How to Break Into a New Vertical

Aug 25, 20205 min read

Taylor Talks Newsletter - 8/24/2020

Many of you know that I added "home decor" as a new vertical to my brand What Taylor Likes. This week I want to show you how I added a new vertical and got paid to promote home decor!

So many creators have a hard time finding and securing sponsorships from brands when they are trying to get into a new vertical. Please know that you can always reinvent yourself or add more of your interests to your blog despite brands being ambiguous and not responsive.

In order to get into home decor, I found that the key is to contact the right companies for you at the right time. Here are 4 steps that explain what I mean and how you can break into a new vertical:

1. Be active in finding new collaborators – How to locate new brands 2. Be discovered – How to be "discoverable" by brands 3. Collect Data – How to collect analytics to prove your worth with something you have never done before 4. Pitch – How to contact a brand for the first time

1. BE ACTIVE IN FINDING NEW COLLABORATORS

Everyone should be going for what you want and not waiting for things to happen! I’m always looking for brands to partner with and Instagram has been a great place for me to discover companies I never would have heard of. To find these brands I do the following:

Go to a profile of a brand you like or worked with before. Click the “suggestions for you” drop-down to see who else they suggest. You’ll discover new brands similar to theirs.
Look at brand accounts in your new vertical with less than 100K followers. You will have more luck with these brands because they have a large enough following to invest in sponsorships, but aren’t too well known that will refuse your request.
Pay attention to ads or sponsorships posted by other bloggers. Take note to find the contact information for that company if you like them.
Pay attention to sponsored ads companies pay for on social media. If they can place an ad, they can pay you to promote too!
Watch TV! I have gotten so many ideas for companies to contact by watching commercials.

2. BE DISCOVERED

Now that you’ve found the brands you’d like to work with be sure to follow them on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. You need to follow them on the social platforms where you already have accounts. I highly recommend that you do this.

Engage with them by tagging these brands when you create new content. Also, you can like, comment, and share their content. If you do this as soon as a brand puts up a post on social media, the person managing the account is likely to interact with you.

3. COLLECT DATA

Your media kit is like your resume. Our media kit is digital so in the email, we place links to our overall media report and media reports to each city we’ve been to in that calendar year. In this report, it lists analytics for impressions, views, engagement, hours spent reading the blog and etc.

Be sure to register to InfluenceKit and use my link to get an extended free trial and a discount: https://www.influencekit.com/taylor

In the past, we made media kits on Canva, a graphic-design tool. It is free and easy to use. Include metrics from your blog’s Google Analytics and social media. We would also list past collaborations in the kit. If you design it on Canva, keep your kit to 1-2 pages max.

It is industry standard to refrain from approaching brands for sponsored partnerships until you have value that you can offer in return. Don't worry though! If you don’t have any metrics to put in your email or media kit then I advise that you...

1) Gather and showcase unsponsored work that you have done. Maybe you have blog posts that you've written that have done really well. Find the analytics for it.

For example, I am collecting all the stories and posts we are doing for home decor. I collect story data, in particular, and put those numbers into a report. You can see that report here.

2) If you don't have stories or any other content to showcase (like I did starting out), say in your email that you are moving to a new place or starting a new workout routine...you should highlight that you are going through something new and would love for them to support you through a partnership.

4. Pitch

I wrote about pitching in a previous talk. I listed out 5 tips that you need to read! I am telling you...these tips and pieces of advice made the difference for me when it came to landing sponsored campaigns or new opportunities. Successful creators, bloggers, influencers, etc. know how to pitch themselves to brands. Understanding the basics of pitching is crucial to obtaining collaborations with your dream brand!

You can read that talk here.

In addition to providing that information, here is the email pitch that I sent out to home/decor related companies for a product collaboration on Instagram:

Hi [THEIR NAME],

My name is Taylor and I would love to forge a partnership with [COMPANY NAME] to produce “at home” inspired content to promote your products. I included my analytics below and the ideas I had regarding a collaboration. I’ve used [THEIR PRODUCT] for over [X AMOUNT OF TIME] and it has helped me [BENEFIT].

About

I am the author behind What Taylor Likes where we focus on food, drink, and travel. On social media, we have 1.9million+ total audience on Pinterest, 16.3K followers on Instagram, 900+ follows on Facebook...and we are growing!

Partnership Example

You can see our work here: View Report. We listed notable brand collaborations we completed in 2019-2020 along with detailed analytics. All data is authentic and updated in real-time by a third party.

Across all platforms, our readers and followers are approx. 70% female, 12% live in Texas, 37% range from 25-34 years old, and 19% range from 34-44 years old.

What we can do for you

I would love to work with you on promoting [SPECIFIC PRODUCT]. I looked at your website extensively and like that your brand's mission centers around [SAY SOMETHING POSITIVE]. I am moving to a new apartment in August so this is perfect!

In exchange for the [PRODUCT] and compensation, it would be a pleasure to feature [COMPANY] in the following:

· 1 Instagram feed picture ($600 value)

· 6 stories on Instagram ($125 each)

Let me know what you think of the terms. Looking forward to hearing from you! Best,

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After you send off your pitches, don’t be discouraged. Start with smaller brands and then work your way up to bigger companies. In no time you’ll be fielding requests for collaborations!

Homework: Email me if you have any comments or questions.

NEED MORE HELP ASAP? Schedule a Zoom call with us if you need personalized help pitching to brands, finding brands, analytics, advice, resources, and more! We will tell you exactly what works for us. Seriously. No fluff or beating around the bush. What to know how to travel for your blog? We got you. Need help writing a pitch email? Let's edit it together.

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