Asking for brand collabs - yay or nay?

Brands emails landing in my inbox are like gold dust. Yes, it doesn’t happen very often. But when it does, it does honestly feel like Christmas has come early in the Taylor house. There’s no greater feeling than when a brand has shown interest in your blog, content and even pictures and wants to work with you. You finally feel that the hard work is paying off. From the endless hours sat in front of a laptop writing countless words on blog drafts to updating your social media channels as often as you can with promoting your posts and also updating what you’re up to in your crazy life. Believe me, it's a lot more hard work than it sounds. But I can imagine people thinking looking at social media and taking pictures is an easy job.

Sometimes the brand collabs don’t land in bloggers inboxes very often, it certainly doesn’t for me. But do you know what? Why should I have to sit back and just wait for an opportunity to turn up in my emails?! If you want something, you should go ahead and ask, right?!

The thing is, I don’t want to come across as being too pushy. Then I think, what is the harm in asking? What’s the worst they can say?! No. Then you move on. They haven’t said no because you’re crap at what you do. It more or less comes down to that maybe you’re not ideally suited to them just yet. And that’s ok - you may well be one day. But just because they turned you down, don’t bad mouth their product or stop promoting it - please, don’t be bitter. It doesn't suit you.

The first time I emailed one of my favourite brands, I was incredibly nervous. At the end of the day, it was worth a try. They didn't reply, but at least I put my name in their PR system. Whether they will keep me in mind for future work is another matter. I tried not to feel too disheartened, but it does hurt a teeny bit. But not hearing back from that brand spurred me on to work even harder on everything in my blogging work.

I became more confident in emailing brands because it hit me like a comet - the only way to get collaborations is to just simply put your name out there. If that certain brand isn’t interested, then someone else might just be. So please don’t be disheartened when a brand says no. Don’t cry into a pillow and eat chocolate until you look like Bruce out of the film Matilda. You keep working and writing and flatlaying until that day comes when you look in your inbox, see your dream brand you'd love to work with leave an email asking to work with you, well done girl/lad, you've done it.

Lucy