My Secret to Reaching Out to 50 Brands a Week

When I tell people I reach out to 50 brands a week their first reaction is ::crickets:: They either don’t believe me or they’re totally shocked by my response.

“50 brands a week?! No way!” Way.

Once you have a system in place, it’s really not that hard. The outreach itself isn’t as tedious as keeping everything organized. So to help with that I use my FREE Brand Collab Spreadsheet to track all my efforts. If you haven’t downloaded it, do it NOW! It’s a game changer.

How I choose brands to collab with

I’ve been stalking the influencer marketing scene for almost a decade now which means I’ve been adding to my Brand Collab Spreadsheet for like 10 years so I have a huge contact list that I pull from for potential collaborations.

P.s. I may or may not have something insanely beneficial coming later this year that will make the entire outreach process a breeze so stay tuned!

Before I had my list, I had to first get the contacts through other bloggers. So what I mean by that is I would look at other influencers with a similar aesthetic, following, and niche to see who they were working with, what brands they were unboxing, what sponsored trips they were going on, etc.

From there I was able to make an educated guess that if a brand would work with so and so, they’d most likely work with me. Then I’d get their contact info., add them to my Brand Collab Spreadsheet, and reach out.

What doesn’t work

Mass emailing – For a while I was sending the same email to a bunch of different brands in a mass email via Mailchimp. The problem with that is a. the person receiving the email knows it’s not just to them and b. as much as I love Mailchimp for sending emails, sometimes they end up in spam. Actually, I’d say like 30% of my emails I send on Mailchimp end up in people’s spam which ain’t good for anyone!

Impersonal emails – People want to be seen and heard so if you’re arbitrarily sending an email without addressing who you’re actually speaking to, you’ll find yourself SOL. Let me put it this way, when someone emails you saying “Hello there” are you going to feel all warm and fuzzy inside? No. You’re going to be like ‘Who the hell is sending me this spammy email…’ An opener like “Hi John” will work WAY more in your favor.

Scripts – I’m sure if you stalk the NAB archives you’ll find a post where I talk about how using a script for brand outreach is one of the best time saving hacks out there, which it is… However there are limits to them. The best way to utilize a script is to tweak a sentence or 2 before sending, to pique someone’s interest.

Here’s what not to say:

Hello,

My name’s Brittany and I’m an influencer at Not Another Blonde. I would love to work with your company on a collaboration. Please let me know the next steps in doing so.

Best, Brittany

Instead flip the script to:

Hi John,

My name’s Brittany and I run a style and self-development blog at Not Another Blonde. I’ve seen what you’re doing with the launch of H&M’s boyfriend blazer and I’d love to be a part of it.

I have a few collaboration ideas that I think would really help spread brand awareness. My media kit is attached for your reference.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Thank you, Brittany

The second version is less robotic and doesn’t feel like a script at all all because of a few minor tweaks.

Long emails – This is where so many influencers lose. Sorry, not sorry, but this isn’t english class. No one wants to read a long, drawn out story about how you’ve been “a fan of the brand for years” and how you first discovered them in 2005 when your mom was in Bloomingdale’s looking for a dress to start her new job…

… like no. No one has time for that today. Keep your pitch short, sweet, and to the point for the best results.

Not enough information – Too much is too much and not enough is, well, not enough.

Let’s go back to the example I used for scripts: in the first email it wasn’t clear what type of blog Not Another Blonde was. I didn’t include my media kit, nor did I specify how I’d like to work with the brand.

This doesn’t give the brand much to go on. Why would anyone want to work with someone who doesn’t give you everything you need up front? The back and forth of trying to establish what you want to achieve is a waste of time for both you and the brand.

My new strategy

Something I recently started to do, which is far more time consuming but effective, is to DM. I really wasn’t a fan of DMing for a collaboration, and I’m still not 100% on board, but it seems to be working so I’m sticking with it.

I think DMs are less professional and leave room for error and miscommunication but again, it’s really working for me right now so I’m doin’ it.

The reason DMing brands about collaborations works is because not many influencers do it. Brands’ inboxes are flooded with hundreds, if not thousands, of emails from bloggers every day because, like I said before, emailing is more professional and historically the “right” way to contact someone. But let me tell you… today, it’s much easier to ignore an email than a DM.

People spend more time on social media these days than email because most companies pride themselves on customer feedback and brand loyalty, so they’re checking their engagement (comments and DMs) constantly.

Social media is such a powerful tool, so if someone is saying something good or bad about a brand, the brand is going to want to know about it which means someone is frequently online doing damage control. Brands literally pay someone to respond to DMs day in and day out, therefore I think you have a better chance of initially reaching someone that way versus cold emailing.

Added bonus: 9 times out of 10 the person managing the brand’s Instagram account will direct you to who you actually need to talk to about a collaboration as opposed to going on a scavenger hunt on the brand’s website trying to get the right email to reach out to.

My success rate

Shoutout to @dossierblog who wanted to know “What response rate do you get?” While I don’t keep track of my actual response rate, (it’s the only thing I don’t have a spreadsheet for), because I don’t want to stress myself out, I would estimate it’s in the 10-20% range which is average for a cold email.

I would really only recommend being concerned with your response rate when you aren’t getting one at all. Don’t get so caught up in the numbers. Instead, focus on the partnerships you are getting versus the ones you’re not.

I know some influencers who have less than 20K followers and are getting PAID from working consistently with just 1-2 brands.

It’s not about the quantity of collaborations you get, it’s about the quality.

Pour your energy into the hand that feeds you instead of begging for scraps somewhere else, you know what I’m saying? If a brand doesn’t want to work with you, it’s their loss… thank you, next!

Do you have a brand outreach strategy? Tell me about it in the comments below!