If you’re an athlete in today’s NIL era you are going to be looking to sign some deals.
And that’s great. You should be.
You are probably wondering what companies are looking for?
How to sign big deals?
And how to repeat the process over and over.
At AIR, we have done smaller affiliate deals with over 350 college athletes. As well as large multi-figure deals with a handful of them.
Both programs are great opportunities, but the latter is much more enticing.
And you don’t need to be a star player at a big school to sign these NIL deals.
One of our main creators is a walk-on offensive lineman at a FCS school.
His agent told us he has a chance to make 6-figures from NIL this year alone.
What Companies Look For When Signing NIL deals
This is what we look for at AIR, but I can assure you that every company is looking for the exact same criteria (or very close to it).
If you can put a ✅ by all 4 of these things you’re on the path to signing NIL deals.
1. Niche-Based
In real estate they say – location, location, location.
In NIL we say – NICHE, NICHE, NICHE.
Every company will abide by this.
If your content doesn’t match up with the brand, then it’s probably not a good fit.
But that’s ok.
If you try to create content for everyone, you’ll create for no one.
As an athlete, you have a built in niche. Take advantage of that if you want to.
Being in the sports niche, we exclusively hire college athletes who create content about college sports and related aspects.
But if you love animals – create content in that niche. The right brands will find you. It will also help you to stay consistent.
I recommend athletes to start in a small niche and expand to larger ones as their audience size grows.
Example:
Football Recruiting ➡️ College Football ➡️ Football ➡️ Sports Relatability
2. Social Media Following
This is pretty straightforward. More followers = More NIL deals.
A large following usually means 1 of 3 things:
- You’re a star player nationally
- You’ve built an engaged niche-based audience
- Fake followers
If you are either of the first 2, you will be a hot commodity for companies looking to do NIL deals.
If you are both #1 and #2…you’ll be a multi-millionaire before you know it.
The Heisman QB at Alabama with only 3 Instagram posts and 100,000 followers will be valuable because of who they are.
The backup point guard at a Division 3 school with 100,000 followers and a defined basketball niche will be valuable because of their engaged audience.
Keep in mind, every company places a different value on which platform is the most important.
At AIR, having a large Tik Tok following will get our attention the fastest. IG, Twitter, and YouTube are all still highly regarded.
Other companies might not care about your Tik Tok following as much as your Twitter.
Know where you fit in to the NIL space and opportunities will find you.
3. Engagement
How many comments are you getting on your posts?
How many likes and shares?
These are important metrics we look for and other companies will as well.
Anybody can buy fake social media followers.
That’s why companies would rather work with an athlete that has 10,000 loyal followers – Compared to one that has 50,000 followers, but minimal engagement and doesn’t post consistently.
Stats don’t lie. Metrics don’t lie. Facts don’t lie.
Companies will do their research to make sure your engagement is authentic.
4. Relatability
If you have a large niche following that is also engaged – you’ll be in a great spot to succeed.
The last piece is connecting with your audience. How relatable are you?
A brand is far more likely to work with an athlete that connects with their audience on a more personal level.
How do you know if you’re relatable? Ask a follower one question….
Do you feel like you know me as a friend?
Joe Rogan has the greatest podcast of all-time because every listener feels like they’ve known Joe as a friend for years.
Aim for that.
Wrapping Up
NIL will present opportunities for every athlete that is willing to put some effort into growing their personal brand.
There are two main ways to sign deals:
- become one of the best players in the country or
- build up an engaged social media following
If you’re a college athlete you should already be doing this.
If you’re a high school athlete you need to start preparing.
99.7% of athletes won’t have the chance of going pro.
Take advantage of your HS and college years to earn a scholarship and sign NIL deals.
