208 | The 3 Biggest Mistakes to Avoid When Pitching Collaborations
Effective collaboration pitches require genuine connection, specificity, and a focus on mutual benefits.
LISTEN TO THE EPISODE HERE:
Unlock collaboration success with Danielle's insights!
Learn to connect authentically, craft compelling pitches, and make collaborations mutually beneficial. Avoid common mistakes, be specific, and add value.
Learn more about our collaborative growth workshop for in-depth strategies.
Ready to master collaboration pitches? Tune in now!
Connect Before You Pitch:
Danielle highlights the importance of pre-connecting with businesses before pitching collaborations.
Emphasizes the value of supporting, following, and understanding the target brand or person.
Avoid Generic and Vague Pitches:
Danielle discusses the common mistake of sending generic, copy-paste pitches to multiple recipients.
Encourages specificity, research, and clarity in collaboration pitches to stand out.
Make it a Win for Everyone:
The focus is on avoiding pitches that are self-centered and lack consideration for the other party.
Danielle urges entrepreneurs to showcase the value they bring and outline clear benefits for the other party.
Action Steps:
Pre-Connect Before Pitching:
Before pitching, follow, support, and understand the target business or person.
Build a genuine connection to increase the chances of collaboration acceptance.
Craft Specific and Clear Pitches:
Avoid generic pitches; tailor each pitch to the specific collaboration opportunity.
Clearly outline the collaboration idea, benefits, and how it aligns with the recipient's interests.
Show Value in Your Pitch:
Shift the focus from self-centered pitches to showcasing the value you bring.
Provide testimonials, ratings, or reviews to demonstrate your genuine interest and support.
Remember, effective collaboration pitches require genuine connection, specificity, and a focus on mutual benefits. Implement these strategies to elevate your pitching game and increase collaboration success.
[00:00:00] Danielle: Hello, welcome to another episode of the Business Babes Collective podcast. I'm your host, Danielle Wiebe, and today is a solo episode where I am going to be sharing the three biggest mistakes that I see when others are pitching collaborations. So, I'm going to be sharing these three mistakes because we have done thousands of collaborations ourselves.
[00:00:24] Danielle: We have done the collaborations through our events, also through social media, we've facilitated collaborative projects, joint marketing campaigns. content creation, photo shoots, giveaways, so much more. And we have coached our clients and mastermind members to do collaborations of their own. And so I wanted to share the mistakes that I see because we see them all the time.
[00:00:46] Danielle: We get several pitches in our inbox daily, and it's more than our tiny little team can have the capacity to respond to. So I wanted to share these mistakes because I don't want you to be making these mistakes. I want you [00:01:00] to be successful when it comes to pitching yourself and your brand and collaborations.
[00:01:05] Danielle: So let's go ahead and dive in to the three biggest mistakes that I see entrepreneurs making and what you can do instead. Welcome to the Business Babes Collective podcast. I'm your host, Danielle Wiebe. In this podcast, you'll learn tangible business tips and strategies on how to grow successfully and sustainably.
[00:01:25] Danielle: We'll also interview seasoned entrepreneurs so you can listen in on their stories and see behind the scenes of what it took to grow and scale their businesses. Let's dive in as we discuss the wild, exciting, crazy, challenging rollercoaster ride of entrepreneurship. Let's talk about the three most common mistakes that I see with pitching because I see this all the time.
[00:01:52] Danielle: I see it in my inbox. I see it in my Instagram DMs. I see it in on Facebook. I [00:02:00] see it everywhere. And unfortunately, I think it's because. Either entrepreneurs don't really know how to pitch, but they're being told by other coaches or other people that they should just go out and pitch themselves and put themselves out there.
[00:02:16] Danielle: Um, but they don't actually have maybe the understanding of what it takes to craft a good pitch or what they should be, um, focusing on or how they should be approaching it. And so I really wanted to do this episode because first and foremost, by the way. Just a caveat, if you are making this mistake, these mistakes yourself, it's okay.
[00:02:38] Danielle: Like it's okay. Um, it's, it's fine. Just, I want you to, now that you are aware that these are the three biggest mistakes that I see is to take this into account when you go to your next pitch. Okay. So don't worry if you've done these before, don't be like, Oh my goodness, I'm a. bad entrepreneur, a bad business [00:03:00] owner.
[00:03:00] Danielle: Totally fine. Just start from scratch. And now when you go to pitch, now that you know these mistakes, you can try to avoid them. Okay. Let's start with number one. So coming in completely cold. So one of the biggest things that I see happening a lot is that people are not doing the pre work to connect with the business.
[00:03:24] Danielle: or even follow them or support them in any way. And I cannot tell you how many times that I have received a pitch from a person or a brand or a business that wants to be on the podcast or they want me to speak at an event or they want me to be a part of something or they want to collaborate or maybe they just want us to promote their business.
[00:03:49] Danielle: So we get lots of pitches. We probably get hundreds of these type of pitches. per month on all of our different channels, whether it be Instagram, Facebook, our [00:04:00] email, all of that. And I see this a lot where I will go to the brand and I'll notice that they're not following any of our accounts. They're not following me personally.
[00:04:12] Danielle: They're not following any of the business accounts or anything like that. And it's also quite obvious, um, when they're pitching the podcast, yet they have never listened to an episode of the podcast. And so what I would recommend if you are going to go through the effort of crafting a pitch or like pitching a brand or pitching a business, Support them.
[00:04:38] Danielle: Follow them. Listen to their podcast. Like, do your pre work of actually getting to know that business, getting to know that person, getting to know that brand, before you go and pitch. Alright, second biggest mistake that I see is being too generic or too vague. So I see this all the time, people sending out [00:05:00] the exact same copy and paste pitch to a hundred people.
[00:05:04] Danielle: That is not going to get you where you want to go. Unfortunately, I see this a lot as well with PR brands or brands acting on behalf of clients where they literally send out the exact same pitch and they're sending it out to so many different podcasts or so many different businesses and asking if this podcast would have their client on their show, right?
[00:05:30] Danielle: And you can clearly tell that everything has been copy pasted. There is no research being done. about the actual platform. And it's just extremely, extremely generic. So I highly recommend being specific, actually taking your time again, to do your research about that person or that business or that brand before you go and send out a pitch.
[00:05:54] Danielle: Another thing that I see is being too vague. So, If you are wanting to pitch someone [00:06:00] for a collaboration, whatever that might be for, whether it's an event or maybe you want to do a collaborative photo shoot or something on social media or a giveaway, whatever it is, you know, if you send someone a message or an email saying, Hey, I would love to collaborate with you.
[00:06:17] Danielle: But there's no other context into what you are wanting to collaborate, like how you're wanting to collaborate or anything like that. And you don't follow it up with, Hey, I would love your email where I can send you more information, right? I think that's okay. If you're saying, I will send you more information later, but if you're just saying, Hey, let's collaborate.
[00:06:38] Danielle: Um, people need a little bit more to go off of, right? Because. If there's no context into how you would like to work with that person, then their immediate reaction is. Oh, like what does this person want from me because they are thinking, Oh, I will probably have to put in a lot of effort or work into this.
[00:06:57] Danielle: I don't know if it's going to be worth it. So it [00:07:00] puts too much pressure on that other person and it also makes the other person on the other end really confused, right? It puts the responsibility on them to think of a way to collaborate. So if you are going to go through the effort of pitching, be clear, be concise, be specific with how you would like to work.
[00:07:19] Danielle: With that other person, because most of the time if someone is confused or they feel overwhelmed, then their immediate answer is going to be no. Or maybe they'll, you know, ignore your email. Right, . Okay. So number three. The third biggest mistake that I see when people are pitching collaborations is that.
[00:07:40] Danielle: The pitch is all about them. So again, we get a lot of pitches in our inbox through social media and. I see this happening a lot where we'll get a pitch where it will literally be like, Hey, can you promote my business? Or Hey, [00:08:00] I want to be on your podcast or, um, let me speak at an event or can you speak at an event or can you, you know, donate your time to do X, Y, Z.
[00:08:09] Danielle: And so it is. It's asking, right? It's asking of something from us, but without any information or details or maybe even an idea of what the win is for us as a brand. So I want you, when you are pitching, I want you to always ask yourself, what is in it for you? for them. What is in it for the person that I am pitching?
[00:08:37] Danielle: What value can I provide to the person that I'm going to be pitching? Now, a lot of the times what I see is that people hold themselves back from pitching because they think, well, I don't have any value to offer. Therefore I have to wait until I have a big following. I have to wait until I have more experience.
[00:08:57] Danielle: I have to wait until. Whatever x, y, [00:09:00] z, before I go and pitch, that is not what I'm saying. You don't have to have an audience. You don't have to have lots of experience. You have so much value, whether it be your skillset, whether it be your specific products, your expertise, your background, your connections, whatever you have, you can utilize that to make the collaboration a win for.
[00:09:21] Danielle: Everyone. And so my biggest suggestion for you is don't make it all about yourself. Don't make the pitch all about yourself. Figure out how you can make it a win, win, win, triple win. That's something that we talk about on a previous episode and we also talk about it in more detail in our collaborative workshop, which if you want access access, by the way, feel free to go to where the show notes, the link is right there.
[00:09:45] Danielle: Or you can DM me the word collab and I will send it to you. But we talk about this, about how to make it a win, win, win for everyone. And the best pitches that we receive, the ones that get opened, the ones that get [00:10:00] considered are the ones where it's very clearly saying, this is what the collaboration is about.
[00:10:07] Danielle: And they showcase how it's benefiting. Us as a brand and what we can expect if we were to say yes to the collaboration. So they share specifics and, and all of that. Now, another thing too, is that some of the best pitches that we've received when it comes to, like, let's say for example, if. Someone's pitching to be on the podcast This hardly ever happens to be honest you guys like this will stand out so much and I actually got this tip from my friend Ellen Yin from cubicle to CEO She suggested that if you are pitching a podcast rate and review their podcast, and then take a screenshot and attach it to your pitch email.
[00:10:49] Danielle: So they can see not only have you listened to their podcast and really enjoyed their podcast, but you've also spent the time to give them a rating and review. And [00:11:00] I cannot tell you how far that goes as a podcaster, like your guys's reviews and testimonials of the show, me in the absolute world. So if you have already left a.
[00:11:12] Danielle: rating and review. Thank you so much. And if you haven't yet, that would be such an amazing gift. So thank you in advance for doing that. Um, but this is also something where another tip that is kind of related to that tip, which I. thought of when I was thinking about how else can you provide value for someone who you are pitching is if you leave a review of their business online and then you screenshot that and you send it in your pitch email.
[00:11:41] Danielle: So that is something similar that you can do. So say for example, you're like, well, I'm not pitching a podcast. How could I do something similar? That is a great way to do something similar is leave a rating or leave a review of their product or their service. online, screenshot it, and then send it in your pitch.
[00:11:58] Danielle: So, those are just [00:12:00] some tips on how to make your pitch more effective. So, definitely do not make these three big mistakes, and really flip the script and think about, how can I add value to the other person? How can I be really safe? specific. How can I actually build a connection before I go ahead and pitch?
[00:12:20] Danielle: So I hope these tips were valuable for you. I hope they were helpful. And if you want to dive into more of this, we have a free workshop where it will give you more details of how to set up these collaborations for success. So if you want access to this, then DM me the word collab and I will send you a.
[00:12:43] Danielle: Free collaborative growth workshop that we have and I know you're gonna absolutely love it and get so much value from it So again DM me the word collab. You can DM me at Danny living life Danny with an I living life on Instagram And I will send that [00:13:00] over to you or you can click the link in our show notes if that's easier for you as well.
[00:13:04] Danielle: So thank you so much for joining us for today's short and sweet episode. I hope you enjoyed it and I will see you on the next one.
[00:13:15] Danielle: If you love this episode, make sure you screenshot. Post and tag us on Instagram at business babes. Co want to know when the next episode goes live, subscribe on your podcast app, and while you're there, give us a review until next time, keep dreaming big, setting goals and taking action.