Collaborating with brands can be a game-changer for influencers. Successful outreach can lead to increased visibility and lucrative partnerships, improving your credibility, expanding your reach and monetizing your content creation.
But if you’re terrified of cold calling, never fear: we’ve curated your ultimate guide to pitching via email!
Keep reading to learn how to reach out to brands as an influencer, and scroll to the end to steal our free outreach email template!
Why Brand Collabs Matter
Working with brands can seriously up your game as an influencer. It’s about more than just getting free stuff or a paycheck. Brand collaborations can boost your credibility, widen your reach, and create new money-making opportunities.
Let’s dive into why these partnerships are such a big deal and look at real-life examples.
Brands Want to Reach Your Audience
Brands need to reach more people to sell their products and services, which is what social media marketing is all about. And you’ll be the one to make it happen through influencer collaboration.
You won’t do this stuff for free. Creating sponsored content is one sure way to earn money on a social media platform (like Instagram or TikTok).
But it isn’t the only way you can earn $$$.
You Can Create More Monetization Opportunities
Collaborations are more than posting a #sponsored post on your feed. Depending on the brand and product, you can earn money promoting their business in different ways, leading to new revenue streams.
For example:
- Referral Codes: Promote a brand on your Instagram Stories, bio, or blog to create an affiliate income. Depending on how engaged your following is, affiliate programs can be lucrative and a way to make a monthly passive income.
How to reach out to brands as an influencer
- Product Collaboration: Fitness influencer @gainsbybrains has been promoting Women’s Best products as an affiliate for years. This year, the brand asked her to design a new gym wear collection with them. This is another way to extend the life of your brand collabs and generate recurring income while creating a product you know your audience will love.
Discover how brand partnerships can lead to product collaborations as an influencer
Build Long-Term Relationships for A Brand
A successful brand collaboration can lead to long-term partnerships. These ongoing relationships can provide stability and consistent opportunities for you and the brand.
For example, instead of selling a once-off sponsored post, you could negotiate with the brand for a 3 to 6-month contract where you’ll post about the brand multiple times each month.
This gives you a consistent paycheck, stabilizing your income as an influencer (which is notorious for high fluctuations for content creators). For brands, it helps create strong brand retention. It’s consistently exposing the brand to your audience and applying the marketing principle that customers need to see an ad at least seven times before making a purchase decision.
If brands continue to see success working with you, it creates credibility and shows other brands that collaborating with you is worthwhile.
How to Reach Out to Brands as an Influencer
Reaching out to brands can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. By following a few key steps, you can make a great impression and increase your chances of landing those partnerships.
Here’s a quick guide to help you navigate the process:
Step 1: Identify the Right Brands
Choose brands that align with your niche and values. Look for brands whose mission and products resonate with your audience.
Picking the right brands to approach is super important. Look for brands that align with your niche, values, and audience. An influencer collaboration should feel natural and beneficial for both parties and it should be something you would buy and use.
- Do Your Homework: Research brands that align with your content. For instance, if you’re a fitness influencer, you could pitch your favourite supplement brands, workout gear, gym clothes and fitness technology.
- Stalk The Brand’s Social Media: See if they’ve collaborated with influencers in the past. This can give you an idea of what they look for and how you might fit in.
- Align with Your Audience: Choose brands your followers will be excited about. If they love what you promote, engagement will be higher. Remember, if the brand sells a problem your audience has – it’s most likely a good fit!
Step 2: Research the Brand
Before reaching out, get to know the brand inside and out. Understanding their mission, products, and audience shows you’re genuinely interested and can help you craft a personalized pitch.
A generic, copy-paste email or DM isn’t going to cut it. A successful pitch stands out when it’s hyper-specific and shows the brand you’ve done your research.
- Visit Their Website: Read about their history, values, and product lines.
- Understand Their Audience: Know who they’re targeting and how your audience overlaps with theirs.
- Identify Content Gaps: See if you can find any gaps in their content that you can create. This is the “angle” of your pitch. How can you bring value to the brand? For example, let’s say you’re pitching a luggage company, and you notice they’ve launched a new weekender bag. Your angle could be creating content on how to pack a carry-on or a challenge around how much you can fit in their bag.
Step 3: Crafting Your Pitch
Personalization. Personalization. Personalization.
This is the mantra you need your heart to drum to you as you type up your outreach emails. Anyone can write an email asking for a brand collaboration, but not everyone can communicate their value effectively enough to make it a no-brainer.
- Start Strong: Begin with a catchy subject line and a strong introduction that grabs their attention.
- Showcase Your Value and Expertise: Highlight your unique selling points, like your demographics, audience size, engagement rate, and past successes.
- Be Specific: Explain how you’d like to collaborate and what you can offer the brand in return.
- Keep It Short: Brands are busy, so keep your email concise. Use white space and bold the most important information to help the reader absorb the information as fast as possible.
Step 4: Use Our Free Influencer Outreach Email Template
Need some help structuring all this information? We’ve got your back.
Here’s a customisable cold email template to make your life easier.
…But before we dive in, this is the broad pitch structure we’ll be using:
- Introduction: Briefly introduce yourself and why you’re reaching out.
- Your Value: Highlight key metrics and choose one or two successful past brand collaborations.
- Collaboration Idea: Share a specific idea for how you can work together.
- Call to Action: Suggest a next step, like a meeting or a call to discuss this further. Attach your media kit and links to your different social media accounts.
Influencer Outreach Email Template
Subject: [Your Name] x [Brand Name]: A Potential Collaboration
Email Body: Hi [Brand Contact’s Name],
I hope this message finds you well. My name is [Your Name], and I’m a [Your Niche] influencer with a following of [Your Follower Count] on [Your Primary Platform]. I’ve been a huge fan of [Brand Name] for a while, especially [mention a specific product or aspect you love].
I believe a collaboration between us could be incredibly beneficial. My audience [mention something specific about your audience that aligns with the brand]. Here are a few ideas on how we could work together: [Briefly outline 1-2 collaboration ideas].
I would love to discuss this opportunity further and see how we can create something amazing together. Thank you for considering this collaboration and please find attached my media kit.
I look forward to your response.
Best,
[Your Name]
[Your Contact Information]
Step 5: Always Follow Up
Sometimes, you won’t get a response right away, and that’s okay. Following up is always a good idea, and it shows genuine interest without being pushy. It’s recommended to wait at least a week or two before sending another message.
Here’s a follow-up outreach email template you can use:
Hi [Brand Contact’s Name],
I hope you’re well. I wanted to follow up on my previous email about a potential collaboration between [Your Name] and [Brand Name]. I’m very excited about the opportunity to work together and would love to discuss it further.
Thank you for your time and consideration. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Best,
[Your Name]
5 Email-Writing Tips When Pitching to Brands to Boost Your Response Rate
Want to send a cold email that’s worthy of a response? Here are five top tips for writing a cold email that won’t land in the spam folder.
1. Make it About Your Followers
This will show the brand that there is a perfect match between their target audience and your following. You can even provide screenshots of your followers and audience insights on Instagram to showcase your followers’ size, location and demographics on the different social media platforms.
2. Be Specific About Why You Like the Brand
As previously mentioned, you’ll need to include why you love the brand in your pitch email. More importantly, you’ll need to be specific about it. For example, you can quickly review their products and services and explain what you love about them.
In your cold email, it’s essential to be enthusiastic and passionate about the specific brands you want to work with. What do you love about their mission and vision? What campaigns have resonated with you, and why? What makes them stand out from their competitors?
3. Be Timely
Remember that seasons, like Mother’s Day, Holidays, and Father’s Day, are crucial to marketers. You should avoid leaving your seasonal cold emailing to the last minute. Ensure you’re available to create content for these dates to increase your chances of hearing back from them.
Considering how your campaign is timely to their preferred seasons, you’ll have an increased opportunity for them to put you on their calendar.
4. Offer Something in Return
When reaching out to brands, remember that they’re also considering what they’ll get from the collaboration. Sure, you’re offering access to a new audience and greater market reach. However, it has to be measurable enough for brands to consider you.
Discuss tracking ROI or Return on Investment in your pitch. Brands and their marketers measure a campaign’s success through likes, comments, site traffic, and, most importantly, the product sold. Make sure to get on the same page with them regarding tracking these.
Plus, in your cold email, make sure you’re clear about what kinds of posts you can create for this brand (from Reels to a blog post and beyond).
5. Find the Right Person to Contact
Once you’re ready with your pitch email and have considered the tips above, you want to send it to the right person. Some ways you can find the right contact are the following:
- Go to LinkedIn’s people tab and look for people with PR, Influencer Marketing, or Influencer Collaborations in their job title.
- Contact the company’s marketing team if you can’t find specific people on LinkedIn.
- Send a direct message to the brand’s social media account and ask who their contact person is.
After finding the right person to talk to, make sure to address them by their name. Doing this shows your attention to detail and can make you stand out as a content creator.
Even if you’re using cold email templates, sending your email to the right person shows that you’ve done your research and taken the time to narrow down which brands to work with on social media.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I find the right brands to collaborate with?
Look for brands that align with your niche, values, and audience. Research their mission and products to ensure they fit your brand and audience well.
What should I include in my outreach email for brand collabs?
Include a brief introduction, a compelling pitch, your unique value proposition, and a clear call to action.
How do I personalize my pitch?
Explain why you admire their work and how your collaboration can add value to their brand. Refer to specific products or campaigns to show you’ve done your research.
How often should I follow up after sending an outreach email?
You should wait about a week before sending a polite follow-up email. If there’s no response after two follow-ups, it’s best to move on.
What if brands don’t respond to my cold emails?
Don’t take it personally. Brands receive numerous emails daily. Focus on refining your pitch and trying other potential partners.
Can I use the same outreach email template for multiple brands?
Yes, but customize each email to make it personal and relevant to the specific brand.
Ready to Reach Out to Brands?
Now it’s time to put this new knowledge into action and send a pitch email that deserves a response from your dream brands. The more time you put into preparing for your pitch and knowing your worth as a content creator, micro-influencer, or small business owner, the better collaborations you will receive.
Most importantly, to be every brand’s ideal Instagram influencer, you’d need to engage your audience consistently. Sign up for a 7-day free trial of Plann to schedule your Instagram posts, and never worry about forgetting to publish your content.
