How To Pitch To Brands – The Ultimate Guide

When I first started pitching to brands as a content creator and influencer, I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t know what to include in the pitch or how to stand out and set myself apart. I often asked myself, “now what?” after hitting send, and my follow-up game was weak, to say the least. My lack of knowledge cost me many opportunities and left lots of money on the table. I’ve now sent and received countless pitches, and I’m landing three and four-figure deals. You won’t have to go through the growing pains I did, because luckily for you, I’m spilling the tea.

So how do you pitch to brands as a content creator and/or influencer?

It boils down to this: initiate a relationship, audit your online presence, create and update your media kit, and craft your unique pitch.

Your next brand collaboration is on the other side of this blog post. I’ll walk you through the ins and outs of pitching to brands so you can land the collaborations of your dreams and secure the bag. Now let’s get into it.

Prepare to pitch to brands

Before you craft your pitch, you must do the groundwork.

This looks like initiating contact with the brand to develop a genuine relationship. Brands want to work with creators and influencers who genuinely care about their mission, products, and overall goals. In this age of superficial social media, authenticity is key. If you slide into their inbox without establishing any sort of relationship, chances are your pitch won’t make it past the subject line.

Pro Tip: Establish these relationships 2-3 weeks before your formal pitch. Don’t just slide into their DMs on the same day, they will see right through you.

So how do you initiate contact and foster a relationship? Post about them on social media & tag them in your posts. It begins in the DMs and goes down in the inbox. Keep it natural and show them how their products or services fit seamlessly into your life. Right now you’re simply letting them know that you’re into them.

It begins in the DMs and goes down in the inbox

Bonus points if you engage with their social media account and create relevant content with their products. Brands pay attention to these kinds of things, and they absolutely love a creator and influencer who walks the walk. If you can’t get your hands on their product, create content about a relevant product in their niche – this will come into play when we talk about your pitch.

Audit Your Social Media Presence

While you are establishing this relationship, take some time to audit your online presence. Below are key things to keep in mind as you conduct your social media audit:

• Do you have relevant content on your Instagram feed?
• Do your social media accounts clearly describe you, your community, and what you offer?
• Is there cohesion amongst all of your platforms?

Always keep your online presence up to date and relevant – if the influencer marketing manager loves your pitch, the first thing they do is examine your profile.

Stay ready so you don’t have to get ready.

Create & Update Your Media Kit

After you’ve audited your online presence, create and update your media kit. A media kit serves as your digital business card and gives people an instant look into what you are all about. Keep it on brand and visually appealing.

What should you include in your media kit?

• About Section: With the brand’s interest in mind – What do you want the brands to know about you?
• Testimonials: Include receipts. This could be messages from your community saying that they bought x item or testimonials from past partnerships.
• Examples: link examples of your past work, your writing & video samples
• Your Stats: Play to your strengths and include your best stats

Pro tip #1: Don’t use the same template that every influencer uses – chances are the influencer manager has seen it.

Pro tip #2: Don’t put your rates in your media kit – ask for their budget before you share your rate sheet.

Craft Your Brand Pitch

Before you craft your pitch, determine if you are pitching as an influencer, content creator, or both. Your pitch will differ depending on your angle.

If you are pitching as an influencer, show the brand that your dedicated community will love their product.

If you are pitching as a content creator, show the brand how you can uniquely tell their story through written, audio, or visual formats.

If you are pitching as both an influencer and content creator, show the brand how you can create compelling content that your community will rave about.

After you’ve determined your angle, pinpoint what exactly makes you unique. What sets you apart from the rest?

Now let’s put this into practice.

Your Angle: Content Creator + Influencer

✨ Your Unique Identifier: I utilize captivating transitions in my video content

✨ Your Strengths: I’m an expert in leveraging long-form content to create short-form videos.

Your Angle: Influencer

✨ Your Unique Identifier: My community trusts my opinions and often buys from my blog posts.

✨ Your Strengths: Strong Engagement Rate and Active Community

So you’ve crafted your pitch, now let’s take it to the next level.

How to Stand Out as An Influencer + Content Creator

Influencer Marketing Managers receive hundreds of pitches a day, so your number one job is to capture and keep their attention.

Here are 5 ways you can elevate your pitch:

1. Create a mood board for each pitch. Customize the mood board to the brand and your campaign ideas.
2. Hyperlink relevant content you’ve created about their product (or a product related to their industry).
3. Create a pitch video. If you are a content creator or influencer, you know that video isn’t going anywhere. A video pitch is guaranteed to catch attention amongst a sea of written pitches, so use this to your advantage. But make sure to keep it concise and no longer than 60 seconds.
4. Use creative concepts that have a sense of urgency. (for example a seasonal collaboration)
5. Be an early adopter of trends and social media features. Use that as a leverage point in your pitch.

How to Format Your Collaboration Pitch Email

Use an “instant open” subject line. If I’m a brand, an email titled “Char x Brand” does not scream “open me,” but “My community is obsessed with your moisturizer!” definitely piques my interest. You need to give them a reason to open your email, otherwise, they’ll be on to the next. Just like you, the folks on the other side of your email are BUSY. Begin with what’s in it for them, then back that up in the body of your pitch.

Briefly greet the Influencer Manager/Social Media Manager in the first line (bonus points if you are addressing a specific person), and introduce yourself.

Hi [Name]!

I hope you had a great weekend. I’m Charlene, a Luxury Content Creator, and I can’t explain to you how much my community and I LOVE your [insert product].

In 2-3 sentences tell them why you love their product. Brands want to work with influencers and creators who can authentically capture their essence and tell a compelling story. Again, we’ll want to keep this brief.

Since giving birth, my skin has been so problematic. Once I started using [insert product] though, my skin cleared up, and I’m finally feeling like myself again. I shared my journey with my community, and they’ve had similar experiences. [insert relevant screenshots].

Now show them your numbers. Show them why they should care about you, and give them a reason to keep reading. There’s a good chance the influencer manager is skimming through your email in a hurry, and they may go straight here.

My community makeup

• Follower Count
• Demographic
• Engagement Rate
• Unique Selling Point Stat

Pro tip: Use stats that play to your strength. Maybe your following count is less than 5k, but your engagement rate is 10% – hype it up and show your best self. At the end of the day, solid engagement almost always beats follower count.

Share your unique pitch

Last month I shared my nighttime skincare routine and my community couldn’t get enough of your Mattifying Moisturizer. [Insert Screenshots] I’m currently preparing for a summer family vacation, and I’d love to collaborate on a Jetlag Skincare Routine featuring the [insert brand product]. I’ve attached a mood board for this potential partnership.

Let me know your thoughts!

Note that in this template, we aren’t sharing our media kit yet, but we are sharing important heavy hitter stats. If and when they respond back, that’s when you’ll share your media kit.

Follow Up with Brands

Your work isn’t done after you hit the send button. In fact, this is just the beginning.

If you don’t hear back from them after a short while, don’t be afraid to reach back out and follow up.

Sometimes the collaboration begins with the second or third follow-up. Include a personal touch when following up – this could be something you noticed on their social media, something they shared in their weekly newsletter etc. Basically, let them know you are still into them and that you’d love to pursue a partnership.

Remember, pitching is a process – you’ll get lots of no’s, but you’ll also get tons of aligned yesses.

Protip: If a brand says no, continue to engage with the brand to keep you at the top of their mind for when the time is right.

Conclusion

Just like writing a resume or doing job interviews, pitching to brands is a skill. The more you practice, the easier it becomes and the better you get. If you go in with the goal of creating a genuine connection instead of simply landing a gig, you’ll win every time. These connections often turn into lucrative partnerships vs one-off collaborations as well.

To recap:

• Initiate contact with the brand and establish a relationship on social media,
• Audit your online presence,
• Create and update your media kit,
• Craft your unique pitch,
• Send your Pitch,
• Follow Up

We live in a world where creators and influencers are more trusted than organizations so go secure the bag and pitch the brand. Who is your dream collab?

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