A good pitch takes two or three hours. A great one takes longer.
So the decision before you write it (is this brief worth my afternoon?) is worth more than any amount of skill at writing pitches. Most freelancers who feel like they're pitching constantly and winning rarely have a selection problem, not a pitching problem.
Why the board only shows you some briefs
The brief board filters to open briefs matching your specialities. That's the first reason your tags matter mechanically rather than cosmetically: a brief you'd have been perfect for won't appear if you never tagged the speciality.
The corollary is worth knowing: if the board looks empty, that's information about your tags as much as about the market. Two or three well-chosen specialities see more relevant briefs than six vague ones, for the reasons in setting up a profile that gets picked.
What a brief tells you before you read the description
Each brief carries structured fields, and the fastest triage is on those alone:
| Field | What you're reading it for |
|---|---|
| Speciality and industry | Do you actually do this, for these people? |
| Budget range | Is this above your floor, before you spend an hour? |
| Deadline | Can you physically make it? |
| Location, and whether it's remote | Travel cost, and whether you're eligible at all |
| Usage | What they're buying beyond the production |
| Deliverables | The real scope |
| Pitch cap | How many pitches they'll accept |
Thirty seconds on those seven fields kills most briefs, and that's the point.
The pitch cap changes the maths
Briefs carry a pitch cap: a limit on how many pitches the brand will take.
That's unusually useful information, and it cuts both ways:
A brief near its cap is a worse bet. Your odds are mechanically lower and the brand is already deep in comparison mode.
A brief that's just opened, with a cap, is a better bet than an uncapped free-for-all. A cap means the brand intends to read them properly. Being one of a bounded number of pitches that get real attention beats being one of forty that get skimmed.
Prefer early on capped briefs. That's the highest-return timing available to you.
The four questions
Once a brief has survived the field scan, four things decide whether it earns your afternoon.
1 · Can I show them something comparable?
Not "could I do this". Can I prove it. A brand's shortlist is a risk-reduction exercise, and your closest comparable piece does more than any argument.
If you have nothing close, you're pitching from behind. Sometimes worth it for a category you're breaking into. Usually not.
2 · Is the budget above my floor?
You built the floor in how to price a brand video. Use it.
A budget range meaningfully below it isn't a negotiation opportunity, it's a different job. Pitching under your floor to "get in the door" mostly teaches a client what you cost.
3 · Does the usage make sense with the budget?
This is the check most people skip, and it's where the bad deals hide.
A modest production budget attached to perpetual worldwide rights is not a modest job. It's a large licence at a small price. Read the usage field alongside the budget, always. Pricing usage rights covers what you're actually being asked for.
4 · Is the brief any good?
A vague brief is a genuine warning sign, and not because the brand is bad. It means every pitch is a guess, so you're competing on interpretation rather than approach. And it usually means scope will move once they see something and start forming opinions.
A brief with a clear objective, defined deliverables and a named usage is a brand that has thought about it. Those projects go better. Weight them accordingly.
Skip more than you pitch
The instinct is to pitch on everything on the board. It's the wrong instinct, for two reasons.
Quality per pitch falls. Five thoughtful pitches beat fifteen templated ones, and the fifteen are visible as templated: reused section-one paragraphs are obvious immediately.
Losing badly costs more than not entering. A rushed pitch is a data point about you that a brand keeps.
Skipping is free and silent. Nobody sees you didn't pitch.
The ones worth stretching for
Deliberately break your own rules occasionally, but knowingly:
- A brand whose work you genuinely want in your portfolio
- A category you're trying to move into and have one adjacent piece for
- A brief that fits an unusual capability you have and few others do
- A brand likely to rebook: repeat work is the strongest thing you can build, and it carries a badge on your score
Stretch on the brief, not on the rate. A portfolio piece can justify a tight budget. It can't justify handing over perpetual rights.
Being invited directly
Some briefs come to you rather than appearing on the board: a brand can invite a specific creator.
Treat an invitation as a much stronger signal than an open brief. Someone has already looked at your profile and decided. Your odds are dramatically better, and the pitch should acknowledge it by going straight at their problem rather than establishing that you exist.
How to use this tomorrow
Open the board and score each brief out of four on the questions above.
Pitch only on the fours and the threes with a good reason. You'll pitch less this week and win more of what you pitch, and get the afternoons back.
Related: How to pitch a brand is the structure. Building a pitch in Pitch Studio is the tool.