How to find the right person to contact at a brand

Why the generic inbox fails

The info@ and hello@ addresses are triaged by whoever handles customer service, and a collaboration pitch is nobody's job there. At best it gets forwarded once and dies in a second inbox. Your goal is to skip that lottery entirely and land with the person whose actual job is spending marketing budget on creators.

The math is simple. A decent pitch to the right person outperforms a great pitch to a dead inbox, because only one of them gets read at all.

Know which titles you are hunting

The names vary but the roles repeat. Look for influencer marketing manager, partnerships or collaborations manager, social media manager, brand manager, and PR or communications manager. At many companies the social media manager is the gateway even when the budget sits elsewhere, because they know exactly who owns creator work.

At smaller companies, titles with digital, growth or community in them are worth a look too, since one person often wears several of these hats.

Match the person to the brand's size

At a small brand, pitch the founder directly, since they read their own email and can decide in a day. At a mid-size brand, the marketing manager or social lead is your target. At a large brand, hunt for the influencer or partnerships team, and expect an agency in the mix. A founder-style note to a corporation, or a formal proposal to a two-person startup, misses in both directions.

Where to actually find them

Start on the brand's own site. The press page, the about page and the team page often name the marketing or PR contact outright. Next, search the brand name plus influencer marketing or marketing manager on LinkedIn, which usually surfaces the right person in seconds.

Check who runs the brand's social accounts too. Tagged photos from events, a first name signing off replies, and podcast appearances by team members all put names to roles. When you have a name but no address, a short connection note on LinkedIn works, and always give the person an easy way to redirect you if they are the wrong desk.

When an agency guards the door

Many bigger brands hand creator work to a PR or influencer agency, and pitching the brand directly just gets you forwarded there, if you are lucky. The press page or a campaign credit usually names the agency. Pitching the agency contact is not a downgrade, because they are paid to fill campaigns with creators and often manage several brands you fit.

Address the agency pitch to the accounts or talent team, name the brand you want to work with, and put your numbers up front, since agencies screen fast and shortlist faster.

The short note to a named person

Hi [name], I found you as the [title] at [brand], so I hope this is the right desk. I make [niche] content for [audience], and I have a specific idea for [product or campaign] I think would land. Happy to send a short plan with numbers. If a colleague owns creator partnerships, I would be grateful for a point in their direction.

Or let the software do the digging

Ten minutes of research per brand is fine for five brands and painful for fifty, and this is exactly the legwork CollabQuill automates. Paste a brand's website and it reads the whole site, surfaces the contacts most likely to reply, drafts the pitch in your voice, and writes the follow-ups, so the research and the writing happen in the time it takes to find one email by hand.