Once you have made the decision to collaborate with other brand owners or media influencers, you don’t want to spend too much time looking in the wrong direction. Being prepared is key and will make you feel more confident about pitching your brand for the first time. First impressions are very important for getting collaborations going that are beneficial for every person involved. Look over these tips so you are fresh and ready to start pitching yourself and your brand for collaborations with other artists and influencers:
Understand And Document The Heart & Soul Of Your Business
This is the who and what about your business. When you collaborate with other artists, they are collaborating with you too. They need to know who they are getting into business with, so you should be able to express to them your brand’s mission or essence. Think about what you want to know about the brands you are researching and then ask yourself those same questions. Know what you have to offer besides cash, whether that is community exposure, being known as a leader for business, having new values that are important to align with, etc.
Find Your Communication And Marketing Strategies, Understanding Merchandising
Already having these strategies prepared and understanding your business’ release dates will allow you to collaborate at beneficial times. Scheduling cadence and timelines are important for making sure collaborations fit with your existing marketing and merch strategy. Having dates prepared can allow you to collaborate during releases, making potential collaborative photoshoots even more beneficial. If you are already planning future releases, think about whether or not you will collaborate for those as well and get the timeframes down that work best for everyone. Don’t go after collaborations just for the sake of it! Make sure it helps expose your brand and helps you overall
Pitch And Plan Far In Advance
A lot goes into a good collaboration behind the scenes. Depending on the person or people you work with, collaborations can sometimes take a few months to a year or even more. Contracts need to be looked over more than once and are regularly updated, so landing the right content director or product collaboration can take a long time depending on who needs to look at the contracts and sign off in the end. In order to save time and be prepared, be clear on what you are asking the other person for. Make sure that your communication is smooth and that you both have a community overlap that makes sense. Find brand synergy and common ground, so the collaboration is beneficial for both parties.
Overall, collaborations should be financially successful but should still be fun. Know what you have to offer others, and that will allow you to understand what you want to find offered by others. Understand the background of your company and how the collaboration will fit into that. Not only are you collaborating with another brand and merging your communities, but you are also networking and gaining important exposure.
At Scaling Retail, we’ve launched brick-and-mortar and e-commerce businesses all over the world. Questions about building, launching, or growing your fashion business? Send an email to hello@scalingretail.com for a complimentary consultation.