Getting Sponsors for Your Podcast | Justin Moore

Most podcasters think that landing a sponsor for their show is out of reach or that they don't qualify. This couldn't be further from the truth! In this episode, Justin Moore breaks down exactly how to write a pitch that brands can’t ignore. He shares the four parts you need to include and how to stand out to decision-makers who control budgets. Get ready to start landing real sponsorships without needing to be famous!

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Chapters

00:00 Unlocking Sponsorship Opportunities
05:22 Crafting the Perfect Pitch
11:11 Building Long-Term Relationships with Brands

Takeaways

Brand sponsorships can turn creative visions into reality.
Crafting a compelling pitch is essential for success.
Relevant pitches increase the likelihood of brand collaboration.
Organic content can illustrate audience affinity for brands.
Proof of past success can strengthen your pitch.
Building relationships with brands is a long-term strategy.
Persistence is key in following up with brands.
The pitch is about starting a conversation, not just closing a deal.
You are not just a podcaster; you are a bridge to brands.
77% of creators rely on brand collaborations for revenue.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Unlocking Sponsorship Opportunities
• 5:50 Crafting the Perfect Pitch
• 11:39 Building Long-Term Relationships with Brands

Transcript

We all dream of bringing our creative visions to life, but funding those projects can be challenging. Brand sponsorships can be the key to turning those dreams into reality. Maintaining your independence and artistic integrity. So today we're going to talk about how to craft a sponsorship pitch

that no brand will ignore. So let me start with a story. So a few years back, my wife and I received an incredible email. It said, hey Justin, great news. We're approved to move forward with our Harmony of the Seas opportunity and have you on our launch sale from June 5th to the 7th. Now this ship had 18 decks, 15 restaurants.

A crew of 2,100 people to run it. There was even one person whose entire job was to sharpen the ice skates for the ice rink. and one more thing, the ultimate abyss, a 10 story waterslide. See, Royal Caribbean was offering to fly us to Spain to check out their new ship. Pretty amazing, right?

But to explain how we landed that opportunity, we need to go back to the beginning. Because when I started pitching brands and companies in 2009, my messages sounded something like this. I love your brand. I wanna collaborate. Does that sound familiar? See, back then, influencer marketing wasn't really a thing. The iPhone 3G was the hottest phone and

Avatar, the first one, was just hitting theaters. So April had grown her following to about 30,000 followers at that time. And I convinced her to let me try getting some honeymoon discounts. So I sent hundreds of emails to hotels in Asia, which is where we wanted to go. The results? Well, mostly undeliverable messages. No thanks or absolute silence. But then,

something interesting happened. A hotel called Paradise Khao in Phuket, Thailand responded. They offered us, in addition to accommodations, a romantic dinner, a spa treatment, and a tropical island picnic, all in exchange for one video. And so here we were thinking that we were getting the deal

of a lifetime except for one tiny little detail. That video ended up getting 578,000 views and remained one of the top search results whenever anyone searched on YouTube for Phuket hotels for years. And see, that's when we realized the true power that we held. And after that experience, I got serious. I developed strategies.

I tested subject lines to see which ones got higher open rates and I treated it like a business. And see, here's what I learned. The big brands, the ones with the big budgets, they aren't working with podcasters directly. They've hired security. Yeah, it's their advertising agency, their PR agency, or maybe even

their influencer agency's job to protect them from things like your terrible pitch. But if you properly introduce yourself with what you can bring to the table for their client, well, the next time an opportunity slides across their desk, they will instantly think of you. there's one more thing I forgot to mention about that Royal Caribbean deal. They also paid us

$20,000. Now I know what you're thinking. Justin, I'm not an influencer. I don't dance in online videos. I don't have enough followers. My podcast, it's just too niche. Well, let me tell you about my friend, Mike. See, when a major phone company reached out to him about a collaboration, he had less than 1000 followers. Why do you think they wanted to work with them? See, Mike didn't just talk about

budgeting on his platforms. He talked about budgeting for active duty military. That was his niche. Let me say it again. Budgeting for active duty military. And so the brand was thrilled to hire him and they turned around and used that video that he made to run a bunch of ads to reach other people like him. So here's the truth. A lot of podcasters think

that sponsorships are unpredictable. And that really sucks because according to recent studies, something like 77 % of creators say that brand collaborations are their largest revenue stream. So instead of waiting for brands to reach out to you, let's talk about how you can craft a killer pitch using my Rope method. That's R-O-P-E.

R stands for relevant. Your pitch has to be relevant to either a current campaign that the brand is running or a campaign that they've run in the past. O stands for organic, meaning that you can tie your pitch back to organic content that you've published that illustrates that your audience has an affinity for their brand. P stands for proof, so you can illustrate how you've helped other brands.

achieve results and E stands for easy to execute when the brand says, yeah, this actually sounds interesting. What did you have in mind? So instead of saying, hi, I love your brand. Let's collaborate. Let's try out an example pitch to let's say, Starkist Tuna. And of course you can substitute this with any brand or any company in any industry. Okay. Hey Stacey, I noticed that last spring Starkist was touting the benefits of the Mediterranean

diet month. I have also been publishing podcast episodes about this recently and my audience is hungry for more. Come on, that was good. I would love to create three podcast integrations showcasing star kiss recipes that fit this plan. I can produce and publish within 10 days. I will also grant you paid media usage rights through the end of the year. Happy to share some insights.

from a recent California olive branch campaign that drove significant awareness as well. Are you free on Thursday at 10 a.m. to chat? Thoughts? So why does this work? Well, number one, it is relevant to their existing campaigns. See, a lot of podcasters think that brands reinvent the wheel every year with their marketing strategies, but that could not be further from the truth. They just dust off the same old playbook from last year

and they run it again. Also, you are linking to your organic content, illustrating that your audience has an affinity for their brand or their product or their service. That's really what they care about. Also, you have provided proof through past brand work and this is easy to execute. You're actually pitching something. You're not just saying, I'd love to figure out a way to collaborate. They don't know you. They don't know what the best thing to do with you would be. You have to give them something tangible to react to.

Here's the cold hard truth. In 2009, I had to send a hundred generic pitches to get one or two responses. Today, with 15 to 20 minutes of research per pitch, I will get responses over 50 % of the time. Remember this, you are the bridge.

between brands and their ideal customers. And you have built this bridge painstakingly over years, producing and publishing and engaging. You are not just a podcaster. You're a consultant. You're a production company. You're a creative team. You're

A marketer all in one. And by the way, you also have an organic distribution channel. Let me give you a quick peek behind the scenes of how paid campaigns actually come together. When you send your pitch on a random day and the brand says, sorry, we're not working with podcasters on any paid campaigns right now. Instead of staring.

deeply into the mirror. It's the long night of the soul. You can hear violins playing in the background, right? Instead of that, what they didn't tell you was that they had just finished recruitment for their summer campaign, let's say, a few days ago. It's not that they hate you. It's not that your podcast sucks, right? And this is where most podcasters give up, but you absolutely cannot give up here because in a few weeks,

that brand is going to have their next budget meeting. And maybe the executive team is going to ask the marketing team and say, hey, tell me about our podcast strategy for this quarter. And then the marketing team is going to look at each other and be like, cred, we don't have a podcast strategy, right? And suddenly they're going to realize that they need to reassess their plans for the next quarter's campaign. And so here you are, you're continuing to follow up each month

with helpful articles, examples of other partnerships that you're doing. And then boom, when they're ready for the next one, you're going to be top of mind. Finally, you have to understand this. The point of a pitch isn't just to get the deal. It's about starting a conversation. So when a brand says no, it's not no.

It's not yet. Success comes from staying on their radar, continuing to provide value and being prepared when they're recruiting for their next campaign. So when you're feeling imposter syndrome, right? Your finger is hovering over that send button. like, I don't know if I can do this. Just remember that you have

You are the bridge that brands need to reach their audience slash prospective future customers. And every successful pitch brings you one step closer to funding those creative projects that you dream about.