These days, creators are producing more content than ever before.

When we first started creating online, most of us had no idea that we could turn our passions into a business.

But over time, brands began to harness the power of influencers with an engaged audience for paid partnerships and today it’s hard to talk about the creator economy without looking at what brands are spending on paid campaigns.

Tips For Balancing Organic and Sponsored Content

As a seasoned digital content creator with over a decade of experience, I've encountered various challenges and opportunities when it comes to sponsored content, such as:

Should you say yes to all of the opportunities that come your way?
What is the right balance of sponsored and organic content these days?
How can you maintain authenticity even when working with a brand?

In this guide, I'll share valuable insights and actionable tips for navigating sponsored content so you can post your partnerships with confidence.

Understanding the balance

Finding the right balance between organic and sponsored content is essential for preserving your credibility and engagement with your audience.

Think of your favorite television show. In a 30 minute show, you can probably expect a few minutes of advertisements sprinkled throughout the show.

But you wouldn’t want to watch 25 minutes of commercials and only five minutes of the show.

Similarly, your content should primarily consist of organic posts with occasional partnerships integrated.

When you’re picky about the partnerships you say yes to, they act to enhance rather than overshadow the rest of your feed.

Even during a busy time of year like the holiday season, it’s a good idea to be mindful of how many sponsorships you take on and aim to not go above 25% of your feed being paid brand deals.

This may mean increasing your organic content to keep the percentage in that area, so plan accordingly as you’re crafting your content calendars.

In theory your sponsored content will reflect the budget behind it and a well-funded campaign will allow you to go above and beyond and create a great piece of content that your followers will love.

“aim for less than 25% of your feed to consist of sponsored posts.”

Strategies for successful sponsored content

1. Say yes selectively

When selecting brand partnerships, prioritize collaboration with companies that align with your niche and resonate with your audience where you feel like you’re being compensated fairly for your reach and your expertise.

Craft a list of 10 brand partners you would like to pitch for paid partnerships and reach out to them to introduce yourself.

When you focus on fostering relationships that add value to both you and your audience.

2. Create content that converts

Followers are now used to seeing sponsored content, but the more that your partnerships can maintain the spirit of your organic content the better.

It makes it more exciting for a brand that way and makes your audience feel like they’re watching an extension of your organic content rather than a jarring shift to advertisements.

From a storytelling standpoint, if you’re working with a skincare company and your audience has been asking for tips about dealing with acne, focus on how the product acts as a solution to this problem for them.

This shows that you’ve been listening and receptive to what your community is currently living through or struggling with.

Share personal anecdotes to illustrate the value of the brand authentically—the more you can put yourself into the content and talk about your experience with it, the more your audience will be receptive to hearing more.

3. Get excited and get involved

Advocate for your content style and creative voice to shine through when collaborating with brands.

These days most brands will share a creative brief or guidelines for what they want the post to encapsulate.

Sometimes these can be very helpful providing a bit of creative inspiration, specific hashtags to include, or other important notes especially regarding disclosures.

However, keep an eye out for any red flags when talking to a brand partner—if they want you to read a script word for word or do something that you wouldn’t normally do in your content it’s important to speak up.

Open communication with brand partners about your creative vision and audience preferences is crucial for delivering authentic and compelling content.

It’s always worth speaking up and pitching ideas because a great brand partner will want to to involve you in the creative decisions and if they push back, then that may not be the right fit for you.

Talk to your audience

The influencer industry isn’t going anywhere, and while the average person knows that creators can monetize through #sponcon, they may not exactly know what that entails.

If you want to go the extra mile to be transparent and also help educate your audience about sponsorships, it might be worth sharing a few stories or a feed post to explain why you work with brands.

You can talk about how you select partners and what some of your rules are when it comes to brand deals.

For example, I like to test a product for an allotted amount of time to make sure that I really like it before I share it with my audience, and if a brand is rushing me to post a product without trying it that’s a red flag.

I also won’t partner with a brand who is not a good fit for me or that I don’t feel comfortable standing behind.

Explaining to your audience that supporting your sponsored posts helps fund your organic content may encourage them to make the extra effort to like, comment, and share your posts.

However, it’s important to remember that if a piece of sponsored content is underperforming, it is not your audience’s responsibility to fix that.

I always get frustrated when I see influencers post and specifically say “can I get some more love on this post?” because to me that is taking away from everyone who did engage and pressuring people usually isn’t the way to get what you want.

“Advocate for your content style and creative voice to shine through when collaborating with brands.”

To wrap, remember that being thoughtful about the number of partnerships you take on will help you manage your workload and maintain your audience’s trust.

Pro tip: you wouldn’t watch your favorite TV show if it was all commercials! This is one of the biggest reasons spacing out content is key.

If you have a busy time of year with sponsorships, consider increasing your organic posts as well so that you avoid the scenario we talked about earlier.

Remember to communicate your enthusiasm to brands and show your excitement by getting involved in the planning process for a sponsored post and don’t be afraid to tell your audience how you select brand partners and give them a peek behind the curtain.

I hope you loved today’s post! Questions? Drop ‘em in the comments!

yours,

Austen

Photos above by Karya Schanilec