How to Pitch Brands as a Micro-Influencer
Who to email, what to attach, a pitch you can send this week, and how to price the first yes without giving the post away.
Waiting to be discovered works for a few people with luck and a viral week. For everyone else, the faster path is a short email to a human who already spends money on creators. Brands are not hunting mystery. Influencer Marketing Hub’s 2025 census is mostly nano and micro accounts — they have too many options. Your job is to be the easy yes: right audience, proof attached, a number on the page.
Key Takeaways
- Build a one-page media kit once. Reuse it. Do not rebuild stats in every DM.
- Pitch brands you already use, or brands already paying people adjacent to you. Cold-pitching Nike from 11K is how you collect silence.
- The email is 8–12 sentences: their product, your audience, one idea, one price range, one ask.
- Product-only is a trade, not a compliment. Past ~10K, ask for a fee or a fee-plus-affiliate. Put usage rights on a separate line.
Get the numbers out of your camera roll
Brands ask the same five things. If you have to “pull them later,” you lose the week.
One-page kit
- Niche in one sentence (“US half-marathoners who train on cheap GPS watches”).
- Followers by platform + 90-day average reach or views (Insights / Studio screenshot cropped).
- Engagement rate and the formula. See the engagement rate definition — say whether it is vs. followers or vs. views.
- Audience: top countries, age bands, any city concentration. A restaurant in Denver does not need your 40% Florida slice.
- Three links: best organic, best sponsored (or a strong organic demo if you have no deals yet), one that looks like their category.
- Rate card by deliverable: Reel, Stories, TikTok, YouTube integration, usage, Spark / Partnership Ads. Not one “sponsorship” blob.
Definitions you can copy into the footer of the kit: media kit, rate card, engagement rate.
Who is worth pitching
- Brands already in your bathroom / fridge / gym bag. You can write the first line without lying. That is the whole advantage.
- Brands paying people one notch over or under you. Open a competitor’s last 20 tags. If they paid a 22K account in your niche, they have a row in a spreadsheet for you.
- Newer DTC and regional brands. They still read a founder inbox. A 14-person skincare brand will answer faster than a conglomerate “influencer relations” alias.
Skip the fantasy list until you have two case studies. A first deal with a $4M brand you actually use is worth more than 40 unread emails to LVMH.
The email (steal this, then make it specific)
Subject: Reel idea for [Product] — [your niche], [X]K, [Y]% ER
Hi [Name] — I’ve used [product] for [specific time / specific result]. I make [format] for [audience sentence]. On Instagram that’s [followers], about [average Reel reach] reach, [engagement]% engagement (likes+comments+saves ÷ followers, last 12 posts). Audience is [top country], [age band].
Idea: a 30-second Reel where I [concrete demo], plus 3 Stories with a unique code. I can do that the week of [date]. Content fee [$X] for the Reel + Stories; 90-day organic usage +[$Y]; Spark / Partnership Ads quoted separately if you want to boost it.
Kit attached. If the range works I can send a one-page brief the same day.
If the first line could be sent to any brand, it will be read like it was.
Follow-up without becoming a pest
- Send Tuesday or Wednesday morning in their timezone.
- If no reply: day 5, two sentences, same thread, restating the idea and the fee.
- Day 12: one last note. Then archive. Pitch the next brand.
Ten researched emails beat fifty “I’d love to collab” DMs. Keep a sheet: brand, person, date, result. You will see which sentence in the opener actually works.
Do not give the post away
Free product is a transfer of inventory, not payment for labor. Under ~10K, a $60+ product plus a simple Story is still a normal first trade. At 10K–100K, most working creators take a fee, or a smaller fee plus affiliate. Counter a product-only offer with: “I can do a Story for product; a Reel needs $X plus the product.”
Usage is where people get underpaid. If they want the file in ads, that is a second product. Name a term (90 days / 6 months / 1 year) and a channel (organic only vs. paid). FTC rules still apply to you even when the brand “handles legal” — disclosure in the first line and on the video, not buried under hashtags.
After two or three yeses, raise the content fee 15–25% and stop apologizing for it. You now have proof. That is what the next brand is buying — and it is also the proof brands look for when they build an ongoing ambassador bench instead of one-off posts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a huge following to pitch?
No. Later’s 2025 brand survey found most marketers now prefer micro and mid-tier over celebrity talent. A pitch from 9,000 people who comment about trail running will beat a cold email from 90,000 who like outfit photos. Lead with the audience and a proof number (engagement, average views, a past code’s revenue if you have it), not the follower badge.
What goes in a one-page media kit?
Handle + niche sentence, follower counts and 90-day average views or reach, engagement rate with the formula you used, audience top countries and age bands from Insights, three work samples (at least one sponsored if you have it), deliverables and fees, and usage extras. Details: the media kit glossary entry. PDF or Notion is fine. A 14-page slide theme is not.
How do I price the first paid post?
Start from expected reach, not a Twitter formula. Instagram consumer CPMs in current rate guides often sit around $8–$20; TikTok a bit lower; YouTube integrations higher. Example: you average 18,000 Reel impressions. At a $14 CPM that is about $250 for the Reel before Stories, usage, or exclusivity. If your comments are unusually strong or the niche is finance/health, push up. First-time with a brand you want in the kit: you can come in at the low end of your range, not at zero.
Who do I actually email?
Not info@ and not the CEO of a public company. Look for “influencer,” “creator partnerships,” “ambassador,” or “social” on LinkedIn and on the brand’s press or careers page. Smaller DTC brands: the founder still reads creator@ or hello@. Attach the kit. CC nobody.
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