YouTuber Brand Collaboration Secrets of Today with India Batson *The BEST Tips*: The YouTube Power Hour Podcast 191
“I’d feel much better getting 5000 views on a video I was passionate about than a million views because I copied other people.”
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The YouTube landscape has changed so much over the years! Now successful YouTubers are earning 70-90% of their revenue from brand deals and creators are becoming businesses in order to keep up and make a profitable living. So how do you capitalize on the changing landscape and create content that attracts both subscribers and brands? YouTuber India Baston is on the show today and she’ll be sharing her journey getting to the top of her niche and all the ins and outs of working with brands!
India Batson is a 24-year-old beauty and lifestyle content creator based in Atlanta, Georgia. She started her channel 4 years ago when she was in college, she was focused more on makeup and playing a persona she thought people wanted to see, curling her hair and wearing dresses, but that didn’t feel right. She continued to post videos on and off until her senior year in 2017 when she decided to take her channel seriously and started posting videos consistently every week. She found her niche of creating hair content and she slowly grinded her way till she was working as a YouTuber full-time. No viral hit, no crossroads moment, just showing up consistently and being the goto channel in her niche for men and women with curly hair.
“My audience is similar to me and if I’m interested in something, most likely they are as well.”
She’s now grown to over 250k subscribers and her channel has over 17 million video views! She’s had opportunities to collaborate with major brand deals like Sephora, Gillette, Dove, and Aussie. Aside from her YouTube, she is also a rising actress in appearances in Netflix/NBC’s Good Girls and Netflix’s insatiable! In this episode, India talks about her process for making videos, advice on how to work with brands and understanding your value, how she found a management team to help her navigate all the brand deals that are coming her way and how you can too, and so much more. Enjoy!
“If I could start over, I would start from the beginning being myself as that’s all you can ever be.”
3 Key Interview Takeaways
- Know your worth. Trying to figure out how much you should price yourself and your time when working with a brand can be hard. You have to factor in the rights to your work that you’re giving over, the time and effort you put into the work, the value of the audience you’re serving and the ROI the brand stands to earn from working with you. Also, don’t allow these brands to take advantage of you because you might be new and ignorant of the value of your influence in some deals. Do your research, know your numbers and read the next point: get help!
- Get help. Will today be the day you find an editor to do your videos? Or reach out to a manager to protect you by reviewing all the fine print in the contracts you’re signing? There are many things you’re good at, but wouldn’t it be better to focus on the few things you’re truly great at, and get help with the rest?
- Follow your passion. India shared with us that she would rather put out a video that she was passionate about, even if it didn’t do too well, rather than a video she made by copying someone else’s work, even if it would do exceptionally well. You should always be following your passions on YouTube because it’s your perspective and personality that will draw people to you. So always do what feels right to you and you alone.
Resources
My favorite free SEO tool for YouTube: TubeBuddy
(Discount code ErikasBuddy for 20% off the paid version)
PR Guide: How to Get onto PR Lists and Get Lots of Free Product
Getting Started on YouTube: The #1 Downloaded Free Niche Discovery Workbook
Connect with India
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Podcast Music Credit: Boop by x50 @x50music
Music provided by Free Music for Vlogs youtu.be/o52xQkQWzyU
