The Ultimate Guide to Cold Pitching for Art Licensing (Plus Free Templates!)
Ever wondered how to get your foot in the door with potential licensing clients? The short answer is, pitching!
If you want to get your artwork licensed, but have no idea how to get art directors to notice you, you’re in the right place! This post will cover the exact steps you need to take to successfully pitch your artwork to potential clients and get your art in front of the right people.
With the right preparation and approach, you can craft compelling pitches that grab the attention of companies looking for fresh artwork, and I’m going to show you how step by step.
I’ve written about my experience getting licensed with Target, and how I got my first licensing opportunity with Urban Outfitters, and both of these big breaks happened for me through “passive pitching.” Essentially, I put my artwork out there on sites like Society6 and Instagram where it was discovered by clients who wanted to work with me. And while this is still a viable option for getting your work found, it’s a little more difficult now than it was back in 2014.
This post is going to cover active cold pitching which is just a fancy way of saying “reaching out to companies you want to work with to show them your art.
Ready to do this? Let’s dive in!
Preparing for the Pitch
The most important part of your pitch isn’t the pitch email itself. 😱
It’s actually the preparation you do beforehand. The key to a great pitch is to make sure that you’re pitching fresh, relevant artwork to companies that are a great fit for your art.
Pitching is a numbers game, meaning you need to send out a lot of emails to get a response. But at the same time, you need to be focused on quality over quantity. 10 emails to companies that are a perfect fit for your art will be better than 100 emails sent to random companies with a generic email template.
Brainstorm The Product Categories That Are Right For You
To start, you’ll want to define the kinds of products and audiences that you think are a good fit for your artwork. Nailing this down is a crucial first step so that you can find the right companies to pitch to.
For example, you may have a lot of great floral seamless patterns in your portfolio, but if your dream collaboration is to get a greeting card line with Papyrus, you may want to shift your strategy since patterns don’t tend to work as well on standalone greeting cards – hero images with compelling copy do best in the greeting card product category. So if you’ve got a portfolio packed with seamless patterns, you may be better off pitching to wallpaper manufacturers or fabric companies since those are a better fit for floral repeats. It’s all about finding the right fit for your artwork!
You can approach this in a couple of different ways – either by considering your current portfolio and finding the right product fit for the artwork you’ve already made, or by thinking about the kinds of products and companies you want to work with and creating relevant artwork with those brands in mind.
Spend a couple hours going through your portfolio to define who your target audience is (aka who is most likely to purchase your art) and the kinds of products that your work will fit best on. This will help you determine what kind of artwork to include in your pitches and who to pitch to!
Prepare Your Portfolio
Now that you have the foundation in place, it’s time to prep your portfolio to pitch. You don’t need a massive portfolio to start pitching, but you should have at least 10 strong pieces or a cohesive collection that represents your style and capabilities. Make sure your work is high quality, consistent, and professionally presented. A well-organized portfolio showcases your best work and makes it easy for potential clients to visualize your art on their products.
Consider curating your portfolio based on the industries you’re targeting. For example, if you’re pitching to stationery brands, include designs suitable for greeting cards, journals, and planners. If you’re reaching out to textile companies, highlight seamless patterns that would work well on fabric or wallpaper.
And most importantly…
Don’t overwhelm your potential clients with too much artwork.
They want to see the best of the best. I once sent a 78-page PDF of artwork to a client and they didn’t pick a single thing even though it was hyper-relevant to what they were looking for. Simply put, I totally overwhelmed them.
I know it can be tempting to share everything you’ve got with the companies you’re pitching to, but it’s more effective in the long run to send them a curated collection of artwork that’s relevant to the products they sell.
Research Companies
The next step is to start building a list of dream clients that you want to work with! Take what you brainstormed about the products and audiences that are a good fit for your artwork, and use that to guide you as you look for companies you want to work with.
Stay Organized With a Pitch Tracker
Before you start building out your list of companies, you want to make sure that you have a clear way to organize this research. I use a pitch tracking spreadsheet to jot down the companies I want to pitch to. As you start to send pitch emails you can keep track of who you’ve reached out to, who has said yes, and who you need to follow up with.
I keep track of all this information in Airtable and you can download a copy of my Pitch Tracker here! This also includes a Google Sheet for tracking if Airtable’s not your thing. Whether you use my tracker or not, you want to make sure that you’re keeping track of the following things.
Company Name
Contact Name
Their Email
Company Website
Art submission website (if applicable)
Which artwork you pitched
When you plan to follow up
Notes about the company
I find that it’s faster to do the research all at once and gather the information in one place. Then you can spend a few hours a week going through the list and actually sending emails. You want to make sure that you’re using your time wisely. Pitching starts to get overwhelming when you go through the entire process one client at a time. When you work on different steps of the process all at once, it makes it a lot more manageable.
How to Find Companies to Work With
There are lots of different ways to find companies to pitch to:
Online Search
Start with good old Google! If you’ve determined where your art fits in the market, you can start searching specifically for companies that manufacture the kinds of products you want to get your art on.
Facebook Groups and Online Communities
Join groups for artists and surface designers where members often share opportunities and experiences with different companies. Here are a few I recommend:
In-Store Research
Walk the aisles of your favorite stores and take note of the manufacturers whose products align with your art style.
Pro Tip: If you want to work with big brands like Target, Anthropologie, HomeGoods, etc. it’s important to know that you probably won’t be pitching directly to those brands. I tried that when I first started and heard crickets in response. The reason was that those big companies work with product manufacturers rather than directly with artists. Nearly every time I’ve collaborated with a big store, it’s been through a product manufacturer, not the store itself. Moral of the story? Find out what manufacturers work with the bigger companies and pitch directly to the manufacturer.
Pro Tip Number 2: To find those manufacturers, start by wandering the aisles of your favorite store. When you find products that you want to get your artwork on, check the packaging and you’ll likely find the name of the manufacturer on there!
Build Your Dreamiest Dream List
As you’re doing this research, take note of all the companies that you would love to work with. Don’t be afraid to dream big! You want a large list of relevant companies to pull from when you’re pitching. Aim to find at least 100 companies to pitch to in this first step. It may feel like a lot, but once you get the ball rolling, you’ll be able to build this list faster than you may think!
Next, you want to do your best to find an actual person from that company to reach out to. Starting an email with “To Whom it May Concern” is a recipe for getting your email sent straight to the trash.
Do your best to address a real person at the company you’re pitching to.
Here are some job titles you can look for when trying to find the right person to reach out to:
Art Director
Creative Director
Design Director
Product Development Manager
Licensing Manager
Brand Manager
Buyer
Category Manager (specific to a product category, i.e. home decor, stationery, textiles, etc.)
When you’ve filled out your Pitch Tracker with a dream list of companies and contacts to email, the next step is to actually reach out to them!
Crafting Your Pitch Email
You’ve done the research, curated your portfolio, and are ready to start emailing!
I have a few key tips for this step:
Keep your email concise and personalized
Have a clear call to action (your #1 goal is to get them to respond)
Link to your work instead of attaching it
Let’s break it down 👇
What to Include in Your Pitch Email
Your initial email should be short and to the point. Keep it personalized as much as possible. Art directors are busy, and you’ll have a better chance of getting a response if your initial email is short and clear.
You can customize this email template if you’re not sure where to start.
Here’s a list of things to include in your first email:
Subject Line – Keep it clear and engaging (i.e. "Artwork Submission: Floral Patterns for Company Name").
Personalized Greeting – Address the recipient by name if possible.
Short Introduction – Share who you are, what kind of art you create, and why you’re reaching out. You can also include a link to your brand book here if you have one.
Relevance – Explain why your work is a great fit for their brand.
Link to Your Portfolio – Linking them to a curated selection of artwork is better than attaching it in an initial email. Attachments can cause your email to get caught in a spam filter. You can send attachments during a second interaction with a potential client, I just try to avoid it in the first email.
Call to Action – Your number one goal is to get them to respond. Ask whether they think your art is a good fit or whether they want to see more of it. Getting a response is the key to opening a line of communication. Even if your work isn’t a good fit for them right now, that doesn’t mean that it won’t be in the future. Establishing a line of communication will make it easier to reach back out to them again and get the ball rolling quicker.
Pitching Mindset Pep Talk
When pitching, it’s inevitable that you’ll get more no’s than yes’s. And more likely than no’s, you’ll get no response at all. Don’t let this discourage you. Art directors are busy and they have to make a lot of decisions every day.
Rejection isn’t a reflection of your talent. It may just be that the company is looking for very specific artwork that doesn’t fit what you shared with them. Or they may be looking for specific seasonal artwork. It’s ok to reach back out again in the future. I’ve had companies reject my work before and I’ve wound up working with them a few years later when my art aligned with what they were looking for!
Companies are ALWAYS looking for fresh new work. Just because someone didn’t say yes right now doesn’t mean that they won’t in the future.
Sometimes it feels daunting to reach out to the companies you dream of working with, but remember, art directors are people just like you, and it’s their job to find good art for their products. Reaching out isn’t bothersome, it’s actually helpful to them when your pitch is well-crafted and relevant to their products.
I hope these resources have helped you feel more confident about the pitching process. Don’t forget to download my free pitch email template and tracker here!
Happy pitching!
