Advice for Influencers: How to Pitch Music Industry Brands and Get Sponsorship Deals
If you’re an artist, influencer or content creator in the music industry, you know that a significant way to grow your career is to land sponsorship deals with music product brands. The biggest questions are always "Where do I begin?" and "How do I get in touch with the brands?" One of the best places to start making connections is at The NAMM Show. Held every January in Anaheim, California, it’s where you can meet with the people behind your favorite brands. As a professional touring guitarist and content creator, I’d like to share a few tips on how to connect with brands, make a pitch, and leverage the show to make potential deals.
Know the Brand’s Target Audience
Who does the brand cater to? Does your content align with what the brand does? It’s important to know exactly who the brand’s target audience is and decide whether or not it will be a good fit.
For example, if you’re a heavy metal player reaching out about a company known for their country style compressor, that may not be a great fit. But, reaching out to companies making heavy metal style pedals, heavier distortion pedals and amplifiers, or even digital modeling companies would be. Look for a brand that ties into what you do.
Something to consider as a creator is you don’t want to get pigeonholed into one style, so it’s important to diversify your portfolio to have more opportunities to work with various brands. I don’t want to just be a digital amp modeling guy — then companies that do guitar pedals might not want to work with me if my channel is all modeling content. That’s why I create a variety of videos — I do reviews of guitar pedals, guitars and guitar amplifiers. I try to cover all styles in my videos so that there is something for everybody and so I have examples of the range of work I do when reaching out to brands.
Prepare Your Pitch
When reaching out to companies for the first time, you should be carefully crafting a pitch email or DM (direct message) on social media. What you say will be up to you, but in my opinion, it’s where you introduce yourself, explain why you take an interest in their brand and how you can bring value. You also want to offer to set up an in-person meeting at The NAMM Show.
A pitch could read something like, “I’m a huge fan of your products and I’m excited about the release of [product]. I am a professional guitarist and content creator. Are you looking for some external content to help support your upcoming launch?”
You can follow this up with your subscriber count or total views on your channel, but don’t make it become the focus of the email. Remember, it’s about THEIR products, your excitement and how you can help and bring value to them. If you already have experience with their product, that’s a bonus and you should mention it. Being passionate about the brand and their products is always a great start.
Also, it’s a good idea to wait for a reply of interest before getting into the specifics of what you can do. Since it’s a cold email, whoever’s getting it doesn’t want to read an essay. Try to put yourself in their shoes and think, “What would I want to read? What would hook me?” A nice, short email that expresses your enthusiasm for the brand and a brief statement about what you can do to help promote a product is a great approach. Once you get forwarded to the right person, including samples of recent successful partnerships is always a plus.
Make Contact With a Brand Ahead of Time
My first few NAMM Shows, I showed up with no plan. Sure, you can meet people face-to-face, and that can work, but if you contact someone at the company beforehand, it makes a world of difference.
Do your homework in advance and reach out to the brand in the weeks leading up to The NAMM Show. If you send your pitch and don’t hear back within a few days, don’t be afraid to follow up with another message. The goal is to take your email introduction and try to bring that into an in-person meeting at the show.
Of course, one of the hardest parts about making collaboration deals is finding the right person to engage with. Research contacts through the brand’s website and social media, including Instagram and LinkedIn. Smaller companies are easier to get in touch with. There are more people involved at the bigger companies, so try to find contacts within artist relations (AR) and social media/content creator relations. Being that I tour professionally, and make social media content, I have options for who to connect with. Diversify the portfolio, remember?
Again, if you go to the show with no prior contacts made, you can definitely make progress networking with people. But just keep in mind that a lot of companies have a team of people working the booths who are there to answer questions and show what the gear is, but they may not have any say in working with creators or handling the deals you’re looking for. Doing the legwork ahead of the show gives you a better chance of connecting with the right people in person.
Follow Up
Let’s assume you did your pre-planning by setting up a meeting via email, then met your contact in person at the show and had a conversation about how you can bring value to them as a content creator. Next, you need to drive the relationship home by following up with a call or email post show.
During your in-person meeting, ask what the next step should be and then mention that next step in your follow-up. I typically wait 7 to 10 days after the show to give my contact recovery time since the show requires a lot of work and travel for people. After they’ve had time to reset, they’ll likely be glad to hear from you again and ready to take the next steps. The follow-up is one of the most important aspects of making a connection at The NAMM Show, so don’t let it slide through the cracks! Keep in mind, they are meeting thousands of people over these few days, so follow up with details about your conversation to refresh their memory.
Rookie Mistakes to Avoid
Assuming a live performance will get you a deal
Some first timers to The NAMM Show think they’re going to go up to their dream gear booth, plug into the demo setup, and get discovered by the brand. They will be so impressed that they sponsor you because of your talent! Wrong. The vendors are trying to make connections with their distributors, artists and customers. My suggestion is to always play it cool and focus on having meaningful conversations with the reps.
As discussed, it’s best to make contact with someone and set up a meeting ahead of time. But if that didn’t happen, you can strike up a conversation with someone at the booth and mention that you are a content creator looking for their AR person; ask if they wouldn’t mind introducing you. These are all people who want to have good conversations about their products and they’ll likely be open to you if you show professionalism and enthusiasm for the brand.
Thinking that you must be a big-time influencer to get a deal
Don’t assume because you have lower numbers that a brand won’t be interested in you. Surprisingly, the stats game is secondary to the personal connection you make with the brand. I have seen creators with little to no social media presence land great product launch demos because of their loyalty and relationship to the brands. Many of my current clients are brands I have been working with since the beginning when I had no stats or subscribers.
Also, you can be a smaller artist and land an artist deal. There are musicians playing touring gigs that get endorsements. They’re considered an artist for the company. That’s how I got my first deals — I was an artist for a brand, took their guitar on the road, and I’d produce videos and pictures from the gigs and post them to Facebook or Instagram.
Don’t let the size of your channel or following get in the way of knowing your value. Focus on what you have to offer the company. Can you present the gear in a way that’s going to help them sell products? Are you enthusiastic and engaging? Are you someone who’s going to help influence others? The people behind the brands are just that. People. And making a good connection with people will make them want to work with you, because they’ll feel like their products are in the “right” hands.
Letting a relationship go cold
If you get the opportunity to work with a brand, always think about what the next project can be so you can continue adding value.
For example, some companies have quality-of-life updates. There could be a product that’s been out for 10 years, but over time, the brand adds features. If you do an initial product launch, there’s endless possibilities for content moving forward. You could say, “I’ve been covering your updates, and I’d love to collaborate on something that you think is missing on YouTube right now. I’d be happy to fill that void,” and work on new content ideas that way.
Sometimes a contact will go cold, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. You could demo a new product for a company and then it’s radio silence; then out of nowhere, they may reach out to you and say “Hey, we got a new product. Can you demo it for us?” Just do your best to stay in touch with your contacts, present new ideas and respond quickly when they reach out to you.
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You have a lot to offer with your own unique style. Making sponsorship deals is all about bringing something of value to the company and the personal relationships you build. I think most companies want someone who’s a great fit for what they do and someone they enjoy working with. If you show passion for their brand, make the effort to craft a compelling pitch, network and leverage in-person meetings, you’ll be on your way to successful sponsorship deals.
Ready to Network With Brands at The NAMM Show?
Artists, content creators and influencers gather at The NAMM Show to build connections, grow their careers and stay current with industry trends. Get in the mix and register for The NAMM Show to be part of the world’s largest gathering of the music and music products industry. Be sure to swing by the show’s Creator Lounge & Studios to network, reserve a meeting space or relax in style.
About the Author
Steve Sterlacci is a full-time professional guitarist and content creator out of New York. When he’s not touring the world with country artist Jessica Lynn, he’s working with gear brands and doing demos from his home studio. Sterlacci has been attending The NAMM Show since 2014 and hasn’t missed an opportunity to come out and meet the brands he works with.