A journey of 1000 collabs begins with a single message
A journey of 1000 collabs begins with a single message
Whether you’re an aspiring influencer or you represent a brand, collaborating with brands on Instagram is always an effective marketing strategy. Brand collaborations on Instagram are one of the most effective ways to boost your Instagram profile, reach new audiences, increase your engagement, and build your brand profile, all of which can lead directly to those all-important conversions.
We know that influencer and user-generated content (UGC) works better than brand-produced content, according to 60% of marketers. Reaching out to another brand on Instagram can be an incredibly useful marketing strategy. Brand collaborations can help businesses to tap into new audiences that share similar interests.
But with so many fake accounts and spammy message requests on the platform, you’ll need to think carefully about your approach to ensure your efforts don’t land you straight in the spam folder!
Keep reading to learn how to optimize your outreach approach and land that awesome brand collaboration.
What Is an Instagram Collaboration?
An Instagram collaboration is a partnership between an influencer, creator, or brand where both parties promote something together — often via Instagram Stories, Reels, carousel posts or giveaways.
These partnerships can be paid (more common with Instagram influencers), gifted, or mutually beneficial with no payment (common in brand-to-brand collabs).
Regardless of format, every collab post should serve a goal: boosting visibility, launching a product, or creating engaging, scroll-worthy Instagram content.
Why DMs Still Work in 2025
Yes, DMs can still work, but not if you fire off a generic message like “Hey, want to collab?” That’s a fast track to the Requests graveyard.
In 2025:
Most brands filter DMs by relevance.
Spam filters are tougher.
Brands prefer meaningful partnerships, not mass outreach that will get filtered out by the algorithm.
A polished, personal DM can cut through the noise, but it also helps to pair it with a professional email or other outreach methods.
How to Pitch a Collab to a Brand on Instagram
So, you’re sold on the idea of a brand collaboration on Instagram. But how do you find the right brands to collaborate with to ensure a killer brand collaboration?
1. Select the Right Brand
First things first; for a successful brand collaboration, you must choose the right brands for you. Whether you’re a brand or an influencer, it’s critical that you understand who your audience is, including what kinds of content they like to see.
Not every brand will be right for you. Ask yourself:
Does this brand align with my content or audience?
Can I offer value beyond exposure?
Do I have a track record of relevant performance metrics?
Pro tip: Use Meta Business Suite or tools like Sked Social to analyze audience affinities and identify similar brands that align with your social media marketing strategy.
2. Write a Great Pitch (That Won’t Get Ignored)
Your brand collaboration pitch should never sound generic. It should be tailored to every single brand that you approach and include specific details on why you would be such a great fit to collaborate with the brand.
If you’re an influencer and you’re interested in collaborating with a brand, introduce yourself and talk about why you feel you have a connection with the brand. Add any quick stats demonstrating how successful you are as an influencer, such as the number of followers you have, your engagement rate, or stats about past successful posts.
Always include details on how the brands can contact you, and mention that you’ll be able to send a media kit or rates if requested.
If you’re representing a brand, keep it straightforward and suggest the campaign period dates for a brand collaboration and a general theme or idea for the collab. Even if the brand isn’t interested in collaborating with you this time, they might be interested in a collaboration in their next key sales period.
Your pitch should be concise and professional, and include all the key details without being too long. You can always send more details later on.
In summary, your pitch should include:
For influencers, don’t reveal your rates too early – you want to leave room to negotiate.
For brands, don’t reveal your full campaign idea too early. You don’t want other brands to “borrow” your ideas! In these early stages, you just want to gauge each brand’s interest.
Above all, try a personalized approach. Check the brand’s website, social media channels, and other marketing platforms, and tell them specifically how you can help them to connect better with their audience or reach new users.
3. Find the Brand’s Best Contact Details
If your DM is unopened after a week, don’t stress. It’s so easy for DM notifications to end up buried in the Instagram algorithm, and your message may also get lost in the “requests” section of a brand’s Instagram inbox. If you’re an influencer you might be checking this section frequently, but not every social media manager will do the same.
Here are a few options:
Find a contact on LinkedIn or the brand’s website and email directly. Ideally, you want to choose the brand’s Social Media Manager or Marketing Manager. If you can’t find the correct contact, you could always send a Facebook message or call the brand directly.
Use Instagram’s Creator Marketplace if you're eligible. Brands use it to find and manage creator collabs inside Instagram.
If you’re just starting out, try and contact at least 10 brands to begin with, or more if you’re working to a short lead time. Ideally, you should give brands at least two months’ advance notice in order to plan an effective campaign. Most brands will organize their social media calendar at least one month in advance, and you’ll need extra time to coordinate campaign details and create content.
4. Follow Up
Most marketing teams are juggling dozens of campaigns. It might be a busy period and you might not hear back at all, but try a friendly follow-up. Ideally, you should leave it at least two weeks before following up.
Send a polite follow-up email and ask whether the contact requires more information or if there’s any other way you could help them. If you still don’t hear back, you could always try calling, but it might be best to move on and contact another brand instead.
Remember, if you send a pitch that’s too long, too confusing, or is sent at a busy time of year, you might get ignored. Try to take all these things into consideration before pitching.
5. Finalize Your Contracts
No influencer or brand should start a brand collaboration without a contract, no matter how small the campaign is.
If you don’t have a contract template, there are plenty of downloadable options to choose from. You can also contact a lawyer and create a customized contract. It might be a large cost upfront, but you can create a contract that can be edited and reused later.
Collaborate effortlessly, save time and spend less
Why settle for a lackluster social media management tool when you could be using Sked Social? With unlimited collaborator access, streamlined approvals and advanced auto-post technology that lets you schedule to all major platforms, Sked Social offers everything you need.
Collaborate effortlessly, save time and spend less
Why settle for a lackluster social media management tool when you could be using Sked Social? With unlimited collaborator access, streamlined approvals and advanced auto-post technology that lets you schedule to all major platforms, Sked Social offers everything you need.
Finally, it’s time to execute your campaign. If you’re a micro influencer working with brands for the first time, the brand will probably dictate all of the campaign tactics. Sometimes if you’re a larger influencer or you are known for your creative direction, a brand might lean more on your skills as an experienced content creator.
7. Measure the Results
Lastly, it’s crucial that you check the results of your campaign to understand whether it’s worth the investment to try it again. Depending on your initial objectives, you might have a range of metrics to use.
There’s no need to measure all of these metrics if they’re not related to your campaign goals, however, it is important to understand the return on your investment, including the time spent organizing the campaign. Learn more about how to calculate your return on investment here. Your ROI will determine whether you run a similar collaboration again, or if you make changes to it depending on what worked and what didn’t.
What NOT to Do When Pitching for Instagram Collabs
Now that you understand how to pitch brands, let’s talk about what not to do when pitching to brands. When you’re pitching, don’t include your prices. You might have a media kit already, or simply have a strong idea of what your prices should be, but you don’t want to reveal anything upfront.
You also shouldn’t agree to work with any brand that asks you not to disclose that you’re doing a sponsored post. If you do this, you might get banned from Instagram and you could even get into legal trouble. Not only that, but you also want to remain authentic to your Instagram followers.
If you’re an influencer who has agreed to do a collaboration with a brand, be sure to check any contracts that you’re signing carefully. If necessary, get a lawyer to review it – or, at the very least, a knowledgeable friend or family member.Boost Your Brand Collaborations With Sked Social
Influencer marketing and brand collaborations can be quite time-consuming. However, if you want to be involved with viral brand collaborations like the best of them, great tools make it significantly easier to work with others and manage your social media posts.
Sked Social is an all-in-one social media management tool with powerful scheduling capabilities and advanced reporting functionality. It can provide you with unique insights, allowing you to create brand collabs using clever tactics.
Having intuitive social media management tools like Sked Social paired with well-structured processes will also make you far more attractive as a brand partner. Influencers and brands will be far more likely to collaborate with you again if you’re well-organized. Well-timed scheduled posts are also critical if you’re launching a synchronized brand collab or giveaway.
Sked Social’s social media scheduler allows you to automatically schedule posts for every major social media platform, including Instagram! Store images, schedule posts, and add hashtags, locations, product tags, or influencer tags all in one go. You’ll never have to post on a weekend again! Don’t believe us? Try it yourself by signing up with a free plan. Try Sked’s 7-day trial today.
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