use content, right?
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  Speaker 1: That is such an important in when you're looking for partnerships,
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  Speaker 1: even if they're not saying they're working with them, I
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  Speaker 1: would still really highlight local businesses and as a way
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  Speaker 1: to outreach. Now, someone told me recently that she got
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  Speaker 1: like 600 jobs on this platform called Billow. And I
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  Speaker 1: had another creator, you know, do Aspire and Koli and
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  Speaker 1: all these third party platforms. They're like, Nina, what do
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  Speaker 1: you think about the third party? I have been very bold.
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  Speaker 1: I don't care how you make money, whether it's through
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  Speaker 1: a third party platform, pitching direct, inbound. To me, it's like,
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  Speaker 1: as long as you're monetizing, I'm happy. I will say though,
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  Speaker 1: all of these platforms are really good indicators to know
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  Speaker 1: that If the brand is running paid creator spend or UGC.
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  Speaker 1: Now it was interesting because one of these companies, I'm
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  Speaker 1: not sure which one, they said, you cannot pitch our
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  Speaker 1: brands outside of us. And that was like kind of
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  Speaker 1: a little bit of a red flag, right? Like imagine
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  Speaker 1: like all the companies now that are on this third
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  Speaker 1: party platform, you can't pitch them or you get removed
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  Speaker 1: off the platform right away. Like, I don't know how
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  Speaker 1: I feel about all that because again, I teach direct pitching.
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  Speaker 1: So you definitely want to read the fine print here.
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  Speaker 1: and see platforms that you sign up for if they
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  Speaker 1: have that. But regardless, like if a company is on there,
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  Speaker 1: they are running creator ads. It is a great signal,
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  Speaker 1: like a positive health signal that it could be someone
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  Speaker 1: that you reach out to because you already see that
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  Speaker 1: they are investing in it. Now, I couldn't do a
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  Speaker 1: video about finding paid brand deals if I didn't talk
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  Speaker 1: about the role of the PR agency, marketing agencies, okay?
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  Speaker 1: A lot of times, guys, companies hire PR agencies to
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  Speaker 1: be the middle person between you and them. And I
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  Speaker 1: always call the PR people the gatekeepers. So sometimes what
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  Speaker 1: I do with my one-on-one clients is we will literally
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  Speaker 1: pitch local PR agencies. We'll try to set up meetings
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  Speaker 1: and copies. We want to know who these agencies represent
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  Speaker 1: because they have a lot of clients. And I will
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  Speaker 1: tell you this right now. Once you are in with
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  Speaker 1: an agency, you will get tossed around, especially if you
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  Speaker 1: produce good work. They're going to recommend you to other
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  Speaker 1: people within the company. So anytime you can get in
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  Speaker 1: within an agency group, have a meet and greet, in-person events,
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  Speaker 1: any of that with PR agencies, marketing agencies that have clients,
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  Speaker 1: you're positioning yourself in a space to get paid. So
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  Speaker 1: definitely make that effort, whether it's via LinkedIn or joining
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  Speaker 1: a local PR chapter, you want to meet the agencies,
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  Speaker 1: the people that work at these agencies, because these agencies
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  Speaker 1: are hired by the companies and they represent the company.
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  Speaker 1: So you want in so much of the money that
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  Speaker 1: goes out to creator through these PR agencies. I just
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  Speaker 1: got a bunch of creators a really big job with
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  Speaker 1: a huge airline and a big tourism board and all
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  Speaker 1: of that. And it was because a PR girl messaged me.
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  Speaker 1: She was like, hey, we got like this crazy budget.
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  Speaker 1: Do you have someone? And, you know, I'm not a manager.
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  Speaker 1: So I just recommend people I know, my students, people
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  Speaker 1: that I've worked with, whatever. And that's just human life, right?
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  Speaker 1: Like people are always trying to find people. So when
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  Speaker 1: you have connection with an agency, you want to build
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  Speaker 1: that relationship out because that agency had the budget, right?
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  Speaker 1: They're like, oh, we're managing the budget for this huge client.
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  Speaker 1: So it doesn't mean that they're hoarding the budget for themselves. Now,
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  Speaker 1: something I don't think a lot of people talk about
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  Speaker 1: enough when we talk about like finding brand deals is
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  Speaker 1: using your content to attract them. So for example, like
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  Speaker 1: we recently had a creator that was working with, we
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  Speaker 1: did like a whole video and we told brands just
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  Speaker 1: like how I do to you guys. Like I'm like, oh,
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  Speaker 1: like get on a call with our success manager or
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  Speaker 1: look at my program or I want to work with
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  Speaker 1: you coaching, right? I'm putting a link below. I had
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  Speaker 1: an influencer do very similar calls to action. And they
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  Speaker 1: were more like, if you're a brand that wants to
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  Speaker 1: sponsor some of our upcoming videos, definitely click on our
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Google form below. I'm working on a bunch of great stuff.
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  Speaker 1: Would love to share more. And she said brands are
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  Speaker 1: filling out this form, right? So sometimes you have to
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  Speaker 1: be bold with your social media or your content strategies
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  Speaker 1: or your email newsletters and say, hey, I'm looking for
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  Speaker 1: a sponsor. Hey, I'm looking for a partner to bring
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  Speaker 1: this concept to life. You never know who is watching
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  Speaker 1: your content. Truly, you do not know who it is.
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  Speaker 1: So that is why sometimes you just got to put
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  Speaker 1: yourself out there. You're running a business. You're not running
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  Speaker 1: a charity. So if there's a brand that you're looking for,
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  Speaker 1: you can be very specific. I am looking for a
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  Speaker 1: brand in the DIY space. We're bringing this big project
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  Speaker 1: to life. I really want to share more. Click this
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: link to learn a bit more. And now you're asking
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  Speaker 1: that brand for their email. You're asking that brand for
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  Speaker 1: what they're looking for and their budget. It is a
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  Speaker 1: great way to vet opportunities and is getting the brands
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  Speaker 1: to come to you, but you have to call it
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  Speaker 1: out and you have to give them a place to land.
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  Speaker 1: What this episode is showing you guys is that you
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  Speaker 1: can't rely on just one place to get partnerships. Being
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  Speaker 1: in business means hunting. You are constantly looking up on
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  Speaker 1: our paid creator job board. You're pitching direct. You're going
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  Speaker 1: to agency events. You are making content that gets them
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  Speaker 1: to come to you. There are so many different ways.
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  Speaker 1: You can't just depend on one way because that's just
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  Speaker 1: not realistic. You want to build a system where you're
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  Speaker 1: constantly looking for multiple sources. But the good news is,
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  Speaker 1: is you are never going to run out of leads.
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  Speaker 1: That is the truth. You will never run out of
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  Speaker 1: brands to reach out to, even just if you thought
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  Speaker 1: about your local market, how many companies exist locally. You
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  Speaker 1: just have to put in the effort to pitch them
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  Speaker 1: because if you don't pitch them, they don't know you exist.
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  Speaker 1: Like I said, y'all, if you need support with pitching,
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: check out my pitching program. I'm going to link it below,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: the Pitching to Brands Master Course. We have thousands of testimonials.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: People make their money back with one brand deal. It
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: is a tried and true system, and you can learn
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: more about it below. I will include that link. Until
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: next time.