23 Aug How To Pitch
to Brands

Your first time pitching to a brand can feel as dreadful as jumping into dark, murky water in the middle of the night. You can’t see what’s ahead, you aren’t really sure what you’re doing or why, and the chances of survival seem slim to none.

I can assure you, it’s not that bad. One thing a lot of aspiring influencers get wrong is they wait for brands to come to them. In an over saturated market, you could be waiting a lifetime for that to actually happen. In my opinion, it’s best to be proactive— you do the approaching. Here are a few tips I’ve learned that help me pitch successfully.

1. Make sure your content is great. I can’t stress this enough. Just like any field of work, the competition is steep. Your content has to be on par with some of the best bloggers out there. Be creative, think outside the box. Choose images that are compelling. Quality reigns above all else.
2. Have a Media Kit. This is basically your blogging resume. It’s a one stop shop for who you are, what you’re about, what you’ve done, who your audience is, and what you can offer brands. Most people aren’t going to take the time to read your whole site, find all your stats, and research your audience. This is how you help them out— provide them with everything they may need in a well designed one sheet.
3. Send an email. I know…it can be difficult to figure out who exactly to email. Social media can help with this. It’s  totally acceptable to send a brief DM asking for a direct email address and contact name for someone in their social media or marketing department, but I would leave it at that. Save the entire pitch for the email. It’s more professional AND it ensures your pitch will actually get to the correct person.
4. Work for free. Nobody seems to want to do anything for free anymore, and oftentimes this is the gateway to getting paid partnerships. Before you ask a brand for money, send an email and ask to be placed on their PR list for product giveaways and events. Brands love to see that you’ll post for them without payment. Some of them even track your stats on these posts to see how well you do. Creating lasting impressions and relationships is the foundation for the best pitches. Sometimes that means doing free work.
5. Authentic brand alignment. Start compiling a list of brands you already use. Create content for them, and then pitch. The beauty of this is that it’s authentic and organic. You already purchase Brand X so a partnership with Brand X would just be a natural progression. When it happens this way your audience tends to respond better, which will make both you & the brand happy with results.

I hope this information helped make things a little more clear about pitching to brands. If you’re interested in learning more about blogging, pitching, or becoming an influencer I encourage you to sign up for my Mentorship Program.