Influencer marketing is a multibillion dollar industry that only continues to grow year over year.

Brands love collaborating with content creators because the content that individual creators produce is often more relatable and less salesy than what brands can create in-house.

If you are interested in getting paid by your favorite brands to create content for them you’re in the right place, because today we are going to talk about how to pitch yourself to brands for collaborations.

When it comes to pitching I have several years of experience on both sides of the coin.

I started out my career as a magazine editor and my inbox was flooded every week with hundreds of pitches from brands and publicists and other people who wanted their clients featured in our magazine

As an influencer, I've been able to work on paid brand collaborations with companies like Walmart, Glossier, The New York Times, Amazon and more, because I was able to convince those brands that out of all of the hundreds of thousands of creators out in the world, that I was someone who could help tell their story and create amazing content that they would love.

I hope when you are finished reading this post, you can take an idea that you have in your head and turn it into something tangible that a brand will want to pay you for.

Let’s get into the who, what, when, where and why of pitching.

Who should you pitch?

There are three different types of brands that you should consider pitching.

1. Brands you already use and love

Take a look around your apartment, your home, your bedroom, wherever you are at this moment and make a note of any brands that you see that you would want to pitch.

Maybe it's a home decor brand, maybe it's the lip balm on your nightstand, maybe it is the necklace that you're already wearing—think about brands that you actually use and love throughout your day to day life.

When it comes to brands you’re already a fan of, there's also a good chance you've already created some content featuring those brands and sharing that already-made content on your platforms with a brand will strengthen your case when you go to pitch them.

2. Brands that you already have a relationship with

Sometimes creators get so fixated on who their next brand deal is going to be with they forget about the brands they’re already connected to.

Maybe you’re already their affiliate partner or you’ve attended an event that they hosted or maybe you’ve even already partnered together on a paid deal.

It is so much easier to resign an existing client in this industry, because you've already worked with them and hopefully proven your worth and shown exactly what kind of a great partner you can be to them.

It also really helps tell a story through influencer marketing to work with a brand more than once, because it does generally take a while for a customer or consumer to see something and then to take action on it.

In marketing we call that the rule of seven, where someone has to see something about seven times for them to actually take action (use this to try to secure a long-term deal with a brand or have them sponsor posts on multiple platforms.)

You can even give these brands a little shout out on your Instagram stories to get the conversation rolling, and see if you can steer the conversation towards working together.

3. Brands that align with your mission or niche

I create a lot of beauty content and there are definitely plenty of beauty brands out there that I haven't gotten a chance to try yet.

But my audience does know that I love doing product reviews and trying new brands and recommending different products and so I can still go to a brand within the beauty category, show them similar examples of content that I've created and convince them that maybe I'm the person to help introduce their brand to my audience.

Think about brands that you haven’t tried yet but that are relevant to your content and your audience so you can start building a relationship with them and position yourself as a potential partner in the future.

Relationship building is hugely important in this industry and the more that you can pitch brands that you already have some sort of touch point with, the higher chance of success I think you'll find in closing a deal.

What should you say in your brand pitch email?

This where I hear a lot of creators get stuck, so let’s review a few key points I think you should aim to work into your pitch email.

The first thing you'll want to make sure you have is a catchy subject line something that is relevant and makes the person then on the receiving end of the email actually want to open the email in the first place, especially keeping in mind that the inboxes of people who do influencer marketing for brands are probably extremely cluttered.
Second, be sure to state who you are and what your relationship is to them (skip if you already have a personal relationship with the brand rep you’re emailing.)
It’s also good to include a line about your relationship to the brand, whether it's “I've been using your products for years” or “I tried your moisturizer last week, and I'm obsessed with it” to let them know your level of familiarity with them.
It’s important to be specific in your pitch. Sending an email saying “I’d love to collaborate!” doesn’t give the brand an idea of what that partnership will look like.
See if they have a presence on TikTok and send them a relevant playlist of your content or if they don’t seem to post many Instagram stories, offer to film some for them.
Being in the know about what the brand is doing and understanding what their priorities are can really give you leverage in a pitch.
Before you close out the email, include a call to action. What do you want the next step to be? As an example, you could say “if you're interested in this, do you have time next week to hop on a 15 minute phone call to discuss further.”

That is a brief overview of what the main points are that I would include in a brand pitch email. But if you're interested in getting some templates, and seeing some examples of pitch emails that I've sent before, I do include some in my e-book Right on Pitch.

I couldn't quite sit down to write this blog post without mentioning it, could I? Right on Pitch is my e-book and it is my complete guide to pitching.

I include things in there like what makes a pitch stand out tips for negotiating your rates when you're pitching. Also things like my editor approved pitch checklist, which kind of stems from my magazine editor days, and also a word about rejection and pitching as well. If you’re interested, check it out here.

When should I pitch a brand?

Technically, you can pitch a brand at any time!

However, here are some especially good times to pitch a brand:

Right after you've organically posted content about them, send it to them and if they like it and give you good feedback on it, you can use that as leverage to then pitch them on another idea.

If you've recently attended an event with a brand and especially if you were able to see your brand contact face to face, that is a great time to pitch them because it will be fresh in their mind.

Keep an eye on any sales or promotions that brands do each year and create a pitch ahead of those (ex: Black Friday Sales)

Seasonally, pitching brands ahead of the summer months and also ahead of the holiday season are two great times to reach out because those are two times of year where brands are really starting to spend and push a lot of their marketing efforts.

The only time I would really specifically avoid pitching brands is January since Q1 is the time when brands are still sorting out their marketing budgets.

If you want to schedule a coffee chat or check-in call with a brand early in the year, that’s fine but just be aware they may not have their yearly budgets sorted out just yet.

Where should I send my brand pitch?

Email still is the standard for communication with brands. I've gotten a bunch of different questions over the years about pitching via Instagram DM's and there are two main reasons why I still don't think that this is the best way to pitch.

The person who's answering the DM's is likely on the social media team and most brands have separate social media teams and influencer marketing teams. So you might write out a pitch via DM only to have it go to a person who can't really do anything about it.
Things can get lost really easily in an Instagram inbox. It's not as easy to search your Instagram DM's as it is to search your email. To ensure your pitch gets delivered and isn’t lost in a long scroll of messages, email is the way to go.

I do want to clarify, I think Instagram DM's are great for building a relationship with a brand since you can tag them, send messages and interact in a fun way.

I actually have a video on my YouTube channel where I talk about how to get a brand’s attention on Instagram so I’ll go ahead and link that for you here.

Why do you want to work with this brand?

And if your answer is “because I want free products,” that is not reason enough.

The time and effort it takes to produce content has been underestimated in the past, but now people can really see the value of influencer marketing.

A brand partnership is a mutually beneficial relationship so you need to be thinking about how the brand would see you and put yourself in their shoes.

What value can you bring to them? Why should they work with you out of all of the other creators? And if you want to work with them, what is it about them in particular that you feel passionate about?

Why you? Why them? And why now?

If you can answer those three questions in your pitch, you’re golden.

Have you tried pitching a brand? Share your experience in the comments!

yours,

Austen

Photos by Jessie Alcheh

Your Ultimate Guide To Pitching Brands as an Influencer