The Styled Seed Industry Talk

Happy Friday! I’m super excited about today’s blog post because it’s the official launch of my new series on all things industry!

To be honest with you this series has been a long time coming. I’ve been getting e-mails, DMs and comments for months on how to tackle the blogging and modeling world. I’m thrilled to finally be putting together this series and give you guys all of my best tips and tricks.

I myself am always learning new things and trying new ways to improve my own blogging and modeling skills. Half the fun is that the industry is a constant learning process. As I continue to learn and grow I would love to take you along!

I plan on posting to this series at least two times a month, but hopefully more! My hopes is that it will be a question based series, meaning you guys can continue to e-mail, DM, and comment your questions to me and I will do my best to cover those topics. So if this is something you are interested in, follow along. I’m so excited to have you here!

Working With Brands as an Influencer

Working with brands is one of the best parts of being a blogger, model, and influencer. It’s really a dream come true being able to work closely with some of your favorite brands. It actually took me a minute to realize that it was real life when it first happened to me.

And although this is one of the most exciting parts of being a blogger, it’s also one of the hardest things to navigate at first. There’s not really a lot of guidelines or information on how to go about this process. And although I am certainly not the authority on this topic (who is?) I am more than happy to share my experience as well as my best advice!

Getting Into Contact With Brands

There’s a bunch of different ways to get the conversation started with brands so let’s go over a few that I use on a regular basis.

1. Promote Without A Collab

Basically this means style, shoot, and generate buzz about the product or company without working with them. If there is a certain brand you love, that you would be thrilled to work with, promote their stuff simply because you love it! This is best achieved by honing in on this brands trends, hashtags and aesthetic. Make sure to use all of the appropriate corresponding links, hashtags, and tags and also play up on any vibe the brand is currently loving.

Also keep in mind upcoming events and trends when planning your content. For example, festival season, Fall transition styles, the perfect Summer staples etc. Take advantage of hot topics and events and style according to them. Obviously don’t change your personal style for a current trend, but play up on the trends that you do actually like. This type of content is super relevant and useful to your audience and brands will love it too!

Eventually creating content showcasing a brand can get you ‘noticed’ by the brand, where they will then reach out via email or DM and a relationship can form.

I really love this method because I think it’s one of the most organic ways for the relationship to start. This way I never feel pushy and the brand doesn’t have to be pushy either because they can see you genuinely enjoy their products. Although this is great way to get into contact with a brand it’s not always the easiest. Some brands have thousands of pictures flooding their hashtags everyday and it’s hard to get noticed in all the commotion. However, sometimes it works and even if it doesn’t it’s fun because it allows you to create authentic content for your page.

2. Reach Out, Send a Pitch

If you just aren’t getting the traction you were hoping for via the above option you can also try reaching out and sending a pitch to the brand. This method of course has its own road blocks.

For example, it can be very hard to find a contact. I usually go to their website, scroll to the bottom, and look for a contact tab and then hunt down the appropriate contact from there. You can usually achieve this by emailing whatever email they have on the contact tab and ask for the contact information of their social media coordinator, PR rep, etc. Even when you do find a contact it’s a toss up if you’ll get a response or not. You can also try via DM if you can’t find an e-mail. It’s all worth a try.

When reaching out to a brand make sure you reference any posts you’ve previously done showcasing how much you love their product or how you like to style their pieces. Also always be mindful of making your e-mail and your pitch as professional as possible. I’m certain that brands appreciate this because I know I definitely do. Nobody is going to take your inquiry seriously if it’s full of typos, emojis, and LOL’s. You’re trying to build a long lasting, professional, work relationship so keep e-mail etiquette in mind while still showcasing your stand out personality!

3. Some Stuff Just Falls in Your Lap

Okay honestly, once you start creating good consistent content amazing brands that you never even knew about will start reaching out to you. It’s crazy. It’s super flattering. And it’s awesome.

There’s no method really to this one other than keep up the hard work; styling, shooting, and creating.

And lastly just a little side note: don’t give up. There is so many brands out there, so many opportunities, and you have SO much potential. Like I have said before it’s a journey. You’re going to get better and better at creating content that both you and brands are happy with. With more content comes more collabs, and with more collabs comes more exposure. It is an exponential process that allows you to constantly be growing and bettering yourself which is sometimes challenging and exhausting but it’s also rewarding and exciting. You’re going to get a better feel for the industry and the methodology of all of this the more you do it. And it’s all going to be so much fun!

If you guys have any more questions on this topic or any thoughts on this post comment below or send them over on the gram! Hope you enjoyed this post and can’t wait to share more with you guys! Xx

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Photography: Clayton Wenner @claytondavidphoto

Special thanks to Salt Water Luxe for partnering up on this post