🎁 You don’t wanna miss this (open it before the 5th of February)
🎁 You don’t wanna miss this (open it before the 5th of February)
#6 How I got my first collab
Dear little demon,
Welcome to the edition #6 of the Art Missive! We are now 1526😈 in this newsletter: thank you sm for reading ❤.
If you haven't already, you can also:
Read all the previous Art Missives
Ask your questions for the next QaAs here
In this Art Missive
INTRO : My first collab with a huge brand
How did I get this collab ? (And how you can get collabs too)
A little surprise (⚠️only until February, 5th)
INTRODUCTION
Today, I made my first Instagram collaboration with a great brand : XP PEN, one of the leaders in the graphic tablet market.
The past 10 months, I have received dozens of collaboration requests. I have always refused for 3 reasons :
❎ I worked hard building this audience and I don’t want to bother my precious followers with too many collabs.
❎ (Maybe the most important one) I only want to showcase brands that I use myself and that I truly love.
❎ For the next 3 months, I want to focus on improving my art so I have less time for Instagram monetization and collaborations.
But when XP PEN reached out to me, I said yes ! That is why I wanted to exceptionally send you this second Art Missive of the week !
In this edition #6 of the Art Missive, I’ll share with you how I got this brand deal.
At the end of the email, you’ll also get a money-saving surprise ! 🎁
Let’s go!
How did I get this collab ?
1. What collab am I talking about ?
If you regularly follow me on Instagram, you may already know that I am currently learning digital art.
Before, I have tried several tablets that felt really awkward to me, which led me to give up on digital art many times. This time, I was taking it very seriously so I bought an XP PEN tablet, the Innovator 16 (the ancestor of the Artist Pro 16). And I totally fell in love with the brand.
Once I started sharing my digital journey on IG, I got many questions on my material, including the brand.
So, when XP PEN reached out to me to suggest a collaboration, I was more than happy to accept !
1) This is a brand that I use on a daily basis 2) I wanted to show my audience that with a good material, digital art was more fun and rewarding to learn 3) I wanted my first collab to be a brand that I truly love.
So we settled on a win-win collaboration with the brand, they sent me one of their new tablets and today I shared my first collab post !
👉click here to see the tablet they have sent to me
I don’t know yet if the post worked well, as I’m writing to you just after I posted it. But let’s keep our fingers crossed !
2. How did I get this collaboration ?
So you have an audience on social media (it does not have to be huge!) and you want to make collaborations with brands ?
I have your back ! Here is the full process of getting collabs.
Generally speaking you have two ways to get a collab :
Way 1 : brands reach out to you
This is what happened to me :
1️⃣ You have an audience and your values match the brand’s values. The brand contacts you in your DMs : they tell you they love your content and want to make a collaboration. Are you interested ?
2️⃣ You need to answer them asap. At this stage, I suggest you keep a formal language. Either you ask them their mail address to reach out to them properly, or you give them your mail address so they send you information about their project.
3️⃣ Let’s meet in your email box ! Now you have a specific contact! You can start exchanging with this person to settle a collaboration. In most cases, they will offer to send you their product. As a response, you need to explain to them your conditions : what type of content you can deliver, what deadline, what are your current Instagram metrics, your price rates. Take the lead ! They need you to be very clear on what you can offer.
4️⃣ You agree on a collab and then you execute it ! You want to make sure to add as much value as possible to give them good reasons to make more collaborations with you!
Way 2 : you reach out to brands
In most cases, you will have to reach out to the brands yourself. Especially if you have a smaller audience.
But don’t be shy ! Brands struggle to find their content creators and will be very happy to receive your request.
1️⃣ You identify a brand you want to work with and make sure that your content fits their products and value. For example, if you share pencil portraits on Instagram, I will not reach out to cooking material brands, you know ?
2️⃣ Find their mail address. This is your most important goal. I you can’t find it, contact them on their Instagram page.
3️⃣ Reach out to them : in your message, you want to make sure to :
1) tell them that you use their brand and you love it
2) be crystal clear on the value you can add to them ! If you don’t give them a reason to work with you, they will not!
3) end your message with a call to action “can you give me the contact of the person in charge of collaborations ?” for example.
👉 If you contact the brand by email, make sure to include a media kit ! but I’ll talk more about that later.
4️⃣ Once you get a mail address, it is the same process as “way 1 : brands reach out to you”
3. My tips for getting collaborations
👉 TIP 1 : work very hard on your media kit. This a very short document in which you provide important information about your Instagram account for the past 3 months :
- how many followers you have
- what is your general reach over the past months
- what is your engagement rate
- what are your price for every type of content/
This document is very important because it translates your added value as a content creator into a language that brands understand.
You want to send your media kit as soon as you get the opportunity to do so.
👉 TIP 2 : Work only with brands you truly love. Do I really need to explain this one ?
👉 TIP 3 : You don’t need to have a huge community to start making brand partnerships. Brands like smaller accounts because the content creators are closer to their audience. Even if you have less than 1k followers, you can start !
👉 TIP 4 : Be patient, looking for brand deals takes time ! Reach out to as many brands as possible (but you should always make sure their products and value fit your content and audience).
👉 TIP 5 : ALWAYS ask to be paid ! Basically you offer them to make ads for them, they should pay you for that. You have worked hard to build your audience! I know it can be awkward but the thing is that if you never ask to be paid, you’ll never be! Some brands will pay you, some will refuse! After you politely ask to be paid, if they say no, it’s up to you to decide whether this collaboration feels right to you and if you can still win something from it!
You don’t wanna miss this surprise !
I have a little surprise for you!
In exchange for showcasing the Artist Pro 16 to my audience, I asked XP PEN to provide me with a HUGE discount code for my followers.
So, if you want to improve your digital experience and your digital art, you can get this Artist Pro 16 tablet that is truly incredible.
👉 You have 25% OFF the tablet with this code : LEAWAI25 (it’s my name, if you wonder)
👉 You simply have to click here and enter the code
👉 The discount is only available until February, 5th.
If you DON’T want to buy the tablet, but you enjoyed this Missive and you want to support me :
You can click on the link below. This is a tracking link that shows to XP PEN how many people viewed the product thanks to me : the more people click on this link, the more they will be likely to work with me again. .
👉Simply click here to support me