This guide is written for the person doing the reaching out: a brand marketer, an in-house influencer manager, or an agent contacting creators on behalf of a roster. Below are nine outreach emails you can copy, each with the one thing you have to change before you send it. If you are on the other side of the inbox, a creator pitching a brand, the mirror guide is landing your first brand collaboration.
Templates have a bad reputation because most of them are written to sound impressive rather than to be answered. The ones below are deliberately short. Every line either tells the creator something they need in order to say yes, or it is cut.
Why most outreach emails get ignored
A creator with an engaged audience gets several of these a week and can tell within two lines whether you have watched anything they made. Four failure modes account for almost all of it.
- No specifics about them. "I love your content" is the signature of a mail merge. One real reference to a post you actually saw changes the entire read.
- No numbers. An email that hides the budget, the deliverables and the dates is asking the creator to guess. Most will not.
- Too long. Anything that does not fit on a phone screen gets skimmed, and skimming loses your ask.
- A vague question. "Would you be interested in collaborating?" is not something anyone can answer. "One Reel and two stories between the 3rd and the 5th, for a fee of X" is.
Fix those four and a plain-text email outperforms a designed one.
Three things to have ready before you send
- The offer, written down. Exact deliverables, publish window, usage rights, and a figure. If you cannot state it in one line, you are not ready to email anyone.
- A budget you can defend. A range is fine. What is not fine is discovering mid-thread that the number in your head was never approved.
- The right address. Many creators put a business address in their profile bio precisely for this. Check there, then their link-in-bio page, before falling back to a DM.
For finding addresses at volume, our top pick is ClickAnalytic: it states its database covers 400M+ public creators with 1K+ followers across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, and its site lists an email finder with mass-email campaigns and automatic follow-ups.
Email or a DM, and what goes in the subject line
Email, whenever you have the address. A DM lands in a request folder next to spam and fan messages, it caps how much you can say, and it leaves no thread either side can forward to a finance or legal team three weeks later. The rest of the deal will happen by email anyway, so start there.
A DM has exactly one good use: a two-line note asking where to send a proposal, when the profile lists no address. Keep it to that. Do not pitch inside it.
Then the subject line, which has one job: making the offer legible before the email is opened. "Paid collab with Aurea, March campaign" tells a creator what this is and whether it deserves a tap. "Collaboration opportunity" and "Quick question" tell them it is a mail merge, and both are already sitting unread further down the same inbox.
The nine outreach templates
1. First contact, paid campaign
The workhorse. Change the observation line and the numbers; leave the structure alone.
Subject: Paid collab with [brand], [month] campaign
Hi [first name],
I'm [your name], [role] at [brand]. Your [specific post or format] is
the reason I'm writing: [one line on why it fits the product].
We're running a [campaign type] for [product] in [month] and I'd like
you in it.
What we have in mind: [1 Reel + 2 stories], published between [date]
and [date], for [amount] [currency].
If that's roughly the right range, I'll send the full brief. If it
isn't, tell me your rate for that scope and I'll see what I can do.
[Your name]
[Role, brand, one link]
2. First contact, gifting with no budget attached
Use it when there is genuinely no fee yet. Say so plainly; pretending otherwise costs you the relationship.
Subject: Sending you [product]?
Hi [first name],
[Your name] from [brand]. Short version: we'd like to send you
[product], no strings, no post required.
If you like it and want to post, we'd be glad. If you'd only work on
a paid basis, say so and I'll come back when we have a budget for
[niche] creators.
Where should I ship it, and is there a [size / shade / variant] you'd
want?
[Your name], [brand]
3. Follow-up after no reply
Same thread, same subject line, never a restatement of the whole pitch.
Subject: Re: Paid collab with [brand], [month] campaign
Hi [first name],
Following up on my note from [day]. Still keen to work with you on
[campaign], and the [amount] for [deliverables] stands.
If the timing is wrong or it just isn't for you, a one-line no is
genuinely useful and I'll stop emailing.
[Your name]
4. Second and final follow-up
The closing note. Give a real deadline, then actually honour it.
Subject: Re: Paid collab with [brand], [month] campaign
Hi [first name],
Last one from me on this campaign, I don't want to clutter your inbox.
We brief creators on [date], so if you'd like a slot, reply before
then. Otherwise I'll keep you in mind for [next campaign type] and
leave you be.
[Your name]
5. Negotiating when their rate is above your budget
Negotiate the scope, not the rate. Asking a creator to discount their own price is how you lose them for good.
Subject: Re: rates for [campaign]
Hi [first name],
Thanks for the rate card. [Amount] is above what we have for this one,
so rather than ask you to discount, here's a smaller scope at your own
rate:
- [1 Reel] instead of [1 Reel + 2 stories]
- Organic only, no paid usage
- [30] days of usage rights instead of [12] months
That lands at [amount] on your published rates. If you'd rather keep
the original scope, tell me what you'd need for it and I'll take it
back to the team.
[Your name]
6. Sending the brief
The summary block matters more than the attachment. Most creators will never open the PDF.
Subject: Brief, [campaign] with [brand]
Hi [first name],
Brief attached. The short version, so you don't have to open it to
know what you're agreeing to:
- Deliverables: [1 Reel, 30 to 60 seconds, + 2 stories]
- Publish window: [date] to [date]
- Draft for review: [date], one round of feedback
- Must include: [ad disclosure], [product name spelled as X]
- Usage: [organic on your channels + brand repost, 30 days]
- Fee: [amount], paid [terms]
- Yours to decide: script, tone, edit, staging
Anything in there you'd change, say it now rather than at the draft
stage.
[Your name]
7. Confirming the deal
Send it before anyone starts filming. This is the email you will be glad exists if the campaign goes sideways.
Subject: Confirmed, [campaign] with [brand]
Hi [first name],
Confirming what we agreed, so we both have it in writing:
- [Deliverables]
- Published between [date] and [date]
- [Amount] [currency], paid [on delivery / Net-30 from invoice]
- Usage: [where, and for how long]
- Invoice to: [entity, address, tax number if any]
If that matches your notes, reply "confirmed" and I'll set up the
payment. If anything's off, flag it before you start.
[Your name]
8. Wrapping up after the campaign
The cheapest email on this list and the one most brands skip. It is what makes template 9 work later.
Subject: [Campaign] wrap, and what's next
Hi [first name],
Campaign's live and payment went out on [date]. Thank you: [the
specific thing that worked] was the part that did the heavy lifting.
On our side we tracked [what you measured], and [one honest sentence
about how it went].
We're planning [next campaign] for [month]. Want me to hold a slot?
[Your name]
9. Reconnecting with a past collaborator
Lead with the shared history, and one detail proving you remember it.
Subject: [Brand] again, [n] months on
Hi [first name],
We worked together on [campaign] back in [month, year]. [One specific
thing you remember about the content.]
We're running [new campaign] and you were the first name on the list.
Same scope as last time at [amount], or tell me what's changed on your
side since then and we'll work from there.
Still the right address for this?
[Your name]
Personalising a template without rewriting it
Every email above has exactly three fields that decide whether it works.
- The observation. One sentence naming a specific piece of their content and why it fits the product. This is the only part you cannot template, and it takes two minutes on their profile.
- The numbers. The fee, the deliverable count, the dates. Filled in, never implied.
- The exit. A clear way to say no. It raises reply rates rather than lowering them, because it makes the email read as a proposal instead of a trap.
Everything around those three fields can stay word for word across a hundred sends.
How many follow-ups, and how long to wait
Two, then stop. Wait five to seven working days after the first email, then the same again before the closing note.
Two habits matter more than the cadence. Keep every follow-up in the original thread, so your offer is one scroll away instead of a memory. And never restate the pitch: if they did not read 120 words, they will not read 200.
Where the outreach ends and the deal begins
A yes by email is not a deal. The gap between the reply and the published post is where campaigns quietly fall apart, because the scope crept, the usage rights were never agreed, or the invoice sat for 45 days.
Two things close that gap. A brief that pins the deliverables, which is exactly what template 6 compresses into an email. And terms in writing before anyone starts filming: our influencer contract template walks through what those terms should cover. If you want to compare two creators fairly before you even write, ask each for the same thing, and what a strong media kit contains tells you what to expect back.
On Spotilink, the creators you work with keep 100% of their affiliate earnings, and each recommendation is a card built by hand: their photo, their words, their promo code, and no price on the card. That page is often what you are looking at before you write the first email. A deal you agree over email can then be settled through an optional secure payment: you fund the agreed amount up front, it is held, and it is released once the deliverables are approved, with a 5% service fee plus Stripe fees on the payout. One limitation to know before you plan around it: those pages report clicks, never sales or revenue, so a campaign measured on conversions still needs your own tracking on top.
If you run outreach for a roster
Doing this for one brand is a task. Doing it for ten creators across three campaigns is a system, and the difference shows up in what you can reuse: one template set, one brief structure, one way to settle payment.
Our guide to managing a creator roster covers that workflow end to end, and the agency and manager plan is built around it: one account, a page and secured deals per creator.
In summary
Good outreach is not clever writing, it is complete information delivered fast. Name a specific piece of their content, state the deliverables, the dates and the fee, give them an easy way to say no, follow up twice and then stop. The nine templates above are the skeleton; the observation and the numbers you drop into them are what actually gets answered.