Today's blogger quick tip is a timely one.
Did you know that most brands start planning their annual budgets in September and October? Sometimes even as early as August?
So that means, for many brands, that they're planning budgets for 2016 right now — including what they'll be spending on blogger collaboration.
If you've ever thought about pitching a brand you'd like to work with, then this is an ideal time of year to start planning your pitch, especially if you're hoping to form a longer term partnership. It's much easier to approach a brand when they're in their budget planning stages than after their budgets have been approved and set in stone for the following year.
Here are a few quick tips to get started:
1. Connect Before You Pitch
Before you pitch, make sure you've already started to grow a relationship with the brand; don't pitch cold, especially if you're hoping to pitch a longer term collaboration. Here are some questions to consider:
- Have you connected, chatted and had some conversations on social media — do they know who you are?
- Have you shared their content with your social audience?
- Have you used their products in posts already on your site? Have you shown them you're a fan?
- Have you networked with them face to face at a blogger event?
- Have you worked with the brand on one-off projects before?
Need help connecting with brands before pitching? You'll want to check out this post on using social media for public relations.
2. Get Your Media Kit in Order
Get your media kit updated with your latest stats and info for 2016. Media kits aren't necessary for bloggers, but if you want to pitch rather than wait for brands to come to you, they're a very good tool to have. If you need help with what to include we have tips & examples to get you started with your media kit.
3. Put Together a Thoughtful Pitch
When you pitch a brand it's important to remember that it's a job interview.
Pitching is not about you.
You need to demonstrate why they should work with you and, most importantly, what you're going to do for them. You are hoping to enter into a business arrangement where money is going to exchange hands and your (hopefully) new client is going to want to see return on that investment.
Here are a few things to outline in your pitch:
- an overview of the campaign you're presenting. The who, what, where, when and why of what you're proposing; give it a name and even offer up a hashtag idea.
- the campaign objective — what's the goal? Social media chatter? Name recognition? Recipe ideas? An event?
- list the deliverables. What will you do and when will you do it? What kind of social media support will you give it?
- Will there be a promo code that the brand offers up to encourage purchases and offer people a discount?
- brand it with your logo and include your media kit that shows your reach, your demographics, a testimonial, and a bio of yourself that also includes other brands you've worked with. Show them your worth.
- you can include rates and product compensation. This can be tricky — sometimes it works best to include it right off the bat, sometimes it's better to wait and see if they're interested. But you can make it clear that this is the value of this particular pitch but that you have room to be flexible based on their overall requirements and then either scale down (or up!) your offerings.
Get your pitch in order. Even get a friend or fellow blogger to look it over and see if it's in good shape (if you have a friend in PR, even better!). Then do your research and make sure you send it to the right person (HINT: the right person is often somebody at the brand's PR firm, not the brand itself). And don't be afraid to follow up. But give the person a week or two before you follow up. A lot of PR people are fielding hundreds of requests, especially if it's a very popular brand, and it may take them a while to get to yours.
So get a jump on 2016 and start planning your media kit and your pitches now — get them in front of brands and editors while they're doing their 2016 planning!
More Reading
For more tips on pitching, check out these articles:
- 6 Tips On Pitching An Editor
- How to Pitch An Editor Like a Pro
- How Bloggers and PR Pros Work Together
- How To Create a Sponsorship Pitch Like a Pro
Disclosure Notice: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase anything after clicking on them, we will earn a small commission that help us keep this site running!
Blogger Quick Tip: Media Kits & Pitching Your Blog For 2016 was written by FBC co-founder and editor, Melissa Hartfiel. Melissa also owns her own graphic design studio, Fine Lime Designs and is the author of the blog Eyes Bigger Than My Stomach where she writes about food, photography and her creative life. She’s the owner of two restless feet and a goofy yellow lab, SamTheDog. She drinks a lot of tea, eats a moderate amount of chocolate, and watches too many cheesy British mystery shows.
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This is a wonderful article Melissa, I really found lots of take-away content in this post and like how you broke it all down.
Great explanations.
Wonderful! I’m so glad you found it useful Kellie!
This was a great read, full of useful information! It was nice to see media kit examples!
yes! Isn’t it helpful to see what others are doing and what to include? Glad you found it useful 🙂
Great info! I am re-designing my blog and marketing materials right now – a little behind, but hoping to start 2016 off right!! Thank you!
awesome! Glad it was helpful Tessa!