This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Oh, hey there listeners. Welcome back to Side Hustle School. This is your host, Chris Guillebeau. Been making this podcast every single day, seven days a week. And of course, if you've been around for a while, you know it's all about helping you turn your passion into an income generating opportunity.
Now today's question from a listener, Sophia, is no exception. She has been working on her hustle, selling handmade pet bandanas. A couple of other things, some other pet merchandising products, but I just kind of picked up on pet bandanas, also collars, also leashes. Well, she'll get into that. But she's been struggling to find the right marketing approach to take her business to the next level.
Specifically, she's tried a couple of strategies like reaching out to pet influencers, but she's not seeing the results she's hoping for. So we're gonna focus specifically on that part of the question because, you know, if you listen to people give advice, you often hear things like, "Oh, just reach out to some famous people." You know, find those influencers and they can magically help you increase your sales. But of course there's more to it. So let's see what we can do to help Sophia boost her sales and make this pet bandana business more of a success. Stay tuned for her question and my answer.
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Hi, my name is Sophia and I live in Austin, Texas. I saw you at Book People a few years ago and I hope you'll return for the next tour. As for me, I've been running a side hustle selling custom-made pet accessories like collars, leashes, and bandanas. I'm interested in partnering with pet influencers and bloggers to reach a broader audience and boost my sales. How can I approach and collaborate with influencers in the pet industry to promote my products?
What kind of partnerships and deals should I consider to ensure both parties benefit from a collaboration? I've tried sending some DMs, but most people don't write back. [Music]
Hey, Sophia. So as I mentioned in the introduction, let's just focus on the question, the part about approaching pet influencers and bloggers. And by the way, yes, I definitely will be at Book People for my next tour.
Should be coming up in August and September. Very excited about that, so hopefully I'll see you there. So focusing on that question, what do you do when people don't write back? Like you're pitching one of these influencers/bloggers/whoever, and you've got an idea for a partnership, but you're just kind of struggling with sending a bunch of messages and not really hearing back. Or maybe better, like how can we improve the odds of someone writing back in the first place?
So two things that are kind of connected. So I would say, understand that it is somewhat a numbers game, like not everybody can or will be responsive. That's just the reality of the world that we all live in. And I mean, I think sometimes people have written to me and I have been responsive and other times I haven't been. And it's not necessarily a reflection of the person's idea or pitch.
It's often just like how busy I am, right? Or like the capacity that I have. So understand it's somewhat a numbers game. Nevertheless, a few things. You're doing a lot of social media.
I would reach out on that person's website, like through email or the contact page in addition to social, just because it's kind of a one more channel, maybe feels a little bit more formal if the informal contact isn't working. Just be careful not to overdo that. Like if you write to somebody in one place and give it some time before you write to them in somewhere else, sometimes you get messages in like three or four different inboxes and that can be overwhelming. But it's not a bad thing if you don't hear back at first. If you can ask for introductions, as you're meeting different people and kind of building up relationships in this world, that goes a long, long way.
If somebody says to somebody else, "Hey, Sofia's got this cool brand," might be a fun little win-win partnership. And also just focusing on the win-win, whether it's through introductions or your own pitches, focus on the benefit. Like why is this important? Why is this helpful to somebody else and to their audience? So whatever you can do to both kind of be benefit focused and also make it as easy as possible for the other person to reach back out or to help you in some way.
And people do like to help. It doesn't always have to be like, "Here's why it's only good for them." Like as I said, win-win, it's okay. If you do these things and you keep doing them, I really do think you're gonna have much more success over time. Sometimes also you have written to somebody and you never heard back, but then later, the relationship gets sparked in some way and that initial contact may not have been a bad thing. So focus on the long-term.
I would love to see these pet bandanas and colors and leashes in Austin or somewhere else. So good luck. I'm wishing you well. I'm cheering you on. Listeners, if you have a question or an idea or something you're working through, sidehustleschool.com/questions.
We'll continue to feature them each week along with updates from other listeners as they launch their projects. Thanks for being out there. You're awesome. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
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From the Onward Project.
