Is your influencer career starting to take off? Are you itching to finally partner with that awesome brand you’re obsessed with? Here’s how to prepare and deliver a top-notch pitch that will have them begging you to close the deal!
Lay the Groundwork
Brands, especially local ones, aren’t averse to working with new and smaller content creators. Even so, you have to demonstrate credibility before reaching out. The rules aren’t set in stone, but here are a few generally accepted guidelines that you should follow when trying to establish partnerships with brands.
You should have at least 1,000 followers and a good engagement rate. Exact numbers vary by social platforms and industry, but they hover around 2%. Aim for at least 3% to demonstrate that your community is active and invested despite its smaller size.
You should also create at least a dozen high-quality posts related to the niche of brands you hope to attract. Influencers will sometimes feature products they’re passionate about even without being sponsored. This can be beneficial since it adds to your authenticity and can serve as an excellent example of the value you’ll bring if the content goes viral.
Research Prospective Brand Partners
Doing your homework before contacting a brand will drastically improve your chances of success.
Start by researching its audience, mission, and engagement patterns. This will help you determine how compatible you actually are. Authenticity builds trust, so you’re much better off in the long term by partnering with a smaller brand you genuinely care for than trying to pitch to a more established one and be viewed as a sellout.
The more you know about a brand, the easier it will be to tailor your pitch to its unique circumstances once it’s time to send one.
Create a Persuasive Media Kit
No matter how enthusiastic and genuine you come across in your pitch, your metrics will sway them one way or the other. Outlining them through a media kit showcases professionalism and helps brands quickly assess how compatible you are.
A media kit is a structured document you present alongside your pitches. It should contain practical information like your bio, contact details, and rates. Most importantly, it needs to highlight your most positive metrics.
These include your audience demographics, its size, engagement rates, and reach. Break these down by the platforms you use, making sure to include positive notable outliers like the most viral posts.
Ideally, you’d have already partnered with someone. Even a brief campaign promoting a local business or a collaboration with another influencer in the same niche will do. However, first-timers can still persuade brands to give them a shot if they include successful examples of relevant organic content and the positive impact they had on audiences.
Deliver Your Pitch
Everything discussed so far culminates in a well-thought-out pitch. Contacting brands via email is more professional, but some might only operate on their social accounts, so messaging them directly via the social platform is also fine.
While it’s OK for the message to reflect your personality, a measured and polite tone is the norm. Introduce yourself and present your influencer activity in the best possible light. Most importantly, include a value proposition that outlines what the brand stands to gain by working with you. Strengthen your case with creative collaboration ideas and callbacks to past successful projects.
You might not hear from the brands you contact initially. It’s normal and not something to lose heart over. Respectfully follow up after a week or so of inactivity – some brands’ inboxes are so full that they might not have gotten around to you yet. Anything more will come off as pushy, so dust yourself off and move on.
Protect Your Accounts and Your Reputation
Closing the deal with a renowned brand may catapult your influencer career to new heights. And that’s great! However, not everyone is aware of and ready for the potential negative consequences.
There’s likely information on you out there that bad actors could exploit to dox and harass you. This includes your real name, address, and other details you provided when creating accounts years ago – information you may have forgotten about, but the internet hasn’t. Moreover, once they start digging, they could also uncover other details about your private life that your audience and sponsors might not like.
It’s impossible to manage one’s online reputation alone, not with so many data broker sites that keep collecting and reselling personal information. You may need to use a professional data removal service that would request the deletion of the data that has been collected about you. When researching options, read online reviews like this Incogni review to get valuable insights into how these services actually perform in real-world scenarios.
It’s also crucial to secure your social media accounts. Weak and duplicate passwords are a liability, especially for accounts integral to your online persona and livelihood. After all, you don’t want your compromised account to damage your reputation and partnerships overnight.
Using a password manager for iOS or Android will ensure that all your passwords are unique, complex, and stored safely. You can also back them up with multi-factor authentication for complete account security.
Pitch with Confidence
Building successful brand partnerships requires solid preparation, strong engagement with your audience, and professional communication. Research thoroughly, showcase your value through a compelling media kit, and deliver personalized pitches to the brands you want to work with. By doing all this, we’re sure the success is just a few steps away!
