After last week’s post about how I maintain my blog schedule and all that jazz, one lovely commenter asked to know more about pitches. How to pitch your blog to brands and how to find the people to be pitching to. Well thank you for asking. Great question! I’m going to answer it here and now. I have always had a pretty good track record with pitches. You know, when I make them.
If blogging and brand relationships are not your thing, make you gag or you’re up to your eyes on the topic, you might just want to keep on moving. Plenty of other posts to see. Nothing to see here people. Not for you. If not, let’s begin.
How to pitch your blog to brands.
First;
You need to work out which brands are going to be a good fit with your blog. Who you could offer the most value to. Work out who your top ten are and they will be your go to guys. Maybe five of them are possible now, some will be in a year or so and there will be one company that is your DREAM. Take the time to figure out what you would like from them, what you are prepared to offer and all that sort of thing.
Then do this;
Find your person. The social media people, the PRs, the brand managers, they ALL have different titles. Explain what you would like to do and ask who the best person to speak to this is. It might be on the phone, via email or even in the messages on their Facebook page {I never post on the wall with requests like this, other than the one time, with SodaStream, but that was a plan Z situation. Ha}. The conversation will go something like;
Hi, I’m Melissa I have a blog and I would like to get in touch with someone in relation to a possible campaign/review/whatever you want to call it on my blog and social media channels, could you please direct me to who would be best to contact.
And then wait for a response.
Then do this;
You’ve got the name and an email address {generally}, now what? You know as a blogger how you’re not a big fan of the standard letter. The Dear Blogger type letter. Well, here’s the hot tip. Don’t send a Dear Brand type letter. You need to spend some time working out some angles and ideas for the brand you are pitching.
Pitch them an all-inclusive idea and you add value immediately. Contacting them with hi, I love your stuff, you should send me some, is lazy. So stop doing it. Take some time, create an idea, outline who the audience will be, how you will share it and what you envision the results could be {without guaranteeing it}.
When sending off your pitch, include your media kit, the proposal, your terms and conditions and you contact information. Send it off during business hours {no, 2am is only office hours for bloggers, trust me} and wait. If all goes to plan the company will be dazzled by your presentation and will get back to you thanking you for the effort and can they now please call or get more details to take it to the money people. And you all live happily ever after. Yay. Winning.
And if all else fails do this;
Follow up in a week or two regarding your initial email. Keep the tone light and professional. Wailing ‘Why? Why don’t you loooooove me!?’ is not helpful. Simply enquire as to whether they received your email or not and let them know should they have any questions to please contact you. Elaborate on the idea in this email, perhaps mentioning a key point they may have overlooked. Drawing their attention to new information on the subject or something like that. Be knowledgeable and professional and request they let you know if it is something they are considering or not within the next 7 days.
And if none of it works, try this;
Before taking this step you may want to repeat the step above with a different sort of email. Same idea. Difference content. Checking in. Tell them wehre you got the address and who indicated you should contact them. Perhaps ask if there is someone else you should be sending the email to. And if nothing, then move on to the final step in the how to pitch your blog to brands plan, for now.
This time send an email something along the lines of, thank you for your consideration, should there be an opportunity in the future to work together please let me know. Remind them of how wonderful you are and let them know that you will now be submitting the proposal to other brands {only if you are, no fibs here people} and take it off the table for now.
Then have a coffee, or a wine, or whatever it is that cheers you up and chalk it up to experience. Plenty more fish in the sea. Don’t be a jerk about it. Didn’t your Mum ever tell you not to burn bridges? And YOU decided this brand was important. Nothing has changed.
And that, my friends is how I pitch.
I was raised by a real estate agent and way too smart primary producer. If there is one thing I know, it’s how to pitch, the lesson is that you jut have to do it, you have to prepare and you have to follow-up. How to pitch your blog to brands is about as simple as that when it comes down to it. With a little bit of success and a fair few knock backs in between.
My last pitch was months and month ago. I was redirecting the content of my blog and wanted to be clear, CLEAR of what I had or wanted to offer before I started pitching again. Keep that in mind. Know who you are, what your blog is and what you can offer long before you pitch. Live and breathe it for a while. Believe it to your guts before you even start.
Then go for it.
Found this how to pitch your blog to brands guide useful? Awesome! Can I ask you to pin the post image or share via Twitter or Facebook please? Thank you.
Hi! I’m Melissa Walker Horn. Around here, they call me Suger. I’m the Chief Blogger and doer of all the things here at Suger Coat It. Blogging since 1901; I love a casual ootd, taking photos, and writing about things that irk or inspire me. I love wine and cheese, long days at the beach and spending time with my family. I make stuff for the internet over at Chalkboard Digital. You know, living the sweet life.
This was amazing!!!! Thank you so so much for sharing this! I feel like this is a topic other bloggers aren’t touching on and it was so incredibly helpful for this newbie. Thank you so much!
Thank you! I forgot this was even here (eight blog years means A LOT of posts) so I’m glad it’s still relevant and being useful. Let me know if you have any questions and I’ll do an update.
You’re so sweet, thanks girl!!! I will let you know for sure!
You’re welcome. 🙂
Hey Melissa,
I just read this post and even though it was some years ago you wrote it, I still wanted to tell you, that I am impressed. Coming from PR it is interesting seeing a blogger point of view. I am still new to blogging. But I have worked in the PRfield. And I often felt like PR Managers are just as afraid about not using the right tone with bloggers as it is the other way around. 🙂
Thank you! I think it’s important to be respectful of everyone in transaction like this. If you stomp around demanding anything, as a blogger, pr, brand or reader, then I am most likely to ask you kindly to step off. Haha.
Great post, lots of inspiration here for me – thanks for sharing and being so generous with your hard won knowledge and experience! I have just this month rebranded my blog from Redland City Living to Middle Aged Mama so am really glad I just came across this post (stalking all your blogging posts tonight, great way to spend a Friday night!) xxx
Thank you Janet, you are so welcome. I have found bloggers and business people alike always VERY generous with me and my questions, by sharing it here it’s my version of paying it forward. I love the re-brand. Very nice.
fab post and time for us to get this sorted. Sam is booking our flights as I type…It’s on baby!!!
xxx
Thank you. Yes, time to pull your finger out girlie. Get to work.
AND IT’S OOOON!!!!? YAAAAAAY. I’M SO EXCITED FOR YOU GUYS.
Fabulous advice, common sense & above all, just being friendly & polite is the key. Don’t burn bridges, absolutely, you just never know who is watching & reading (so no bitching or woe is me blog posts on not getting PR) love Posie
http://posiepatchworkblog.blogspot.com.au
Thank you. You never know who’s watching and clogging your blog with a bunch of complaining and whinging isn’t fun to read anyway. Snooooore.
Thanks for this Melissa. I love your tips! I need to think about some brands which might be a fit with my blogs.
You’re welcome. Yes, get clear for yourself and go from there.
Love this post. I went to my first blogger out reach event on Friday and am posting about it tomorrow. I’ll be linking up this post for any of my readers who’d like to know how to pitch. Thanks.
Carolyn
Thank you! I hope you enjoyed the event. Good luck with your post.
Really great advice. I think following up (in a polite non-stalking way!) is something a lot of people forget to do, and is often an overlooked crucial step. I’ll be bookmarking this post for sure!
Thank you Serena. All the best with your pitches!
Thanks Melissa, a step by step approach. A great reminder to be original and true to your blog.
You’re welcome Lisa. Always the key in my experience. Always.
You are so, so wise Mel. So wise. The big key to this is the professionalism with which you approach your pitches. And getting clear on your own blog guidelines and directions. This helps when being proactive but also when responding to a PR request that might land in your inbox. xx
Thank you Nikki. They certainly are the key points. 🙂