Trying to grow your brand by getting more podcast interviews, blog features, and brand partnerships? Good idea! Cross promotion and collaboration is a great way to increase your audience size, and- hopefully- your sales. If you’re not sure how to collaborate within your industry, check out this post to find out why collaboration is imperative for growing your small business.
If you’re reading this, then I imagine you’re ready to grow. But perhaps don’t know exactly where to start when it comes to pitching yourself to other brands in order to grow your reach. Don’t worry. I got you.
This post will cover 5 important components to consider when you’re pitching yourself to other brands and businesses, in order to set you up for success for your very first pitch.
Let’s get into it!
How To Pitch Yourself For Podcast Interviews, Brand Partnerships, and More
5 Key Tips For Your Next Pitch
When you pitch yourself to another brand, you’ll want to make sure that you’re grabbing their attention right away, and keeping it throughout the entire message. Many businesses get hundreds of inquiries daily. So it’s up to you to think about how you can stand out from the masses.
The good news is that you’ll have a much higher chance of making this possible if you take these 5 key tips into consideration when you’re drafting your next pitch. The most important thing to remember is that the worst thing that happens is they say no, or nothing at all. No harm done. You just need to continually show up, day in and day out, and eventually the perfect partnership will transpire.
Know the Brand Well
Make sure you have a solid understanding of the brand or person that you’re pitching before you send them a message. You’ll want to know the business well, because the most successful partnerships out there are those that are truly aligned.
Alignment can look all sorts of ways, and it can mean different things to you than it does to me. It might mean you simply love their product, or it might mean you’re aligned ethically. Maybe you resonate with the founder’s story.
Either way, get to know the brand before you try to initiate a conversation with them. This will ensure that you can have an intelligent, coherent exchange- rather than seeming like you’re showing up in their inbox asking for a favor. No one likes that. Trust me.
Personalize The Message
Now that you know the brand well, you can personalize the message. Let me be clear in saying that I’m not suggesting that you pour your heart and soul out to this person, because you feel like they’ll just “get it” after reading their own founder’s story. No. I’m saying add a few personal touches to let this business know the message is truly intended for them.
As an example, if someone was reaching out to me who wanted to be a feature writer on this blog, they might say something like, “I loved the post you made about how to pitch yourself, it really helped me with xyz.” This is pulling something specific that I’ve done, that lets me know this person is in fact real- and not some automated bot.
Another super simple example of personalizing the message can be the way you address it. Making sure that you write the person’s name (if you’re writing to an individual), or writing the name of the brand if you’re writing to a business. If we received a message at Glow Yoga Retreats addressed, “hi there!” We probably wouldn’t read it. Whereas, if we received a message that was addressed, “hi Glow Yoga Retreats team!” Then we would.
As tempting as it can be to auto send the same mass message to a bazillion people in the industry, try not to do that. Sure, you can have a basic template with a few of the same talking points. But, overall, I want you to have a personalized message for each message that goes out.
How You Add Value
Okay, so you know the brand well, you have a few ways that you can personalize the message. Now you’re ready to really do the pitching part. This is where you put yourself, or your business, on the line to tell them how great you are.
But wait, there’s more.
Yes, this is your time to shine, and highlight all of your awesomeness. And, it’s also really important that you take this time to tie it back to how and why your awesomeness will add value specifically to their brand. This means, rather than being general like, “I know my interview will inspire others.” Get specific in telling them how exactly this inspiration will occur.
Another way you can highlight your added value to the brand is to draw their attention to something they might be lacking. And how your services or goods can fix that problem for them. It’s important that while you’re pointing out an area that this brand could use help in, you’re doing it in an uplifting way. Because, think about it, it might come across as a little judgey or harsh as a total stranger is telling them how they need to improve.
Let’s say you’re a copywriter looking to expand your clientele specifically in the health and wellness industry, because that’s what you love. You stumble upon this very website, and write to me saying something like, “Your blogs add so much value in the health and wellness space. I especially love xyz posts. As wonderful as the writing is, I noticed you had a few grammatical errors. And I’m confident my services would ensure this wouldn’t happen again.”
The thing is that this company or person knows that by working with you this will obviously benefit you in some way shape or form.
That’s why you’re pitching to them. What they don’t know (yet) is how working with you will be beneficial to them. And when both parties are benefiting from an exchange, it’s a much more attractive agreement to enter into.
Keep it Concise
This is important: keep it concise! Trust me when I say I’m very likely to not even read an email at all if it comes in like a short novel with paragraphs upon paragraphs. And, hey, I get it. I’m a rambler and a writer. So I get how the temptation is there to want to make every point under the sun. Don’t do that.
Keeping it concise on a very visual level will ensure that they read the email once they open it. This will also force you to get clear and decisive with your language to make the best points possible without taking up too much of someone else’s time.
Marketing Materials
Regardless of what you’re pitching, and to who, you’ll want to include marketing materials of some sort. Ideally, because this is the first interaction that’s likely a cold contact reach out, you should only include a one page media kit. Remember, we’re keeping it concise.
There will come a time down the line that you can send in a full on pitch deck (if the job requires). But I find that to be a liiiiitttttle too intense initially.
Your media kit should include all of the most important stats from your socials, website, and/or sales (it really depends what industry you’re in when it comes to the stats that are important to highlight). The media kit should also be visual, rather than crammed with a ton of text. Make sure it’s branded, and has a clear image of your face on it.
The great thing about attaching your media kit is that this helps the body of your email to stay nice and short. Sure, if you have one attention grabbing stat that you want to repeat in the email body. As well as on your media kit- then go for it. Otherwise, try to use the body of the email as a personalized message, and the media kit as a more formal introduction.
There you have it, my friends. You’re ready to make your first pitch!
I can’t wait to hear how it goes. And remember, don’t give up after just one.
You’ve got this.
xx,
K
