I’ve been in now two larger partnerships with brands, where I make a commission off of sales derived from my marketing. Both relationships have been very positive. One was from a clothing company and a second supplement. I would say the clothing company generated about $2500/year and the second is very new.
The most important piece that I’ve been able to take away is that I don’t necessarily have to be a winning upper-level rider if I can prove that I have a solid reputation that reaches their target market. I’ve spent the past years developing a blog and my social media accounts that look impressive when I send in my resume to prospective (sponsors).
It is very difficult with the supplement that I now work with, because while I love it, my horse is on it, you realize that the reason I’m such a big supporter is that the company pays me for sales I generate. It can make my representation not as convincing, because I have an obviously anterior motive. So in that situation, when I share posts or talk about it, I use concrete facts, my own before and after photos, and encourage people to do research. The key is to be authentic. We’ll see how the next few months proceed, but we’ve been really successful in building the business which started just a few months ago. So there is a huge benefit to the business if you can help position the product in the consumer’s mind and broadcast its existence.
In both situations I approached the companies after I had been a consumer with a “shpeel,” what I could offer, and what I would like in return for my services. Am I making enough to quit my regular job? No. But each month our supplement company doubles sales, and I think that the experience gained with this company can open doors to future sponsorships if I have quantitative evidence that I’ve helped x-companies grow.
