How to Find Brands (Part 2)
Outreach: So let’s say you posted an amazing video and never heard anything from the brand. That’s not a big deal. We can now bring that content to the table in a pitch. The person you are looking for is usually someone in Marketing, Social Media, or Influencer Marketing. While filling out a form on a website is not a bad idea, we can go straight to the source.
Open up LinkedIn, and search for the company. Then click on employees. Now we look for the right person to pitch. I find that farther down the ladder is easiest to get a response from. So don’t be afraid to pitch lower-level people to get connected to the right person. Whatever you do, don’t pitch the CEO. You’re just wasting your efforts.
Once we find the appropriate contact, we can do a few things. First connect with them, if you have mutuals, ask how they know X. We’re essentially going to be hoping to start a conversation to pitch a COLLABORATION. Remember this word. Saying sponsored insinuates they pay you but collaboration means working together to get them more sales/end users.
My pitch usually looks something like this:
Hey Paul, pleasure e-meeting you. I see we have X as a mutual, how do you know them?
X is one of my favorite brands, and I’m reaching out to see if we could collaborate on some content to bring you in more customers. I use PRODUCT daily and posted this video about it (link) which got a huge response!
Are you open to a collaboration?
Best Regards,
Your Name
You can also find some of these contacts on Social Media and follow them directly. It doesn’t hurt but don’t get too pushy. Sometimes these deals can take weeks or even months to flush out.
Research: The easiest way to find brands is to pay attention to what ads you see. If they are already collaborating with other accounts, there’s a good chance they have a budget set aside for a campaign.
Challenge: Make a list of brands you love and use. Follow them on social and start interacting with them and their comments. This list will become our target list.