How to Pitch Yourself to Brands as a Small Creator

You don't need to have millions of followers on social media to pitch yourself to brands.

While you may be able to reach a larger audience, you can have a more trusted audience as a smaller creator. Many brands prefer to work with micro influencers (influencers with under 100,000 followers) over macro or mega influencers (influencers with over 100,000 or even millions of followers).

Influencer marketing has become one of the most popular forms of advertising in recent years due to the influx of social media use. Influencer marketing and brand deals can increase brand awareness by 66% over the normal advertising and marketing that a brand may invest in.

Here is a blueprint to help you land your first brand deal as a micro influencer and pitch yourself to brands.

Where to Start

A great way to get started and attract brands is just tagging and mentioning your favorite brands in your content and engaging with their content by commenting on their posts. This is an easy way to het on a brands radar However, this is not a foolproof way to gain traction with brands.

Instead, you should practice reaching out and pitching yourself to brands as a creator. Most brands appreciate creators who take initiative and reach out directly to pitch themselves.

Many people use social media to pitch themselves to brands, making the space very saturated. Email tends to give you a better chance at being noticed by a brand.

You can often find the right contacts on a brand's social media, webpage, or LinkedIn. Be sure to avoid generic emails like [email protected], instead, look for a specific person who handles influencer relations.

It is also important to have established yourself on your social media before brands will want to work with you. All you really need to create quality content is a phone and a social media account. Stand in front of a window and make content that you are proud of! Be consistent and show that you are passionate. Brands notice effort and confidence.

Another easy way to get started with content centered around brands is with affiliate marketing programs. You can do this by linking your favorite products through platforms like LTK, ShopMy, or Amazon Storefront. Some of these sites even offer ways to get brand deals through their services.

You can also create user-generated content on your personal page with products you already use at home. These are usually the most authentic videos since it was a product you purchased on your own and are great ways to practice highlighting products.

Use Your Data!

You'll also have a better chance at getting your first deal if you keep track of your metrics. If you can prove to a brand that your content has strong engagement rates, they will be more willing to send you products or even pay you for content.

One way to optimize these rates on TikTok is to look in the "TikTok Studio" section on the app. From there, you can look at your analytics and viewers and take note of the times your followers are most active to find the best times to post. You can also use this information to build the metrics section of your pitch.

When writing your pitch, be sure to include a section about data, like follower growth, clicks, views, and your followers' demographics, like age, gender, and location.

You can also include previous collaborations, brand deals, and content examples to showcase what you might be able to do for the brand you are pitching to.

Know the Brand

When reaching out to brands, you may feel like it would be most beneficial to message every brand contact you come across to see what sticks. However, this is not the best way to form real valuable relationships with brands.

Followers can easily pick up on times when a sponsored or gifted post is not genuine. Make sure to only promote the right brands you genuinely connect with, by showing that you love their products, and resonate with the brand's values. This is also a good way to start a long term partnership with a brand you really love.

Your Pitch

Taking everything mentioned above into consideration, it's time to write your pitch. This will be what you send to brands asking for partnerships.

There are two ways you can go about this. You can either broadly pitch yourself and show why the brand/product would fit into your content, or be specific about what you are looking for in this partnership.

For example, if you are looking for gifted or free products in exchange for free content, mention that. Alternatively, you could be looking for a paid partnership. If that is the case, it might be beneficial to mention a rate for your content after your initial pitch email. You can research average rates based on your engagement and how long you have been posting content but for a single TikTok video you could charge between $100-$500.

Keep your letter straight to the point. Simply introduce yourself as a content creator (this is where you might include a sample of your content). Then talk about how the brand (which you love!) will fit into your content and why your audience will love it.

You can back that up with your audience demographics. Throw in your engagement metrics and data to prove that you are an asset to the brand. If you have a specific content idea for the brand, pitch it to them!

End the email with a call to action like, "What are your thoughts on these content ideas?" or "Would you like to collaborate?" Don't forget to add links to your socials!

Finally, there are a lot of people in a brand's DM's, don't be afraid to send a follow up 5-7 business days after the initial pitch.

Fake It Till You Make It!

In content creation you sometimes have to treat your personal brand as if it is bigger than it is. The more confidence and strategy you have early on, the more successful you can be. Be authentic and true to yourself and show off your personality. Consumers want to feel a connection with you.

Hard work pays off.

Good luck marketing girlys!

🪽 Written by Sydnie Steinberg