Why the creator question decides your growth
An agency can have a perfect chat system, a well-drilled team and clean numbers. Without creators none of that is worth anything. Yet most agencies treat acquisition as something that happens on the side rather than as a fixed process.
That backfires twice over. First, capacity sits idle: a well-drilled team could handle more accounts but does not. Second, it creates dependency. An agency with only two creators is existentially exposed to every cancellation, and that dependency negotiates on your behalf in every conversation.
The difference between agencies that grow and agencies that stall is therefore often not in the chat, but before it: some approach new creators every week, the others wait for someone to get in touch.
The five channels that genuinely work
They are not worth the same. The order here is deliberately not by volume but by what actually lands.
1. Referrals from your existing creators
The highest close rate at the lowest cost. Creators know other creators, and a referral from someone who is happy beats any cold contact. The catch: this channel only works if your existing creators genuinely are happy, so it is the result of good work rather than a tactic. A fixed referral bonus makes it more predictable.
2. Individual outreach on social media
The channel with the highest volume. Instagram, TikTok, X and Reddit are full of people building reach but monetising badly or not at all. What you are looking for is not the biggest follower count but the poorly monetised community: growing accounts with real exchange in the comments where no meaningful monetisation is visible. What matters is that every message is individual. More on that below.
3. Switchers from adjacent niches
Fitness, cosplay, modelling, streaming: people who are comfortable on camera, know how to build a community and still earn little. They bring exactly the skills that matter and do not have to learn them first. Those conversations take longer because a real decision sits behind them, but they lead to more stable partnerships.
4. Your own visibility as an agency
Show how you work and creators come to you. This takes the longest but delivers the best pre-qualified enquiries: whoever reaches out has already decided and does not need convincing. Building it is months of grind, but long term it drives your acquisition cost to zero.
5. Paid recruiting ads
For completeness, with an honest assessment: high volume, mostly weak quality. You pay for quantity and filter by hand afterwards. As your only channel this rarely holds up; as a supplement it can work once your selection process is already solid.
Direct outreach for volume, referrals for quality, your own visibility as the long-term base. Rely on a single channel and you will have either too few enquiries or too poor ones.
How to tell who is genuinely worth it
This is where most people make the most expensive mistake, and it fits in one sentence: reach is not revenue.
An account with 200,000 followers who scroll past and never respond converts worse than one with 5,000 who comment on every post. What gets paid in the end is the bond, not the number. What to look at instead:
Real engagement rather than big numbers
Does the community respond, or is it an audience? Comments that go beyond emojis are a better signal than any follower count. Those are exactly the people who pay in the chat later.
Willingness to be consistent
One strong month is worth little if three empty ones follow. Ask early and directly how much time is realistically there. An honest answer with little time is worth more than an enthusiastic one that does not hold.
Reliable communication
How someone replies before the collaboration is fairly precisely how they will reply during it. Anyone who goes quiet for days while you are still talking terms will make content supply and coordination hard later.
Fit with the audience
On Maloum the audience is German-speaking. A creator with a largely international community brings reach that only partly translates here. That is not a disqualifier, but it belongs in the expectations on both sides.
Show numbers instead of making promises.
With CRM, bot and translator you see what actually happens per creator — and can back it up in the conversation.
What actually convinces in the pitch
Creators are suspicious, and rightly so: many have already dealt with agencies that promised a lot and delivered little. Enthusiasm does not counter that suspicion, evidence does.
Numbers instead of promises
Do not say what is theoretically possible, say what you have actually achieved with comparable creators. A verifiable, unspectacular number convinces more than any grand projection. If you cannot name that number, that is the real finding: what you are missing is the reporting, not the argument. How to get there is in Maloum System: The Complete Setup for Agencies.
Clarity on split and deliverables
What do you get, what does the creator get, and what exactly do you deliver for it? Saying that openly in the first conversation immediately sets you apart from everyone who leaves it vague. To experienced creators, vague terms are a warning sign, not negotiating room.
Showing how professionally you work
A creator is handing you their community. From their perspective the decisive question is whether someone is paying attention at your end. An agency that can show how chats run, who is responsible when and what comes out of it reads completely differently from one made of spreadsheets and voice notes. Why standard tools cannot do this is in Maloum CRM: Why Standard Tools Fail.
The first two weeks decide
Signing is not the goal, staying is. If a creator notices in the first few days that agreements hold and questions get answered, the relationship is stable. If that does not happen, no contract will save it. Budget the onboarding properly instead of letting it run on the side.
Lines you never cross
The scene is smaller than it looks. What you allow yourself here gets around, and it sticks.
Age verification, no exceptions
Age verification comes before any collaboration, without exception and without excuses. This is not a formality and not a point where flexibility is appropriate.
No copy-pasted mass messages
The identical text sent to a hundred people is recognised for what it is. It costs you not just those hundred but your reputation with everyone who talks to each other. Ten researched messages clearly beat a hundred copied ones.
No revenue promises
You cannot keep specific commitments about future earnings because they depend on too many factors. They create expectations the collaboration later breaks on, even when it is objectively going well.
No lock-in nobody can leave
Long terms and harsh exit clauses look like security in the short run and like a warning sign in the long run. Anyone doing good work does not need them. For the actual contract wording you should get legal advice — this article explicitly does not replace it.
Treat acquisition as a fixed weekly process, not an emergency measure. Use referrals for quality and direct outreach for volume, select by engagement rather than reach, and back up in conversation whatever you claim.
We get more creator applications than we pass on.
Enquiries from creators come in to us constantly — we do not manage any ourselves, we build the software for agencies. If you run an agency with free capacity, message me directly on Telegram and I will pass suitable enquiries on.
Frequently asked questions
Where do I find creators for my Maloum agency?
Five channels work in practice: individual outreach on social media, referrals from your existing creators, switchers from adjacent niches like fitness, cosplay or streaming, your own visibility as an agency, and, with reservations, paid recruiting ads. Referrals have the highest close rate, direct outreach the highest volume.
How do I approach a creator properly?
Individually and concretely. Refer to something this person actually does, say in two sentences what you take on and what you get for it, and make no revenue promises. Copy-pasted mass messages are the fastest way to ruin your reputation in a small scene.
How do I know whether a creator is worth it?
Not by follower count. What matters is real engagement rather than raw reach, willingness to produce content consistently, and reliable communication. A creator with 5,000 engaged followers regularly beats one with 200,000 who never respond.
What do I need to take care of in the collaboration?
Age verification before any collaboration is mandatory, without exception. On top of that you need a written agreement covering the split, deliverables, content rights and termination. For the actual contract wording you should get legal advice — this article does not replace it.
Can creators be referred to me?
Yes. Creator applications come in to UserFlow all the time, but we do not manage creators ourselves, we build the software for agencies. Agencies with free capacity can reach out directly on Telegram at @user_flowde and we pass suitable enquiries on.
