The Missing Piece of Your Pitch

The pitch starts WAY before you send your email to the brand. Yep.

It starts with your content! In fact, it could even start with the content you’ve been posting for the last 6 months!

I was chatting with a photographer friend about shooting bloggers and we talked for a bit about how girls will reach out to her and why it’s hard for some to make the initial investment in themselves and their brand to get great photos taken. It made me think about pitching.

A lot of times, a blogger friend or client will ask me about pitching, and before I talk to her about her actual pitch emails, I go look at her Instagram and I ask her if she has a blog or website that she’s posting regularly on.

Usually that’s where we find something that could be done differently to get brands’ attention!

There are always a couple of the repeat offenders that should be addressed *before* pitching a brand:

1. Photos are not high quality. This doesn’t mean “photos aren’t perfect!” I think phone photos can be great quality! This means that photos could be grainy, badly lit, or blurry!
2. Photos are inconsistent. I’m all for varied content, but are you throwing things in that you’ve never talked about before? Selfies, dog pics, significant other, some bright photos, some muted color photos…
3. Unclear blog/Instagram topics. Can you tell from your Instagram grid what topics you cover on your channel?

If any of those hit a little close to home, let’s talk about your content, specifically your photos that you’re sharing online. You might be thinking: do I really need to work with a photographer?

Yes and no!

If you’ve never worked with a photographer, I highly recommend getting a branding photoshoot on the books immediately.

Content is part of what we talk about in Module One of Pitches to Riches and it’s a crucial part of landing paid brand deals, so I always encourage people to reach out to a few photographers and see who might be a good fit for them before booking a photoshoot.

You can either shoot regular content or batch content with a photographer or work with them for specific projects and branding photos only. It’s really personal preference, but if you’re having a tough time with those trouble spots I mentioned earlier: photo quality, photo consistency, or brand clarity on your page, I would really recommend looking into working with a photographer to jumpstart your progress.

I have a few photographers that I love in DFW, so DM @thebloggerbrunch for specific recommendations and I would love to help you get moving in the right direction!

I hope this was helpful to everyone who is struggling with content creation, and we’ll see you next Wednesday!