How To Secure Partnerships With Top Brands

Brand partnerships and media coverage are one of the top goals we hear from many established business owners looking to generate more awareness.

While you may be interested in working with your favorite brands, it’s more important to analyze if it would beneficial for them to work with you.

Simply ask yourself: “If I were brand x, would it make business sense to partner with me?”

If the answer is “no,” you may want to go back to the drawing board. You don’t want to pitch a brand for pitching sake.

Think about how you can provide true value to both the business and its consumers in ways they are unable to do themselves.

If the answer is “yes,” continue reading…

Before pitching your target, ensure you have a compelling and relevant angle.  

Think about what makes you, your product, or service unique and how you can provide a one-of-a-kind experience for users.

After you develop your angle, make sure you have the following items in place when you begin to pitch brands for partnership or feature opportunities. This will ensure that you cover all the important aspects of your business at once and make it easier for them to give you a “yes.”

1. Media Kit
A media kit, also known as a press kit, should contain information about your product, service, or brand. It should also provide information about who you are, your background, and how your business came to be – this is also known as your story. Use your media kit to also reference company facts, metrics, and social media channels.

2. Unique Value PropositionA unique value proposition (UVP), also known as a unique selling proposition, is one of the most important elements of your message. Your UVP should be a clear and concise statement that describes the benefits of working with you, what distinguishes you from your competitors, and how you can solve for their audiences needs.

3. High Quality Visuals
To put it simply, having high quality visuals (i.e. head shots, logos, and product images) will allow brands and publishers to see who and what they are working with. You want to make sure these images are of highest quality. It’ll give your brand image a big boost.

4. Relationships
We’ve all heard the saying, “your network is your net worth.” As cliché as it sounds, it’s still very much true. Being able to establish long-standing relationships with people across different industries and brands will make pitching smoother. After all, people want to do business with people they can trust. Start by following the Decision Makers on Linkedin or join a relevant online community, many times they post upcoming opportunities right on their news feeds. Ready to pitch your Decision Maker directly but unsure of their email address? Hunter.io is a highly used tool that allows you to find email addresses in seconds.

5. Patience
While social media may make you believe things happen quickly, truth is, brand partnerships and features take time. Just remember it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

PS. A great tool I like to use to source upcoming media opportunities is Haro. Once you subscribe to their free online service you can expect to receive daily opportunities to work with some of the best publications.