The holiday season also referred to as Q4 is a time where brands  typically increase their marketing spend. For influencers and content creators this  is an amazing and often lucrative time to work with brands. So today we’re going to  be talking about my five top tips for pitching brands during Q4 so that you  can work with your dream brand partners and most importantly get paid to do it.
Here are the five top tips for pitching brands during  the holiday season.
Tip number one before we even start pitching, I think it’s important to  think about your goals and what you actually want out of this last quarter of the year so is there  a certain brand that you really want to work with. Do you want to do x number of campaigns or hit x  revenue target by setting a goal at the beginning and being super intentional about what you want  out of this quarter it’ll make the rest of this process so much easier and streamlined when you  actually go to pitch.
Tip number two after you’ve outlined your goals is to make a list of the  brands that you want to work with and I recommend breaking this down into three sections. The first  section that I recommend targeting is any of your previous brand partners.
If you’ve already worked  with someone it’s going to be much easier to sign them on as a repeat client versus going out and  getting a brand new brand or client to work with you.
So think about all of the brands that you’ve  worked with in this past year and even last holiday season and write them down on the list. The next section of this list is going to be all of the brands that you currently have some kind  of relationship with so maybe you’ve exchanged a few emails or DM’s maybe you’re on their PR list  or maybe you attended an event of theirs those are going to be warm leads. So you already have  somewhat of an established relationship with the brand ideally you’ve also probably tried  their products already and maybe have even created some organic content featuring those  products so put those down on their own section. And in the last section if you have a brand that  you have never talked to or worked with but that you really really want to collaborate with for Q4  put that in its own section two and I recommend trying to keep this section small as I believe  that you’ll have more success reaching out to brands that you already have some sort  of relationship or have already worked with then you will during Q4 to pitch to brand new people.  It’s not to say it can’t be done but Q4 is such a big deal for brands that they probably want to  narrow down their list of creators and only work with their top choices so a better time to get in  front of a new brand might be early next year but keep them on the list anyway and if you write an  amazing pitch you never know what can happen.
I am so curious to hear from you actually who would  be your dream brand partner this holiday season comment them down below and then don’t forget to  come back in January and let us know if you ended up working with that brand. Maybe we’ll manifest  something together.
Tip number three in your pitch email try as much as you possibly can to outline a  super specific idea brands get so busy during the holidays so the more direct  and clear you can be about how you’re envisioning your partnership to look the easier it will be for  a brand to quickly decide if it’s something they want to explore and move forward with or if it’s  something that they’re not able to pursue.
For example as a beauty content creator I know that  there are tons of brands that like to put out kind of little stocking stuffer beauty sets and so I  could suggest doing a post where I’m reaching into a stocking and pulling out the trio of lip glosses  or whatever the product is that they’re coming out with and just kind of paint the picture for them  of yes we do think these are stocking stuffers and it would be great to have imagery or even a video  like that.
So that being said when you’re doing your research I would also take this opportunity  to go back and look at last year scroll back on the brand’s instagram feed and look at what  types of products they were promoting or services if you’re working on service based brands during  the holiday season and ask them if they’re doing that again or pitch them an idea that is directly  related to what they’ve already done. You can also ask the brand to keep you posted on what  new things they have coming up but I feel like by talking about things that they’ve already done  and what’s worked for them in past years you’re just showing that you’re in the know that you’re  thoughtful and that you’ve done your research.
And speaking of scrolling back in Instagram feeds  that brings me to….
Tip number four which is when you reach out to the brand to share examples of  previous seasonal content specifically holiday content if you have it that you have created  this is an opportunity for you to show the brand your own personal style and how you  would approach a collaboration like this.
So you can send them any previous gift guides blog posts  Instagram posts anything along those lines and you can actually go back and easily organize them if you want. I actually have a guide on my Instagram account that’s just called Holiday  and so I can go send that link to a brand and say hey here’s 20 photo examples of what I’ve  done previously for the holidays and especially anything where I’m featuring a product or maybe  wearing a bag or anything especially along lines for me of fashion and beauty that would make sense  for a brand. I can kind of call that out and say I would love to do something similar or say here’s  what I’ve done already i would also take this as an opportunity to share your average. You know  reach engagement all of that kind of stuff during the holiday season because the biggest question  for a brand during this period of time will be is this a thing that we are going to get a return on. If we invest in so if they hire me to create an Instagram reel for them will they see a return on  their investment to pay me. Brands are going to be looking at that more than they normally are during  holiday season because there’s a lot at stake for them and they have a lot of money to play with. As  I’ve mentioned before, the easier you can make it for a brand to say yes to you the  better so be sure to include any relevant metrics from your previous holiday content or campaigns.
And for my fifth and final tip of the video i wanted to encourage you to in the sign off of  your pitch email to these brands just ask them how you can support them during the holiday season.
If  you aren’t able to work out a paid partnership for some reason it’s possible that you could get  invited to an event you could end up getting some cool products sent to you. Or maybe you can work  together on a gifted partnership if you want my full thoughts on gifted partnerships.
The way that I encouraged you to kind of curate  the list of brands that you want to reach out to by prioritizing first your previous brand partners. You would want these brands to know that they have your  support during the holiday season regardless of whether or not you end up getting paid. And so I think just saying that goes a long way again if there’s something you can’t realistically make  work if they say a great way you can support us is by doing eight free posts on your Instagram.
You  can obviously say no but i just think it’s a nice way to frame it and show that you are here to be  in service to the brand to help share their products and their message with your audience. I even said in a recent email to a brand that i wanted to reach out ahead of Q4  to see what is coming up.
For the brand in the last few months of the year i said I’d love to be kept  up to date on any new product launches or special holiday gift sets and you are going to stand out so much in comparison to people who are just firing off  random emails.