Launch an influencer campaign for specialty coffee roasters
I scroll Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube under a fresh account if I’m marketing a specialty coffee roaster. I try to put myself in this person’s shoes: the client's customer is US English, 24-38, already bounced off a grocery 'reserve' bag and a subscription that tasted like the last one, watches 'this grocery bag is stale' and home-grinder videos at 6:30am. 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 already have the client. You keep the retainer. I scroll Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube as your client's customer 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 pay is 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. The bag says reserve and the date is last season. They already tried a grocery reserve bag, a boring subscription, and a cafe they cannot visit every morning. Skip the 500k cafe-hopping creator who will never brew the client's bag. Adjacent is 6:30am grind, stale-bag rage, not cafe interiors for clout. 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 opening a grocery bag with a roast date from last season. Signal: the same 6:30am grind face two weekdays.
03
I prefer email. The contact is usually in a home-brewer bio, often a gmail, not a cafe PR kit. Just send a short note. Name a real video. Ask for the phone number. Don’t start the deal over email. Cafe-hoppers quote travel rates. 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 bag in hand with a real roast date, not a stock photo. Show the roast date, grind, pour, drop the code.
Why most first specialty coffee roasters campaigns stall
01
Cafe-hoppers quote travel rates. You needed a lot of other names so you could move on. Stale-bag rants already have the audience; a roast date this week is the demo.
02
People tag #coffeetok when they want brands to find them. A database tells you who exists. Your customer lives in a feed you never opened. Latte art with no roast date.
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 for a cafe crawl. Ask them to grind this week's bag at home.
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. The client's live shop with this week's roast date visible.
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 codes on a live bag or a real subscription checkout.
Questions
You can learn vocabulary that way. People tag what they want brands to find. I still scroll as your client's customer 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.
Cafe-hoppers quote travel rates. 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 catalog is cafe-hoppers and kettle unboxings. I read the session your client's customer actually gets served. Product page for the general job: campaigns.