How to Pitch Brands as an Instagram Creator (Templates Included)

Brands say yes to a pitch when a creator makes it obvious, in the first few lines, who watches their content, what it costs, and why the fit makes sense for that specific brand. Everything else in a good pitch exists to prove those three things faster.

Most creators skip straight to price and get ignored, or write three paragraphs about themselves and get ignored for a different reason. Brands read pitches in seconds, not minutes, and the ones that get a reply are built to be skimmed.

This guide covers what brands check before replying, how to build a media kit that answers their questions first, how to price a post by follower tier, where to find brands worth pitching, and two templates you can copy today – one for the first email, one for the follow-up almost nobody sends.

What Brands Actually Check Before Saying Yes

Before a brand replies to a pitch, someone on their team is quietly checking three things: does this audience actually look like our customer, is the engagement real or inflated, and has this person delivered results for anyone else. None of that shows up in the pitch email itself. It shows up in what the brand finds when they click through to the profile.

The audience question matters most for niche products. A skincare brand does not care how large an account is, it cares whether the followers are in the right age range, the right country, and following for the right reasons. A high engagement rate on a profile padded with giveaway followers or bots gets caught quickly by anyone who has been burned before, and enough brands have been burned that checking is now routine. That is exactly the gap between vanity metrics and metrics that hold up once a brand looks closer, and it is worth closing before you pitch rather than after a brand asks a hard question.

The third check, proof of past results, is the one creators most often skip because a first pitch has no past campaign to point to. That is fine. Early on, “past results” can mean an organic post about a similar product and how it performed, or a short note on why your specific audience already buys in this category. What a brand is really testing is whether you understand your own numbers well enough to talk about them without guessing, since a creator who can explain their audience clearly reads as lower risk than one who cannot.

Build a Media Kit That Answers Their Questions First

A media kit is the document that answers those three questions before a brand has to ask. The format that keeps working is a short PDF, two to four pages, built to be skimmed on a phone between meetings. A guide to landing Instagram brand deals puts a number on how rare this still is: by its estimate, around 95 percent of creators never put one together at all, which means showing up with one moves a pitch out of the “just a DM” pile immediately.

Four pages is enough:

• Page 1: your name, handle, niche, a one-line bio, and a professional photo
• Page 2: audience data straight from Instagram Insights or an analytics tool – follower count, engagement rate, top locations, and age range
• Page 3: what you offer and what it costs, laid out as a simple package table
• Page 4: past partnerships, results from those campaigns, and any testimonials you can quote

Page 2 is where most media kits fall apart, because a screenshot of your own Insights dashboard only shows what you claim, not what a skeptical brand can verify. An audience and engagement report pulled from outside your own account carries more weight precisely because you did not generate the numbers yourself.

How Much to Charge, By Follower Tier

Rates vary by niche, engagement, and how much a brand wants a specific creator, but there is a range worth knowing before you name a number:

These ranges track the tier breakdown published by Influencer Marketing Hub, which is worth checking directly since rates shift as ad budgets move year to year. Treat the low end as a starting point for a first deal with a new brand, not a ceiling. Once you have delivered results, the next rate card can move up.

Where to Find Brands Worth Pitching

The easiest brands to pitch are the ones already working with creators like you. Check who your niche’s other accounts are tagging in sponsored posts, since a brand that has run influencer campaigns before already has a budget and a process, rather than needing to be convinced the whole idea works.

Creator marketplaces are the second option, useful because brands post what they need and you apply directly instead of guessing who to email. Cold outreach is the third and the slowest, but it reaches brands that are not actively browsing marketplaces yet. Set expectations going in: the same brand deals guide puts cold email response rates at 1 to 5 percent, meaning 100 pitches typically bring back 5 to 10 replies and close 1 to 3 deals. That is not a sign your pitch is broken, it is what cold outreach looks like everywhere, and it is why volume and a tight template matter more than any single perfect email.

Finding the right person to email matters as much as finding the right brand. A general “info@” address routes to customer service, not marketing, and a pitch that lands there usually goes nowhere. Check the brand’s own Instagram bio for a partnerships or press link first, then their website footer for a marketing or PR contact, then LinkedIn for whoever holds a marketing, brand, or influencer title at a company that size. Smaller brands often have the founder handling this personally, in which case a direct, specific email tends to work better than a formal-sounding pitch.

What to Settle Before You Say Yes

A rate is not the whole deal. Three other terms decide whether a “yes” turns out to be worth it, and all three are easier to raise before you agree on a price than after.

• Usage rights. Can the brand reuse your content in their own ads, on their own page, or in paid media beyond your account? Each of those is worth more than a single organic post and should cost more.
• Exclusivity. Some brands ask you not to post for a competing brand for a set window. That is a reasonable ask, but it limits your other income during that period and should be priced accordingly, not thrown in for free.
• Timeline and revisions. Agree on a posting date and how many rounds of feedback the brand gets before content goes live. An open-ended “just a couple of tweaks” clause is how a single post turns into a week of unpaid back and forth.

None of this needs a lawyer for a first small deal. A short paragraph in the same email thread, confirming rate, usage, exclusivity, and posting date in plain language, is enough to prevent the most common disputes later.

The Cold Pitch Email (Template)

Fill in every bracket. A template with the brackets still showing reads as what it is.

Subject: [Your niche] creator for [Brand]’s [specific product or campaign]

Hi [Name],

I’m [Your name], I make [content type] for [audience description] on Instagram ([@handle], [follower count]). I’ve used [specific product] for [timeframe] and think it would land well with my audience because [one specific, non-generic reason tied to their brand].

My engagement rate runs around [X]%, mostly [age range] based in [top country or city]. I’ve attached a one-page media kit with rates and past results.

Would [Brand] be open to a [feed post, Reel, or bundle] around [month]? I can work within a set budget if that’s easier on your end.

[Your name]
[Portfolio or media kit link]

The Follow-Up Message (Template)

A single follow-up, sent four or five business days after the first email, is normal practice and rarely reads as pushy. Marketing inboxes are busy, and a first email getting buried says nothing about whether the brand is interested.

Subject: Re: [Your niche] creator for [Brand]’s [specific product or campaign]

Hi [Name],

Following up in case this got buried. Still keen to work with [Brand] on [specific idea], and I can adjust the format or timing if that helps it fit your calendar.

No worries at all if it’s a no for now. Happy to check back in a few months either way.

[Your name]

Common Mistakes That Get a Pitch Ignored

• Leading with your rate before showing why the fit makes sense
• Sending a bio link instead of a media kit, leaving the brand to hunt for numbers
• Pitching a brand whose customer does not match your actual audience
• Sending the same template to fifty brands with the brand name as the only change
• Ending without a clear next step, so the brand has to decide what happens next instead of you

What to Do Next

Before you send a single pitch, get the numbers on page 2 of your media kit right, because that is the page a skeptical brand actually reads. Hexrate’s creator tools pull audience quality, engagement rate, and growth into one report you can drop straight into a media kit, so the answer to “prove it” is a link instead of a scramble the night before a deadline.