Influencer marketing seems to be ubiquitous these days. It's part of marketers' social media and content strategies; it drives brand awareness and conversion campaigns, and it is becoming a larger part of advertising.
Influencer content is overtopping brand-created content. About half of consumers reported finding brand-created advertisements "annoying or irrelevant." Most consumers said they were very likely to follow an influencer's recommendation and had no negative reaction to sponsored influencer content.
Influencers are inundated with brand requests and can increasingly pick and choose who they work with. According to a study, only 24% of influencers accept more than half of the offers they receive.
Here are some tips for effective influencer outreach.
Prior to Influencer Outreach, Research Top Candidates
The first step in building a successful influencer relationship is finding the right partner(s). It can be time-consuming and overwhelming, but new tools on the market make it easier than ever to identify potential influencer partners.
Influencer marketing platforms such as Humanz, Grin, and Upfluence let businesses find the right influencers for their products. These platforms offer many features that help filter influencers by interests, follower count, followers' gender, and age. A key part of successful influencer marketing is finding a loyal influencer to promote your product.
Sites like Pitchbox and FameBit streamline the process by offering a “catalog” of influencer profiles, direct outreach capabilities, and an all-in-one management platform. This is especially helpful when you're pulling information from Instagram DMs for a large-scale influencer campaign or working with a large team.
Keep an eye on your potential partners' social profiles. This will help you understand what kind of content they create, who their followers are, how they connect with their fans, and which other brands they have partnered with in the past.
Establish Connections with Your Potential Influencers
Once you have a list of potential partners, start interacting with them on the social platforms they use. No one likes being cold-called, so before you make an official pitch, your goal is to get on the influencer’s radar. Liking and commenting on their posts, tagging them in relevant conversations, and interacting in a friendly way helps.
Now, as you know, authenticity is key. When choosing campaigns and brands to work with, Authenticity and originality come first. You earn yourself a fan every time you excel in your work. You're probably wondering how you can create that authentic connection, aren't you? You can do it simply by being a fan of their work.
Contact Them about a campaign
When you feel you have built enough of a relationship, craft a personal message and reach out. Use what you learned from your research to explain why you want to work with them and why you think the partnership would be a good fit.
To develop the best approach, you may need to test different outreach methods. You may find that you get a faster response via email than via Instagram direct message, or vice versa.
Make sure you have a system for recording communications if you aren’t using a platform to manage your influencer outreach. This could be a simple spreadsheet or an ASANA project with pointers and notes for each influencer. Alternatively, you can use Inflowave to streamline influencer outreach, organize communications, and track influencer relationships in one place.
Create Great Content
Several creative formats have risen in popularity over the past year, including video, stop motion, cinemagraphs, boomerangs, Stories, GIFs, and AR filters. When planning influencer campaigns, consider the creative options at your disposal and choose based on the campaign’s goals.
Most influencer marketing campaigns now use Instagram, and in the last quarter, Instagram Stories use in these campaigns grew by 60%. Whenever possible, fit the creative to the format your influencers' audiences use.
Brands and influencers both want to create and share content that fits their brand and keeps audiences engaged. Work with your partners to develop creative that works for both sides, keeping in mind that your influencer knows what their audience likes best. Let them lead on the creative they will be asked to share whenever possible.
Make the partnership mutually beneficial
A good influencer email should also make it clear what’s in it for them, because the influencer marketing industry has matured; the norm is payment for sponsored posts. Be crystal clear about what you'll pay, and how and when you'll pay it.
An influencer’s behind-the-scenes content is valuable, but you should also consider a simple cash trade. You can offer the influencer benefits or perks beyond the free product, such as a free trial of your software for a service-based business.
You can also invite them to special events, like the Developing the Scenes tour, a product launch, or even just lunch. Make sure you understand what your influencer really wants from the relationship, and give it your heart.
Think Long Term: Nurture Your Relationships
The best influencers look for true relationships built over time.
Don’t consider your influencer campaigns as a one-and-done. Maintaining a roster of influencer partners you can routinely engage for campaigns is best practice. Stay tuned with this group of influencers. Reach out periodically with news and opportunities from your brand, and keep them in the loop. Send them a card or letter congratulating them.
Posn'tmpaign, make it a point to send thoughtful, maAlso, don'tluencer and share the results from your clike. They’ll be better and more collaborative, and relationships will improve over time. Write unique emails that reflect the connection you’ve already invested in, even if the campaign results weren’t what you hoped for.
Make Each Email Unique and Not from the Cookie Cutter
When it comes to email, don't send standard, default messages. Also, don't start your email with a generic address like “Dear Webmaster”. Address the influencer by name, such as “Hi Chandler”.
Construct emails that are unique and compose them individually. That’s the strategy you need to adopt, if you're running behind results. It’s worth the effort and it’s something you can perfect soon, although it may seem time consuming. Yo,u need to make your email more personal and customized to the requirements of the individual, not a copy-and-paste style
Influencer Outreach is Not a Numbers Game
The right fit for your brand/product, etc. You're going to have to approach multiple influencers. And for us to start seeing a positive response, you're going to have to knock on a few doors. BUT we must always remember that Influencers are people.
They have a reputation to uphold and almost all of them won't respond positively to being asked to promote something with copy and paste style email, especially if this is going to be your first point of contact.
Segment you Influencers
Think about what motivates different influencers and the best way to get them working with you, because the same approach will not work for everyone. With a large audience, you can segment by interests and industry expertise. You can also combine demographic data, such as gender, with metrics.
Remember that reach and engagement are not the same. Look beyond vanity metrics such as follower counts when choosing influencers to work with.
Influencers with a large social audience are great for building awareness.
Be Clear About Your Expectations
No matter what kind of relationship you build with an influencer, you must remember it is a business transaction. Be specific about your expectations and communicate them clearly to your partner.
It’s always important to identify the metrics you will use to determine your success and the platform you want to work on, and to keep your influencer posted on the same.
Final Words
Influencer marketing is expected to be an estimated 10 Billion Industry. However, Influencer marketing does not have to be as complicated as it might sound. Influencer outreach is a quite critical component in developing a relationship that is fostered and built over time.
Nurturing your relationships, Creating great content, Making real connections, Being goal-oriented are certain attributes you need to follow in order to see your Influencer campaigns flourish.
