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How to Successfully Lead Brand Partnerships

This Generation held its first event at The Wing SoHo in New York City. Ché March spoke on how to successfully lead partnerships. This resource is geared to freelancers, primarily influencers, who are looking to partner with brands.

This Generation X The Wing, Photo by Juliet Wolf

01 Your Brand DNA

Start with yourself. Understand your personal brand and what you stand for. This process will help you decipher who would be a good fit so you can reach out to them.

02 Research

Use your resources! Search on social for what you are looking for. Use hashtags and keywords to find items that fall in line with your ethos. Find brands that will promote growth, alignment, and are relevant to the people that follow you.

Key places to search are:
Instagram
Pinterest (inspiration)
Kickstarter (new and upcoming brands)
Make sure to identify three brands. This will give you higher chances for partnership response!

03 Connect: Once you have identified your top three brands, it’s time to connect!

Reach out to the brands in ways that will get you noticed:
DM them on Instagram.
Search for PR or marketing emails on the companies ‘About us’ page.
Find someone on Linkedin and guess their company email address (easier than you think!)
Email customer service with your pitch.
Ask your community if someone in your circle works there or has a friend that does.
Make sure to follow up, too!

04 Pitch, NO.1 Who are you + what do you want todo?

This is SUPER important! This usually happens over email, so your email needs to be intriguing enough to get them hooked. This information can be sent in the text of the email, but a pitch deck is typically better received.

Explain:
Who you are, what you do, and what you’ve done.
Make sure to visually show the work you’ve done for other brands.
If you’ve been featured by a publication, send that over too. You want to build trust and get the company excited about you. Tip: Try to avoid heavy text.
Why are you reaching out to them in particular? They want to know that you understand them + why you’re interested in them.
What are you looking to do for them?

04 Pitch, NO.2 What's in it for them?

This is the make it or break it section so gear it to the brands specific needs! Do your research. Have they done something like this before? What sets you apart from everyone else?

Provide a detailed outline of what's in it for them:
Brand recognition: great for a smaller brand that needs their name to get out there.
Social Acquisition: great for a smaller brand that needs social growth—all brands want more followers.
Giveaway: this is helpful to gain new fans from different communities.
Beauty haul—especially in the beauty world, there is high ROIs in hauls.

List out Goals:
What are the numerical goals?
Growth in followers?
Impressions?
Saves?
Likes?
Shares?
Comments?
Purchases of product?

Also, list the date(s) of the desired partnership.

04 Pitch, NO.3 Get Excited!

Excitement—let them know how excited you are to potentially be working with their company and feel free to add in a personal anecdote if you love their brand / product.

04 Pitch, NO.4 Budget

Do not include the budget in the initial email, you want to get them hooked first! Once interest is expressed, then you can send.

Important things to note when creating the budget:
What hourly rate feels good to you? What is your overhead?
Will you be bringing anyone onto this partnership? Think: photographers, designers, etc. Include their fee in the outlined budget.
Are they shooting on film? Does that need to be reimbursed?
Are there other items that need to be reimbursed?
Will the client cover shipping? Both ways if needed?
Specify the currency.

05 Congratulations, you got the gig!

Once both sides decide that this partnership will be beneficial —this is when all the details get set in stone.

This is where you want to flesh out the above. Provide a detailed outline of all assets and what each asset individually includes or does not include.

List out:
How will this partnership come to life internally?
What are the expected deliverables / contracted number of posts? Tags? Hashtags? Mentions (IG stories)? Grid posts?
Launch platform: Instagram? YouTube? TikTok? Now is a good time to specify the goal of each post ie. are you going for savable content on Instagram?
What are the dates of the entire partnership? List date + time for each individual post, and make sure it's peak engagement time.
What are the products needed from the company? What address should they send them to?
What do you need for this to happen and what does their team need to make this to happen? Do they need to receive the assets before you post?
Are they involved in creative direction?
Are you hiring anyone to help you create the assets? Do they need to approve these hires? If you are bringing on a photographer, are they shooting on film, digital, or Polaroid?
Do things need to be shipped to you? Who will cover the shipping costs + customs if needed?
Information share: note that this information will be shared in a recap deck for their convenience.

06 Wrap it up (:

This is a recap of how the entire partnership went.

Posts/Stories
Link to the post or screenshot if it’s a story
Date and time of post
Likes
Comments
Saves
Reshares
Taps (if in stories)
Impressions
Views on YouTube or TikTok
Followers Gained: this is super important!
What was the overall feedback from the community?

Make sure to also include Tiktok, Youtube, etc.

02.03.2020