How to Get Your First Brand Deal (Even With a Small Following)

You can get your first brand deal with a small following by sending a short pitch backed by three sample videos to brands that already pay creators. Most first deals at this level are UGC deals: the brand pays you to make a video, and they run it on their own channels. For that kind of deal the thing being bought is your video, so the quality of your samples matters far more than your follower count.

The process below is built for people with a few hundred or a few thousand followers. It takes about a week to set up and then runs on volume: you send a small number of pitches every day, follow up twice, and learn from the replies. No income is guaranteed, and early deals are often small or product-only, but this is the shortest route from zero to a paid yes.

Do you need followers for a first brand deal?

Not as many as you think, and for UGC-style work, often none. Brands that buy creator content for their own ads care about whether you can make a video that stops the scroll, not how many people follow you. Creator-education guides repeatedly say brands screen on content quality, niche fit, reliability and portfolio. Those are things you can improve this week.

Followers matter more in a different kind of deal: influencer posts, where the brand pays to reach your audience. There, engagement rate and audience fit decide the price. If you want that route later, our guide to how to get brand deals covers rates and negotiation. This post stays focused on the first yes.

• UGC deal: you make the video, the brand posts or advertises with it. Your audience is irrelevant. Your samples are everything.
• Influencer deal: you post to your audience. Follower count, engagement and audience fit are the price drivers.
• Gifting or product-only: a free product for a post. Fine as a portfolio builder, but know it is not income.

Start with UGC. It has the lowest barrier, and every UGC video you finish becomes a portfolio piece for the next pitch.

Build a 3-video portfolio first

A brand cannot hire you on faith. They need to see what you would make for them. You do not need past clients to build that proof. You need three short videos, made with products you already own or can borrow, that look like the ads brands already run.

1. Pick a niche you can speak about. Skincare, kitchen tools, fitness gear, desk setups, pet products. One niche makes your samples look consistent and your pitch easier to write.
2. Choose three products you own. Different product types show range: one you hold and demo, one you use in a routine, one with a before-and-after.
3. Hook in the first two seconds. Show the product or state the problem right away. No logo animations, no slow intros.
4. Keep each video 15 to 30 seconds. One product, one benefit, one clear call to action at the end.
5. Shoot vertical, in daylight, with clean audio. A phone, a window and a quiet room are enough. Bad sound loses more deals than a small following does.
6. Put all three in one link. A private Google Drive folder, a Notion page, or a one-page portfolio. Make sure it opens without a login.

Do not wait for perfect. Three decent videos you send this week beat ten perfect ones you finish next month. If you want to see what strong samples look like, our guide to UGC portfolio examples breaks down formats, but you can start with what you have.

Pick 30 brands that already pay creators

Cold pitching works best when you pitch brands that already buy creator content. They have a budget line for it and a process, so you are not convincing them the category exists. Your job is to find thirty of them.

The Meta Ad Library is the easiest place to start. It is public and searchable by keyword, and it shows the ads a brand is running right now. Search a keyword from your niche, such as a product type, and open the advertisers that come up. Look for ads that look like creator videos: someone talking to camera, a phone-shot demo, a testimonial. A brand running those ads is buying UGC.

• Look for several creator-style ads from one brand. Brands that test many versions need a steady supply of new videos.
• Check how long an ad has been running. Some guides suggest that ads running for a month or more point to a funnel the brand is happy with. Treat it as a signal, not proof.
• Favour small and mid-size brands. A solo founder replies to a DM. A large brand routes everything through an agency or a creator platform.
• Check the brand's own page. Some brands have a creator or partnership page with a contact email, which beats a DM.

Put the thirty into a simple sheet: brand, product, contact (email or Instagram handle), date pitched, follow-up dates, reply. The sheet is what keeps you from pitching the same brand twice or losing track of day-three follow-ups.

Find the right person, too. For a small brand it is usually the founder or a marketing manager. For a larger one, look for a creator partnerships or influencer marketing role on LinkedIn or the brand's contact page. A message to the right person once is better than five to a generic inbox.

The 4-line pitch

Brands get a lot of pitches. The ones that get answered are short, specific and easy to say yes to. Use four lines.

1. Their product. Show you looked. "I've been using your [product] for [time] and the [specific detail] is the part I'd build a video around."
2. Your idea. One concrete video concept. "I'd shoot a 20-second routine video that opens with [problem] and ends on [result]."
3. Your samples. "Here are three examples of my work: [link]."
4. Your price. "A single video with [number] revisions is [your price]."

Naming a price in the first message sounds scary, but it saves a round of back-and-forth and signals that you treat this as work. If you are unsure what to charge, start from the lower end of typical UGC rates and raise it as your samples and results improve. Our UGC rate card guide goes through the numbers.

A pitch that fits in four lines can be sent as an email or a DM. Email is usually better for brands with a visible contact address, since it can be forwarded internally. Instagram DMs are fine for small brands where the founder runs the account.

What to avoid in a pitch

• Long introductions about yourself. Lead with their product.
• "Collab?" or "I'd love to work with you" with no idea attached.
• Asking for free product before you have shown samples.
• Attachments that need to be downloaded. Use a link.
• Mass-copied text with the wrong brand name in it. It happens, and it ends the conversation.

Follow up on day 3 and day 7

Most pitches get no answer, and that is rarely a no. People are busy, inboxes are noisy, and a short note near the top of the inbox on a quieter day gets read. Following up is not pushy, it is part of how this works.

1. Day 3: reply to your own message with one line. "Following up on this. Happy to send a custom hook for [product] if useful."
2. Day 7: a last note with something new. A fresh sample, a specific idea, or a quick compliment on a recent ad of theirs. Then stop, and move the brand to your "revisit in 60 days" list.

Keep a count. If you send five pitches a day for two weeks, that is roughly seventy pitches. Even with a low reply rate, that is enough volume to start learning which subject lines, ideas and prices get answered. Adjust one thing at a time so you know what caused the change.

Apply to open campaigns

Cold pitching is one road. The other is applying to briefs that brands have already posted. Creator marketplaces and campaign boards list campaigns with a product, a deliverable and a budget, and creators apply with a short note and samples. The brand has already said they want creators, so there is no convincing to do.

Run both in parallel. Spend your mornings on cold pitches and a few minutes a day applying to open campaigns that match your niche. With Elev8or Collabs, you can browse brand campaigns and apply from one place, and your samples link works for every application.

What to do when you get a yes

1. Confirm the deliverable in writing. Number of videos, length, format, revisions and due date.
2. Confirm the usage rights. Where the brand can use the video, for how long, and whether they can run it as a paid ad. Some guides recommend limiting rights to three to six months instead of granting unlimited usage for free.
3. Agree payment terms before you shoot. Amount, due date and how it is sent. For a first deal, an invoice with clear terms is enough.
4. Disclose the partnership if you post it on your own account. Use the platform's paid partnership label where it applies.
5. Deliver early and ask for a testimonial. A short quote from the brand is the best line in your next pitch.

Common reasons first pitches fail

• Samples do not match the brand. A skincare brand will not hire you on the strength of a gaming setup video.
• No price. The reader has to guess whether you are affordable, so they do nothing.
• Only one touch. One message and done means most of the brands never see it.
• Pitching too few brands. Five pitches is a test. Fifty is a pipeline.
• Stopping after the first no. A no from one brand says nothing about the next twenty-nine.

A realistic first two weeks

Days one to three: shoot your three samples and put them in one link. Days four and five: build your list of thirty brands and write your four-line pitch. From day six: send five pitches a day, log them, and follow up on the right day. By the end of week two you will have sent about seventy pitches, followed up on most, and have real replies to learn from. That is a pipeline, and a pipeline is what produces a first deal.

What you do not have is a promise. Some creators land a deal in the first batch, others need a second round with better samples. Treat the first two weeks as the test, change what the replies tell you to change, and keep sending.