What to do when a creator doesn't reply

A cold-brew concentrate brand is putting a new flavor on shelves on November 3. Four creators got a message about it in the third week of September. The account you wanted most hasn't written back: mornings in a small kitchen, the same eight minutes every day, and the people who watch it are part of why you picked them.

Nothing has happened since. No reply, nothing to answer.

So you're deciding two things at once, and they're easy to run together. Whether to send anything else. And how long this name stays in a slot that a campaign date is coming for.

What this guide covers

• What does silence actually tell you?
• So what makes a second message worth sending?
• What if the thing you'd change is the offer?
• When do you stop waiting?
• What happens on the day you stop waiting?
• Does silence change how you'd treat them next time?
• Frequently asked questions

What does silence actually tell you?

Nothing you can read off it. Be exact about why, because the empty inbox reads like an answer and it isn't one.

Three things could be behind it, and they don't sit at the same level.

The message didn't carry what they needed to answer. Three facts decide that: what the job is and where the video goes up, whether it's paid, and when it has to happen. Leave one out and there's no answer available to give.

It carried everything, and this job in this window isn't a yes. Nothing is missing. What you asked about is the thing they'd be declining.

It never became a decision at all. It didn't get in front of anyone, or it did and nothing came of it.

The first two are yours. One you fix by adding a fact, the other only by changing what you're asking. The third isn't like the other two. There's nothing in your message to fix for it, and no version of it is visible from your side. It belongs on the list because leaving it off would make the other two look like the whole picture.

And the silence is identical in all three. No message you send comes back labelled.

For the concentrate: one week of nothing from an account you picked on purpose. That's the whole record, and which of the three you're looking at isn't in it. Rereading the message you sent won't put it there either. It tells you about your message, which is the one thing here you can act on.

So the question in front of you was never which one is this. It's whether you're holding something that changes the answer under the two you can reach.

So what makes a second message worth sending?

One question: does this message change what they're being asked to decide?

Two things can do that, and you've already met them: a fact the first message left out or got wrong, or a different question — a different job, a different window, or the offer itself with a number in it. Both are on your side of the table.

Anything else is the same question arriving twice. Just circling back on this is your original message with a sentence in front of it, and on the same route it lands wherever the original landed.

So don't start by writing the second message. Open the first one.

For the concentrate: the sent message named the job as one video posted on their own account, said it was paid, and gave the window — live the week of October 27, filming before that. Run the first message's test down it and nothing is missing. There's no fact to add, so a second message would only be a nudge.

Now change one thing. Say the launch had moved and the week you gave them is no longer the week you need. The window in the message is now wrong, so it's a different job to be free for, and their answer to it isn't the answer to the one you sent. That message earns its send, and notice what it is: the first message again, with a fact corrected.

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What if the thing you'd change is the offer?

Then it isn't a second ask at all. You're making an offer, and that's the other guide's subject: where the video posts, whether you can put money behind it and from whose handle, how long the reuse runs, and how many rounds of changes you get, with the number attached to all four.

Two things follow from that.

We've said before that you want those terms priced against the campaign rather than against how much you like one file. The same holds here: a week of nothing from a name you wanted pulls on the number the way one good file does, and the answer doesn't change. The campaign sets it.

And you're spending the four terms on someone whose availability you still don't know. You can't un-send a number. If a yes comes back, you've got a creator and a deal you priced without a conversation; if nothing comes back, the number is out there anyway.

Neither of those makes it the wrong move. Sometimes the offer is what you were going to send next regardless, and the silence only changed when. For the concentrate, that's the honest read: the fee existed from the start, the terms came off the media plan, and the offer was always the next thing this creator was going to get.

When do you stop waiting?

Not on a schedule anybody can hand you. Two dates are in your campaign, and you can work both out today.

Start with the last day a yes is still usable. Walk backwards from the date the video has to be live, through everything that has to fit between: the offer and their answer to it, the brief, the shoot, and the rounds of changes you set aside. What's left is the day after which a yes costs you the launch instead of making it.

That day belongs to the job, not to this creator — which is why it isn't the day you act on. If this name never answers, somebody else has to be asked and has to answer inside the same window, and that ask needs room of its own. Take that room off the first date. What's left is the day you stop waiting.

For the concentrate: the flavor lands in stores November 3 and the video is wanted live the week of October 27. Filming has to sit before that with the changes you allowed for on top, and the offer and brief have to be agreed before any of it starts. Lay those end to end and the last usable yes falls at the end of September. Now take off what asking the next name costs you — writing to them, and waiting on an answer — and the day you stop waiting on this account lands earlier than that, by however long your side takes to get a message out and hear back. In this scenario that day is already on top of you: the message went out in the third week of September and a week has passed, so whatever this account is getting, it goes out now or not at all. Both dates come from this campaign's own calendar, and neither is a claim about how long a week of waiting should be.

Do the calculation once per job. Two creators on the same campaign with the same job share both dates; the one you asked to shoot a file instead of posting has different ones, because what has to fit is different.

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What happens on the day you stop waiting?

The slot goes back to the list. That's the whole move, and it's smaller than the week of waiting made it feel.

You're filling a slot on a campaign, and you've run out of time to find out whether this creator is available for it. Whoever fills the slot needs the same three facts you sent the first time, and the room you subtracted is what they'll be answering in. It isn't spare time; it's the reason you stopped waiting when you did.

For the concentrate: the note is three lines. The message that went out and when, the two dates you calculated, and the date the slot got filled. It's for you, not for them, and it's what the next person setting a window for this campaign will want to read.

If the yes turns up after you've moved on, you've already answered it. It's a different job now — a different window at minimum — so it clears the test you'd apply to any second message. Whether you take it is a calendar question, and you've done that arithmetic already.

Does silence change how you'd treat them next time?

No. A no and a silence feel alike while leaving completely different things behind.

A no is information about them. Not available for that window, not interested in that job at that shape — whichever it was, something got answered, and it's the kind of note that still reads true when you're building a list for the next campaign.

Silence answers nothing, so there's nothing to write down about them. We've said that an empty branded content history is something you don't know, not a mark against anyone, and the same goes here: quietly ranking this name lower next time turns your own missing information into their problem.

For the concentrate: the three lines you filed are the whole entry, and not one of them is about the creator. A no and this aren't the same kind of note — one is a record about a creator, the other only a record about a campaign you ran — so don't keep them in the same place.

Frequently asked questions

Should we try reaching them somewhere else?

The test asks whether a message changes the decision. This one changes whether the message lands at all, which is a different thing and the only thing it does.

It's the same message on a different route, and the route is the one thing about the third cause you can change — there was never anything in the message to fix for it. If that route is also quiet, you've learned no more than you knew, which is why it should cost you a minute and no more. For the concentrate, it's the same three facts to the same account, sent somewhere else.

There's only one name on the list for this job.

Then the second date is measuring something else. There's nobody to reserve room for, so what you're reserving room for is the decision you'd make instead: a different job, or a different campaign.

Both of those are bigger than filling a slot, and they take longer than writing to the next name would. So the day you stop waiting comes earlier than it would with a list — it's the day you'd need to already be having that conversation. If the concentrate had one name instead of four, that day would sit further ahead of the end-of-September date, because rebuilding around a November 3 launch is the longer of the two jobs, and both are ones you can time.

See what this looks like for your brand

Waiting on a name right now? We'll go through the dates with you.

Popow tracks opens, clicks, and replies, automatically queuing smart follow-ups and resolving routine questions via Reply Agent.

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