Before you start reaching out to brands as an influencer, there are some things you will want to know and do. Another way to reach out to brands as influencers are by researching the brands out there looking for influencers to work with. If you have not worked with brands before as an influencer, you could incorporate testimonials and comments from your followers or customers.
You can reach out to brands by emailing them using the contact information they publicly provide. The email should introduce your niche, describe the demographics of your target audience, a history of past successes with other brands, and estimate the costs associated with your sponsorship.
Please look at a brand’s social media platforms to see which influencers they are currently working with. Keep in mind, many times, the big influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers might not be so keen on working with smaller brands, but there are plenty of micro-influencers that you can contact and partner with. If you need help finding brands to reach out to, I have a post about finding brands willing to work with micro-influencers.
Tips for Writing a Pitch Email
Make sure that your pitch email clearly shows the brand why they will want to work with you instead of another micro-influencer. When choosing brands to pitch as a micro-influencer, pick brands that share your values and target audiences like yours.
Most brands want to ensure that you have a captive audience who trusts and values your opinions and recommendations. A brand wants to be confident that its partnership is reaching the right audience, driving sales, and helping build brand awareness. The brand needs to be aligned with your brand because if they are not, the partnership will not work out, and you will look inauthentic to your audience.
Take time, research, and find out how you can approach the brand in a way that makes you stand out as someone they will want to work with. Please list brands you want to work with, and begin engaging with them before making your pitch. Try to put yourself in a brand’s shoes and ask what winning factors will convince the brand to work with you. You could focus on the makeup of your audience, love for a brand, or a successful similar partnership, all of which will add clout to your pitch.
Research the Brand Beforehand
Try to get to know the social shares for some brands in your head so that you are presenting brands aligned with your content and that the partnership will benefit both. Before reaching out to brands, try doing a little research and finding the best people to contact, as more often than not, the generic email lists on their social media platforms will not get you very far.
You must find their email because I HAVE rarely found any success reaching out to a generic email listed on the brand’s Instagram account or website (i.e., You are going to need to do a little digging to find the specific person who is handling a brands influencer marketing, as well as their email address.
I would recommend you find the exact person who handles the brand’s influencer marketing and email your sales pitch to them. You could also contact them on Facebook or Twitter and ask for a contact at the brand to get the influencer partnership in place. You can PM brands asking for the PR contacts of the social media outlets, telling them that you want to send an email proposal to collaborate directly with them.
Unlike the cold outreach email, brands are actively looking for influencers here. Brands typically use influencer marketplaces such as TapInfluence to find influencers and contract for a campaign. One of the best ways to work with brands is by joining influencer marketplaces such as TapInfluence. Many influencers, such as Gigi Kovach (a part-time lifestyle influencer), jump right into an email pitching the brand.
InstagramDM is the best way to approach influencers if you will be using Instagram. These are simple to use, allowing an influencer to see your Instagram profile quickly. If you decide to use Instagram, DMing brands are the best option.
Brands Prefer Influencers with High Engagements
Brands prefer working with influencers that get lots of likes and comments, so keep this in mind. Potential brands want to see your Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and your Youtube aligned with similar types of audiences. Despite that, prepare for brands to ask you to send them statistics and maybe even some visual examples of your successful impact.
Please explain why you are reaching out to specific brands and why you think your influence over theirs could benefit them. Break your potential brands into several categories, outlining their scope, niche, investments, the returns involved, etc. Keep in mind that you will not be working with large brands right away when you start.
Consider how much time and energy the specific collaboration will require, how valuable a relationship with your potential brands is, and to what degree your partnership will contribute to your brand’s business goals. You will achieve better results when you genuinely understand the brands you hope to collaborate with.
Based on what a brand shares on its social media platforms, I generate a list of ideas and concepts I can present to them about how we could work together. This way, I can show a brand I am familiar with, who the brand is, what they stand for, and why working together makes sense. I am just saying I like [the brands] and have been using them for [a period].
If the brand has ONE, I can guarantee they are getting TONS AND TONS emails from fellow content creators and smaller influencers. Two influencers with similar numbers of followers could do sponsored posts for the same brand, but they would get paid very differently.
