5 Things Brands Look For In A YouTube Ambassador

YouTube has become one of the most popular platforms for brands to promote their products online. YouTube is ideal because in a video, it’s much easier to sell a product and demonstrate how the product works. Brands will often pay to use someone else’s YouTube channel (an influencer or brand ambassador) rather than create their own channel. Creating and maintaining a YouTube channel requires a lot of time and resources, and many brands would rather pay someone who already has a channel with a following. If you have a YouTube channel, one of the best ways to get paid for YouTube videos and make money on YouTube is to work with brands. You’ll essentially act as a brand ambassador by promoting their product on your YouTube channel. This often involves product reviews and tutorials where you film yourself demonstrating how to use the product.

If you’ve been wondering how to make money on YouTube with a smaller channel, know that your YouTube channel doesn’t need to have tons of subscribers to attract brands. Many brands actually prefer to work with micro-influencers. YouTubers with a modest yet loyal band of followers often get fantastic engagement from their following. Micro-influencers are also less expensive to work with, yet still yield results. If you’re a micro-influencer, people who watch your videos are more likely to trust your product reviews than a celebrity’s product reviews. Trust leads to sales, and since brands know that micro-influencers are more likely to gain their viewer’s trust, they’ll often be on the hunt for small but fabulous YouTube channels. That’s where you come in. The catch, however, is that your channel has to attract brands. So, how do you do this? Below are 5 things brands look for in a YouTube influencer:

1. Consistently High-Quality Content

As a YouTuber, you are a content creator, but not all content is created equal. Brands are often scouting YouTube for vloggers that produce very high-quality content which will make their brand look good. In other words, if the background of your YouTube videos is always your very messy kitchen, they’re probably not going to want you to represent their brand. They’re looking for a clean or professional backdrop, good lighting, coherent speech, and definitely no profanity or adult content anywhere on your channel. When brand representatives watch your videos and see that the content you publish is high-quality and aesthetically pleasing, they’ll want you to represent their brand. 

To ensure your video content is high-quality, you may want to invest in good camera equipment, lighting kits, or LED side lights. If you’re on a budget and can’t afford such lighting, it’s best to utilize natural light (the sunlight) whenever possible. Many vloggers prefer the softer natural light later in the day, shortly before sunset, as you get more flattering light when the sun is lower on the horizon.

Part of high-quality content is your body language, poise, posture, and how well-spoken you are. Smile, speak clearly, and rehearse what you plan on saying before you start filming. You’ll also want to be well-dressed with clean hair and a fresh face. The background of your videos should be aesthetically pleasing, which we’ll discuss in more detail later.

2. Personality and Authenticity

Any YouTube personality wants to establish an attractive brand persona to attract sponsors. A brand persona is made up of the personality traits, core values and overall attitude of a brand. For example, let’s say there’s a YouTuber who has a channel called “Get Ready With Grace”. Grace is famous for her “Get Ready With Me” videos which include makeup tutorials, product reviews, and getting ready to go out. If she’s a vegan who promotes vegan beauty products and her personality is always energetic, happy and uplifting, that’s her brand persona. Her personality and attitude is consistent across all of her videos, and her core values are reflected whenever she reiterates that she only uses vegan beauty products. 

Useful Resource: How to get famous on YouTube

An authentic brand persona is achieved when the vlogger is consistent. They won’t seem energetic, happy and excited in some videos, and sad or low-energy in other videos. Their personality remains consistent, which helps them establish trust with their audience. This is how many YouTubers build a loyal following.

3. Appealing Aesthetic

If you want your YouTube channel to attract brands, the backdrop of all your videos should be very aesthetically pleasing. 

Some YouTubers use soft fairy lights and plain white curtains as their video background. Others use tapestries or a plain brick wall. But why not get creative with your video backdrop?  I’ve seen beautiful DIY garden-themed backdrops created with faux grass to create a green grass wall, complete with colorful flowers and potted plants. Some YouTubers even create their own DIY flower wall as a background for their videos, using dollar store fake flowers glued to a hanging piece of fabric.

What’s becoming more common, however, is the simple bedroom backdrop or the home office backdrop. This can be very aesthetically pleasing if the room you’re using as your background is clean, tidy, minimalistic (not too much clutter) and has a color theme.

Colors are a very important component of a video’s background. It’s best to choose a color palette or color theme that you stick with, and the items in the background of your videos should adhere to this color theme. For example, if your color theme is white, turquoise and yellow and you film in your bedroom, your bedding and decor should be a combination of these colors. Your thumbnail image on YouTube should match your color theme, too.

4. Niche Content

You’re more likely to make money on YouTube and your channel is more likely to attract brands if your channel is niche. This means that a cooking channel created by a foodie vlogger is more likely to attract the attention of a culinary brand than a general lifestyle channel that posts video content on fitness, cooking, beauty, and more. 

The culinary brand will be more attracted to the YouTuber who strictly posts video content about food and cooking. Why? Because that person’s followers are more likely to be highly interested in all things cooking-related. Why else would they be following a food and cooking channel on YouTube? If you’re a YouTuber who has chosen a niche and posts videos solely related to that niche market, you’re more likely to attract the brands that fall under your niche. You may end up getting paid quite well for your videos by brands that perfectly align with your target audience.

5. Follow YouTube’s Community Guidelines

If you want to attract brands to potentially sponsor you, it’s crucial to ensure that your channel is not violating any of YouTube’s community guidelines, rules or regulations. Brands don’t typically want to be associated with anyone who is violating YouTube’s guidelines. 

This means that if your videos include foul language, profanity, violence or adult content, you won’t be an appealing candidate for brand sponsorship. You can read up on YouTube’s community guidelines here to ensure that you are adhering to their standards of conduct.

In general, it’s common sense. When creating your video content, you’ll know to dress conservatively, avoid letting any accidental swear-words slip (and edit them out if it happens) and keep your script family-friendly. 

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