How to collaborate with brands and bloggers?
Learning Blog 4 — Collaboration is the way to grow in early stages.
Getting collaborations initially is not at all an easy task.
You might have to message 100 of brands and then you will get 2–3 collaborations.
Being a blogger, the only thing you can do initially is to be good with your content. We have already shared a blog regarding how you can create good content and feed, hoping some of you would have applied those pointers.
If your content is good, have a little patience. Brands will see your content and you might get some of them.
Here are a few things that you can do —
1. Join apps that provide collaboration opportunities
Get registered on apps like Plixxo, which gives you renowned brand campaigns. Plixxo executes various type of campaigns. They have campaigns for small bloggers and for super bloggers too. So, you should be present on Plixxo.
Read more here about how to join Plixxo
2. Be added to whatsapp bloggers groups.
There you can also get few good collaborations. You can get many contacts of PRs from whatsapp bloggers groups. PRs also send messages for brand collaborations most of the time.
To be added in such Whatsapp groups, contact fashion bloggers who have been blogging about 2–3 years as they are sure to be connected with at least one such Whatsapp group.
3. Follow pages that publish about collaboration opportunities
Follow pages like bnbmag, where you get collaborations. Thebnbmag group is posting a lot about various collaborations these days. So, follow this page and start approaching the brands.
4. Learn how to message brands
The way you message brands for collaboration plays a big role. The introduction should be short and attractive. Also, should include your all social media handles and reach of your accounts.
As you grow, you can even consider creating a media kit.
A media kit is a document which shares everything a potential sponsor or marketer would need to know about your blog. It’s essentially a resumé, but for your website. A media kit should list a variety of things, such as your blog’s topics, statistics, collaboration options, and more. It is essential for making a good impression and landing more (and higher paying) collaborations.
You message and email should include the following —
- An introduction of yourself and your blog/blog topics (1–2 sentences).
- Why you love the brand or their products (1–2 sentences).
- A mention of the fact that you’d like to collaborate and why it would be a great fit (1–2 sentences).
- A call to action, such as, “would you like to hear the ideas I’ve thought of?” (1 sentence).
- Lastly, you’ll want to share your blog’s media kit with them, too. I recommend uploading it as a Google Doc and linking it in your email somewhere.
5. Collaborate with other bloggers.
Yes, it’s good because your followers will check out his/her page and vice versa.
This way you both can exchange your followers. You can also start a youtube channel with other blogger if you planning to start one. And give regular shoutouts to each other.
One example of successful collaboration along these lines is Pretty Little Things.
6. Start approaching small brands initially.
Message them instead of waiting for their message. You can propose a barter collaboration rather than paid.
Whether a brand is approaching you or not, you take a step further and approach small brand. Like message to those who have less number of followers and reach on Instagram.
For example, you can refer to this email sent to request a product for review —
Hi Jenna!
I hope your week is off to a great start! My name is Jess and and I write the Chicago-based blog, blankityblankblog.com. (You can see some recent posts of mine here, and here.)
Reaching out because I’m currently in planning mode for the 4th quarter and I’m working on quite a few upcoming beauty posts. In particular, I’ve been dying to try out [X beauty brand’s] facial oil and would be interested in doing a review on my site (typically valued at $300). My readers have been asking for a Q&A post on facial oils so I thought this would make for a great, organic partnership! Is that something that you would be open to?
Please let me know your thoughts–would love to team up together!
Best,
Jess
Before sending a message, do the following —
- Do a quick research about a brand. Are they collaborating with established bloggers only or with budding bloggers too?
- Check if the brand is collaborating with budding bloggers or not. If they are collaborating then you can also send your media kit for a collaboration. Kudos!
7. Make it a practice to always tag brands in your posts
Whenever you post on instagram always tag the brand so that other brands will come to know you already have collaborated with brands. You can do this in posts that were not exactly a collaboration also.
If you don’t tag your look then the brand will think you didn’t have a single collaboration or have no idea how collaboration work. Moreover, they also think that you might not have knowledge to create content as per their requirements.
8. Get your website active
Having a Wordpress or Blogspot blog helps in establishing credibility as a blogger. There might be cases that the brand wants to give you a guest post to be posted on your website.
Most importantly, if you have a website then there might be chances of getting more collaborations.
That’s it for now folks. Let’s try to implement these points and discuss about them this week to learn and grow together.
Let’s know if you enjoyed reading this blog post. This blog was compiled by your community curators Purnima Madan and Stuti Gupta. So, you can let them know if you loved it. ❤️️
Stay tuned for next week’s learnings.
Lots of love,
Marsplay Team 💌
This blog was written exclusively for Marsplay Community members.
