A short YouTube talk (creator: Amy Guy) giving practical advice for influencers on brand partnerships: accept gifts but charge fees for guaranteed content; demand payment for brand usage (website, ads, paid social); set limited usage periods (3–6 months, max 12); avoid signing over rights in perpetuity; and follow ASA/ad disclosure rules.
So let's dive into understanding partnership do's and absolutely don'ts. So because my background is in influencer marketing, I dealt with so many agreements and contracts, not only from behind the scenes and running campaigns for big brands, but also for me as a content creator. And there's so much you need to know because at the end of the day you are creating this stunning content and it's imperative that you don't give the rights away and that you know your worth and know that your content deserves to be recognized and also you deserve to be compensated. So when partnering with a brand, you should accept gifting, but state that any required content is available at a fee. One of the things that I like to do here, especially if I really want to try the product, is let a brand know that yes, I absolutely would love to accept gifting on this occasion and just tell them, you know, I do normally share brands that I love or products that I love because that's super authentic. However, if they want that guaranteed content, then that is going to be a fee. Share your golden nuggets. So we obviously spoke about this before, but this is a way for you to almost provide evidence and big yourself up that this is the area that is super, super, super successful for you. For me, mine is like link clicks and story views. Those are my golden nuggets and I always lead with those. Charge extra for any website marketing paid and organic and social usage. So this is if a brand wants to use your content on their website, they could then be profiting from that in terms of someone clicking on that content and buying a product from it. You're not getting compensated, but the brand is. They might use you in marketing. So emails or ads out and about there might be paid and organic social usage. So that might mean that they put spend behind your content, which is essentially a big no, no if they are going to get loads of sales from that and again, you haven't been compensated. Stick to a time period in brand agreements. Try and stick to a time period, I think of 3 to 6 months, 12 months at the absolute max. You want to be looking for things like in perpetuity, which means forever. If a brand wants to use your content in perpetuity, you know there's a big red flag. So just to note, if you love a brand who have got in contact with you and you know, as I mentioned before, do organically share the products, but maybe this is just a brief moment, like one story frame and tell them you're going to share like when it's right for you. So you should not accept gifting as payment, especially if there's a heavy brief and an ask involved. Literally free products do not pay your bills. And if you are a talented content creator and you've been putting time and effort and built a community, you deserve and are worthy of that compensation. Do not sign over usage rights as we've mentioned before, especially unpaid. Don't be afraid to shoot your shop with fees. Brands might actually surprise you. And don't forget to check the ASA guidelines. So these are the advertising standard and their guidelines and you have a legal responsibility to declare ad on all content or even if something's been gifted, you need to put add gifted. And finally, do not sign any contract without looking for the phrase in perpetuity. As I mentioned before, this just means a brand is going to have your content forever. And as I mentioned, you absolutely deserve that compensation.
