How to Accept Brand Inquiries From Your Link in Bio

To accept brand inquiries from your link in bio, add a clearly labeled “Work with me” link that opens a structured form requiring the brand’s company, contact, budget, timeline, deliverables, usage rights, and campaign brief. Route submissions to one inbox, screen them, reply consistently, and track every lead by stage.

Last verified: August 2026.

The link is only the entry point. A complete solo workflow has seven stages: placement, intake, demand, screening, response, pricing, and tracking. You can run it with a bio link, a form, one inbox, and a simple spreadsheet or board.

Why doesn’t “DM me for collabs” work as an intake system?

A DM can start a conversation, but it is a poor place to qualify a business opportunity. Fan messages and brand pitches share the same inbox, senders choose what information to include, and offers arrive without consistent details that let you compare budget, scope, rights, and deadlines.

A structured form reverses the process. The brand describes the opportunity before you invest time in it, allowing you to decide whether to reply based on concrete information rather than a vague “Would love to collab” message.

This is especially useful when you manage your own partnerships. A form performs the first screening pass that a manager or agent might otherwise handle, reducing repetitive follow-up questions and keeping brand inquiries from consuming an unplanned afternoon.

Where should the brand-inquiry link appear?

Label the entry point “Work with me,” “Brand inquiries,” or “Partnership inquiries.” Avoid a vague label such as “Contact,” which does not tell brands where the link leads.

Use the profile-link feature available on each platform rather than assuming every network offers the same number or type of links. Instagram lets users edit profile information through its profile settings (Instagram Help Center, verified August 2026), while TikTok documents profile linking through its account setup guidance (TikTok Support, verified August 2026). Availability can vary by account and region.

On YouTube, place the inquiry link in your channel profile links and repeat it near the top of relevant video descriptions as a practical visibility measure. YouTube officially supports adding links through channel profile customization (YouTube Help, verified August 2026).

Whichever placement you use, send brands directly to the intake form rather than an email address or generic contact page. That ensures the screening questions appear before a conversation begins. For platform-specific wording and link placement, see add a “work with me” link to your bio.

What should a brand inquiry form ask for?

A form that collects only a name and email is a slower DM, not a screening system. At minimum, request:

• Brand or agency name
• Contact name, work email, and role
• Brand website and campaign or product
• Requested platforms and deliverables
• Budget or budget range
• Desired publication date and approval timeline
• Content usage period and channels
• Exclusivity requirements
• Whitelisting or paid-ad access
• Number of revision rounds requested
• Product-only, paid, affiliate, or mixed compensation
• Any mandatory talking points or claims

A concrete deliverables field might say: “List the content you want, including quantity, format, platform, and length—for example, one edited vertical video plus three story frames.” A rights field might ask: “Will the content appear only on my account, or do you also want organic reposting, paid advertising, whitelisting, or website use?”

Use conditional fields where possible. If a brand selects paid advertising, reveal questions about duration, territory, and platforms. If it selects exclusivity, ask which competitors or product categories would be restricted and for how long.

A legitimate brand should be able to provide enough information for you to judge fit, even if its final creative brief is not ready. For a field-by-field template, see what to include in a brand inquiry form.

What if brand inquiries are not arriving?

An intake form organizes demand; it does not create demand by itself. No universal follower threshold determines whether a brand may contact a creator. As industry guidance rather than a platform rule, brand interest can depend on niche relevance, audience fit, content quality, geography, campaign goals, and whether the creator is easy to evaluate and contact.

Make the commercial fit visible before expecting the form to convert. Your recent content should show what you cover, who it is for, and how a relevant product could appear naturally. Your inquiry link should also be easy to find without requiring a brand representative to search through posts or send a DM for contact details.

The form does not find brands, pitch on your behalf, guarantee submissions, or negotiate terms. If inquiries are not appearing, the problem is upstream of the form; how small creators get more brand inquiries explains the discovery and positioning work that can help.

How should you screen a brand offer before replying?

Screen every submission for identity, fit, compensation, scope, and risk before beginning a negotiation.

Start with these checks:

1. Identity: Does the sender’s email domain match the brand or a verifiable agency?
2. Campaign fit: Does the product align with your subject matter and audience?
3. Compensation: Is the offer paid, product-only, affiliate-only, or unspecified?
4. Scope: Are the requested deliverables and deadlines realistic?
5. Rights: Does the brand want reposting, paid advertising, whitelisting, or exclusivity?
6. Security: Is anyone asking for passwords, login codes, upfront payments, or suspicious downloads?
7. Claims: Would the brief require you to make statements you cannot verify or honestly support?

Some submissions are genuine but still unsuitable: the budget may not cover production, the brand may be outside your niche, or the requested rights may be broader than you are willing to grant. Declining those quickly is part of screening, not a failure to negotiate.

Do not rely only on logos, display names, or a polished signature. The verification steps and common warning signs are covered in how to screen brand offers.

How fast should you respond, and what should you say?

Set a response target you can maintain, such as one business day after screening. That is a recommended operating standard, not a published industry benchmark. If you cannot assess the offer that quickly, send a short acknowledgment and state when the brand can expect a full response.

A useful reply confirms interest without accepting missing terms:

Thanks for reaching out. The campaign appears relevant to my audience. Before I quote, please confirm the final deliverables, publication date, revision rounds, usage period, paid-media rights, exclusivity, and available budget.

A counter can be equally direct:

Thanks for the details. I can deliver the proposed scope, but the quote would need to account for the requested paid usage and exclusivity. I can also suggest a smaller organic-only package if the current budget is fixed.

A concise decline avoids unnecessary negotiation:

Thank you for considering me. I’m going to pass because the scope and compensation are not a fit, but I appreciate the invitation.

Discuss disclosure requirements before signing, not after creating the content. The FTC says a material connection can include a financial, employment, personal, or family relationship, as well as free or discounted products; disclosures should be clear, hard to miss, and placed with the endorsement (FTC — Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers, verified August 2026; not legal advice).

For additional accept, clarify, counter, and decline templates, see how to respond to a brand inquiry.

How much should you charge for a first brand collaboration?

There is no single platform-set price for a privately negotiated brand collaboration. Build the quote from the actual work and rights involved rather than copying a generic rate based only on follower count.

A practical formula is:

Production baseline + usage rights + exclusivity + paid-media access + extra revisions + direct expenses

For example, if a project requires 6 hours of work and your chosen working rate is $50 per hour, the production baseline is $300. That is a hypothetical calculation, not an industry rate. You would then add amounts appropriate to the requested usage, exclusivity, whitelisting, revisions, travel, props, or expedited delivery.

Quote each major term separately when possible:

• Content creation and posting
• Organic reposting rights
• Paid-advertising usage
• Whitelisting or creator-handle advertising
• Category exclusivity
• Additional revision rounds
• Raw footage
• Rush production or delivery

The form’s budget, timeline, deliverables, and rights fields give you the inputs needed to prepare that quote without reopening the entire discovery process. For a fuller pricing framework, see how to price your first brand collaboration.

How can you track brand leads without project-management software?

Use one spreadsheet or board with a small set of stages: new, screening, awaiting details, negotiating, booked, delivered, paid, and passed. Assign every inquiry one current stage and one next-action date.

Useful columns include:

• Brand and contact
• Campaign
• Date received
• Budget
• Deliverables
• Usage and exclusivity
• Current stage
• Last contact date
• Next action and due date
• Contract status
• Delivery date
• Invoice or payment status
• Notes

Review the pipeline on a fixed schedule. The purpose is not to build a complicated customer-relationship system; it is to ensure that every live offer has a next action and that booked delivery dates do not conflict.

A low-maintenance workflow for follow-ups and stale leads is available in how to organize brand leads solo.

Which two setup decisions are easy to get wrong?

A media kit and an inquiry form solve different problems. A media kit is a static overview of your audience, work, and past results. An inquiry form captures the details of a specific opportunity. A PDF cannot collect a campaign budget, and a form alone may not give a brand enough evidence to evaluate your work. Media kit vs. brand inquiry page explains when to use one or both.

Brand inquiries and fan requests should enter separate workflows. A brand sponsorship may involve contracts, usage rights, revisions, and a long approval schedule. A fan may be purchasing a private question, shoutout, or tip. Mixing a five-figure sponsorship offer with fan requests in one feed makes both harder to manage. See separate fan requests from brand inquiries.

Does FanBell take a cut of brand deals?

FanBell’s Brand Collaboration Inquiries feature provides a “Work with me” form and routes submissions to a brand inbox separate from paid fan interactions (verified August 2026). It organizes inbound opportunities; it does not find brands, pitch, screen offers, set prices, or negotiate for you.

FanBell has no follower minimum for enabling the inquiry feature (how it works, verified August 2026). This is a FanBell product policy, not a claim that follower count never affects an individual brand’s campaign decisions.

A FanBell page is free to start and has no monthly fee (pricing, verified August 2026). FanBell’s 12% platform fee applies only when a fan makes a payment through the page (pricing, verified August 2026); submitting a brand inquiry is lead collection, so FanBell does not charge 12% when a brand completes the form. Brand-deal payment is arranged directly between the creator and brand outside FanBell.

The cited pricing page identifies the 12% as a platform fee. This article does not state a separate payment-processing rate; consult the current pricing page for the applicable processing treatment rather than assuming an additional amount.

A Pro tier with an enhanced media kit is coming soon but is not part of FanBell today. The media-kit comparison above therefore concerns a standalone media kit and the current inquiry form, not two currently available FanBell features.

For the broader income comparison, brand deals vs. fan-supported income explains how the two revenue streams can operate alongside each other.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a certain follower count to receive brand inquiries?

No universal follower minimum prevents a brand from contacting you. Individual brands may apply their own campaign criteria, while niche relevance, audience fit, content quality, and discoverability can matter alongside audience size. FanBell specifically has no follower minimum for enabling its inquiry feature (how it works, verified August 2026).

Is a media kit the same as a brand inquiry form?

No. A media kit summarizes your work and audience, while an inquiry form captures a particular brand’s budget, timeline, deliverables, and usage requirements. See media kit vs. brand inquiry page for when to use each.

Must paid or gifted brand content be disclosed?

Generally, a material connection should be disclosed clearly and conspicuously. The FTC says material connections can include payment and free or discounted products, and the disclosure should be hard to miss and appear with the endorsement (FTC — Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers, verified August 2026; not legal advice).

Does FanBell take a cut of a brand deal?

No. FanBell’s 12% platform fee applies only to fan payments processed through the page (pricing, verified August 2026). A brand form submission is not a FanBell transaction, and the creator and brand arrange payment for the deal outside FanBell.

Ready to give brands a real way to reach you? Create your FanBell link — it's free to start.