9 years ago I mentioned that I think B2B content creators will start forming brand partnerships on LinkedIn in the same way B2C creators do on Instagram and TikTok.

The reaction at the time was most people said this would never happen and LinkedIn is different, yada yada. Fast-forward to 2026 and B2B brand partnerships are the fastest growing marketing investment on the internet, especially for tech, SaaS, and AI companies.

The reason is simple; getting in front of your target audience is the most important and most difficult part of the game. We hire SDRs to send emails and make phone calls with super low success rates, so why wouldn't we pay someone who already has the attention of our target audience to promote that same message? Of course we would.

A brand partnership (or sponsored post) isn't the same thing as running an ad because it comes from a trusted voice and goes directly to the people who choose to follow them. If you're selling a sales tool for example, you can partner directly with sales leaders who are already posting sales content every day and they can get your message out, build awareness, and drive traffic to your website literally instantly.

Creators with 50k or 100k+ followers are building six-figure side hustles by partnering with brands they already like (things they'd be willing to sell themselves) in exchange for large cash payments to create exciting and engaging content about the brand partner and the problem they solve.

That said, the game is evolving very quickly and it's getting extremely competitive. Agencies like Eastman, Flooencer, and CreatorBuzz, along with marketplaces like Limelight and Favikon are popping up everywhere because the demand is so extreme for B2B brand partnerships, specifically with LinkedIn content creators who have a niche audience.

So I'm going to make my next prediction and say this is moving to the next level very quickly. Due to the extreme competition and small selection of creators to partner with in each niche, partnerships are already starting to shift from short-term to long-term. Deals are moving away from paying for 1-3 posts to 12-24 month deals. Companies are paying upfront in many cases because they want to lock in the creator and prevent them from working with a direct competitor.

We're already seeing companies issue equity grants to create long-term partnerships and alignment while establishing non-compete agreements. This is like Nike signing Tiger Woods, they know if they don't do it, someone else will, and they want all the horsepower they can get to establish their brand as the best.

To the naysayers who have a gripe with this, all I can say to you is that this is simply a new sales and marketing channel. Having a following on social media is the new Rolodex (Google it if you're not familiar). It means if you can reach an audience, you have value, and you can use that value to partner with companies who want to reach your audience. The key is to be selective and only partner with companies who have products that you would actually sell or use yourself... no different from how you'd select an employer.

For the companies out there questioning whether or not it's worth it, you really can't put a price tag on it because as I said above, either you're going to partner with the top voices in your space, or your competitor is. I would not get distracted or sidelined by trying to hyper-analyze the results... you really can't. You just have to know that impressions are everything and they're either going to promote your brand or your competitor.

As companies work to utilize AI to reduce costs and drive down the need for large headcounts, this is the number one investment I'm seeing that capital become allocated towards, and for good reason.

For creators, make sure you're not under-pricing yourself. It's extremely competitive out there because the value is tremendous. Depending on your audience size you should be charging anywhere from $500 to $5,000 per post, with 100k followers landing you somewhere around $3,000 per post, and they should pay you before you even draft the post. Don't wait for payments afterwards and don't accept performance based compensation.

When you form these partnerships it's incredibly important to let the creator be the creator. Don't provide rewrites and major revisions to their work. They know their audience best and you're hiring them because they have experience figuring out what works. Every time a marketer rewrites creators' post it tanks. Let them do what they usually do, if that's text, video, images, etc.

Also don't pitch features or sales pitches in the posts... that won't perform well. Instead write content that is very much the type of content you'd already write, with a narrative about the problem the product solves. Then tag the LinkedIn company page and/or website URL and let those pages do the selling. The goal of the post is to create awareness and drive curiosity for people to learn more, but if you pitch everything... they aren't curious enough to go to the website.

Lastly, make sure to use the "Brand Partnership" toggle on LinkedIn so your post is labeled and compliant (no need for hashtags).

Don't fall asleep at the wheel, because once the long-term agreements are established, you've missed your chance to lockin the top creators in your space.

This is only going to grow exponentially from here.

Happy Selling,