If you’re an influencer looking to collaborate with brands, it’s important to know how to effectively reach out to brands that you want to work with.

IE 344: How to Reach Out to Brands as an Influencer

Should I reach out to brands directly or work with an influencer agency?

First, let’s start with influencer networks work as middleman that way you can apply for the different campaigns that they have, then based on the application that you fill out, they will decide if you are a good fit or not.

Though that can also be a process because you again, have a middleman.

The middleman is the person that connects you and your brand therefore, you never really have direct contact with the brand.

So if you have a question or if the brand has a question about the campaign or the work that you’ve done, it has to go through the middleman and that can often get frustrating because it’s like a game of telephone.

You won’t always get the exact answer you were looking for.

On the other hand, the pay can often be a little bit less than what you can get if you are working by yourself.

Now, influencer agencies are a great opportunity as well.

They will often take a percentage of your sponsored contract that you end up landing.

The agency does the work for you.

They often require a certain number of followers.

Agencies are definitely an option.

Once you are a larger influencer that has a good following on social media as well as your blog, the best way to work is alone.

How do I find brands that align with my niche and values?

The best place to find brands that align with your niches and values is in your house.

To start ask yourself, what products and services are you already using by specific brands?

If you are a food blogger, go and look in your pantry or your spice cabinet.

If you are a beauty blogger, go check your makeup cabinet.

If you are an organizing blogger, Look and see what you are using to organize.

You want to actually work with brands that you have an authentic connection to.

Start by looking to see what you already have around your house and what you are already using is the best way to create an authentic relationship that is going to align with your niche and your values to be a perfect fit for your audience.

What should I include in my outreach email to brands as an influencer?

Now, when you reach out, it is important that you find an email address for someone on that brand’s team.

It’s normally a PR agency that is working on influencer campaigns.

I teach a method on pitch perfect pro where you can use Linkedln to find someone on the team that you might be trying to get into contact with.

I then teach you to take that person’s name and find their email using a free program called Rocket Reach.

This is all a process that I teach inside Pitch Perfect Pro, which is my signature paid program.

You can also do this via social media.

You can go onto their Instagram and start trying to have a conversation with them, supporting them, because when you reach out to a branch, you don’t want it just to be a cold email to someone that you’ve never had any contact with, following them and you’ve never even engaged with them.

If it is a brand that you know use and love, then you should already be in.

Starting to build a relationship would be your first step, then find that email address in order to reach out to the brands.

Now, when you put your pitch together, you want to include your information about your audience, who they are, why they’re coming to you, and then how that brand is the perfect fit for your audience, which means that you need to have done your research about that brand.

You should know what products and services they are launching in the next three to six months so that you can include that in your pitch.

That is going to show that you are staying up to date and someone that is actually following what it is that they are doing.

What are some common mistakes to avoid when reaching out to brands as an influencer?

As I’ve said brands are looking for those authentic relationships, so it’s important that you do your research and include that in your pitch email that you are sending out to them.

You also want to make sure that when you have a pitch, that you have a call to action.

That call to action should be, “I’d love to send you my media kit and a proposal for your review.”

This is really important because the biggest mistake I often see influencers making when they pitch is that they’ll send a media kit that includes their prices, that they charge for each individual deliverable, such as an Instagram post, a video, a blog post and/or a reel.

They are telling the brand exactly what they charge for each of those, and that is a mistake.

You want to send a media kit that shows your numbers about your audience, does not have prices, and then you want to send a proposal with that media kit, when they ask for it, that gives them a package price of what you charge for multiple deliverables.

This way it will give you an opportunity to negotiate with the brand.

When they come back to you and say, we don’t have a budget for 1500, we only have a budget for 750.

They’re often going to try to cut you in half, so with that in mind, if you put together a proposal that has a price for 1500, but multiple deliverables now you can take some of those deliverables out and get to a price that you are comfortable with for 750.

It’s important to always make sure that you have that call to action, Media kit and proposal.

They’re often going to say, sure, send in your media kit.

They are expecting your media kit to have your pricing and you are not going to do that because if you do, they are going to get you for less of a price than you are worth, or you are going to be uncomfortable what you are delivering to them for that price.

So really keep that in mind when you are trying to put together that proposal for them and sending over the pricing for them.

How do I maintain a positive relationship with brands over time?

You want to maintain your relationship because one of the biggest things with brands is that whether you work with them once, or even when you’re just starting to reach out to them, you want it to be a long-term relationship.

We don’t want this to be one and done.

We want this to be at something that can continue for as long as three, six months, one year, two years and more.

You want a relationship that is authentic to your brand and to your audience so then as the time goes on, it continues to be consistent income.

I also teach that in order to build that relationship, you provide them with data that shows how you have benefited them during that campaign.

This is all part of what I teach Inside Pitch Perfect Pro.

But you, in order to maintain that relationship, even if it hasn’t been a relationship as of yet, continuing to engage with them, continuing to find out what their products and services are, especially if it’s a dream brand that you have always wanted to work with.

You always want to continue to build that relationship over time.

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