A brand email lands, the pitch sounds decent, and the fastest way to lose money on it is replying within the hour with a number pulled from memory. Not because the number is wrong exactly, but because most of what actually determines a fair rate is not in the first email at all, it is in the questions nobody asked yet.
This is not a pricing guide. It is nine things to check in the few minutes before you reply, so the number you eventually send is built on what the deal actually is, not what the pitch made it sound like.
The Checklist
Confirm the exact deliverable
"Sponsored video" could mean a dedicated video or a 60 second mid roll, and those price differently enough that quoting before this is confirmed is quoting blind. Get the format in writing before anything else.
Pull your current numbers, not the ones you remember
Recent average views and engagement rate, checked today, not the follower count that has been sitting in your head for six months. A channel's real performance moves, and pricing against stale numbers costs money in both directions.
Check what usage rights are actually being asked for
Organic only, paid amplification through Meta Ads or Spark Ads, or full whitelisting are three different asks with three different prices. If the email does not say, that is a question to ask before quoting, not an assumption to make.
Look for exclusivity or category lock language
A request to not work with competing brands for a set period is a real cost to you, future deals you cannot take. It should be priced as its own line item, not folded in for free because it was mentioned casually.
Note the actual timeline
A turnaround under a week is a rush job, and rush jobs deserve a premium, not just an accommodation. If the brand needs it fast, that urgency has a price, and it is reasonable to name one.
Identify the payment structure
Flat fee, affiliate or commission only, and hybrid deals are not the same offer wearing different clothes. Commission only income depends entirely on conversion you do not control, and that changes what a fair number even means.
Check for stated payment terms
Net 30, net 60, a deposit upfront, a kill fee if the campaign is cancelled after work has started. A rate with no terms attached is an incomplete offer, and it is fair to ask for terms before agreeing to a figure.
Set your floor number before you write the reply
Decide privately, before typing anything, the minimum you would actually accept. The number in your reply should be a starting point for negotiation, not the number you were secretly willing to take reflected straight back at the brand.
Send a range, not a single figure, if anything above is still unclear
If deliverables, usage rights, timeline, or exclusivity are still vague after checking the email, quote a range rather than a precise number. It keeps room to negotiate once the brand actually confirms what they are asking for.
Run through this once per offer, not once ever. Even a repeat brand restates one or two of these differently enough between campaigns to change the number, and assuming last time's terms still apply is a quiet way to end up doing more work for the same rate without noticing.
Before You Hit Send
Once deliverables, usage rights, timeline, and exclusivity are actually confirmed, the checklist has done its job, and what is left is calculating the number itself. Running those confirmed specifics through the Influencer Rate Calculator takes the guesswork out of that step, since it weighs niche, tier, engagement, and format together rather than leaving you to eyeball it against a number you saw once in a forum post.
If the number already feels solid and the deal is close to done, exporting it through the Rate Card Generator turns it into a document rather than a line of text buried in an email reply. A brand reading a formatted rate card with the deliverable, the price, and the terms laid out plainly tends to treat the number more seriously than the same figure typed into a paragraph.
The checklist protects the number. The document is what makes the brand take it seriously.
then price it properly.
Once the brief is confirmed, SponsorCraft turns your own numbers into a rate and a branded PDF rate card in minutes.