As you head home from a conference your brain is afire with opportunities and ideas, but after 2 or 3 days of conference mayhem, a brand’s inbox is stuffed to the BRIM!   But, you need to act quickly, and begin your follow up with the brands that made an impact, and are a good fit for you as partners.

From initial email, to pitch, you have the opportunity to make it easy for a brand to hire you, all it takes is understanding a few simple things.

Landing in their Inbox

To ensure that your email is valuable enough not to be slipped into the other folder for “later” follow these tips to make sure you offer just enough information without writing a novel and losing them to the NEXT item on the list.

This is your chance to prequalify your contact as well, so that you can start to move your friendly connection into the “work zone”, or at least have the chance to define WHAT your relationship will be moving forward.

Be sure to:

• Keep it short; 5 or 6 lines of text is enough to show you’re interested but not so much that they stop reading.
• Have a memorable subject line – “[brandname] pitch” won’t cut it.  The subject line is your chance to hook them and make them want to read more. So add in where you met them, and perhaps a key point on how – something to twig their memory and not consign you to the “later” folder. “Loved sharing chicken selfies with you” would capture the attention of the reader and get them to read the rest of the email.
• Include your vital statistics in the email. “My site gets over 20k in views a month and reaches <this specific demographic> in a narrative style with fully incorporated product placement”. You don’t need to be overly specific, but numbers help.
• Add a prequalifying statement: “I would love to send you a proposal/media kit on ideas to help support your messaging on xxx”
• A closing, with follow up. “Please let me know if there is a chance to connect about my ideas, or if I would be suited to any formal programs you have running. If you require further details, I am happy to supply them. I understand that this is a busy time for you, so if I don’t hear back I will follow up in 2 weeks”. (Make an appointment in your calendar to remind yourself to follow up since you will also be suffering from conference brain.)
• Make it REAL. Find YOUR words, your creativity, and write in a style that represents your brand.

Pitching with purpose

When you have the chance to prepare a formal pitch, your success can be improved by remembering a few key points:

Understand what you offer:

Building relationships, making digital contact and having the opportunity to formally pitch a brand for WHATEVER service you provide is amazing, but understanding WHAT you specifically have to offer them can be the one thing that will actually CLOSE your sale.

Just like any person with a product or service to sell, influencers/bloggers are here to provide a solution to a problem. If you can figure out what the problem that the brand is experiencing is, you can script your proposal of services to clearly provide a solution to this problem.

Do they need high quality, naturally placed images? Are they building their Instagram presence? Do they need a strong narrative voice? Could their conversion rate use a boost?

By understanding what they need and are looking for, you can not only deliver options and opportunities, but you can also deliver RESULTS.

RULE 1: Offer Solutions to your clients’ problems

Give them a Choice:

Don’t simply pitch just one solution. Your base pitch, even when it is done in a short email, should always provide the brand with a CHOICE of services.

Think of it this way: If you walked into a store to buy some socks and all they had was ONE OPTION of socks, odds are you aren’t going to be happy with your choice (unless, of course, they got lucky and those were the EXACT socks you were looking for). However,

If you had a choice of socks, at varying price points, with clearly defined benefits, not only would you be an informed customer, you would probably be a happy one too.

Give a brand multiple options for working with you, including your lowest priced service (that meets their needs) and your highest, most exciting opportunity (the one you would LOVE to do). Add in something mid-range as well, since this not only shows your ability to adapt and provide variety, it can also be a chance to show off your creativity and skills. Yes it’s like creating 3 pitches, because it is.

Rule 2: Always offer a CHOICE of services for your client to choose from.

Never, ever run out of ideas

There is always something more you can do, something different that will entice the brand and get THEM excited about the product they are promoting. By ending your pitch/proposal with a “hook” you can keep them engaged and communicating. The more you are able to communicate with your client, the clearer their needs will become, and the more you can do to help them solve their problems.

End your email with a suggestion of other services you can offer (for example: “if you are looking for an explosive event, our team can also offer trending twitter parties”) , opportunities for bulk purchasing (“for your convenience we also offer sponsored post packages at discounted rates”), or just fresh, new ideas that the brand may be willing to invest in (“even though our Youtube channel is still growing, we are offering select opportunities for early video promotions to brands we are working with”).

In the end, you are engaging with this brand because you DO have something they are looking for. Every chance you have to talk to them, in person, on social media, or privately via email gives you the opportunity to better understand what they need that you can deliver.

Rule 3: Give them lots of examples of the extra services you can offer.

Ultimately, you will miss out 100% of the pitches you don’t send, so by starting early, reaching out, and building relationships with brands at conferences, you will better prepare yourself for success.

Maintenance and Delivery

It is always easier and more beneficial to sell a current client on a new product or idea, than to acquire a new client, but to do that you need to ensure you are maintaining your relationship and delivering what they need.

Be professional:  

Simple things like invoicing with an online platform (like freshbooks) can up your professionalism. By having your documents organized for the brand you are able to monitor the deliverables, and ensure that payment expectations are clear and concise. A platform like this also means you won’t be disappearing for a month at tax time since it is so easy to download your past years results.

Report Back:

A campaign or project report can be a few simple lines of text, or a detailed powerpoint deck. In the end, the brand will benefit from SOME information that details the success of your work with them and that the expected deliverables were met. If you ran a giveaway, include a few stats about entries. If an amazing conversation ensued on social from your branded content, screen shot and share to show them that yes, you ARE a conversation starter.

Don’t be scared of your stats, share what you have and be honest and authentic. There will always be someone bigger than you, but the brand chose to work with YOU for a reason!

Be Open to Feedback

One of the most beneficial things you can ask a brand, is for feeback on your work together. Let them know you are open to receiving their constructive criticism, and then when it comes, use it to improve your delivery.   It is great to be the best, but in truth we can only get there by listening to where we can do better.

Checking In

This industry is a busy one, with many moving parts. Doing a simple quarterly check in with your brand contacts can be the easiest thing to put your back on the top of their list for opportunities.

I send out a short update on my site and my brand, sharing any changes I may have made, upcoming events I will be attending and letting them know that I enjoyed our previous work together and would love the chance to work with them again.

Pitching, sales and business management is an ongoing task.  Make it a priority to build relationships and offer beneficial services and suddenly your business will be stable and viable, and fun,