Sponsorships: what are they?
Partner with an indie brand to promote your startup. The brand could be a blog, email list, community, YouTuber, Facebook group or Slack channel. Founders should focus on working with indie brands.
Why sponsorships
- Partner with indie publications, channels and communities that have an established loyal audience
- Get a personal, human endorsement from the brand owner
- Great for exploring unique ad formats - like an email, video or podcast shout out, Slack channel member discount, or content partnership
- Ideal if your product isn't easily explained in the standard line of copy or simple image
Why not sponsorships
- Many niche brand owners aren't interested in selling sponsorships
- They may not have established ad formats, or case studies
- Indie sponsorships tend to work very well, or not at all, there is little in between
What to sponsor
- A Podcast episode
- A YouTube video or channel
- A Slack channel
- An email list
- A Facebook group
- A blog post
- A community
Examples
Coming soon. Email at olly@first100users.com if you really want to see some, and I'll update this next.
Find places to sponsor
For email lists
For podcasts
Step-by-step process
- Remember: the influencer or owner is likely to be selective about who they work with and may not have offered sponsored placements before
- Make sure you know your stuff before you reach out
- Introduce yourself and your product
- Try to understand the audience size
- Book and place your ad campaign
- Measure how your campaign performs