How to pitch a brand when you're under 10k followers
Small accounts land deals too. A pitch that leads with engagement, not size.
Brands don't only buy reach — a lot of them are specifically looking for what a small, engaged account can offer that a huge one can't: a real relationship with a specific audience. The pitch that works under 10k followers is different from the pitch that works at 500k, and trying to imitate the big-account pitch is the most common reason small creators get ignored.
Lead with who's actually listening, not how many
A brand doesn't need to know you have 8,000 followers. They need to know those 8,000 people are, say, home cooks who buy kitchen gear, or new parents actively researching products, or freelancers who trust your recommendations enough to act on them. Specificity about your audience is worth more at this size than the follower count itself — it's the thing a bigger, vaguer account can't easily claim.
What to actually put in the pitch
- Who your audience is, in concrete terms — not demographics from a media kit template, but what they care about and why they follow you specifically.
- A real engagement number, not just followers: average comments, saves, or replies per post. At this size, a strong engagement rate is your best evidence.
- One or two examples of content that performed well and is relevant to the brand's category — screenshots, not just links.
- A specific idea for what you'd make, not "let's collab." Brands respond to a pitch that's already halfway to a brief.
Where to find brands worth pitching
- Brands you already use and post about unprompted. You have more leverage here than you think — genuine prior mentions are proof, not a cold pitch.
- Smaller or newer brands, not just the obvious big names. They often have more flexible budgets and are more willing to test with smaller creators.
- Brands whose other creator partnerships look like yours in size — check who else they've worked with; if it's all accounts at your scale, that's a strong signal they're open to it.
What to ask for
At this size, don't lead with a rate card — lead with a range, or ask what their budget is. Product-only deals are common and fine early on, but know your own floor: your time producing the content has a cost even if the product is free. If a brand offers product-only for content that would genuinely take you several hours to make well, it's fair to counter with a modest fee, or scope the deliverable down to match what product-only is actually worth.
Following up matters more than the first email
Most brand contacts don't respond to a first pitch — not because they're uninterested, but because pitches get buried. A single polite follow-up after a week, with a small addition (a new example, an update), often gets the response the first email didn't.
The account that actually matters
Brands working with small creators are usually optimizing for authenticity and cost, not reach. Your job in the pitch isn't to sound bigger than you are — it's to make it obvious you're the right specific audience for their specific product. That's the advantage a 500k account genuinely doesn't have.