Why your cross-promo pitch sucks (and how to fix it)
How to successfully pitch cross-promotions to bigger creators without sounding entitled, irrelevant, or completely out of your depth.
Hi,
Every month, I get an avalanche of emails about cross-promotion. There’s not a week that goes by when someone from LetterGrowth or a similar outreach platform hits me up with the same message:
“We should cross-promote!”
I get why they are reaching out. I have around 40,000 newsletter subscribers so it makes sense that a lot of people want to promo with me, even if there’s no earthly reason why they should.
I’m not trying to be mean, but I’ll look at their newsletter, see they have 800 subscribers, and a completely different niche, and just... sigh.
I respect the ambition and the hustle, but the disconnect is unreal. You want to punch out of your weight class, awesome. Game recognize game and hustle respect hustle, but you’re going about it all wrong.
Most pitches I get fail for the same three reasons. If you’re sending cold outreach to someone with a bigger platform than yours, there’s a good chance you’re doing at least one of these wrong.
❌ Problem #1: You're Asking Without Offering Anything
If I have 50x your audience, you're not offering me a fair trade. What you’re really doing is asking for a favor, especially if you offer a straight 1:1 swap. It’s fine to ask for favors. I do lots of favors for people, but if you’re going to ask for a favor, you’d better make it easy to say yes.
Bad pitch example:
“I’ve got 1,200 subs. Let’s swap promos.”
That’s not so much a swap as a leverage imbalance. It’s like offering a paperclip in exchange for a used car, and that’s a hard no.
So if you’re asking for a cross-promo, you need to offer more. Way more.
This might mean:
Writing the copy yourself
Sending multiple emails to your list
Promoting on socials
Offering design assets
Giving something exclusive to my audience
When I reach out to someone bigger than me, I don’t say, “Let’s swap.” I say, “Let me do all the work. Here’s what I’ll give your readers. Here’s how I’ll support it.”
❌ Problem #2: You're Not Genre-Aligned (or Audience-Aligned)
Even if you have a comparable list size, if your content is completely unrelated to what I send to my audience, it’s still probably not going to happen.
Your content might be valuable, but it also has to be valuable for my people. I’m not going to promote something that doesn’t serve them, even if you have a million subscribers.
Want to work outside your niche? You have to tell me why it makes sense. Connect the dots. I’m not going to do that work for you.
Why does this help my audience?
How does this tie into what I already talk about?
What’s the angle that makes this work?
Because if you don’t tell me, I’m not going to make that leap for you.
❌ Problem #3: You Haven’t Even Looked at How I Promo
I don’t usually run ads in my newsletter, especially not for other people’s stuff. I don’t often do solo recommendations unless we are really aligned. I rarely plug someone else’s work.
But I do run guest posts all the time. I promote other people by giving them a platform to write something valuable for my readers. If you want to pitch me, and your entire ask is built around a format I never use, then it’s clear you didn’t read anything I send out.
If you don’t know my format, my rhythm, or my boundaries, why would I trust you with my audience?
So How Do You Punch Out of Your Weight Class The Right Way?
You can absolutely work with people who are ahead of you in their journey. I’ve done it. I still do it, but I do it strategically. When I reach out, I come with something strong.
If you want to pitch someone with a bigger platform than yours, here’s how to actually stand a chance.
