Pitching on IG

When you’re a new creator, pitching is everything. When I first started, focusing on outbounds was the only way to get retainers and grow a client base. But if I’m being perfectly honest, I rarely pitch now. Every month I start planning to do outbound, and I end up getting completely booked up with inbounds.

But when I think about it, pitching in the beginning is what led me to this point. Now I have quality clients many of whom I’ve worked with over a year. Specifically, I always had the best luck pitching on Instagram so that’s what I’m going to cover today. And just to make sure I still have it, I sent out a spontaneous pitch on Tuesday that received an instant response—more on that later.

To begin, I strongly believe that successful IG pitching is less the pitch itself and more about who you pitch to. I have never pitched to more than 10 brands in a single month—even when I was a new creator. Pitching is not a numbers game. You need to be strategic about who you pitch to and I don’t mean strategic in crafting the perfect pitch—I mean finding the right brands.

To better understand what I mean, let’s go over two pitch examples.

Pitch 1 Example

Here’s an example from over a year ago. At the time I really wanted a stroller wagon for my daughter, but I knew that Wonderfold, Larktale, and Veer were far too popular to reach out too. Popular brands receive so much free content when people tag them on IG that they rarely need creators, and when they do it’s most likely through an agency. Instead, I looked for a stroller wagon that had a good following on IG, happy customers, solid product, and a limited presence on Tiktok. I sent the pitch below and was given an email—yay! The best part was that the email given belonged to the owner/founder 🙌🏼

This is exactly why who you pitch to matters. I have roughly a 40% response rate on pitches—and by response I mean it led to a meeting or a brand deal.

Now let’s break down the pitch—to be honest it’s not the best. But I ran with this pitch for months last Fall and it worked, so 🤷🏻‍♀️

1. I immediately positioned myself as an expert in something that was new to them (TikTok). I knew this because I specifically targeted brands that had no TikTok at all, low follower count, or inconsistent posting.

2. I pointed out a problem, explained why it was a problem, and then pitched myself as the solution.

3. Next I made it clear that I was their target demo, I know the needs of their customer. It’s important as UGC creators to lean into the “user” part when pitching

4. I pointed out a specific detail some of their competitors didn’t have. This showed I already knew one their USPs (unique selling point)

5. I asked for an email of who to reach out! (I seriously cringe at the “🔥content” line but I think I was trying to channel Gen Z Vibes 🤣)

This pitch led to a long-time client that I still work with today!

Pitch 2 Example

Fast forward to now and I mainly pitch to brands that make me stop the scroll. At this point, I don’t overthink it—I just send a genuine response. But if I take a step back and analyze my recent successful outbounds, all of the brands met the criteria below:

1. Unique product that solves a very specific problem

2. USP is clear (i.e—“our sunglasses are made out of recycled water bottles”)

3. Brand has less than 5 products. 1-2 hero products

4. Active on IG (they value social media)

5. Not as active on Tiktok or not on it at all

6. Runs ads

Here’s the spontaneous pitch that I sent out 3 days ago. I received an immediate response! And while it didn’t lead to a deal, I am being sent the product with no obligation to create content. On top of that, later the same day they messaged again to see if I wanted to hop on a call about another project—networking is sometimes more valuable than a single video deal.

So let’s take a look at the pitch. And let me start by saying this wasn’t a template and took less than 3 min to write. Why? The product popped up in my feed and I just really liked it, so I thought it doesn’t hurt to reach out.

1. I focused on how much I love the product FIRST. This was easy to do because it was a genuine reaction

2. I said I was a creator that specifically fit their target consumer

3. I made it clear how the product would fit into my day on the mountain

4. Included my portfolio

You might notice that I didn’t include a link to my portfolio in the first example. These two examples are over a year apart and I didn’t have as strong of a portfolio back then. Now my portfolio is one of my greatest strengths, so I always include it.

Finding Who to Pitch

The methods above wouldn’t probably work for big brands, and I know enough about the industry to not waste time pitching them. Most larger brands outsource to agencies. Of course there are exceptions to this, but time is valuable and I don’t want to waste it.

Research is essential to the pitching process. I’m not saying to only pitch to really small brands—they wont have the budget. You need to try and find the middle of the road brands.

I think niching down in who you pitch to helps with this. I have never niched down as creator, but when I’m doing outbound I do because Instagram will start to show me other similar brands within that niche that could fit my pitching criteria. In the beginning all of my outbounds were for baby brands and then I did more home products. More recently I’m reaching out to snowboarding/skiing brands because the season is about to start. Now my IG feed is full of brands to pitch to within that niche. By focusing on a niche for outbound, I’m letting the algorithm do the research for me. You don’t have to do it this way, I just find it saves time.

Final Thoughts

The real secret ingredient to successful pitching is confidence. Don’t overthink things! I’ve never spent more than 10 minutes writing an IG pitch. Having worked on the brand side of things, I can always tell when a IG pitch isn’t genuine and was overworked. Just be your authentic self and pitch to brands you’re really interested in. Don’t brag about yourself in the pitch, let your portfolio do that for you.

Pitching through email is an entirely different ballgame! I’ll try to cover that style of pitching in another post.

Feel free to reach out with any questions!

_{<3, Grace}

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