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If you run a successful website or have social media accounts with engaged followers, brands want to work with you.
But, how are they going to learn about you unless you know someone there, or they stumble upon you by chance?
Enter: cold email.
A personal email to the right person at a brand can open doors.
In this guide, I’m going to show you:
Why you should be pitching brands
Choosing brands to pitch
Finding the right person to email
Setting up your email account correctly
Key points to include in your brand pitch emails
Brand pitch email templates to use in your campaigns
By the end, you’ll be ready to start sending emails and landing more partnerships.
Let’s dive in.
What is a Brand Pitch?
A brand pitch is an email you send to someone to explore opportunities to work together.
The main goal of this email is to start a conversation. You don’t need to write a lengthy, detailed, complex email. You just need to include the key information that partnership and marketing teams care about when they’re choosing influencers or affiliates to work with.
Your pitch emails need to:
Be brief and easy to scan
Personalized to the recipient
Spark interest
To sum it up: your pitch emails should start a conversation.
Why Should You be Pitching Brands Over Email?
Reason #1: Brands Want to Work With You
If your audience has a particular interest, brands want to work with you.
Influencer marketing generates $6.50 for every $1 spent. If you can prove there’s a benefit to the brand of working together, most will be happy to start with a test campaign.
Reason #2: Find Opportunities Not Usually Available
You could wait until a brand reaches out to you for a partnership opportunity.
But, why wait?
Cold email is a powerful way to engage with busy brand managers and marketers at big brands. If you can offer value, they’ll be happy to hear from you.
Reason #3. Build an Opportunity Pipeline
Waiting for collaboration opportunities to appear is a risk. One day, you might stop hearing from brands looking to partner with you.
If you consistently run email campaigns, you’ll open doors to opportunities that would never have presented themselves otherwise.
Choosing Brands to Pitch
A word of warning: if you email hundreds of companies with a generic email template, you’re not going to get results.
The first step in a successful brand pitch email campaign is choosing the right brands to pitch.
After all, if you have an audience interested in fitness and health, you need to make sure the brands you email have an audience that overlaps. If they don’t, there’s nothing in it for them.
Even if you send a perfectly personalized email, they won’t see the value because the opportunity isn’t a fit.
On the other hand, if you email a company that sells products your audience will be interested in, like gym clothes, you’ll have a higher success rate.
Next, we’ll look at who you should pitch at brands.
Who Should You Pitch at Brands?
If the brands you’re emailing are relatively small), you should aim high. Email the CEO or Head of Marketing/Partnerships.
Depending on the company size, they might handle the partnership process themselves. Worst case scenario, they’ll refer you to the right person.
If you’re emailing a bigger company, you’ll need to get more targeted.
Look on LinkedIn to find who works in their partnerships or marketing department, and email them.
While you can email generic email addresses, like pr@brand.com, or advertising@brand.com, it’ll be easier for you to be ignored.
So, how do you find them?
Finding Your Contacts’ Email
First, you need to know who you’re contacting. Look on LinkedIn or a company ‘About’ page to discover who the best person to email is.
Once you know who it is, there are a few strategies to find their email address.
First, you could Google it. For example, “{{prospect.first_name}}@company.com.” If their email is listed publicly, it’ll show up.
If it’s not publicly available, what should you do?
A simple strategy is to buy access to an email database. Some examples include ZoomInfo and UpLead. You’ll need to pay for access, but it’s a fast and easy way to find email addresses.
Alternatively, you can use standalone email finder tools such as:
If you tell these tools whose email you need, they’ll scan the web, other known company email addresses, and provide you with their best guess for the email.
For example, with Clearbit Connect, you’ll get details on their name, employment status, email, social media profiles, and more.
It’s a fast and straightforward way to find your contact’s emails.
But, how can you guarantee that this email is accurate?
You’ll need to verify it.
Here’s how.
Verifying Email Addresses
Verifying email addresses is vital. After all, people change jobs every few years, and there’s no guarantee that your email finding tool has updated it’s dataset accordingly.
A simple way to do this is to connect your email software, like QuickMail, with an email verification service, like NeverBounce or Dropcontact.
When you import your emails to QuickMail, you can select ‘Verify email validity’.
It will automatically check if the email addresses are valid.
If they are, they’ll stay in your campaign. If not, they’ll be removed.
This step is key to reducing your bounce rate and showing email service providers that you’re not a robot emailing non-existent addresses.
Next, we’ll cover how to set up your email account to enswure your outreach emails don’t land in the spam folder.
Getting Your Email Account Ready
If you skip this part, your emails will land in your recipient’s spam folder. It’s key to ensuring good deliverability.
Set up your DKIM, DMARC, SPF Records
This sounds tedious, but it’s quite simple.
If you’re unsure if you’ve already set these up, use Google’s free CheckMX tool.
If anything is wrong, it’ll get flagged.
If you’re not sure how to proceed, don’t worry - most good domain and email providers will have step-by-step instructions on setting these up.
For example, here are Google’s guides to setting up your DKIM and another on setting your SPF.
These records prove to email service providers that you are who you say you are. You won’t get unnecessarily caught in the spam filter.
If you don’t have them set up, you’re almost guaranteed to land in the spam folder, and your brand pitch will never see the light of day.
Warm Up Your Email Address
If you’re starting to send outreach emails, email providers will notice. They’ll wonder why you’re suddenly sending 10x the volume of emails you usually do.
To avoid being flagged for suspicious activity, warm up your email address.
This allows you to ramp up the number of emails you can send without raising any red flags in email service providers’ eyes.
Don’t worry - you don’t need to do this manually.
You can easily do this using an email warmup tool such as MailFlow, which is free to use and has a native integration with a powerful cold email automation platform, QuickMail.
Once you join the MailFlow Auto-Warmer group, it will help you warm up your email address by sending and replying to emails on a regular schedule.
You’ll see a report showing you where your emails are landing.
If you see red, your emails are landing in the spam folder, and you may have a problem with your email. But, if everything’s green, they’re all landing in the primary inbox, then you’re all set!
Next, it’s time to write your brand pitches.
What Should You Include in a Brand Pitch Email?
It’s easy to go wrong with cold outreach.
Common mistakes:
Not personalized enough
Not unique to the recipient
No clear call to action or next steps
These tips will help ensure you never send emails that leave your recipient with more questions than answers.
Who Are You?
If someone has never met you before, you need to make a short and sweet introduction.
You don’t need to include your name in your introduction. It’s already at the end of your email and in your signature.
Simply tell your recipient:
What you do
Social proof that backs it up
For example:
I run [your site name], we’re a website with 50,000 monthly visitors interested in [topic].
I have an Instagram account focused on [topic] with 20,000 engaged followers
Why Are You Emailing Them?
It should be crystal clear why you’re emailing someone.
You can do this with a simple sentence or two in your email.
For example:
I’m writing an upcoming product review on [topic], want [brand] to be featured?
Do you have any upcoming product launches you need more eyes on? I’d love to help spread the word.
Your contact should feel like you’re reaching out personally to offer your help.
What’s In It For Them?
PR and marketing teams at large brands are constantly receiving pitches. How will you stand out?
There are a few things you can include in your email to prove the benefits.
Numbers: do you have a big audience they want access to?
Social proof: have you worked with other similar companies?
Results: what results have you generated for brands like theirs?
Examples of this in practice:
I helped [brand] generate $7,000+ in sales in the first month we worked together.
We’ve sent 20+ qualified leads per month to [brand] that we’ve been working with since [month].
Our social media accounts have 60k+ engaged followers interested in [topic]
The goal should be to catch your contact’s attention.
You don’t need to disclose all the details immediately.
You’ll have more back-and-forth emails or a few calls before your partnership starts. That’s where you’ll discuss the details.
What Should They Do Next?
There’s nothing worse than receiving an email that leaves you wondering: “Why did they email me?”
Your pitch needs a clear call to action.
For example:
Would you like me to send over my media kit?
Are you available for a 20-minute call on Friday?
Is that something you’d be interested in?
If you need inspiration for your call-to-action, check out our Ultimate CTA Swipe File, with 100+ examples.
If your email contains those four ingredients, the exact wording won’t matter too much.
You will have:
Introduced yourself
Highlighted benefits for the brand and build curiosity
Used social proof to build trust
Asked a question allowing your contact to take the next step
In most cases, that’s enough to warrant a reply.
Brand Pitch Email Templates You Can Steal To Get Responses
Now, it’s one thing telling you how to write an email. But, showing is always better than telling.
Here are some simple brand pitch templates you can customize to fit your brand pitches. Always customize them to your exact needs. The people you’re emailing receive lots of messages from people like you every day, so you need to stand out with a personalized email.
1. Replying to a Job Ad
Best for: Heard that a brand is actively looking for influencers/affiliates to work with? Reach out and respond to them.
Hi {{prospect.first_name}},
Saw that you’re looking for partners to help with promotion {{company.name}}.
I run {{your company}} and work with brands like [brand 1], [brand 2], and [brand 3], helping them get eyes on new products with targeted influencer campaigns.
It looks like your audience might have overlap with the accounts we manage.
Do you have time to discuss this week?
Best,
{{inbox.friendly_name}}
2. The Cold Introduction
Best for: Reaching out cold to see if a brand is interested in working with you
Hi {{prospect.first_name}},
I run [your site name], a blog dedicated to promoting [topic]. We get 100k page views per month on our site.
Would you be interested in working together to promote {{company.name}} to our readers?
Best,
{{inbox.friendly_name}}
3. Collaboration Pitch
Best for: An open-ended pitch to see if they’re interested in working with you in the future
Hi {{prospect.first_name}},
Saw that you recently ran a campaign with [influencer or affiliate name]. I hope it generated some great results for {{company.name}}.
In September we partnered with [brand] to help with their product launch. We managed to generate $12,450 worth of sales for them within the first two weeks of working together.
Would you be interested in a 20-minute call to see if there’s partnership potential?
Best,
{{inbox.friendly_name}}
4. Direct Ask for a Product
Best for: Asking to test a product/service in exchange for promoting it. An excellent entryway to longer-term partnerships.
Hi {{prospect.first_name}},
Big fan of [product name] you launched last week.
Reaching out because I think my audience would be a perfect fit for it. I recently worked with [similar company] on sponsored content and generated a 12.5% engagement rate, resulting in $5,000+ of sales in the first month we worked together.
I would love to promote {{company.name}}’s [product name] to my followers.
Would you be interested in seeing my media kit?
Best,
{{inbox.friendly_name}}
What Should Your Subject Line Be?
Naturally, you want an enticing subject line.
The best thing to do is to keep it simple.
For example:
Partnership opportunity for {{company.name}}?
Help {{company.name}} with product launch?
Quick question {{prospect.first_name}}
20 minutes available on {{day}}?
Your subject line is your first impression. It sets expectations for your recipient, so it needs to relate to your email body’s content.
If you want more subject line ideas, check out our article on writing cold email subject lines here.
What If They Don’t Reply?
You should expect a 20% reply rate, or more, on your outreach emails.
If you see lower reply rates, it’s because:
Your target audience isn’t a fit
Your emails aren’t compelling for the recipients
But, it’s important to know that not all of those replies will come from your first email.
The people you’re emailing are busy. You need to follow-up with them to ensure you get noticed in their inbox.
In fact, 55% of replies come from follow-ups.
Luckily, you don’t need to do this manually.
Using QuickMail, you can create email campaigns with multiple steps.
For example:
Send the first email
Wait 3 days
Send follow-up email
Wait 5 days
Follow up again
When someone replies, QuickMail will remove them from your campaign. You don't need to worry about accidentally double-emailing people who already responded.
Your campaign should look like this:
As you can see, there are multiple emails, with several days delay between each one.
There are no specific rules as to how many times you should follow-up.
But, 3 - 6 is a good benchmark. Anything more than that and you risk being marked as spam.
Don’t use your follow-ups to repeat yourself. Highlight more case studies or results you’ve generated for your clients.
Sending Your First Brand Pitch Campaign
You know the theory behind it. Now, it’s time to send your first campaign.
Remember, always provide value to your recipient. If you’re considering sending an email but aren’t sure if it’ll be interesting for your recipient, don’t send it. Every person on your email list needs to be a perfect fit for your pitch.
To automate your email outreach, use cold email software, like QuickMail.
You can:
Create your personalized email campaigns
Automatically follow-up and set delays
Integrate it with your existing Gmail or Outlook account
Import your recipients manually or from a spreadsheet
You’ll also see detailed analytics on how your campaigns perform so you know if it’s time to change something.
Without software to help you, you’ll end up spending hours every day personalizing emails, forgetting to follow-up, and missing essential replies from your recipients.
Wrapping Up
Cold email is about building a relationship.
Even if you have to email a generic pr@company.com email address, your email body still needs to be customized to fit their brand, market, and goals.
If you follow the steps here, you’ll have a solid foundation to start building strong working relationships with brands.
Once you get a positive reply, make sure to quickly get back to your recipient with all of the information they need.
You’ll quickly discover how effective cold email is for pitching brands and growing your business.
