For many bloggers the opportunity to work with brands you know and love can be an exciting prospect, yet it can also be a bit daunting if this is your first time. So, here are five key tips that you need to know as a blogger who wants to work with brands:
1. Respect the opportunity, if you decide to accept the offer to work with a brand then you are entering into a contract. You are as responsible in carrying out this work as you would be going out to a job in the ‘real world’. Ensure you carry out all you agreed to, make sure you are prompt and stick to deadlines.
2. Don’t be afraid to say no. Sometimes you will be contacted by brands that you may not want to work with. Perhaps they are not a brand you feel suit your blog, even if it is the same theme such as a fashion brand for a fashion blog we all have different tastes. For example if you only blog about vintage you may not wish to feature a high street store. So long as you are polite, no offence will be taken for turning someone down.
3. Communicate with the brand. If you have some other ideas which you think they may be interested let them know. Be it improvements for the project you are discussing or ideas for the future it doesn’t do any harm to be enthusiastic.
4. Be honest. This is especially necessary for reviews, be it for a product or website, giving your true feelings is important. But you also need to be fair, if you feel you cannot write a good review email the company and explain why first. This is a courtesy to the brand you are working with and is respectful. It may be something that they can fix, give them chance to redeem themselves. Of course it is up to you if you still wish to publish a bad review, but personally I would rather return the product and decline to publish anything.
5. Give everything 100%. Even for the very small jobs, if I accept then I give it my absolute best. I have seen some of the same promotions I have done on other blogs – many brands like to get a lot bloggers on board to do the same promotion. Of course we all do things in our own style but I have cringed upon seeing a post that has involved little effort. The proof is in the pudding as they say and I know that I get repeat jobs because my work is of high quality be if for ‘chips or caviar’.
The most important thing to remember throughout all of this is to enjoy it. I am sure we all started our blogs because we wanted to share something we enjoy. If you aren’t having fun anymore then you need to reassess what you are doing. Don’t feel pressured to work with brands if it isn’t for you. But if it is it can be a great opportunity for you and the brands you work with.
Pearl Westwood is a fashion journalist and editor of the fashion and style blog Fashion Pearls of Wisdom. Pearl writes about her own personal style journey and ridculous obsessive behavior in the quest to have the perfect wardrobe. Enjoying all aspects of fashion Pearl offers her styling tips which have been seen in Grazia magazine and most recently she has worked with TJ Maxx styling up their summer collection. It isn’t just modern fashion either you will find features on FPOW which delve into the history of fashion and tons of posts on vintage clothes too.
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HI- I was very interested in this post and I find it quite encouraging. My difficulty has been to answer a company which approached me and asked me how much I would charge for a review or for a mention or for a link on my blog. I have been blogging for 2 years now and so far only had one serious company contacting me with the offer to provide a giveaway gift to my readers. I never managed to review the actual product as I live out of the STates and this was a US company which does not ship out of the US.
I would love to hear your suggestions. Many thanks.
Marika
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