Mistakes To Avoid When Pitching Brands as a Blogger
Pitching brands is the number one topic people ask me about, whether through Instagram DMs, in person, or during conversations with fellow influencers.
I even wrote an e-book about it! Learning how to pitch yourself effectively is essential if you want brands to see you as someone worth hiring to promote their products or services.
However, in my mind there are definitely a few things that bloggers do in their pitches that they should correct ASAP. Here are four pitching mistakes to avoid when reaching out to brands you want to partner with.
Pitching Mistakes To Avoid
You’re making it all about you
Instead, focus on how you can help communicate their brand story to your audience.
Show the brand why you are the right fit for a partnership. Does your audience regularly ask you about their products?
Do they live in the right areas that the brand is focused on targeting?
Think about what you can offer them. State your case in an email rather than asking for free product without making it clear why you should be receiving it.
You’re reaching out to brands that you don’t already use and love
Instead, make it easy for them to say yes to you. Show them examples of organic content you’ve already created that features their brand or product.
Better yet if you have DM’s from your audience asking questions about the brand or any other qualitative examples of why you’d be a good fit for the brand, include those too.
That can be just as important as numbers when it comes to showing a brand you’re the right person to hire.
If you’re not on Fohr yet, sign up for their content tool. Create a custom link that showcases the brands you have featured across your social media channels.
You’re sending your rates right away
Instead, send a few ideas over to them and then get a sense of their budget and their priority platforms (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, etc.) so you know if you’re in the same ballpark.
If they won’t tell you their budget, you can share rates based on the deliverables they’re most interested in. See what they say. If they can’t meet your rate for one deliverable, think about if there’s something else they can offer.
For example, maybe they can’t do your rate for a live video but they can do your rate for 3-5 Instagram stories.
You’re pitching directly via Instagram DM
Instead, use Instagram to start a conversation with the brand. Tag them naturally in your content once or twice and see if they respond.
Even if they reply with a heart, this opens up your DM thread with them so your message won’t just get filtered out.
Then you can share that you’re a digital content creator and that you’d love to talk to someone in their PR/marketing department.
What other pitching blog posts would you like to see? Let me know in the comments!
yours,
Austen
