When Brands Reply to Creator Pitches: Data From 9,443 Emails
Snippet data from 9,443 creator pitches to 3,852 brands: how many replies come after a follow-up, how fast brands answer, and which contacts stay silent.
About one in three brand replies to a creator pitch comes after a follow-up. In 9,443 pitches that 105 creators sent to 3,852 brands through Snippet between February and November 2026, 32.7% of human replies arrived after at least one follow-up, and so did 44% of the replies where the brand said yes or asked for more. Half of all replies came within a day. A third follow-up produced nothing.
These numbers come from Snippet's own outreach records (Snippet internal data, 2026). Most advice on pitching brands repeats the same few surveys of marketers. This post reports what happened to real pitch emails: who answered, when, after which message, and what they said. The full method is at the end so you can judge how far to trust each number.
The short version
| Finding | Number | Sample |
|---|---|---|
| Replies that came after a follow-up | 32.7% | 205 human replies |
| Interested replies that came after a follow-up | 44% | 54 interested replies |
| Extra replies from two follow-ups, versus one email | about 50% more | 8,904 pitches at least 21 days old |
| Replies from a third follow-up | 0 | 80 third follow-ups sent |
| Replies within 24 hours | 52.2% | 205 human replies |
| Replies within 7 days | 79.5% | 205 human replies |
| Replies that pointed to a different contact | 26.3% | 205 human replies |
| Directory contacts versus researched contacts | under half the reply rate | 539 versus 8,904 pitches |
One in three replies needs a follow-up
Here is where every human reply in the data landed:
| Reply came after | Replies | Share of all replies |
|---|---|---|
| The first email | 138 | 67.3% |
| Follow-up 1 | 48 | 23.4% |
| Follow-up 2 | 19 | 9.3% |
| Follow-up 3 | 0 | 0% |
The share is higher for the replies that matter most. Of the 54 replies where a brand said it was interested, wanted details, was ready to move ahead or started negotiating, 24 came after a follow-up. That is 44%.
To check that this is not an artifact of newer pitches, we looked only at pitches sent at least 21 days before the data was pulled, which gives every follow-up time to land. In that group of 8,904 pitches, two follow-ups lifted the total number of replies by about half compared with the first email alone.
A brand that does not answer your first email has not said no. Marketing inboxes are busy, and a pitch that arrives in a launch week gets buried. Our follow-up guide has message examples that add something new each time.
Two follow-ups, then stop
The second follow-up still earned 9.3% of all replies. The third earned none. Only 80 pitches reached a third follow-up, so treat that as a small sample, but the drop from follow-up 1 to follow-up 2 points the same way.
A cadence that matches the data:
- Send the pitch.
- Follow up about a week later with something new: a sharper content idea, a relevant result, or a recent post that fits the brand.
- Follow up once more about a week after that.
- Close the thread. Move to a different contact at the brand if you have one.
Stop the sequence the moment a person replies, even if the reply comes from a different address. A follow-up sent after a brand already answered looks careless.
Most replies come within a day, slow ones come later
| Time from pitch to reply | Share of replies |
|---|---|
| Within 24 hours | 52.2% |
| Within 3 days | 62.4% |
| Within 7 days | 79.5% |
The median reply took 17.6 hours. Replies to the first email were much faster, with a median of 1.5 hours. When someone is interested and sees your email, they often answer right away. The slow replies are mostly the ones that needed a follow-up to resurface the thread.
In practice: if a week has passed with no answer, the first email has done most of what it will do. That is the time to follow up, not to keep waiting.
A quarter of replies point you to someone else
| What the reply said | Share of replies |
|---|---|
| Interested, wants details, or ready to move ahead | 26.3% |
| Talk to a different person or team | 26.3% |
| No, not right now, or please stop | 32.7% |
| Unclassified | 14.6% |
One reply in four was a redirect: "I'm not the right person, try our partnerships lead," or a forwarded thread. Those replies are easy to file as a dead end. They are a warm introduction. Write to the new contact the same day, mention who sent you, and keep the original pitch short. Our guide to finding the right contact covers what to do when the first address is wrong.
A clear no is useful too. It closes the loop, and "not right now" often comes with a timing hint worth noting for next quarter.
Generic brand inboxes reply less
Pitches sent to addresses from a general brand directory got replies less than half as often as pitches sent to contacts found by researching the brand's own marketing or partnerships team (539 directory pitches versus 8,904 researched ones).
The reason is plain. A shared inbox or an outdated directory address reaches someone who has no budget and no reason to forward you. A named person on the influencer or partnerships team owns the decision. Spend the extra few minutes finding that person before you write. If a pitch bounces, our bounced pitch guide shows how to find a working address.
Send time barely matters
We compared reply rates by the weekday and the hour each pitch was sent. The differences were small and rested on a few dozen replies per bucket, so none of them hold up as a "best time to pitch." Sunday and Wednesday did slightly better than Thursday in this sample, but not by enough to plan around.
What moved replies far more: following up, and reaching the right person. A clear first email helps too; our brand outreach email template covers the structure.
Bigger audiences get more replies, but small creators still get answers
Creators with 100,000 to 500,000 followers got replies about 1.8 times as often as creators with 1,000 to 10,000 followers. The direction held across every tier with enough creators to compare. Brands do answer small creators, and the follow-up pattern above applied at every size. If you have a smaller audience, the small creator pitching guide covers how to make the pitch about fit rather than reach.
How we measured this
- Source: Snippet's production outreach records, read with a read-only query on November 8, 2026. Only aggregate counts were pulled. No names, email addresses, brand names or message text were read for this post.
- Pitches: 9,443 emails sent from creators' own Gmail accounts through Snippet between February 13 and November 8, 2026, by 105 creators to 3,852 distinct brands. Internal and test accounts are excluded, and 287 bounced sends are excluded.
- Replies: a human reply recorded on the pitch thread. Out-of-office messages, bounces, mailing-list mail and other automatic replies are excluded. A reply that points to another contact counts as a reply.
- After a follow-up: a reply counts as coming after a follow-up when at least one follow-up in that thread was sent before the reply was recorded. A reply that was detected late can be attributed to a later message than the one it answered.
- Follower tiers: each creator's current total followers across connected platforms, not the count on the day each pitch was sent.
- Limits: 105 creators is a modest sample, and a few creators sent a large share of the pitches. Every pitch was written and sent with Snippet, so results can differ for hand-written outreach. We report shares and comparisons, with the sample size next to each one, and we will update this page as the data grows.
Frequently asked questions
How many brand replies come after a follow-up? In Snippet data from 9,443 creator pitches, 32.7% of human replies came after at least one follow-up. For interested replies the share was 44%.
How long do brands take to reply to a creator pitch? The median was 17.6 hours. 52% of replies arrived within 24 hours and 79.5% within 7 days.
How many times should I follow up on a brand pitch? Two times, about a week apart. The first follow-up produced 23.4% of replies, the second 9.3%, and a third produced none across 80 sends.
Does the day or time I send a pitch matter? Not much. Weekday and hour differences were small and statistically weak.
What do brands say when they reply? 26.3% were interested, 26.3% pointed to a different contact, 32.7% declined or asked to stop, and 14.6% were unclassified.
Are generic brand contact emails worth pitching? They reply less than half as often as contacts found by researching the brand's own team.
Aayush Upadhyay
Co-founder, Snippet
Building Snippet, the AI talent agency that helps content creators land brand deals without agencies. Previously scaled creator partnerships at multiple startups. Obsessed with using AI to democratize talent management for the 32 million mid-tier creators who deserve better representation.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many brand replies come after a follow-up?
In Snippet data from 9,443 creator pitches sent between February and November 2026, 32.7% of human replies came after at least one follow-up. For interested replies the share was 44% (24 of 54). Creators who stop after one email miss about a third of the replies they would have received.
How long do brands take to reply to a creator pitch?
Across 205 human replies in Snippet data, the median wait was 17.6 hours. 52% of replies arrived within 24 hours and 79.5% within 7 days. Replies to the first email were faster, with a median of 1.5 hours, because slower replies usually come after a follow-up.
How many times should I follow up on a brand pitch?
Two follow-ups. In Snippet data the first follow-up produced 23.4% of all replies and the second produced 9.3%. A third follow-up produced no replies across 80 sends. Space them about a week apart and add something new each time.
Does the day or time I send a pitch matter?
Not much. In Snippet data, reply rates by weekday and by hour moved within a narrow band and the differences rested on a few dozen replies each. Picking a send day matters far less than reaching the right person and following up.
What do brands say when they reply to a pitch?
Of 205 human replies in Snippet data, 26.3% were interested, 26.3% pointed the creator to a different contact, 32.7% declined, said not right now or asked to stop, and 14.6% were unclassified. One reply in four is a redirect, so a reply naming someone else is a lead to follow.
Are generic brand contact emails worth pitching?
Less than researched contacts. In Snippet data, pitches to addresses taken from a general brand directory got replies less than half as often as pitches to contacts found by researching the brand's own marketing team (539 versus 8,904 pitches).