Working as a successful Twitch streamer or YouTuber requires some knowledge of how to “hustle.” There’s a tremendous amount of competition out there, and the first step to getting noticed is to learn how to market your channel. Other articles in our guide series discuss important growth steps to building a subscriber base. In this guide, we’re providing you with an email template and examples of requests for sponsorship.
Before sending out any emails, make sure you’re confident in your channel’s content. If you feel like you’ve got a unique audience, a decent size and impressionable demographic, and good “integration” (this is an important buzzword) options for product advertisers, it’s time to branch-out. Don’t start sending out those sponsorship requests until you’re at a point of confidence in the content. Remember: This has now become a business, and sponsors (and peers) should be treated with the appropriate amount of care when attempting to collaborate.
Know Who You Are (& Your Audience)
We don’t mean this in the philosophical sense. Figure out your brand. What is it about your content or personality that attracts viewers? Is it pure skill? Comedy? Experimentation? Friendliness?
Figure that out and prepare to explain that appeal to potential advertisers. Different demographics will find your content type appealing. If you’re doing more playful videos that tend to attract a younger audience, be sure to take note of this for advertisers, and then find sponsors/advertisers who are more interested in targeting that younger crowd. If, conversely, you’ve got viewers in the 24-34 disposable income range, that’s a good group to make note of for sponsors with more expensive products targeting the age range.
But age isn’t everything. Geo means a lot, too. Sponsors who are highly localized will want to ensure that your geographic distribution is in their favor, whereas more global sponsors might want to heavily target a few specific continents. As an example, English-speaking sponsors often want to focus on the US (generally worth the most, in terms of ad dollars), UK, Canada, and Australia. These countries all have one main item in common: They’re heavily dominated by English speakers, and also tend to see the most ROI for your average advertiser.
YouTube makes it easy to figure out the demographic. Log into your YouTube account, head to the Creator Dashboard, and then check the Analytics tab. This will host geographic split, total view count, view duration on average (“audience retention”), subscriber growth, estimated age range and gender of viewers, and more. Take all of this and compile it into a very brief, bullet point layout for your sponsorship request emails.
Build a Relationship First
Try to contact folks and build a relationship with them before just immediately asking for money or products. Tell them what your plans are, how you’d like to involve their company or product, and begin working on independent reviews or product placement of their new gear. Use this as a launching point for a more involved business relationship.
Sponsorship Request Email Template (or Ad Sales Template)
Try this on for size, then modify as you see fit:
Hi [name of rep],
I’m reaching out regarding my [YouTube/Twitch] channel, [name with link], and had a few ideas on how we could partner to promote your new [product].
I’d like to feature [product] in my upcoming video [pitch them a video idea unique to the product], which I’m projecting will receive [X,XXX views]. Our audience is primarily US-based [change as needed] and aged [range X-Y], most of whom are PC/Xbox/PS/etc. gamers interested in your products.
What do you think? Let me know if you’d like to work together!
- Your Name.
So, with the above, we’ve kept it short, detailed our channel, and requested a product. Quick and easy. Follow-up a few days later if there’s no response, otherwise, just play off of what the representative sends back.
Be sure to thank the folks for their time and support, and make sure everyone’s clear on the agreement for the content.
Here are a few pointers for your own request emails:
- Keep it short – but not too short. Overloading someone with information isn’t necessary, but a one sentence email won’t cut it, either. Sponsors are looking for good avenues to spend money or invest products into and get ROI (Return on Investment). If you can explain to them succinctly why that’ll be a good fit with your content, then you’re halfway there.
- Keep it professional. Regardless of whether your channel puts on a personality or front of some kind, dealings in business demand a certain level of professionalism and respect – even in the games industry. Use full sentences, spell-check, and don’t sound like a beggar.
- If they can’t support you, gracefully thank them for the time and ask them to add you to their newsletter list, that way you can check back in on them once you’ve grown more.
If you would like to apply for a sponsorship with Catalyst Mints, you can fill out our online sponsorship application. Let us know if this helps you!
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