5. How to Build Your Outreach Lists

5.1 Why building outreach lists matters

Relying only on general category-based outreach limits both performance and learning. Building intentional outreach lists allows sellers to make better decisions across the entire funnel.

Well-structured lists help you:

• Measure sample request and response rates by creator group

• Identify which creator segments convert best (GMV, posting behavior, content quality)

• Differentiate creator tiers, so higher-performing groups can receive:

  • Higher commission settings on targeted outreach

  • Early access to new hero product samples

Outreach lists turn creator outreach from guesswork into a repeatable optimization process.

5.2 Building High-Quality Outreach Lists

• Build competitor-based creator lists

  •   Use Social Intelligence → Top Brands / Top Products / Top Categories to find creators who are already promoting similar or competing products.

  •   Why does this works

  • These creators have proven category experience

  • They already understand buyer intent and content angles

• If your competitor has:

  • Been live for a long time

  • Built strong sold history

  • Established brand recognition outside TikTok

  • You may need to offer above-average commission in your Target Collaboration outreach to create a compelling enough hook to bring their creators onboard.

• Build persona-based creator lists

  •   Go beyond obvious categories and think in terms of user personas rather than just niches.

  •   Example: If your product is a healthy low-carb snack made with Konjac:

  • Fitness creators are a natural primary group

    • Plan to allocate ~50% of your sample seeding to this core segment

  • Use the remaining budget to test adjacent personas, such as:

    • Mom creators (positioning the product as a kid-friendly or lunchbox snack)

    • Vegan food & beverage creators

    • Diet or weight-control creators (low-carb, keto-friendly angles)

  •   This approach allows you to reposition the product (e.g. “mom-approved snack”, “guilt-free late-night snack”) and unlock new demand angles beyond fitness alone.

  •   You can use:

  • Social Intelligence to explore adjacent product categories

  • AI Creator Search to discover creators based on:

    • Profile keywords (e.g. “busy mom, keto lifestyle”)

    • Visual content (e.g. "Lunchbox packing")

    • Audio transcription (e.g. “mom hack”)

• Localize and diversify your outreach

  •   TikTok Shop has a high percentage of Spanish-speaking shoppers, and many top-performing brands see strong results from Spanish-speaking creators.

  •   Best practice:

  • Build a Spanish-speaking creator list

  • Localize outreach language so creators feel included and understood

  •   This often unlocks high-performing segments that are overlooked by category-only outreach.

5.3 Test, compare, and optimize your lists

Once your lists are live, monitor response and sample request rates first, then evaluate posting behavior and GMV performance. Over time, this comparison will clearly reveal which creator groups respond best and which actually convert. Use these insights to continuously refine your commission settings, outreach messaging and hooks, agent selection, and outreach volume for each list.

5.4 Setting up a Blocklist

You can set any list as a block list.

Setting up a Blocklist

• Go to the Lists page in the brand dashboard

• Find any creator list in the table

• Click the three-dot menu (⋮) on the right side of any list row

• Select "Blocklist All Creators" from the dropdown

What happens:

• A confirmation dialog appears: "Your agents will not reach out to any of the creators in this list."

• Once confirmed, the list shows a red "Blocklist" badge next to its name

• The "Create Agent" option becomes disabled for that list

• All outreach agents automatically skip creators in blocklisted lists