How to Pitch Yourself to Brands in 2026 (from a full-time creator)
Looking to pitch yourself to brands? Here’s how to stand out to brands in your pitches—from a full-time creator with 5+ years working in influencer marketing.
This blog post is brought to you by my 💡 How to Pitch Brands for Paid Partnerships Course
There are several ways creators make money, but one of the most common and lucrative is brand partnerships.
This is when a brand pays you anywhere from a couple hundred to a couple thousand dollars (and more) to promote their product or service to your social media audience.
Why?
Given your audience knows, likes, and trusts you it’s much easier for the brand to raise brand awareness or make a sale through your social media channel compared to their own and/or traditional marketing methods.
In other words, you’ve got value the brand not only wants, but needs in their marketing strategy.
Given the influencer marketing industry continues to grow (currently a 21 billion+ industry…yes, really) I’m a firm believer there truly is enough ‘pieces of the pie’ to go around when it comes to brand partnerships.
And it all starts with pitching.
In this post, I’m going to share everything you need to know to start pitching brands the RIGHT way, from someone who’s worked with 100+ brands through my social media channels (@candaceabroad on Instagram and @candaceabroad on TikTok). Let’s get into it.
About the Author
Hi, I’m Candace — a London-based travel writer and content creator who traded the East Coast of the US for the charm of the UK back in 2016. London’s been my home ever since.
On this blog, you’ll find hundreds of thoughtfully crafted London, UK, Europe and Worldwide travel guides alongside lots of insider London tips, honest hotel and restaurant reviews and advice for content creators.
P.S. – For more trip inspiration, travel videos, and behind-the-scenes adventures, be sure to follow along (and say hello, if you fancy) on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube.
🗞️📺 As featured on the BBC, USA Today & Recipe.TV.
How to Pitch Yourself to Brands (from a full-time creator)
Step 1 – Lead with Value FOR THE BRAND (not yourself)
One of the biggest mistakes I see influencers and content creators making when it comes to pitching themselves to brands is focusing all on what you want and not what you can give to the brand.
Before you even start the pitching process always have a clear idea of what you can offer the brand in terms of influence, deliverables and/or content gaps.
A value-based pitch should not include…
❌ Super long paragraphs about yourself and how awesome your content is
❌ Generic lines about how you love their brand without including specifics as to why
❌ Anything along the lines of ‘I’d love to work together!’
But rather…
✔ A brief introduction of who you are and what your brand focuses on
✔ The research you’ve done into the brand or your personal relationship to it and why you’re aligned
✔ A campaign idea you’d like to execute with the brand to promote their product or service with examples
Lead with value before you hit send, and you’re guaranteed a much higher chance of hearing back from the brand.
Step 2 – Have Campaign Ideas in Mind Pre-Pitch
One of the key parts of your pitch should always include a campaign idea.
Now, does this mean sending the brand a 5-page spread on your Reel and Tik Tok ideas? No (plus, some brands are shady and will just steal it to use via their internal marketing team!).
But it does mean you should offer a clear way you see you and the brand working together when you pitch.
This could revolve around the season, a particular content pillar of yours, a holiday coming up—the options are endless.
See this in action in my course How to Pitch Brands for Paid Partnerships and make sure you dedicate time to thinking not just about what brands you want to work with, but how you actually envision working with them when they respond to your pitch.
Step 3 – Find the Appropriate Brand Contact
Alright, you’re coming in hot with value for the brand, you know how you want to work with them, and now….it’s time to find the right brand contact.
📚 Storytime: When I worked as the Influencer Marketing lead at my previous startup role, the amount of pitches we’d get sent to our generic customer service inbox was insane (and usually deleted).
Our marketing email was literally on our website, but no one bothered to do the research to find it.
Finding the appropriate brand contact for your pitch is dare I say just as if not more important than the pitch itself.
Actually, scratch that. It is more important because it’s the only way it’ll get seen in the first place!
Make sure you take ample time to learn how to find any brand contact for pitching to make your pitch process 1000% easier (and way more successful).
Step 4 – Create a CRM Pitching System
CRM stands for ‘Customer Relationship Management’ and having a CRM system for your pitches is what will take you from casual creator to business owner in just a few clicks.
Set up a pitch tracker in free software like Notion, Trello or your organisational tool of choice to track the brands you’re pitching, status updates on their responses and their contact information all in one place.
Trust me, just pitching on a whim won’t get you far. You need a system to keep you, and your pitches, accountable if you want to see real results.
P.S. – You can find my personal pitch templates and Notion Pitch Tracker I use in my business in How to Pitch Brands for Paid Partnerships.
Step 5 – Pitch CONSISTENTLY to See Results
Despite the endless ‘quick-term’ advice (unfortunately given out by a lot of ‘social media gurus’), when it comes to building your online community, pitching and working with brands—consistency is the only way to see true results.
If you send 5 pitches and don’t hear back, don’t give up! A response could literally be on the other side of your 14th pitch—but you’ll never know it if you don’t try.
Make pitching a part of your weekly ‘Creator To-Do’ and I promise you’ll see results. It’ll be impossible not to.
Remember It’s a Numbers Game
Now there’s no beating around the bush in saying that no matter how many brands you pitch or how experienced you are at pitching—you’re never going to hear back from 100% of the companies you reach out to, ever.
Like all things sales and marketing (which is exactly what you’re doing as a creator when you’re offering deliverables to a brand in exchange for payment), it’s truly just a numbers game when it comes to how to pitch yourself to brands.
If you pitch 10 brands and hear back from 1, that’s a success.
Heck, if you pitch 20 brands and hear back from 1, that’s a success! Because literally that one brand could be a four or five-figure paycheck.
Final Thoughts on How to Pitch Yourself to Brands
I hope this post helped you think a bit differently about how you pitch yourself to brands.
From leading with value for the brand first, having campaign ideas in mind pre-pitch, finding the appropriate brand contact, creating a CRM pitch system, pitching consistently to see results and remembering it’s a numbers game in the end (so don’t stress yourself out!).
You’ve got this!
Happy creating,
Ready to Pitch Brands for Paid Partnerships?
Learn the exact pitch system I use to make multi-five-figures a month in brand partnerships, all through the art of pitching.
