How micro influencers get paid partnerships, from templates for reaching out to brands for collaborations to media kits

The creator economy has grown so much there are now different tiers — nano influencers, micro influencers, macro influencers, and more. The micro-influencer tier in particular is rapidly expanding its earning potential as people with a few thousand followers are being offered lucrative collaborations with brands like Adidas, Banana Republic, and Toyota.

Micro influencers are generally defined in the industry as those with up to 100,000 followers on a social-media platform like TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube. Many brands have gravitated toward these kinds of influencers because they often have high engagement rates and charge less to partner with than celebrities.

Insider recently spoke with 21 micro influencers, who broke down the top brands they work with.

Read about 7 top brands to pitch as a micro influencer, from Dunkin' to Mejuri.

Lillian Zhang, a micro influencer whose content focuses on college and early-career job advice, landed her first paid deal when she had only 10,000 followers. Before reaching out to brands, she thoroughly researches them to figure out how her content fits in with their values and assess how much she can earn.

"If you don't have a strong grasp on these concepts beforehand, it is very easy to get lowballed," she previously told Insider.

She uses TikTok, where she's amassed around 30,800 followers, to message brands she wants to work with.

Take a look at the exact DM she used to get her first paid brand deal and her advice for pitching.

While DMing on a social-media platform is the preferred method of outreach for some influencers, others have created their own media kits, which are documents that often include information like engagement data, previous collaborations and press, and a biography. It's such a popular tool among influencers that last year, Instagram announced it would let some users build media kits within the social-media platform.

Twenty-two-year-old Jour'dan Haynes used a simple, one-page media kit to land her first paid collaboration when she had 2,000 followers on Instagram. She's since grown her platform to 6,000 followers, expanded her kit to three pages, and collaborated with brands like Burger King and Garnier.

Browse the exact 3-page media kit she attaches when emailing brands.

Other creators have email templates they customize based on the brand and what they want the partnership to look like.

Julie Tecson, who's built a following of 7,100 Instagram followers, curated three different email templates — one for a personal project, one for an event, and one for a design project. She said it was pretty easy to explain why companies preferred working with micro influencers like her over those with millions of followers.

"If a brand can have a small creator make them an amazing TikTok video in exchange for just one product, that's way cheaper than hiring out a whole studio to make them video content," she previously told Insider.

Here are the different templates she uses for herself and other clients.

Insider spoke with 19 micro influencers who have pitched brands and landed paid collaborations using various templates and documents.

Micro influencer media kit examples: 

• Stacy Kim, a travel and fashion micro influencer with around 3,600 Instagram followers. She created a 1-page media kit to send to companies.
• Jour'dan Haynes, a lifestyle micro influencer with around 6,000 Instagram followers. She has a 3-page media kit she uses to pitch to brands.
• Kayla Compton, a micro influencer with around 7,400 YouTube subscribers. Her 8-page media kit includes her past brand deals.
• Jen Lauren, a micro influencer with around 8,000 YouTube subscribers and 5,500 Instagram followers. She shared her 3-page media kit.
• Laur DeMartino, a micro influencer with around 7,000 Instagram followers and 4,500 YouTube subscribers . She created a 9-page media kit to showcase her value  to brands.
• Tess Barclay, a micro influencer with around 35,600 YouTube subscribers and 7,400 Instagram followers. She sends a 1-page media kit to land deals.
• Justine Jakobs, an adult micro influencer with around 36,000 OnlyFans subscribers. Here's the 4-page media kit she uses to pitch brands.
• Blake Newby, a micro influencer with around 46,200 TikTok followers. She created a 7-page media kit to land paid partnerships.
• Paulina Perez, a lifestyle micro influencer with around 55,000 TikTok followers and 7,000 Instagram followers. She used this 2-page media kit to pitch herself.
• And 5 influencers shared the case studies of past brand deals they include in their media kits.

Email templates creators use to pitch brands:

• Jack Betts, a micro influencer with around 5,500 Instagram followers. He shared the email template that he also includes a resume in.
• Julie Tecson, a micro influencer with around 7,100 Instagram followers. She has different email templates for different purposes.
• Gigi Kovach, a micro influencer with around 13,500 Instagram followers. She uses this email template to pitch brands.
• Emma Cortes, a micro influencer with around 73,000 Instagram followers. Here is the email template she used to start landing paid collabs.

How influencers DM brands on social media:

• Jalyn Baiden, a micro influencer with around 6,000 Instagram followers. Here is a DM template she recommends using to catch a brand's attention.
• Lillian Zhang, a micro influencer who has around 30,800 TikTok followers. Here's the DM she used to land her first paid brand collaboration.
• Ayomi Samaraweera, a micro influencer who has around 22,800 TikTok followers. She used this exact DM to land her first paid deal with only 2,000 followers.
• Ashley Jones, a micro influencer with around 58,000 Instagram followers. She shares advice on the best way to DM a brand on Instagram.

Other types of documents creators use for brand deals:

• Florence Williams, a micro influencer with around 14,000 Instagram followers. She shares the 14-page "proposal" document she uses to pitch.
• Kristen Bousquet, a micro influencer with around 24,500 Instagram followers. She sends the brand an 8-page wrap-up report so they'll work with her again.