How To Reach Out for Collaborations – Creators and Businesses

On my Instagram, I’ve been posting weekly candid talks called “Talk Tuesdays” and one post in particular really resonated with a lot of people so I want to put all of the information here so it’s easier to reference. Plus, you can bookmark/favourite this whenever you need a refresher!

⬇ By the way – Keep scrolling for actual email/DM examples of good and bad collaboration proposals ⬇

I’ve been a blogger for 10 years now and I’ve gotten hundreds upon hundreds of collaboration requests by now. I’ve also written my fair share of partnership proposals and have learned throughout the years what gets you that yes, and what gets you completely ignored.

Sometimes you only have one chance to make that good impression so here are some key mistakes you should avoid. These mistakes are applicable to BOTH creators and businesses.

1. Not personalizing the outreach DM/email

For starters, make sure to USE THEIR NAME! One of my pet peeves is seeing a DM/email start with “Hey there” ?‍♂️?

Secondly, if you have been following them for a while, mention it!! ? People work with people they like so make it easy for them to choose you over someone else that’s reaching out ?

2. Not giving enough info on your business/page

If you’re a business – make sure to include the name of your business (you’d be surprised how many people forget), write an elevator pitch on what your business is all about, and provide a link to your instagram handle or website. Better yet, talk about why you started your business and what problem you’re trying to solve.

If you’re a creator – make sure to include a one liner about what your personal mission is for your blog or Instagram channel. Is your Instagram aimed at providing easy-to-follow Korean recipes so people can follow along at home? Is your blog dedicated to teaching people the power of nutrition and a plant based diet? Make sure your reader knows that. A bonus step is to include some high level stats like your follower count, engagement rate, how long you’ve been doing this, etc, or your media kit.

Remember, the harder it is for people to find your info, aka social handles, website, images, reviews, the less likely it is they’ll want to work with you. ? So make it EASY for them!

3. Being too prescriptive about your wants (specifically for in-kind partnerships)

??‍♂️ The UNSPOKEN rule is that businesses ‘gifting’ a product/service/meal do not usually lay down the terms of deliverables. ? It is up to the influencer to accept the gift, and post accordingly only if they wish to. Having said that, the influencer can absolutely decide to say yes to providing ‘x’ amount of deliverables through an in-kind partnership. In fact, I’ve said yes TONS of times. It is also more prevalent and acceptable with nano influencers (5k followers and under) as ‘bigger’ influencers may want monetary compensation.

4. Not giving a F*** ✋

In all of the ‘can be improved’ examples below, you can kind of tell that the person writing doesn’t really care. If there is no care and passion for the collaboration, that’s a no-no ?. Even if you’re just writing a direct message on Instagram to someone asking to collaborate, treat it as a formal memo or email.

[ Below are some examples of “GOOD” and “CAN BE IMPROVED” Collaboration Requests ]

These tips & examples are based on years of experience sending and receiving DMs and emails of this nature. NONE of these are absolute so don’t take them as the law. My hope here is just to shed some light on the topics no one talks about, and to give you my perspective on some do’s and don’ts ☺️

Let me know if you found this helpful!

As always, happy eating 🙂