By: Sara Urquhart; Photos by Brooke Dennis and Justin Hackworth
As a brand, when you’re an active blog reader, your pitch to a blogger will be more authentic and taken more seriously. Likewise, when you follow an influencer on Instagram, your understanding of her personal brand allows you to craft your approach and hone your pitch. This doesn’t require daily reading or following, but regular engagement helps you understand the influencer’s audience, typical content, and a sense of how your brand can interact with her. Your approach will be more personal, and will carry more weight.
Starchy pitches that reference one or two recent posts will be spotted as fakes, so if you aren’t an active follower, don’t pretend you are. Be authentic and truthful in your communications, but make sure you understand the themes, content and aesthetic of the influencer you’re approaching.
And on the flip side, if you are not a true consumer of a product or a brand, don’t claim to be. As an influencer, be authentic. Let the brand you are pitching know you are familiar or could be better familiar with that brand, if that is the case. Don’t pretend you have cupboards full of their product if you don’t.
Just as you can see an inauthentic pitch come through your inbox, a brand will be able to see a fake as well.
Be authentic and it will lead to real conversations.
