⚡ supercharge nil deals

insights and tools that'll help you attract brands and sponsors

today, athletes are rushing into nil (ie. “name, image, likeness”) deals with brands and sponsors; however, many do so without fully understanding their value.

what does this mean?

traditionally, brands and sponsors work with influencers, or in this case you (“the athlete”), to promote their brand, product or service. in doing so, you’re compensated in a variety of ways; including:

• monetarily: an exchange of cash for endorsement

• merchandise: an exchange of product(s) or service(s) for endorsement

• equity: an exchange of ownership for endorsement

regardless of the type, it’s important for you to understand the metrics behind how a brand values your endorsement. those metrics include:

• cost of acquisition (“cac”): the price a brand pays to acquire a new customer (ex. a brand pays you $1,000 for a post and in doing so acquires 1 customer, their cost of acquisition would be $1,000; however, if they acquire 1,000 customers, their cost of acquisition would be $1.00)

• cost per millie or cost per thousand (“cpm”): the price a brand pays to generate 1,000 impressions from a piece of content (ex. a brand pays you $1,000 for a post and it generates 100,000 impressions, their cost per millie would be $10; however, if it generated 1,000,000 impressions, their cost per millie would be $1.00)

typically, brands and sponsors will engage and better reward (ie. compensation) influencers that have the lowest “cac” and “cpm”, which are both results from a highly-engaged audience (ie. your following).

how do i figure these numbers out? note, the following works for athletes with or without nil deals.

regardless if you’ve received a nil deal or not, the following tools will help you understand your advertising potential and also more insights on your audience — all of which is important to brands and sponsors.

tools, all of which are free:

1. linktree: use linktree to generate a simple landing page and “link in bio”. in doing so, you can link your social profiles, blog posts, and brand or sponsor urls; plus, accept donations and tips, build email and sms subscriptions lists, sell merchandise and swag, and more.

2. google analytics: link your google analytics account to your linktree url, and get insights on your followers; including, but not limited to: age, gender, interests, location, and data points that will help you better align which brands and sponsors you work with (ex. if your following is 99% men, located in the united states, and have high-interest is fitness, it’d be best to accept or try to engage brands and sponsors in that space).

additionally, if you’d like to heighten the perception of your professionalism, the following should also be considered:

1. domain and email address: purchase a branded domain, redirect all of its traffic to your linktree url, and setup a branded email to communicate with brands and sponsors (ex. this can be your full name or your social media profile name).

2. unified social media presence: update and maintain a consistent “brand” across all of your social media channels (ex. instagram, twitter, etc.); including, avatar, banner, bio, and your personal brands’ tone of voice. note, this consistency will also aid in your followings growth and engagement.

in conclusion, and to be transparent, none of the insights and tools above guarantee that you’ll receive a nil deal; you still have to put the work in (ie. perform on the field and build an audience on social media). however, by implementing those insights and tools, you’ll be able to better position, negotiate, and qualify nil deals as they come in. in doing so, enabling you to maximize the value from each deal, and provide your partners with data to make quicker and more informed business decisions.

need help getting started?

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