Turn Gifted Campaigns Into Paid Partnerships
You've been emailing back and forth with a brand about collaboration opportunities and they finally offer you a gifted campaign. Yes, a gifted campaign! Not exactly what you were hoping for, right? Well we're going to tell you how to turn a gifted campaign into a paid partnership.
Gifted Campaigns
A gifted campaign is when a brand "gifts" a creator a product/service in exchange for posting about the brand's product/service on social media. A few of the reasons why creators don't prefer gifted campaigns is the fact that they might not necessarily like the product or service. They don't want to recommend something that doesn't align with their following and might come off as inauthentic. Also, it takes time and energy to create content. Creators deserve to get compensated for their work!
As you might already know, a paid partnership is when a brand is paying a creator in addition to the product or service. A paid partnership is the ideal situation because creators are being compensated for the work that goes into creating content.
Get Paid
Say you've worked with a brand on a gifted campaign before and are now asking for payment:
Some creators believe that it's harder to turn a gifted collaboration into a paid collaboration. Once a brand has worked with you for free, it can be a challenge to get them to pay. But, keep in mind, that even if you do work for them on a gifted basis the first time around, it doesn't mean that you are subject to only gifted collaborations with them. If you are bringing them sales, customers, and a new audience, remind them of your value and ask for payment. Let them know you love working with them, but unfortunately, you are only able to work for payment from now on and would really like to continue the partnership at a rate. The fact that a brand is asking you to work with them again is a good sign. So, if you've exceeded their expectations on the last campaign, then you can bring that up in a professional way when talking about working together again. Ideally, you'd want to be fostering a long-term relationship with the brand so that they'd be more willing to continue working with you even if that means on a paid basis.
Now, imagine this is the first time you're working with a brand and have decided to ask for payment. You're thinking, "How should I approach this?". When they approach you, simply tell them that you are not taking on gifted collaborations at this time and are more than happy to send over your rates. Sometimes, brands will have budgets for influencer campaigns, so it is just a matter of asking them. They will most likely also ask to see your media kit so be sure to have that updated and ready to be sent out.
There are two outcomes here: both parties can come to an agreement on payment or they don't have a budget. If the latter, then it is up to you to decide if you think that the free product is worth the work.
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