The #1 Reason Creators with 1M Followers Get No Brand Deals 🚫

There’s a common misconception that the more followers you have on social media, the more money you make. But it’s not uncommon to see creators with 100K, 500K, or even 1M followers making no money.

• Why Accounts With Lots of Followers Make No Money

• The Riches Are In the Niches

• Who Needs Brand Deals?

Why Accounts With Lots of Followers Make No Money

The most important thing to remember is what a brand is paying for when they partner with a creator. They’re paying to get their message in front of a specific audience, presented by someone that audience knows, likes, and trusts.

Keeping that in mind, here’s a few reasons why “big” creators get no brand deals:

1 - No Audience Relationship

It is easier than ever to go viral on social, and when you do, you get an influx of new followers, great… right? The downside to getting tons of followers from a viral post is you haven’t had the time to build a proper relationship with them. This can lead to lower engagement on the rest of your content, which looks bad to a brand.

2 - Your Content Is Too Broad

If you’re the type of creator who just posts unoriginal content, meaning content you’ve found elsewhere and reposted it, or content that is just chasing after popular trends, you may be getting views and followers but it’s hard for a brand to get a sense of who your audience is and what your audience likes. If a brand doesn’t know who they’re advertising to, they aren’t going to spend their money.

The Underlying Issue

The underlying issue with these two factors is that these types of creators have no niche. And as they say, “the riches are in the niches”. Let’s break down why that is.

The Riches Are In the Niches

When we say you should “niche down” we don’t just mean pick a content category. Decide on a content category, and then choose a subcategory, even better if you choose another subcategory off of the first subcategory. For example:

• Fitness —> At Home Fitness —> At Home Fitness Using Only Dumbbells

• Recipes —> Gluten Free Recipes —> Gluten Free Dessert Recipes

• Basketball —> Basketball Drills —> Basketball Shooting Drills

By getting hyper-specific about your niche AKA the type of content that you’re making, you’ll decrease your direct competition by 99% and build a hyper-specific audience.

Not only will having a clear niche make it more enticing for brands to work you but you’ll also be able to charge higher rates because your audience will be a specific target for the brand. Because if a brand has a product that solves a specific problem for most of your audience, the ads will convert at a higher rate.

Who Needs Brand Deals?

Brand deals are great, and there’s nothing wrong with taking them but they can be volatile. If your entire business model is reliant on other brands, all it takes is for the market to take a down turn and advertising dollars dry up… along your business.

If you build up a specific audience that converts at a high percentage, you shouldn’t be relying on brand deals to make money! With a niche audience you can create paid communities, sell courses, or build products that solve problems for your audience. If you’ve built the audience organically you won’t have to pay for marketing because you are the marketing.