Aff links // Pitching to brands is a fantastic way to land incredible collaborations on your blog. I’m a firm believer in putting yourself out there and not waiting for things to land in your lap. And whilst it’s great when a brand comes to you, there’s no harm in seeking out those collaborations for yourself.

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

I’ve been pitching to brands for a few years now and I tend to switch it up each time. However, the way I’ve been pitching in 2020 has hands down been the most successful for me and I landed some amazing collaborations that year, including this one with Nordgreen.

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My history with pitching until last year has certainly been a bit hit and miss. I’ve also been TERRIBLE with consistency, in that I would pitch to loads of brands for a month and then nothing for the next 7 months. Which is definitely something I’ve learned NOT to do.

But last year, I got into a good groove with pitching and the success followed. And I think a main part of that was the type of brands I was pitching to. I put much more thought into which brands I should contact and which projects and ideas I should pitch to them.

There is a LOT of advice out there about pitching to brands and whilst there’s some fundamentals we should definitely be following, ultimately it’s trial and error and finding what works for you. Pitching to brands can be very daunting and scary at first so if you need some additional help, I’d highly recommend checking out the Blog To Business: Your Pitching Toolkit from Jenna Farmer.

Jenna has an amazing track record with pitching to brands so she is definitely the person to go for for advice if you need it. Her eBook helped me establish a better template for pitching to brands and consider the type of collaborations I wanted and was willing to accept.

She also helps you how to come up with packages to offer brands for the optimum success and payment and provides additional tracking sheets and cheat sheets to help you.  You can grab your copy of Blog To Business: Your Pitching Toolkit here and use code JENNY at the checkout for 10% off!

Now I want to get into some different ways to think of brands to work with on your blog! Here are 6 different ways:

Pitching To Brands

Think of the brands you already use

This is an incredibly obvious one but should be your bread and butter because pitching to brands that you ALREADY use already gives you the leg up because it allows you to tell them what you love about their brands and products already. They already know they’re talking to a fan and you’ll be able to get much more personal with them in that way.

Backtrack and pitch to brands you’ve worked with in the past

This is a handy tip and one I’ve used regularly. If you’ve worked with brands occasionally for a few years, it’s always worth going back through your content to see which collaborations did well and pitching to those again. It’s likely that your blog following, readership and views have grown since then so you probably have more to offer than you did 3 years ago.

Related Resource: A Beginners Guide To Growing Your Blog Following

Brainstorm brands that would be a great fit for your niche

Although the brands under this category might not be brands you’ve used before, they will be brands that fit well within your niche. For example you probably wouldn’t pitch to a car manufacturer if you’re a beauty blogger. This point also gives you a great chance to brainstorm content ideas that will both fit in with your niche and the brand/s you’re planning to pitch to.

One basic example would be a self-care / wellness blogger pitching an idea to Yankee Candle for a post about How To Have The Perfect Self Care Night In. It ticks all the boxes.

Research which brands your competitors are working with

This is a really effective way to figure out which brands to pitch to because you already know that these brands are open and willing to work with influencers. For this one, I’d suggest identifying a few bloggers who are a similar size to you and in similar niches and checking out their Instagram and blog content to see which brands they’ve worked with in the last few months. As long as you’re not stealing their ideas, then there’s no harm in doing this.

See what content you have already lined up

Seeing what content you already have planned or scheduled can be a helpful way to garner which types of brands to work with. Going back to the above example, if you ALREADY have a blog post scheduled titled “How To Have The Perfect Self Care Night In”, you can think what sort of brands might be interested in being featured in such a post and go from there.

Re-pitch to brands you’ve already pitched to

And finally I’d recommend keeping track of all the brands you pitch to and chase them up if you haven’t heard from them. Preferably within 2 weeks of the original pitch. I’ve gained some collaborations this way just because the brand is particularly busy and your email just needs a little boost.

Similarly, if you’ve pitched to a brand a couple of months ago and not heard anything back, consider re-pitching to them with a new pitch and a new idea. Maybe they weren’t in a position to work with you back then or your first idea just wasn’t quite right for them.

Do you have any additional tips for thinking of brands to pitch to?

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81 Comments

  1. These are great tips Jenny! I used to pitch to brands a while ago and although it was scary, I got some good opportunities from it. However it’s been a while since I last did any kind of pitching, but I definitely agree that it’s good to go for brands you really love as it does make it easier to talk about the products! x

  2. These are some really good tips, I need to start pitching to brands. This has spurred me to look in to it further so thank you xxx

  3. Its something I haven’t done yet but thanks for the great tips 😀 will be sure to use them in time.
    Do you get the opportunity to work with a lot of brands? Is it hard to get people to work with you ?

    1. Yes, I regularly work with brands as blogging is my job now. I get opportunities through a mixture of pitching and applying via facebook groups, twitter etc. It’s not hard if you’re working with the right people!

  4. Oooh love these tips on pitching to brands for collabs. You can never go wrong with having repeated collabs with brands. Having a template that automates your effort helps big time as well!

    Nancy ✨ mdrnminimalists.com

  5. I would love to start collaborating with writing-related brands so I am loving these encouraging and on-point tips for pitching to brands! No one was ever hurt by inquiries. 🙂

  6. I definitely appreciate this refresher on pitching. I’ve been at it for quite some time, but with my rebrand, I’m finding it a little more tricky to think of companies I’d like to work with (aside from major book pubs). I’m glad you shared this. It’ll help me consider other options!

  7. These are super helpful tips! I haven’t done any brand pitches yet but I will soon. I love the point you made about seeing what posts you have scheduled for the year and going from there! That makes it super easy to integrate a brand in the blog post without having to worry about writer’s block! Thanks for sharing x

    http://www.lynnmumbingmejia.com

  8. Such a helpful tips. Reaching out to brand is something that I always struggled to. The only brand collaboration I did were the ones where the brand contacted me first. I really need to apply some of your tips. Thank you for sharing.

    Antonia || Sweet Passions

  9. This is really helpful! I’m thinking to start pitching to brands this year and I didn’t really know where to start so I’ll definitely be coming back to this post! X

  10. I have gone through your post thoroughly. Noted the tips. All links explored. MOZ subscribed. Got help. Powered by your blog. Simple thanks will not be sufficient. Yet my Namaskar, Regards will be my best honour.

  11. I love all these ideas for pitching to brands, I’ve not really pitched to many brands yet but I think it’s something to consider in the next couple of months 🙂 thank you for sharing Jenny x

  12. As someone who hopes to start working with brands in the near future, this information is really helpful. I will have reference this post again once I am ready to work on pitching to brands. I will also have to check out that pitching toolkit, as I could use all the help I can get with this.

  13. Good post and tips. I believe these tips are useful for me. Collaborating with brands is one of my goals this year. Btw, I have one question to ask you. How do approach a brand? Do you write a letter to them?

  14. I REALLY need to up my non-existent pitching game in 2021. I think the last time I pitched was back in 2019 and it wasn’t even for me, it was for Flora! Love this tip about seeing what future content I have lined up (note to self: future planning needs work too), that could work really well 🙂 xx

  15. Really great post Jenny – I purchased the Pitching Toolkit now! In 2020 I really want to get my site up to scratch so I can feel confident pitching to brands – I already have a list I’d love to work with that fit my niche as well! Great tips for me to bear in mind when I feel the time is right!

  16. Thank you so much for this Jenny! As a new blogger I found it hard to put myself out there, but these tips will help for sure! I will share this with my sisters and work on it! x

  17. This is all amazing advice! I’ve not pitched to a brand in so long, I seem to get in touch with loads at once then leave it for ages but this has given me the confidence to get back out there with it! I always try to go for it when I have specific posts in mind that I know brands would fit well into and that seems to work out quite well xx

    Tiffany x http://www.foodandotherloves.co.uk

  18. Not sure if my first comment went through! I really enjoyed this post and you’ve included some helpful tips – I especially love the one about repitching as that’s something I worry about doing xx

  19. I have actually never put myself out there before! Yes I have applied for opportunities that already exist but never have I gone out on my own so to speak.

    This is really great advice, I can already think of a few that could work for some content that is written, ready to go! Thank you Jenny x

  20. January for me is always a big pitching month. I’ve not needed to as much this year but I still try to sharpen my skills and increase my contacts. Some great tips in this post!

    Rosie

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