So… painful truth time: your cold pitch probably gets about 8 seconds before a brand decides if you’re worth replying to or if you’re headed straight to “archive.”
8 seconds. That’s it. Less time than it takes to order a coffee.
Which means if the first thing they see is a (really long) paragraph about how you’ve “always loved their brand since middle school”?
Yeah…congrats, you just gave them a reason to delete.
When I first started pitching brands, I made alllllllll the mistakes. My emails were literal novels (1,000 words long - yeah, I counted).
And shocker: no one replied.
Turns out, there are 3 big mistakes that demolish reply rates - and once I fixed them?? Boom. Replies started rolling in (whoop whoop).
Mistake #1: Making it all about you
“I’ve always loved your brand!!” → cute. flattering. but also… useless.
You see, brands don’t care about your middle school obsession with their mascara but they care about results: clicks, conversions, reach, sales.
So if you lead with that? perrrrrfect.
Think less: “I love your candles”Think more: “I’d love to help you drive more TikTok views around your holiday bundle.”
Mistake #2: Forgetting your thing
Here’s the problem: if your pitch sounds like everyone else’s, it’s an instant snooze.
Which is why you need to mention why you’re unique - your humour. your storytelling. your neon editing style. your dog who refuses to stop photobombing. THAT’S your unique selling point. (please) don’t hide it!!!
One brand literally told me, “I get 100+ pitches a day, but yours was so memorable.” They didn’t hire me at first… but they remembered me. And when I followed up? They became a retainer client!!
Mistake #3: Weak CTAs
This one hurt. My old CTAs were absolutely tragic:
“If you’re looking for creators, let me know.” → crickets.
The day I swapped that for a question? My reply rate jumped 10x. Like…how did a question mark do that?!
Because people are wired to answer questions.
Try this instead: “Can I send over 2–3 BFCM concepts I think would work super well for {Brand Name}?”
Waaaaaay harder to ignore, right?
So if you avoid these 3 mistakes, suddenly your pitch goes from “archive” to “let’s chat.”
And if you wanna see it in action, Jaclyn breaks down writing the perfect cold pitch to brands in this youtube video here.
So cold pitching doesn’t have to feel like begging.
If you make sure you don’t make these 3 mistakes? You’re golden!
