Launch an influencer campaign for newsletter tools
I scroll Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube under a fresh account if I’m marketing a newsletter tool. I try to put myself in this person’s shoes: US English writer, 26-40, already bounced off Substack's discovery they never got and Mailchimp's editor they hate, watches 'Substack took a cut and gave me no readers' and 'I still write in Notes' videos on Sunday afternoon. Linger, save, like, and comment as if I were them. Once the algorithm is trained I take whoever keeps showing up. Ideally over 50k average views. Below that they quote $700 a post for 1k views. That’s a money sink.
You really need to do this for hundreds of creators a day, because the market is not efficient. Some dumb startup is paying thousands for hundreds of views. I scroll as the person who would pay for this tool on real phones. Scout is $1,500/month. We find creators. Outreach is $2,500 if I should send the emails. Dealmaker is $5,000 if I should negotiate and paper the deal. Creator fees extra. No demo. No download guarantee. I wrote the long version at How I find influencers.
Where people actually look
How I actually launch
01
Not a demographic. I write every Sunday and the tool takes a cut to show me to nobody. They already tried Substack they feel taxed by, Mailchimp they open with dread, and a Google Doc they paste into Gmail. Skip the 200k creator-economy guru whose last 10 posts are course ads about newsletters they do not send. Adjacent is 400 true fans, Sunday writing, not venture-scale media brands. Steal the brief if you want.
02
Fresh account. Real phones. Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Linger, save, like, comment as if I were them. Once the algorithm is trained I take whoever keeps showing up. Ideally over 50k average. Example: someone exporting a CSV from Substack and still not knowing where to go. Signal: the same Sunday-writing face two weeks in a row.
03
I prefer email. The contact is usually in a bio that is hello@their-tiny-site, not a talent agency. Just send a short note. Name a real video. Ask for the phone number. Don’t start the deal over email. Creator-economy gurus quote course prices for a tool mention. If they won’t give a number, move on.
04
Pay $X for N posts with a floor of Y views. An example that is easy to hold: $2000 / 4 posts / 1M views. Then send the contract while it’s still fresh. A login that sends, no migration call. Write in the box, hit send, show it in Gmail. Stop.
Why most first newsletter tools campaigns stall
01
Creator-economy gurus quote course prices for a tool mention. You needed a lot of other names so you could move on. Substack-cut rants already have the audience; a send they can do from a markdown box is the product.
02
People tag #newsletter when they want brands to find them. A database tells you who exists. Your customer lives in a feed you never opened. A 10k-growth carousel with no send.
03
Many times I have read something unprofitable like “$700 a post” from a creator that gets 50k views. On a call I can explain a Minimum View Guarantee. Over email you just get the first number. Do not ask them to promise growth. Ask them to write, send, and show the inbox.
What you actually buy
Every plan includes the scrolling. Pay more and I do more of the emailing and the paperwork. Creator pay is extra. No demo. No download guarantee. A working send they can do with 10 test subscribers tonight.
Scout
$1,500/month
We find creators.
Most people start here
Outreach
$2,500/month
We find relevant creators, and do outreach.
Dealmaker
$5,000/month
Outreach, then negotiation and contracts.
Billed monthly, cancel anytime. Creator compensation is not included. You approve every creator and every rate. Measurement is signups to a live paid or free newsletter product, unique link.
Questions
You can learn vocabulary that way. People tag what they want brands to find. I still scroll as the person who would pay for this tool on a fresh account and take whoever keeps showing up. The method essay is How we find creators by scrolling a real TikTok avatar.
No. Anyone who does is lying or running paid. I do the scrolling and, on Outreach and Dealmaker, the contacting. You still approve every creator and every rate. Talent is extra. No demo. No download guarantee.
Creator-economy gurus quote course prices for a tool mention. I want roughly 50k average views or the economics usually break. Below that, $700 a post for 1k views is a money sink. On a call I can explain a Minimum View Guarantee. Example: $2000 / 4 posts / 1M views. Over email you just get the first number. If they will not give a number, move on. If you do this right, ie at scale, you will have many other creators to choose from.
No. It is a different job. The tag is ghostwriters and growth agencies selling list-building, not a tool demo. I read the session the person who would pay for this tool actually gets served. Product page for the general job: campaigns.