How to Pitch to Brands for Blog Collaborations

I feel blessed that a majority of the brands I work with reach out to me via email or DM on Instagram. But this past year, my confidence in my blog and my brand has grown and I have reached out to brands and pitched myself to them to work together.

I have a running list on my desk of brands I want to work with. I find the brands on Instagram- either I see other bloggers work with them or I see someone wearing something and I look into their brand and I think “hey, this would be a really cool brand to work with.”

 

I try to pitch and send emails a couple of times a month, but it’s hard. Fortunately, I have a lot of brands that reach out to me that I want to work with, and then I don’t really feel the need to reach out to brands, when my content calendar is planned weeks in advance. It’s also so hard to work with a lot of brands at once. A lot of organization goes into working with one brand- with negotiations, contracts, content planning, caption writing, going back and forth with guidelines and approvals. I’m also a full-time law student, so I don’t have a ton of time to reach out to brands.

I also don’t want my page to just strictly be brand collaborations! That’s not who I am, or why I started my page six years ago.

Best advice:

Please listen when I say this: IT DOES NOT MATTER HOW MANY FOLLOWERS YOU HAVE! I promise! I have friends with 1k, 2k, 3k followers who have worked with huge brands. I don’t even have 7k followers and I have made serious money from this past year by working with companies. So, don’t let the number of followers deter you from emailing your dream brand.

 

How I reach out to brands:

I either reach out to brands via Instagram on their stories (pro tip: follow the brand) or I send them an email if I can find their pr contact- which isn’t always easy to find via the internet. But it is easier to find if you have a fellow blogger friend that you know had worked with them and they can give you the contact. Blogging is a team effort! You need supporters and friends! (Shoutout to Carey, Libby, Shelby and Louise!)

 

DM Template:

Here is a DM I send to a company I want to work with. (Obviously making it personal and individual to the brand).

Hi, I saw your product on my friend ____ (blogger friend’s name) @(instagram handle). The ____ (product) is beautiful! I love how ___(blogger friend’s name) styled it. She raves about you and your product. I think your product and brand would really resonate with my audience because x, y, and z. I would love to collaborate together. Please let me know what you think.

 

Email Template:

Here is the email template I send. (I actually have this template saved and copy and paste it into my email and personalize it to fit the brand I am emailing!)

Dear ___,

 

I hope you are well. My name is Elizabeth Guariglia and I run the blog Tall and Preppy.

I am emailing to inquire about a potential collaboration between myself and your company.

I love how your company encompasses ___ and ____.

I believe a collaboration would be mutually beneficial in terms of exposure, engagement and growth.

I would love to form a relationship and work together in the future. Please let me know your thoughts on this proposal.

 

Best,

Elizabeth Guariglia

 

Also, at the bottom of my email I attach my media kit (media kit=a snapshot of what my blog is, who I am and what my statistics are across all my social media channels).

Here is what my media kit looks like.

 I followed a template I found online! It’s super easy to make. I made mine on Google slides and then save as a PDF and I try to update it every couple of months. There are also options on Canva or Google!

 

I hope this helps! Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions!