Why Is September The Best Month for Pitching To Brands?
Next week Thursday marks the 1st of September… and September marks one of the best months in the year to pitch to brands!
Why is September such a good month for pitching? In the Northern Hemisphere (sorry to everyone in the South!), July and August can be difficult marketing months for photographers. Particularly this year, people have been taking advantage of travel being back on after Covid, so people have been out of office a LOT.
If you've tried to send any pitch emails to brands throughout the summer, you'll surely have noticed it. I spent a few days in August sending a few emails, and genuinely gave up after 10 or so, because 8 of them came back with Out of Offices. There wasn't much point in sending any emails!
Come September though, most people are no longer heading away on holiday, and are back at their desks, ready to finish off the year.
September is also when people begin to panic about getting their Christmas content shot. Time has caught up with everyone, and they need to get X, Y, and Z photographed fast.
For those reasons, September makes the BEST time of year to do some outreach.
Here's a quick refresher on what to do when pitching to a brand:
Do your research and ask yourself if the work that you currently have in your portfolio is aligned with the brand that you;'re reaching out to. For example, if you want to contact a beauty brand, but have no beauty work in your portfolio, I'd recommend holding back until you've got more beauty work shot.
Find the name of the correct person to email. I use LinkedIn! You want to look out for Producers, Heads of Production, Creative Directors, Art Directors, Social Media Managers, Photo Editors and Fashion editors.
Keep your email short and sweet. Include a line about who you are and where you're based, plus the names of any brands that you've worked with. If you haven't worked with any brands before, don't let that hold you back! Send those emails anyway.
Add hyperlinks to your website and Instagram
Add some kind of low res image at the bottom of your email so that the person receiving your email gets a glimpse of your work as soon as they open the email. Make them want to see more!
If you'd like more help on pitching, I've got two great freebies that you can download right here:
