How To Get On Brands PR Lists As A Small Influencer

Well Hello there, Its been a long time since I have posted hasn’t it. I can only apologise for that but TIKTOK has just consumed my life lately, I have really been enjoying posting short form beauty content and you guys seem to love it too.

Anyway I have been asked for so long by people “how do you get on PR lists as a small influencer” . I totally get why you would ask that, I wanted this answer when I first started too. I am going to explain in a lot of detail what I have done and what you can do to work with your dream brands.

I have received Urban Decay, Ciate London, Pixi, Maybelline, Max Factor, Elemis etc I have honestly been so lucky to work with these brands but I have my tips and tricks.

Lets talk about How To Get On Brands PR Lists As A Small Influencer

Be Active And Present

I have learnt so much about influencing/content creation and PR/Gifted etc. The one thing I will say is be active and present with the brand, build a relationship, message them to say hey, I love that face cream. You want them to know you, remember you so when you finally reach out they will spot you or better yet they will reach out to you.

Follow, Like, Comment on there posts/ giveaways/ reels on their Instagram and Just be up in their grill.

Something I will share what I learned is brands know if you have an interest in their products, when you reach out to them they do check if you have used their products, been actively posting and are professional.

I learnt the hard way, I reached out to a brand that I never have used or even commented on their posts. They blank right turned around and said “No, we only work with content creators that we have a relationship with” and that taught me everything that I needed to know.

So after that I connect, message, comment, like on the brands that I love and would like to work with.

Engage, Engage, Engage

You must engage with brands and post about them, now I know it is sometimes hard to buy an expensive product of theirs so you can make content but the amount of times in the beginning where I would invest in the products and I would just post the hell about them.

Make a list of the brands you want to try and add them products to your Christmas list/Birthday list.

I like to pop the notifications on Instagram of my favourite brands and engage with them every day,  I also love to engage with creators that work with those brands and sometimes you actually see where the products are being sent from, which is sometimes an agency. I then reach out and it goes from there.

Brands love it when you repost their content on your story too and on Tiktok.

Things Have Changed 

I have been in this industry since 2018 and I have noticed a huge change in content creation/PR. When I first started I use to reach out to brands and I would be told: when you reach 5k/10k please reach back out to us.

Now I work with those brands with less than 5k followers/subscribers.

I think brands are realising that a lot of bigger bloggers/influencers don’t post about their products as much because they’re super busy or they haven’t tried them yet. Whereas us smaller engaged influencers would be all over it straight away.

I have noticed brands are making affiliate/creator programs which are now giving you an opportunity to get their products in return for content creation. Such as Spectrum Collections, Elemis and Charlotte Tilbury. If you want the links, please DM me on @ITSMELISSAJAYN Instagram.

Agencies

I have done so much work this year on researching agencies that work with brands/Pr teams, I have found quite a few and that is another reason I have been able to try some amazing products. A lot of my PR comes from agencies, and then that helps you build a relationship with them and the brand because you are posting about their products.

There is a fantastic app called Skeepers which has given me so many opportunities, in return for content creation.

So many others, The Influencer Room, Influenster and Tribe.

Inbounds/Outbounds

There are Inbound emails/dms that you can receive as a content creator, where the brand/agency will reach out to you with either a gifted collab or a paid opportunity. These are the best because they have reached out to you, a lot of the time brands reach out and supply you with a form to fill out your information, then you will be sent products.

Outbounds are a lot of work, I spend about half a month on outbound emails/dms. Every now and then I write down the brands I want to work with for PR and I will email them.

The way I find their email is either google etc. “Pixi beauty pr email” and you will usually be directed to the right person, please don’t expect an answer back straight away if at all, they are super busy and sometimes you are just not the right fit for them.

Another way is I DM a brand on Instagram, If you are interested in what I say in my emails/DMs please let me know and I will share that too.

For paid collabs I actually work through a blogging company or I reach out directly to the brand, or if I am Lucky they will reach out to me.

UGC Content

UGC is a big part of my income, I have been a UGC creator for only a short time but I thoroughly enjoy it and recommend it if you want to work with brands. It is not about your following it is about what content you can create for them to use on their websites/socials.

There are so many great opportunities with UGC at the moment.

Tagging Brands

Make sure to tag the brands when you are creating content, it helps so much. I was told once by a PR Representative that they actively search up hashtags to find the creators to reach out to.

I reached out to Benefit Cosmetics once and they said please keep tagging us and we do a monthly round where we reach out.

I am really seeing a difference since starting up makeup content on TikTok, it has brought me so many opportunities. I feel like TikTok Is the place to grow at the moment, unfortunately Youtube has to took a huge step back for me because I just wasn’t seeing any growth.

I hope you enjoyed this post about how to get on brands PR Lists as a small influencer, I hope it helps and let me know what your dream brands are that you want to receive in PR?

Here is another post to enjoy: Sephora Must Have Products