Good evening everyone, I hope you've had a good festive period in spite of the difficult circumstances that have surrounded it this year! Today's post is a little different from my study-orientated norm, but I feel as if it is more important than ever to put out. Over my five, approaching six, years of blogging, I have been known to take on a sponsorship or two - though recently, for reasons which I am still none the wiser to, I have received a flux of emails from brands who claim they want to work with me. As a small blogger, particularly when you're just starting up, nothing could be more exciting - until, that is, you realise that the whole thing is a scam. See, speaking from personal experience, I know how easy it is to get carried away and respond with an email of interest almost instantly but over time, I've seen just how important it is to do your research first and I've compiled a some 'red flags' and recommendations today to help you take on sponsorships responsibly as a small blogger. I hope that this post is helpful, and do be sure to let me know if I have missed anything out in the comments section below!
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LOOKING FOR THE RED FLAGS
1. The product/service has nothing to do with your content or target audience.
Speaking from personal experience and personal experience only, the greatest warning sign that a company is not who they claim to be is if the product or service they offer has absolutely nothing to do with your brand - if you will. Recently, and I won't name names for my own legal protection, I was reached out to by a brand who claimed that a 'runway fashion label' was very impressed with my Instagram. There is, however, one problem with this: the only Instagram account I now advertise that is public is my Studygram - you know, an account dedicated to all things study? On looking up this brand, I saw dire reviews both from customers and fellow bloggers alike and my intuition was correct: it was all a farce. Trust your gut instinct, any company that is going to invest in you will have done their research to make sure that you're worth their buck - if they haven't, it's a sign that something isn't completely right.
2. They ask you to pay for their product/service
This point leads on very nicely from that above because it entails exactly what happened with my example. If a brand asks you to pay for their product/service and does not transfer you the means to do so first or does not offer to reimburse the cost, RUN - and I mean it. In my fellow example above, I was asked to join an ambassador programme and, having watched several YouTube videos made on the brand from fellow bloggers, it turns out that you're the one who has to pay for the product - which was by no means cheap, may I add - in the hope of receiving a mere shoutout on their Instagram page, which they didn't even do for some of the 'ambassadors'. Listen, if you're being asked to pay for a product and then promote it free of charge, you are practically a client and nothing more - let's stop with this ambassador nonsense.
In all honesty, and this is a somewhat controversial opinion in the blogosphere, I feel like you shouldn't even be taking on sponsorships in return for a free product - you are investing your time into this and, unlike advertising on traditional-media platforms, you have a far more targeted audience that is likely to lead to more sales for the company. The same goes for working in hope of receiving a 'shout-out' on social media - where is the guarantee that the company will follow through with this? Of course, your fees must reflect said audience and you cannot be charging companies hundreds of pounds if you do not have the views or the engagement, but as small bloggers we shouldn't feel unworthy and feel to need to take on free work to begin building those connections - though that's just my opinion.
In all honesty, and this is a somewhat controversial opinion in the blogosphere, I feel like you shouldn't even be taking on sponsorships in return for a free product - you are investing your time into this and, unlike advertising on traditional-media platforms, you have a far more targeted audience that is likely to lead to more sales for the company. The same goes for working in hope of receiving a 'shout-out' on social media - where is the guarantee that the company will follow through with this? Of course, your fees must reflect said audience and you cannot be charging companies hundreds of pounds if you do not have the views or the engagement, but as small bloggers we shouldn't feel unworthy and feel to need to take on free work to begin building those connections - though that's just my opinion.
3. The brand wants you to a review a product/service that they are not letting you try free of charge
Oh gosh, this red flag of mine takes me back to one of the worst sponsorship proposals I have ever had in my emails a few years ago. Long story short, a fashion brand wanted to pay me seven dollars - which is about five odd pounds here in the UK - to write a blog post in two days (bearing in mind that I was still at school and was swamped with work as it were) on their clothes. They picked out a variety of items that they thought I should review, they attached the relevant photos and they basically bullet-pointed exactly what they wanted me to say. Unfortunately for said brand, there was absolutely no chance that I was going to review a product that I was not even offered to try - and I don't think you should either. Why, you ask? Well at the end of the day, if a brand doesn't even offer the chance for you to try their product, chances are that there's something wrong with it. With said brand, I did my Google search and found that people were very disappointed with the quality, that some items weren't even delivered to people and that it was just overpriced cheap clothing. Of course, the payment can be tempting - but if you take on sponsorships as such, your readers are going to lose trust in you. This will make it far more difficult for you to maintain your readership, let alone take on genuine sponsorships in the future because people will not be clicking on your posts. Now is that something worth losing for £5? I think not...
4. The brand practically writes the review for you
Leading on nicely from the point above, there is nothing wrong if a brand gives you a rough guide of things that they would like to mention; back when I worked with a production company a few years ago, I was promoting a new TV show that was coming out on their channel and so, naturally, I had to mention things such as when it was airing, the platforms that you could watch it on and so on and so forth. What is a warning sign, however, is when the brand practically dictates what they want you to say about the product; using my example above, I thought it was rather ridiculous that said fashion brand wanted me to comment on the brilliant quality of some items when they were not prepared to let me try the items for myself. Again, this screams of the fact that their product or service is not as good as they make it out to be and that they're out for damage control - which, for the sake of your reputation, you needn't play a role in.
5. You do not receive payment first, if at all
Every brand that I have ever worked with, which have luckily all been brilliant, have always sent me payment or access to the product/service first. Of course, they have no guarantee that you will for certain follow through with what it is you promised - but as a brand, they probably have more resources than you do to obtain legal advice should they need to. For that, to protect your interests, I would ensure that you are not paid after the publication of your blog post but rather before it. Again, I am no pro-blogger here and am aware some companies may want to protect their interests by sending payment after a guaranteed post - but I have heard far too many horror stories about late invoices or no payment at all to promote that approach if it is possible to avoid it!
6. Generic emails with no personal touch
Don't get me wrong, I know that brands reach out to tens, if not hundreds, of bloggers on a regular basis; for that, they likely do not have the time to handcraft a perfect email that is suitable for you and you only. That being said, the number of emails I have had that either do not include my name, misspell it or shorten it as if we're already on friendly terms is shocking. I'm not expecting a brand to know my entire life-story, but it is little touches like adding your name and coming across as if you actually understand what my brand and image is about that makes a company seem a lot more genuine and legitimate - at least, that's the trend that I have found to be true.
7. They have a bad rep online
To be perfectly frank, I'm not too sure why I have left this red flag until last as it is also among the most important. Prior to working with any brand, I will always do a quick Google search to make sure I know what the general consensus is - and this, in my opinion, is all the more important nowadays as websites and emails begin to sound and look evermore convincing. This takes me back to my first example with the fashion brand; in spite of their email striking as a little odd, their website looked incredibly professional and, if it had not been for me simply typing the brand name into Google, this brand may have caught me off-guard. This only takes a few seconds as is likely the single-handed best way to find out if the proposal you have received is any good or not!
Those were the main red flags that I have personally learnt to look out for but if you are in any doubt, I would recommend drawing up a contract with the brand you are working with - if they've nothing to play at, they shouldn't have a problem with it, here is a link to a brilliant template for bloggers alike.