How to Pitch Yourself to Brands

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Wondering how do you reach out to brands for sponsorships and how do you pitch brand deals? Learn from a full-time content creator the secrets for how to pitch yourself to brands!

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Real talk: it is ABSOLUTELY possible to earn real money from brand deals as a content creator. In fact, many influencers and bloggers make a substantial income with paid partnerships. It can be confusing to figure out how to pitch yourself to brands, and how to reach out to brands for sponsorships. I’m here to help!

I took my family & lifestyle blog Mimosas & Motherhood into a full-time income in six months out of necessity when the pandemic hit and my husband lost his job. I went from earning less than $100 a month as an influencer to making more than $5,000 in a single month in less than 6 months!

Our family has had the opportunity to work with a huge variety of amazing brands, including Arm & Hammer, Chevrolet, CVS, Hello Fresh, Medela and more. You can learn more about our story here.

As I grew my paid partnership and sponsored post income during that time, I realized quickly that there is a HUGE misconception on how to land paid partnerships as a blogger or influencer.

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The #1 lie most content creators believe is that they have to have a huge following in order to land substantial paid brand deals. That couldn’t be further from the truth!

Brands want to work with creators who are authentic and have a passionate, engaged audience that will convert to sales on their end, and are placing a much smaller importance on the number of followers because of that.

As numerous studies have shown, consumers are more likely to buy a product from someone they trust, regardless of the size of their following. Brands want to work with individuals who will be successful and have a true, engaged audience who will respond positively to the product.

The best brand deals come to those who are willing to hustle and seek out great opportunities. I know that it can feel scary to put yourself out there, and that’s ok! I want to help you feel more confident with your outreach when you pitch yourself as an influencer to brands.

I’m sharing some great tips in those post for bloggers and influencers when it comes to how to pitch brands. You’ll learn some of the best approaches, and walk away from reading this post feeling confident that you know HOW to pitch yourself to brands.

Be sure to also snag my free Pitch Cheat Sheet too (including a free pitch template!), where I share even more info and details for landing paid partnerships, and laying out your email pitch, no matter the size of your audience!

computer and cell phone on social media

HOW TO PITCH A BRAND

Successful influencers, bloggers and content-creators of all sizes know how to pitch themselves. Understanding the fundamentals of pitching means you are more likely to land that brand deal you’ve been dreaming of.  Securing brand collaborations are possible, no matter the size of your audience. But how do you get a brand’s attention?

Be Genuine

When it comes to pitching, my biggest piece of advice is to be genuine. Brands can smell a fake pitch from a mile away!

Before you even start thinking about how to reach out to brands for sponsorships, you want to first start genuinely interacting with that brand on social media. This should be your first step. Follow them, engage with their content, share posts you love in your stories before you ever send that first pitch!

Connect With the Right Person

Want your pitch to go further from the very first message? Make sure you’re emailing the RIGHT person!

Brands get hundreds of cold emails for partnerships and collaborations. Do your homework and find the best person to connect with for brand partnerships in that first pitch email. This is the best way to set yourself up for a better outcome from the very first email.

How do you find the right contact information? Take a look at the company’s website and check out their marketing team, PR contact and social media team as a good starting place.

Use an Appealing Email Subject Line

For brands that receive a ton of inquiries every day, you want your email to stand out! And easy way to do this is with a great subject line. You want it to be appealing enough for someone to be compelled to open it, but not spammy.

Here are a few example subject lines for pitching brands as an influencer:

“Interested in Collaboration Opportunities”

“Potential Holiday Gift Guide Partnerships”

“Have you Started Working on Your Mother’s Day Campaigns?”

Know Your Follower Demographics

Knowing who your audience is and being able to communicate that shows value very quickly to a brand. In general, brands want to know where your audience is located, the average age group of the people who follow you and their gender split, as well as your engagement rate for both Instagram stories and your Instagram posts. You can easily find this information about audience demographics in your Instagram Insights and your Facebook Creator Portal.

The more easily you can communicate how your audience and personal brand aligns with that brand’s target audience, the more successful your pitch will be.

Keep it Short and Sweet

As tempting as it is to send a long email, you want to keep your pitch short and sweet. Remember that brands are contacted by dozens of messages every day asking for the same opportunity you’re emailing them about.

Be respectful of their time and show your professionalism through a pitch that gets right to the point without sharing your entire life story!

 woman with drawing behind her

How to pitch yourself as an influencer to brands

When it comes to pitching yourself as an influencer to brands for partnerships, you want to be sure to cover the following things:

Who you are and what your background is (aka, your elevator speech)

What you’ve done in the past and how your audience relates to their brand and needs

What you love about their brand

Why you want to work with them

A call to action that motivates the brand to respond.

No matter how many Instagram followers you have (or another social media platform), you have something valuable when it comes to brand partnerships: your ability to create amazing content to your audience.

So, how should you lay out your pitch to a brand?

Use your contact’s first name and introduce yourself. Let the brand know that you follow them on social and compliment them on a recent campaign/product launch/partnership etc. Talk about your background and audience, and why you would love to work with their brand. Be sure to highlight what is about YOU that makes you a fantastic fit to help them.

Don’t just copy and paste emails! If you have a specific collaboration in mind, be sure to mention that! It’s a good idea to be specific in suggesting ideas of how you can work together instead of expecting the brand to give you them.

End with a call to action, like “I would love to send you my media kit and a proposal for review.” This means they need to respond to you!

Still not sure what to say? In my Free Ultimate Pitch Cheat Sheet I give you a real email I used to land a $1,000+ sponsored campaign when I had less than 5,000 followers! Be sure to click here to grab that!

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How to Pitch Brand Deals: What To Do After You Pitch a Brand

If the brand responds with an offer you’re not wild about, think of it as a negotiation point. Also realize that it’s ok to say no and walk away but remember to be polite! You never know what might change in the future.

If you haven’t heard back within 2 weeks of sending your pitch to a brand, follow up! Don’t just assume that they’ve seen your email and have chosen not to respond. Brands are inundated with requests, and might have just overlooked responding!

After you land and finish your pitch, be sure to continue nurturing the relationship. Stay in touch with the brand and/or your main contact, continue to engage with their content, and if you know of another influencer that might be a great fit to work with them facilitate introductions.

calendar and pitch sheet

How do you reach out to brands for sponsorships?

I personally am a big believer in the power of pitching myself, versus only working with third party influencer networks. I hand pick the companies I reach out to, to make sure I’m reaching out to the right brands for my audience and that they are also a good fit for my personal brand.

To recap, when it comes to pitching yourself as an influencer to brands and landing paid partnership deals, you want to:

  • Be Genuine
  • Connect with the right person
  • Use an appealing subject line
  • Know your follower demographics and stats
  • Keep your pitch short & sweet
  • Convey your value and ability to help their brand

Even if you’re a brand-new influencer or new blogger and have never worked with a brand before, that doesn’t mean you can’t get started! If you’re ready to start making a REAL income as an influencer or blogger with paid partnerships and collaborations, be sure you snag my free Ultimate Pitching Cheat Sheet to learn how to start putting brand pitches out there.

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Learn how to pitch yourself to brands, how do you reach out to brands for sponsorships, how to pitch yourself as an influencer to brands, and how to pitch to brands as a micro influencer!

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33 Comments

  1. This is amazing! I’m hoping to start pitching people this year. I wasn’t comfortable with doing it last year, but my blog has grown enough that I feel much more confident in putting myself out there!

  2. Such a great post! I need to start pitching myself to brands, but have definitely felt hesitant as I don’t have a significant following yet. Where do you think brands focus on the most in terms of credentials-blog views, Pinterest monthly viewers, Instagram following, etc.?

    1. Hi Emi! Brands care most about how engaged your followers are. So whether you have a small following or a big one, they want to know that if they choose to work with you that your audience will be first interested in their products, and second want to purchase them!

  3. Wow this is impressive! $5K after only half a year blogging?? I just signed up for affiliate marketing, but as a freelance writer and editor outside of blogging, I’m thinking pitching to brands may be more my speed. Thanks for the tips!

    1. I thought pitching was scary and I needed more experience too, but it’s all about the pitch! It was eye opening for sure. Happy to help!

  4. I appreciate your info and bought your pitching guide. I had a great year last year, working with about 40 brands, and had my first $1000+ month. I’m ready to do more! So thank you.

  5. SO what kind of brands to you recommend those with smaller audiences reach out to? Big ones like the ones you mention above? Small national brands, local ones? It’s hard to know where to start or what size businesses are the most receptive! All of the other info looks super helpful!

    1. Hi April! Feel free to shoot me an email at [email protected] and I’m happy to connect. Brands of all sizes love working with accounts of all sizes! National brands are wonderful because of their budget, but local brands can also be fantastic to work with as they truly see the value of your services in their reach =)

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