As an Influencer or Creator, securing a new brand partnership is a pretty big deal. Not only do you get the opportunity to work with a brand that you love, you also get to elevate and monetize your business while you’re at it! The most critical factor about landing this paid work though, is actually taking the time to reach out and pitch to brands. You have to know how to properly pitch yourself in order to receive a yes—even if a brand reaches out to you first.
At Sidewalker Daily, we have been working with Influencers to grow their businesses and successfully pitch to brands for many years. And we’ve been consulting with brands on their Influencer and social media campaigns for even longer, so we know exactly what works and what doesn’t. In this article, we’re going to walk you through some of the basics of how to write a brand collaboration email that works. If you find yourself freezing up every time you sit down to send an email for collaboration, these tips will help you get that email ready to hit send!
How To Write A Brand Collab Email
Sometimes putting yourself out there and knowing just what to say is tough. But a well-written email for collaboration can really help you stand out as an Influencer or Creator. If you’re serious about pitching to brands and want to monetize your business, our Pitching to Brands Mastercourse will give you the exact formula to create the perfect pitch so you have the best chance of landing the deal and also, do not leave money on the table. We even include 80+ email examples in the Pitching To Brands Mastercourse for you to learn from.
In the meantime, let’s talk about some of the steps you should follow when crafting your brand pitch email. Use these 8 guidelines to start feeling confident that you’re sending out pitches that will make brands want to work with you!
1) Make Sure You Reach Out To The Right Contact
Our first tip on how to email brands as an Influencer is something you should do even before you start writing your pitch email to a brand – you need to make sure that you have the right contact! You’re working hard to craft the perfect pitch that showcases you and your talent—you don’t want it to be completely overlooked because it didn’t end up in the right inbox.
We strongly recommend looking for an email address and not submitting a pitch to a contact form on a website. However, even a generic email address such as “info@brandname.com” or “hello@brandname.com” isn’t necessarily the best option. In both of these instances, it’s very likely that you’re dealing with a “catch-all” account for the brand. Basically, the messages delivered here aren’t directed to a specific person. In our experience on the brand side of things, we’ve seen firsthand that these emails can get sent to 6 or 7 people on the team. Instead of increasing the number of eyes on your message in a good way, sometimes it ends up being ignored because each person who received it thinks that someone else is dealing with it.
All that considered, it’s really important that you take the time to find the right contact. Depending on what you find, you might even be able to send your brand pitch email directly to someone who is the decision maker, which definitely gives you a leg up and increases your chances of your email being read and receiving a response from the brand.
2) Craft An Exciting Brand Collaboration Email Subject Line
The real star of your email pitch is actually your subject line. Okay, maybe you and your awesome content creation ability is, but the person on the brand side won’t even get to that part if you don’t have a subject line that draws them in. An exciting subject line is what gets someone to actually open up your email and read what your pitch has to say. So really take some time to think about this when writing your pitch.
The best subject lines are clear and to the point, while also enticing the reader to read more about what you have to offer them. Once the email is opened, your chances of working out a collaboration grows!
3) Use An Appropriate Salutation
Another part of learning how to write a collaboration email to a brand that we think is important is speaking to a person in a way that is familiar to them. Speaking to them like they’re used to being spoken to can help your pitch email be received more successfully. But knowing what’s “appropriate” to call someone can sometimes be a challenge, so we’ve got a few things you can consider that keeps it simple and easy.
First off, think about location. If you’re pitching to an American based company, you want to use salutations that they’re probably used to, like “Mr.” or “Mrs.” versus a brand in Europe who usually hears “Sir” or “Madam.” When a US brand gets an email that uses a salutation more typical of European speakers, they could potentially rule out moving forward with a collaboration right away. Maybe they’re mainly interested in working with Influencers in their area and won’t read the rest to give your pitch a proper chance.
Another part of addressing someone by email is knowing whether to use their first or last name. We often see Influencers and Creators pitching directly to the person’s first name. We love this personal touch because although it’s good to be professional, it’s also good to be warm. Phrases like “to whom it may concern” can feel too serious and formal. If you don’t know someone’s name for whatever reason, try using “hi there” or another friendly opening.
While using an appropriate salutation might seem not that important, it’s the first thing the person will see to set the tone of the email. Remember it’s the little things that add up which will make your email pitch a success!
4) Write A Brand Collab Email Using The “WOW” Factor
Your message has now reached the right contact, been opened thanks to your amazing subject line, and started off with a proper salutation. Next up in the structure of a brand collaboration email that works is a little thing we like to call “the wow factor.”
Essentially, we know that there’s a good chance the person reading your collaboration pitch receives dozens just like it each week. That said, the next thing you really want to do is wow the person on the other side and you need to do this at the start of the email to make sure they keep reading through the whole thing!
The opening line means a lot in this industry. Let them know who you are, what your niche is, and impress them right off the bat. There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to writing your pitch but our Pitching To Brands Mastercourse walks you through tons of different ideas of what to say and how to say it so you can send off your email with confidence.
5) Make Your Pitch About Them
While a brand collaboration email is about you selling yourself to someone, at the end of the day it’s really about them and how you can add value. The most successful pitches are well researched and show the brand that you are genuinely interested in their products and their work.
A brand collaboration proposal template can only get you so far, and when used the wrong way, can actually hurt your business. An email that feels like it’s been copied, pasted, and sent to any old company in your niche is probably going to be deleted.
So, the right way to write a brand collaboration email is to be strategic and thoughtful! You don’t have to throw yourself at the brand as a huge fan and shower them with compliments—this might actually come off very inauthentic—but you should approach them in a thoughtful and well-researched way.
Did you notice that they recently launched a new collection that you love or put out some content that you can relate to? Think about what you can use to show the brand that you actually did your research, want to work with them and aren’t sending a cold template out to everyone.
6)Reach Out To Brands By Pitching A Vision
When pitching to a brand, avoid only listing out a set of deliverables. The brand doesn’t really even know who you are yet! However, you do want to write a brand collaboration email that says what you can do for them—just not in a way that lists exactly how many Instagram stories, blog posts, and videos you’re willing to make for them. You want to pitch them your vision.
What do we mean by pitching a vision? Your vision for working with the brand is a little bit more big picture to show them you’ve got great creative ideas on how you can work together and you’re the perfect person to make them happen.
7) Attach The Right Materials
This may be the first and only email that the brand will see from you, so you want to be able to showcase yourself as best you can. A question we hear from Influencers and Creators all the time at Sidewalker Daily is whether or not to attach a Media Kit to your brand collaboration email. We often get asked questions like:
- Will including an attachment send the email straight to their spam box?
- Should it be put in the email as a link?
From working on the brand side of things, we’ve seen pitch emails with attached Media Kits land in both inboxes and spam. So, there’s no way to really know what will happen—which is why we think that it doesn’t hurt to add a link. Attachments might be the preferred method for easy access, but the most important thing is that the Media Kit is there at all. Brands might scroll right on through your email to the Media Kit without reading the rest of the message. (Yes, even after all this hard work writing it!)
Essentially, a Media Kit is a must. Make sure you include all of the necessary information in your Media Kit with up to date details and a professional design to really impress the brand. Our Pitching To Brands Mastercourse walks you through exactly how to create a Media Kit to WOW a brand and even has 9+ example of real Media Kits for you to see from Influencer and Creators in different niches.
8) Include A Call-To-Action
Nope, you’re not done yet! Before you send off your brand collaboration email, take a look at how you ended it. The way you close out your collaboration email matters too. After all, this is the last thing they’ll read and you want to do everything you can to take it to the next step – getting a response.
Using a call-to-action that is strong and specific can elevate your pitch and give a little extra motivation to the brand to take the next steps. This might be small, but you want to use all the best practices to up your chances of landing a deal.
Start Pitching: How To Email Brands As An Influencer
Now it’s time for our call-to-action for you: Use these guidelines to start pitching to brands with confidence, and if you still don’t feel completely ready yet, book a one-on-one coaching call with one of our experts and let’s talk about monetizing your business.
Just as a quick recap of these tips for how to write a brand collaboration email:
1) Make sure you’re reaching out to the right contact.
2) Craft an exciting brand collaboration email subject line.
3) Use an appropriate salutation to get off on the right foot.
4) Try to wow the brand with specific details about YOU and why you’re the best Creator to work with.
5) Make your pitch about them by showing the brand what you can do for them and making it clear that you know what they’re all about. AKA- don’t just copy a brand pitch email template.
6) When you reach out to brands, pitch a vision. Give them an example idea so they can really visualize working with you.
7) Attach the right materials because this could be your one and only chance to showcase yourself!
8) Always include a call-to-action in your pitch email—they can’t predict what you want them to do next!
If these tips helped you out but you’re still looking for the right way to pitch to brands and learn how to design an amazing Media Kit to help you land paid brand deals check out our Pitching To Brands Mastercourse. We’ve helped Influencers and Creators in all niches and at all sizes work with their favorite brands and earn an incredible income doing what they love!
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