Brand Partnerships

If you have access to an audience that a brand wants to reach, they may want to pay you to help them advertise. Strategic partnerships and collaborations can be a great option for artists as you can get paid while still bringing value to your fans.

How It Works

One way artists partner with brands is through sponsored social media posts. An art supply brand, for example, may ask you to create an artwork using their pens, or a publisher may ask you to share a glimpse inside a book they’re currently promoting. In this circumstance, artists usually get a flat fee per post. Another way to partner with a brand is to become an affiliate. This means that you’ll share a trackable link or promo code for one of their products or services, and then you’ll get a percentage of the sales that you sent their way.

The Pros

  • Positions you as an authority and influencer
  • Usually doesn't require a ton of extra work
  • Could lead to a lasting relationships with brands that could be lucrative
  • Passive income stream

The Cons

  • Being associated with a bad brand can damage your image
  • You could come off "salesy" to your audience
  • There are certain legal issues to be aware of... like requirement to post #ad or #sponsored

Other Stuff to Note

The bigger your following and engagement, the better chance you have at landing a brand partnership deal. But make sure you don’t jump at just any deal—you want to respect the followers you already have and make sure you don’t spam them with content they don’t want! As long as you do your due diligence, vet every potential partner carefully, and make sure you’ll serving up recommendations and content you can really stand by, everyone wins!

Brand Partnerships could be right for you if…

• You’ve got a large scale and engaged following

• You’re constantly putting out quality content

• You’re great at SEO and marketing

• Your audience trusts you

How to Get Started

Some ideas for getting brand partnerships are:

1. Start sharing tutorial – If you love sharing, start by creating content around brands you love. Do a story or tutorial that features (and tags) your favorite material/pen/paper.

2. Create a pitch deck – Create a PDF that includes your stats, and ways you can help companies with authentic messaging and content creation.

3. Get specific - Make a list of curated brands you’d like to work with and why. To make sure these don’t feel like any other ad, make sure this list really makes sense for what you already tend to share and talk about, and how it will benefit and serve your following.