At the beginning of the year I asked what areas of blogging you would like to see featured here on Trips100.  It came as no surprise when most of you came back asking for tips for securing press trips and networking which I’ve covered here…

How to pitch for press trips like a pro

How to network like a pro! Tips from established travel bloggers

Many of you also requested general advice and tips for pitching for work with travel brands which I hope to cover for you today.

My blog, Travel Loving Family, was set up nearly three years ago and I feel very fortunate to have worked with brands from my very early days.  My pitches started small of course, I would write to local attractions and ask if I could visit in return for a review.  Over time, as my social media reach increased so did the success rate of my pitches and now I find that travel brands often come to me with press trip and sponsored post opportunities.

Please note I also do lots of pitching to ensure my family and I are visiting places that we actually want to go to and my audience are interested in reading about!  And I definitely turn down more sponsored post opps than agree to due to many being irrelevant to family travel and/or offering a rate that is quite frankly insulting.  (I know many of you will be nodding your heads agreeing with me on this!) 

When I set up my blog I never thought that I would be paid to stay in fancy hotels with my family or invited to cruise onboard a luxury ship as a travel writer.  I’m not saying this to show off, just to say that perseverance really does pay off.  For wannabe travel bloggers or bloggers just starting out, I would thoroughly recommend publishing reviews of your days out and holidays to get you started.  You need to have examples of reviews to show brands and demonstrate what are you capable of.  You also want to show that your readers are interacting with your reviews, commenting on your posts and ultimately following through with your advice and visiting the places you recommend.

My first reviews were pretty awful if I’m honest!  I didn’t have a clue about SEO and I was just writing what I thought my readers, (my mum and friends!) would want to read about.  I certainly still have a lot to learn which is one of the reasons I love blogging so much but I feel confident enough to share some tips with you.

But first a little side note – I attended a Working with Brands workshop recently run by Heather Cowper from Heather On Her Travels. Heather has been travel blogging for ten years and so has a lot of experience.  I found her session really useful, not because I picked up any new tips necessarily but because everything she said I could relate to and agreed with.  I had bit of a Eureka moment realising that I am actually an experienced travel blogger with knowledge and experience that is useful for others just starting out.  Heather runs training sessions a few times a year so please do get in touch with her for more info as they are great for bloggers just getting started.

Anyway I have digressed a little, lets get stuck in…

Tips for pitching to work with brands

As a blogger you many want to work with brands to save you money (i.e. review a holiday in exchange for a review), to earn money (i.e. publish a sponsored post promoting a travel brand) and/or to have something of interest to share with your readers.

What you need to remember, (and what my husband kept having to remind me when I first started out!) is that you are giving up your time to review a travel brands service.  Ideally you need to make sure that the time you give up (taking photos, writing a post, promoting on social media) is worth the value of the experience.  Often it is not worth the hours you spend writing a blog post to visit an attraction for ‘free’ (we will discuss this word in a minute!) BUT what you have to remember is your long term goal.  Will your readers be interested in the review?  Would you be visit and pay for that attraction anyway?  If the answers are yes go for it.  Contact the brand with a well thought out pitch.

What do you need to do before you contact travel brands? 

Research, research, research!  Is there a travel brand who has launched something new that you genuinely feel you can help to promote?   What brands work with bloggers?  Take a look online and you’ll find blog reviews really easily.  If brands have worked successfully with bloggers before you know there is a good chance it is part of their marketing strategy so you’ll have more chance of being successful in your pitch.

Make sure your blog looks fab! Link it to all of your social media channels.  Have a friend take a look at it, check for typos, are your photos of a good quality?  There are MANY bloggers out there, you have a lot of competition.

Consider why a brand would want to work with you? You need to know what your USP is.  Who is your audience?  You can check out your audience on Google Analytics.

Make sure you have an About Me and Work with Me page –  They need to describe you well and explain what you can do for a brand.  A media kit is also recommended but I’ll be honest I didn’t have one for a couple of years until I felt I had enough examples of stats/examples of brands I had worked with to include.

Know what you can offer to a travel brand and demonstrate it in your pitch

Banish the word FREE from your pitch – You are not asking for ‘free’ entrance to an attraction or a free holiday.  You are swopping your influence as a travel blogger for an experience which will hopefully lead to more sales for the travel brand.  Believe me after working for hours on a blog review, editing photos, tweaking promotional videos until the early hours it will not feel like a ‘free’ holiday!

Consider your audience – You need to prove that you have the same audience as the brand otherwise why would they work with you?  For example I only pitch to family travel brands as my readers are parents looking for family travel inspiration.

Prove your worth!  Make sure you provide blog stats, your social media followers, your Domain Authority (you can check it here), examples of past reviews and any other websites you can get your work published on.

In my pitches I like to demonstrate the reach of my social media posts, in particular videos.  If you have a stronger social media channel make sure you demonstrate that one.  (For example I know my You Tube channel reach is pretty terrible but my Facebook reach is great so when I link in videos in articles I embed Facebook videos to impress brands, like this – Sneaky peak around Hotel indigo Durham).

Remember as a blogger you can offer so much more than just a written review –

Only you know where your strengths are, how about offering…

* Sponsored articles & social media posts
* Authentic videos demonstrating the attraction/hotel from the perspective of a family, couple etc
* Digital brand ambassador services
* Freelance writing content for the brands website
* Host (or just promote) competitions/giveaways
* Twitter & Instagram takeovers
* Photography & video footage to be used by the brand (you can charge a lot more for this).

I hope this has helped.  Remember not to take any knock backs or emails that are ignored personally.  You may be writing to someone who receives hundreds of pitches from travel bloggers a day.  I would always send a chase email a few days later and then I would move on and try a different company, tweaking my pitch to have a better result.

If you have any questions please pop them below.  I am very happy to to help!