How Much to Charge For Brand Deals

How Much to Charge For Brand Deals

Read time: 5 minutes

As online creators, somehow we’ve found ourselves in a situation where we’re negotiating paid partnerships with brands, often saddled with tremendous personal baggage and little-to-no experience with how to value our creative work.

And it doesn't help that most people are so secretive when it comes to sharing how much they value themselves at too.

Maybe it's an insecurity thing?Maybe they think people will steal their brand deals?Or maybe money was tight or a taboo subject growing up?

Either way, I think there's a lot to be said about understanding our true value as online creators.

Today I want to give you a framework to help determine how much you can charge for brand deals so you can make some cold, hard cash as a creator - instead of always settling for 'free product' or accepting whatever a brand says they have budget for.

I'm talking about the kind that doesn't jiggle, jiggle, but folds ;)

The next time you're negotiating a brand deal, run through these points:

#1 Price The BrandMost people never do this. Every brand you speak to is different. A startup making products from their garage workshop is going to have a considerably different level of budget for marketing than say a fortune-500 company. Price accordingly. Think about,

• What platforms?

• How many posts?

• What your costs are?

• Will it be photo or video?

• Is it dedicated or integrated?

ExclusivityWhen a brand is asking for exclusivity, you have to ask how long will the duration be? For example, if a brand wants you to be exclusive to them for a whole year, you have to take into account the opportunity cost of turning down deals from similar brands.

Moral of the story: Don't undersell yourself.

Paid MediaIt's my mantra that if a brand wants to use my content to promote or sell their products, there's a cost associated with that. If I feel I've helped facilitate that sale, I feel I'm entitled to a slice of the pie.

Repurposed contentDoes a brand want to re-share your content on social media? Do they want to embed it on their website? Are they going to be putting additional money behind your content with paid advertising to amplify it on social media, and how long for?

These are all questions I'd be asking myself - or wanting to know from a brand - before I pull the trigger and sign on the dotted line.

One final point I will add is pricing relative to the value you provide.

I get asked a lot for a solid number somebody should charge for content creation. And honestly? It's impossible and unethical of me to even try and come up with a number somebody else should charge for their work.

As well as that, going this approach assumes your only value to the brand is you uploading your content on your channel(s) and leveraging your reach. But what if a brand wants to repurpose it?

This is GOLD to brands. Why? Because they don't have to go out and hire an entire production team or agency to create ads for them. Not only will they get eyeballs from your channel, but they're getting an asset they can use in other ways too.

TL'DR

1. Understand you are worth more than you think

2. Price a brand deal based on a number of factors

3. Take into account where your content will be shared (and re-purposed)

Whenever you're ready, here are a few ways I can help you:

1. If this post resonated with you, I'd recommend checking out my free mini-course I've just put together:

→ Free2Paid: It shows you how to turn free product offers from brands into paid deals in 57 minutes.

2. If you love action cameras, and you want to get the most out of yours, check out my GoPro course:

GoPro Video Magic: This is a beginner-friendly course for shooting, editing, and sharing epic videos with a GoPro camera. It's literally everything I know about action cameras, including setup, shooting, editing, and sharing on social.