How Small Podcasts Can Work with Brands
5 Lessons Learned
This Week’s Announcements:
This week I’ll be talking all about Brand Partnerships. Often the monetization model that most podcasters think of of first when thinking about making money with their podcasts.
Last Days for Coaching: Today and Tomorrow! Monday, May 15 and Tuesday, May 16, 2023
1-on-1 Podcast Monetization Coaching, availability is ending Tuesday. I won’t be taking coaching clients during the summer. Coaching availability will open up again mid-September.
The Story of My First Brand Partner
I’ll never forget pitching for a sponsor for my Colorado podcast many years ago. It was a new show, I was getting about 15 downloads per episode and had a bigger show in the personal finance space that I hadn’t monetized yet. I decided to ask for sponsors for my Colorado show because it felt like an easier ask. Even though I had a microscopic show.
Here’s the thing, I’d heard about people pitching for sponsors BEFORE they’d even launched their podcasts-meaning those shows had zero downloads. What was the worst thing that could happen?
The businesses I reached out to would just say “yes” or “no” I ended up reaching out to just one company because I got scared. The company happened to be a co-working space that I was a member of and I knew that I would be able to comfortably ask the owner and that he would be nice about the rejection that I was sure he would give me.
He Said “Yes”
In fact, the owner said “yes” to placing an ad on my show. He paid $150 for 3 pre-rolls (what I had proposed) and paid me within a few days of saying “yes” Why did I think about pitching for a brand partner?
I was broke.
Seriously, I needed money and I had these projects that were living in my home rent free. Necessity was the reason why I decided to pitch for a sponsor.
What surprised me was the following:
The owner didn’t ask about downloads per episode. In retrospect, that makes sense because he wasn’t a podcaster or focused on the ins and outs of how podcast downloads could potentially impact interactions with his ad.
How easy it was to reach out and ask for an ad placement. It really wasn’t that hard to do.
It wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be to pitch to a warm connection. Not a lead. This was a person who I knew from being a customer of their business, played with their dog who hung out in the co-working space and because of that I wasn’t scared to pitch.
5 Lessons Learned
There are a number of lessons that I learned from this experience and I thought I would share them with you. Especially in the event that you’re thinking about reaching out to a brand or ad partner.
The Lessons Are….
Rejections happen. If you’re scared that you will be rejected and won’t try because of it then you need to think about the following.
Rejections aren’t personal…even when they are. You’ll learn how to pitch better, gain insight into want brand partners want and build a callous over your fear.
It’s important to do the math. Most people need just a couple of “yeses” to make a big different to their bottom line. I’ve often heard that a 3% conversion rate is a great rate. What does this mean? The more you pitch and reach out to brands the more likely you’ll get a couple of yeses! 100 pitches should equal 3 yeses for perspective.
If you’re thinking that you need thousands of downloads an episodes or a month before you begin reaching to brand partners. You’re wrong and you’re overthinking this-I’ve just shared that people pitch for collaborations before launch and I pitched when I had 15 downloads an episode.
Before reaching out to a brand work through why that brand partner would be a perfect fit to work with. It should be obvious to them…not just to you.
Understand the intent of a collaboration. What does a brand want to happen when working with brand partners?
Build brand awareness?
Drive traffic to a resource?
Grow a community?
A closed mouth doesn’t get fed. If you don’t ask you won’t know their answer.
Desperation trumps fear. I needed money-so, I got out of my way and put myself out there. The worse that could have happened was that I would have been told “no” That wasn’t going to make or break my world.
How important it is to make it clear why you think partnering with your show would be a good marketing fit for a person’s business, brand or project. This one is huge.
Bonus Tip: Be Flexible
When you’re negotiating with a brand be flexible. You may want one thing and the brand partner may want something else. Negotiate to you reach a point where both of you are happy with scope of work, partnership deliverables and pay.
In my upcoming workshop…
How to Prepare for and Land Brand Partnerships” which will be held on Wednesday, May 31, 2023 at 6:00 pm MTN/8:00 pm EST. Cost: $97. I will work with attendees on the following:
The most important aspects of a partnership to understand PRIOR to sending over a pitch.
How to prepare for the money conversation before you have the money conversation with your potential ad partner. This preparation will help you avoid being low-balled.
What it looks like to be nimble in your negotiations. Sometimes what you've proposed isn’t necessarily what a brand partner wants.
How to unapologetically get paid prior to working on the deliverables. This is non-negotiable for me.
The importance of building connections that can open the door to brand partnerships. You don’t have to network.
115,000 Downloads=$30,000+ in brand partnerships (Past 2+ years)
In the past couple of years I’ve earned thousands working with brands specifically with my show “Michelle is Money Hungry” While it is an award winning show, it is a SMALL show in the grand scheme of things.
I’ve NEVER been paid using the CPM model.
It is unlikely that I will ever say “yes” to CPM model for any future brand partnerships. Why? Because if I used the CPM model in the past couple of years for my 115,000 downloads I would have earned around…
$550 dollars.
Seriously, $550 dollars. That doesn’t take into account the following:
The years I’ve worked to build out my brand
My social media following which is solid but not insanely high.
Time speaking at events and sharing my expertise.
Email list(s)
Bespoke content design for brand partners
There’s a reason why I say F#ck the CPM Model. There’s more than one way to provide value to a potential brand partner.
What About that Colorado Podcast?
I thought I would share what happened to that show. Sometime during that same year, I decided to pause it and focus primarily on my personal finance podcast instead. This was a good decision. I ended up winning 3 awards for that project and was nominated for podcast of the year in my space.
This year I am focusing on growing my Colorado podcast again. Weirdly, it already WAY outperforms my personal finance podcast.
There are several reasons for this:
I’ve applied many years of hard lessons learned from my other podcast into successful strategies for this show.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is so easy for me to use on this project after spending years learning about it.
Timing is everything.
I’ve just begun working on my Colorado podcast again in the past month and each episode is getting around 600-1,000 downloads the first 30 days.
You better believe I’m about to start looking for brand partners for that show. And I’m fairly certain that I will be able to earn significantly more with that show than the personal finance show that I’ve worked on for the past 5+ years.
No CPM model pricing.
May Monetization Strategies Review
Each week I will record and share some additional thoughts and strategies to consider based on the monetization strategy shared. I’ve made money with each strategy. Each monetization strategy has both benefits and challenges to consider.
Week #1 Affiliate Marketing (May 4, 2023-Shared)
Week #2 Solve One Problem (May 11, 2023-Shared)
Week #3 Brand Partnerships (May 18, 2023)
Make sure to sign up for the Brand Partnership Workshop on May 31, 2023 today! Cost: $97 (Sign up deadline is Friday, May 26, 2023)
Week #4 Crowdfunding (May 25, 2023)
Week # 5 Freelance writing (May 31, 2023)
Upcoming Events
Paid Subscriber Office Hours are on Wednesday, May 24, 2023 at 7:00 pm MTN/9:00 pm EST.
Denver Podcasting Meetups
I’m hosting a meetup at a local coffee shop sometime in May TBA
Podcast Movement-Meetup tour will be held in Denver on June 30, 2023. See you there!
Click here for a free ticket/reserve your spot
Portland 6/26/2023
Seattle 6/27/2023
Vancouver 6/28/2023
Thank You
Finally, I wanted to say thank you to the amazing supporters of Podcasters Getting Paid. For those of you who are enjoying the free tier, the $5 tier, have made an annual $50 payment and Founder’s contributions-thank you so much for supporting this project.
My goal has been to create and grow an accessible tool that helps as many people as possible while allowing folks to learn from the case studies shared in this resource. Also, make sure to check out the presenting sponsors of the newsletter: Podcast Movement and Swell AI-I’ve included more details at the bottom of this post.
Presenting Sponsors
Swell AI
I’m so excited to be partnering with Swell AI. This tool is the way I like AI to be used:
Generate show notes
Create social media posts
Creates transcripts for PREVIOUSLY RECORDED content!
Podcasting can be so time consuming. Save your time and simplify your process with Swell AI.
Podcast Movement Denver
I’m so excited to partner with Podcast Movement this year. I love that it’s being hosted in my hometown of Denver.
Build your social and professional network
Share your expertise (even if you’re not a speaker)
Meet industry professionals
Learn from the community
And enjoy all of the parties! I love attending Podcast Movement and know that you will too.