How To Approach Brands & What To Fee For Sponsored Posts

Disclaimer – This post includes affiliate links and links to my own products. Updated as of February 2021.

When it comes to approaching brands. Many bloggers simply do not know what to charge, or how to go about finding sponsored posts. It isn’t until you begin to actively look for your own opportunities you learn these things, and I’ve previously found many bloggers aren’t confident enough to do so. As someone who has been blogging a long time, I actively pitch myself. This gives me the control over what collaborations my blog has, and what brands I approach.

Since writing this post 4 years ago in 2017, much has changed in with in the blogging community. Especially approaching brands, and what you to fee for sponsored work. I have updates this post to reflect that.

How To Approach Brands

Since my early blogging days I’ve always contacted brands I’ve wanted to work with myself, because I wanted to get myself out there. In the first couple of years it was definitely a learning curve, not all brands would get back in touch but some would.

In those first two years of blogging I trained myself to become a little bit more professional when talking to companies or PRs. You can’t always expect brands to approach you, sometimes you need to be approaching brands. Especially if you’re looking to make blogging your full time business or a lucrative side hustle.

Here I’ll share a little step by step of the process I use to contact brands. I’d just like to add. By no means am I telling you to contact PRs or Brands for freebies. That is not what blogging is about, it’s about working with brands, to begin to create lasting brand relationships.

Find the brand you’d like to approach

You might have a brand in mind that is your dream collaboration, you might see a brand and think you’re a good fit. Finding a brand is the main bit of this section. Once you’ve got a brand in mind, then you’ll want to go about finding their contact details.

Then you can quite simply search for their PR department email via their website or google. If this doesn’t flag anything then I would message them on social media privately (not publicly) and ask for the appropriate email. Alternatively you can get in touch with them via a question/help page. Some brands work solely via PR companies and this maybe another route to get in touch with them.

Consider why you want to work with them

When sending an email to a brand I think it vital to send them a reason why you want to work with them specifically, and what you can bring to the table. I would include a little but about your blog and link to your blog but unless asked I wouldn’t send your media pack or stats.

You can use blanket statements, such as “my domain is relatively high” and then in your last sentence say something along the line of “if you would like more information on my stats etc these are available upon request”.If you can you want to avoid throwing everything at them at once.

What does the brand get out of working with you?

For many reasons when you approach a brand, working with them is a bonus for you and your blog. Take the time to consider what the brand gets out of working with you? What’s your unique selling point? Do you have views? A loyal readership? A high Domain Authority?

A collaboration has to be beneficial to both parties, not just you.

Send an email

Here’s where you start to write your pitch. This post isn’t long enough for me to go over pitching to brands. But you’re going to want to write yourself a pitching template, or purchase a template. My pitching ebook has 3 of them.

You’ll want to correctly address the brand you are approaching, or the PR by name. Go in with the relevant details about your blog, your brand, how this is beneficial to them and you. You really need to sell yourself, but without being over-bearing or rude.

Don’t get disheartened if you don’t hear back from brands, some won’t reply and that is a part of life. The thing is when you hit send on the email you don’t have anything to lose, and every email you send can be great experience for approaching brands in the future.

What To Fee For Sponsored Posts

Now this is a tricker one. When brands or PR’s get in contact with you about sponsored posts or pitch to them you may not know what to fee.

There is no wrong or right answer here as to what to charge – but if you think you’re undervaluing your work you probably are.

It is genuinely not beneficial to you to know my rates of charging for a multitude of reasons. It is unlikely that myself and any reader of this blog post will have the same stats, via our blogs, social medias. We are likely to have different domain authorities and ranking abilities. For example my blog is many years old and I can show examples of over 200 sponsored posts to any PR who asks. This isn’t going to be the same for anyone.

Here are the stats you need to consider when charging

Domain Authority – Your domain Authority is one of the things that brands will be looking at. Most brands won’t work with you until you have a domain authority of 20. This is how it has always been in the time that I’ve been blogging. For example you charge more with a domain authority of 30 than that of 20.

How engaged your audience is – Some brands will ask to see your stats after you publish a post, you will need to be able to prove that you can provide what they want. Consider if your audience is genuinely engaged enough for your charging. You don’t want to fall short and loss the trust of a brand, especially if you want a lasting relationship.

Social Media stats – Many brands will pay for social media shares on top of a post, and rightfully so they should be paying for promotion on top of the writing. Consider the amount of shares, and the amount of followers that you have.

Mailing list – If you have a mailing list, specifically a large one, brands will pay for promotion. The phrase the money is in the list has never been wrong.

Ultimately it comes down to being happy with a price for your time, effort and stats. Personally I don’t believe bloggers should be agreeing to any little than £50. Especially once you hit a DA 20. I understand during the pandemic people might work for less to secure work, BUT this negatively affects how much brands will pay you in the future.

Hopefully this was a helpful post and that you can take something from it. Let me know in the comments if you will approach brands in the future or you already approach brands.

If you enjoyed this post check out 10 Must Use Blog Resources and 12 Tips For New Bloggers.