Over the past few months, we’ve been talking a lot here at Video Creators with you guys about doing brand deals on your channels to make money outside of just AdSense. And a lot of you guys are really into that idea, but there’s this common misconception that keeps popping up in the comments of those videos that you need to have this gigantic enormous audience in order to make it a viable actual revenue stream for you guys, and that is just not true. And a friend of mine Evan Carmichael’s actually here talking to you guys about how he’s made over $100,000 in brand deals on his YouTube channel with a modestly sized audience.
Evan Carmichael
I’ve made over $100,000 in brand deals, and Tim asked me to share my experience and give you my secret recipe, so hopefully, you can help grow your channel through brand deals as well. Now if you really want to get a deal for your channel, there are two ways to do it. The first way is to when the brands put out their ads, right? They say we’re looking to work with creators, we need to hire one creator. We are willing to pay this amount of money, and you can compete for that. You can send me your applications.
The challenge in that model is you’re up against a lot of different people, the budgets aren’t typically great, and it’s hard to win when you’re going up against so many different creators. The other way to do it is to create a pull system so that brands find you and I much prefer this system because now, you’re not competing against anybody else and you could afford to charge way, way, way more money. So I’m going to share with you my five-step process to get brands coming to you.
Be an Authority in Your Industry
Step number one is you need to be the authority in your industry. You need to be the go-to person for whatever it is that you are an expert at. And ideally, you’re using your face, and that could be a problem for gamers who aren’t showing their face. It’s a lot easier to make a connection to an individual where you can see them than just having something up on the screen.
But also, if you’re in a big market, and there’s a lot of people doing what you do, then narrow it down. Be focused. Be the guy or the girl who is the expert at what you’re doing. So for example, if you are a cooking channel, there’s tons of people in the cooking channel. For you to get number one in cooking is going to be super challenging. What you want to do is find a specific area in cooking that you are going to be the best person in the world at and focus on that because there are brands who they are looking for experts to partner with, and the right brand, they have people who are on YouTube looking for people to connect with. You’re going to be the person they call because you have their target audience. Be the authority.
Create Consistent Content
Number two is create consistent content. You need to be constantly putting out new content on your channel, with topics that are of interest that brands will be searching for. So if you’re producing content once a month, it’s not enough. You know? You need to be at least once a week putting out content to your channel. On my channel, I do it twice a day. I have two new videos going out every single day on my channel. You may not be able to keep up with that kind of pace, but at least once a week, consistently putting out high quality content on your channel. It’s a must.
Have an About Page
Number three is have an About page. You want to have a page that’s off of YouTube that shares your story and how you work with brands. So on that page, you want to talk about brands that you’ve worked with. You want to talk about who you are, why you started your channel, why is it so important to you. You want to show any media that you’ve done before. You want to show any other opportunities that you’ve had. You want to show the growth in your channel in terms of viewers and subscribers, show growth in the engagement and the comments. You want to show momentum. Right? Anything that makes you look good and you can show data, numbers, and previous experience, and a track record that if a brand come to that page, and you can link to it in your YouTube About page, link to that brand page to them. When they hit that page, it makes it look like yeah, I got to work with this guy or this girl because they really know what they’re doing, and there’s a lot of momentum behind them. So have that About page.
Represent a Brand
Number four is use examples. Nobody wants to be the first deal. It’s the riskiest time to be the first deal that you work with. So even if you don’t have a deal yet, make up a deal right? Just represent a brand. Say that you like this product. Showcase how you’re using it. Showcase a company that you genuinely like. If it’s a book you’re reading or product you’re using talk about in a really genuine way, and then really promote that video.
I remember one of my very first videos for a brand deal. I needed to get more engagement, more activity. So I reached out to all my Facebook friends and all my personal friends, said hey, can you please go to this video and give it a thumbs up and leave a comment just to support me. And I can always use that video as my showcase, as a demo that when I’m giving it to other brands and say hey, look at the kind of stuff that I can do. So show examples, and if you don’t have an example yet, make an example, and drive people, drive engagement, drive traffic to it, so that when the brand comes and looks at that video, they say hey this guy really knows what he’s doing, I want to get involved with him.
Understand the Brand’s Goals
Number five is understand the brand’s goals. In the typical model, when you think of brand deals, most people think of it as being based on how many views you have. Right? So if you can get 10,000 views to this video, then I will pay you x amount of money. Where in a lot of cases, when a brand is reaching out to you, right back to point number one, be the authority. It’s not always just for views and you have to understand that in mind. I’ve had brands pay me thousands of dollars to make videos that only have a couple hundred views on it, because their goal wasn’t just to get views and engagement on a video, it was for another purpose.
So for example, I’ve had one where it was to reward a contest winner. And as part of that contest, that person got a one on one consult with me and that became a YouTube video. Right? So they’re paying me for my time to do a consultation with them. Even though that video never went viral, never had tons of views, I still got paid a lot of money for it. So understand the brand’s goals before you just jump in and automatically assume that all they care about is views, and of course, believe.
Thank you guys so much for watching. If you guys have any questions about how to close brand deals or how to get them to come to you, leave a question below. I’m going to join in the comments and discussion, get involved, and try to help answer them for you. And for those of you who haven’t checked out Tim’s eBook yet, it’s one of the best investments that you’re ever going to make in your channel. It helped my channel grow tremendously.