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Landing Your First Brand Collab As a Content Creator: 6 Top Tips

Posted on 14th Oct, 2024.

There are various ways to monetise your profile as a TikTok star, but one of the most obvious is to collaborate with a well-known brand. By making content with or on behalf of a brand, you can not only make money but also boost your profile, since fans of the brand will likely see your content.

But if you've never worked with a brand before, how do you land your first collaboration and how do you make it a success? Let's explore the answers to both of those questions with our ultimate guide to your first brand partnership as a content creator.

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What is a Brand Collaboration?

A brand collaboration involves a content creator working with a brand to create content that promotes the brand in some way. Common brand collaboration videos include direct adverts for brands, unboxing of PR content (free gifts from a brand), a paid product review, or content that involves the brand in a naturalistic way, such as a Get Ready With Me video in which the creator uses a certain brand's skincare product.

Any paid brand partnership must be marked as an ad on TikTok for full transparency, both with your followers and with advertising standards agencies. You don't have to have millions of followers to bag a brand collaboration, but you'll need at least a few thousand, so consider buying your first few hundreds or thousands of your followers to make a brand collab more likely.

Tips for Bagging a Brand Partnership

If monetising your platform with brand partnerships is a priority, use these top tips to secure and make a success of your first collaboration.

1. Find the right brands for you

The first step before reaching out to any brands is to consider which brands would be right for your public persona. It stands to reason that you'll want to work with brands that are also within your niche, but consider other factors, too.

If you're a beauty blogger and a large percentage of your followers are socially conscious, for example, you could focus on working with brands that are vegan, sustainable, or cruelty-free. Remember, the aim is always to cultivate a trusting relationship with your followers, so don't work with brands that don't align with your values and principles.

2. Reach out directly

Don't be afraid to put yourself forward to reaching out directly to the brands you love and pitching yourself and your content. Brands love working with creators who have direct experience of and genuine passion for their brand since it makes the resulting collaboration content more authentic.

Cold emailing, sending a DM on TikTok, and old-school phone calls to a brand you love can be a great way to bag your first collab. If you've never made ad content before, it's more effective to reach out to a smaller brand - bigger brands will tend to work with more established and experienced creators.

3. Pitch yourself (and your ideas)

When reaching out directly to a brand, you need to know how to sell yourself. Rather than speaking in generalisations, try and give a brand specific statistics to impress them. While your follower count is important, engagement is key, so if you have a high engagement rate that can help sell your profile even if your follower count is relatively small.

Pitch your ideas, too. If you've thought of a creative way you could promote a brand's products or services, coming up with a killer content idea could be the final push to land you the collab of your dreams.

4. Work on engagement

Before pitching to any companies, engagement should always be your key focus. Naturally, businesses don't want to advertise with a creator if they don't think it will help their product get seen, so focus on growing your followers as well as the number of likes, comments, and views you get on each video. You can then use these metrics to impress a potential brand partner in your pitch.

5. Consider your audience

While working with brands can be incredibly exciting, don't forget to think about your long-term strategy. Although you might want to start monetising your platform as quickly as possible, don't rush into partnerships if there's a risk that doing so could damage your reputation or lose followers.

Remember, your followers and audience are who bring success to your profile, so keep them in mind whenever you're agreeing to a partnership or making content. Avoid saying yes to every collaboration offer if it's not something that appeals to your audience - rushing into poorly-judged partnerships can do more damage than good to your engagement.

6. Create quality content

The most effective way to get noticed by the right brands is by creating consistent and high-quality content, preferably posting either every day or every couple of days. Plan your content for the week ahead on a Monday so you don't run out of ideas, and ensure your camera work and editing are top-notch before posting.

How to Land Future Collabs

Once you've done your first brand collaboration, attracting more partnerships is easier than ever. Create a portfolio and include all the details of your first collaboration, including results and statistics. Rather than saying 'I collaborated with X and it was a success', make specific statements, such as 'I collaborated with X and their follower count jumped by 10% as a result.'

While you don't have to stick exclusively to the same niche and target audience as the first brand, it can help to opt for similar brands. If you're a recipe creator, for example, food and drink brands will naturally be ideal partners for your content, while make-up creators would benefit from working with beauty and skincare brands.

Once you get started with brand collaborations it will get easier to land future partnerships, and you'll be well on your way to future TikTok success.