Under a thousand followers, you will not get an influencer deal, and you do not need one. The first brand deal for almost everyone at this size is a UGC deal: the brand pays for a video it runs itself, and your follower count never comes up. This is the playbook for that first deal, scoped to the zero-to-1,000 tier. If you are already past that, brand deals under 10K followers picks up where this leaves off.
What a brand buys from you when it cannot buy reach
A studio shoot. A brand that wants a real-looking person using its product on camera can pay a production company, or pay you. You cost less, look more like a customer, and turn it around in days. That is the whole value, and it is why the brand's first question is "can I see examples," not "how many followers."
So the job before any pitch is making the examples.
Weeks one and two: three samples and one page
Make three to five example videos for products you already own, unpaid, in your own kitchen. Cover the formats brands buy:
- A hook: the first three seconds that stop a scroll, then the product.
- A demo: the product doing the thing, hands and voice, 20 to 40 seconds.
- A talking-to-camera review: you, a window, one honest opinion.
Same light, same setup, one afternoon. Do not buy gear first; the deal pays for the gear.
Put them on one page with a starting rate. A brand needs a link it can forward, not a DM with four attachments. The free storefront on Plug Pro is built for this, with your samples pinned, a rate, and an order button. The how to become a UGC creator guide covers the setup in detail.
Weeks three onward: ten pitches a week
Ten personalized pitches a week, each with one specific idea for that brand. Not fifty templates. Where to aim at this size:
- Brands you already buy from. "Been using this for a month" is the strongest opening line there is.
- Small, founder-run brands in your niche. The person reading the DM can say yes tonight.
- Local businesses. The café, the studio, the boutique. They get almost no pitches and the owner answers personally.
- Brands already posting creator content. They have a budget line for it. Look at their feed for videos that are clearly not studio-made.
The DM itself follows four rules: the first six words are about them, no link in the first message, one easy question, then stop. How to DM brands for collabs has five scripts. When they reply, the link goes in message two and the conversation moves to email.
Follow up once, on day four. Most first deals come from the follow-up, not the first message. One bump, one new clip attached or "sent you an email too," then move on. A third message reads as pressure.
What the first deal is worth
The same band as anyone doing UGC: $25 to $150 for one organic-use video. Do not discount because you are new; the brand is buying the video, and the video is either good enough or it is not. Two things to hold the line on even on deal one:
- Usage rights are separate. If they want to run it as an ad, that is a second line at a higher price. The rates guide has the multipliers.
- Terms in writing before you film. What you will make, by when, what they can do with it. Three sentences in the email thread is enough.
If the offer is gifted, run the four tests in gifted vs paid UGC before saying yes. Free product for a brand you love is a fair portfolio play. Free product with a deliverables list is unpaid work.
The two shortcuts that actually work
PR lists. Getting on a brand's seeding list puts product on your doorstep with no pitch at all, and the third box is the moment to ask for a rate. How to get PR packages is the playbook; free products to review covers the wider set of ways product shows up.
Local. A comped visit that brings ten people through the door is a case study nobody else has, and the second conversation is about a monthly rate. Local creators shows how those run.
After the first one
Track it. The brand, what was sent, what was agreed, when the invoice went out. A first deal that lives in a record is a second deal you can ask for; a first deal that lives in your DMs is one you will forget to follow up. That record is what Plug Pro is: outreach, deals with terms attached, invoices, one flat fee and no cut. Start free, make the three samples this week, and send ten pitches next week. The same seven steps sit on your dashboard and check themselves off; the overview is here.