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You probably already know the benefits of working with social media influencers.
You might have already seen your competitors increase their popularity and sales revenues by working with influencers.
And now you want to get the same results or better for your brand.
The first question you need to think about is how to find influencers who are likely to deliver you the greatest possible return on your investment in them.
After that, you need to consider how to successfully connect with the content creators you think will be the best brand ambassadors for your company.
In this article, we explain how to reach out to influencers so that they’ll say “yes” to your proposal when you get in touch with them.
What Is an Influencer?
There are many different types of social media influencers.
The best-known influencers are generally famous entertainers, TV personalities, and sports stars. With just one post, these macro influencers can endorse your products and services to millions of people instantly.
They’re not cheap though, and most brands don’t have the social media marketing budget needed to cover their fees.
Many key influencers aren’t even household names — and they’ll likely fall in your budget. These micro influencers actually offer more value to the brands they work with than the big celebrities.
The Power of an Influencer’s Posts
Over time, these lesser-known influencers have built audiences of loyal followers who trust their opinions and insights.
This trust is based on their expertise in a particular subject rather than any fame.
A positive endorsement of one of your products to their followers is likely to result in:
- New sales
- More visitors to your website
- Higher numbers of sign-ups to your email newsletter
Let’s say, for example, that your brand manufactures high-quality film cameras.
For your campaign, you might consider working with someone like Dustin Vaughn-Luma.
Dustin’s Instagram account has over 100,000 followers and he takes stunning film photos. Dustin’s posts have a high engagement rate with his followers.
This means that every time Dustin uploads a new Instagram post, his followers:
- Share this content with other users
- Post comments and feedback that Dustin often directly replies to
The number of followers an influencer has is, of course, very important. But the frequency and quality of the interaction they have with their audience is arguably more important.
Generally, the higher the number of followers an influencer has, the less engagement they have with them. Higher engagement rates are also a sign that an influencer has few or no fake followers on their account.
You might therefore find that you get far better results from your campaigns by working with 10 micro influencers with 10,000 followers each than working with just one influencer with a follower count of 1 million.
To find potential influencers, look for specific hashtags associated with your products or services.
Nearly every successful influencer includes hashtags in their posts to reach the widest possible audience. For example, Dustin Vaughn-Luma has used #astrophotography, #35mmfilm, and #kodakfilm to promote his content.
Most social media platforms now use hashtags for content discovery including Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and more.
How to Reach Out to Influencers
When you’ve selected who you think might be the right influencers for your campaign, the next step is to get in touch with them.
If you’re new to doing this, you’re likely to have a lot of questions like:
- Will an influencer appreciate getting a direct message from my company?
- Will they want free products or other giveaways to review before they even talk to me?
- Will they consider sponsored posts as a dilution of the quality of their content?
There are exceptions to every rule but, in our experience, most influencers positively welcome approaches from brands.
That’s because many influencers really want to turn their hobby into a business and they see partnerships with brands as the way to do it.
Those influencers who have already made it their full-time career also want to protect their income by having as many content partners as possible to fall back on.
So, don’t worry about making the first move.
Make Yourself Valuable to Influencers
If you’re still concerned, your starting point for Instagram influencer outreach could be making yourself valuable to a potential influencer.
You could follow their social media profiles first so that they see your brand name and recognize your interest in what they’re doing.
You might also send a private message to a potential influencer to introduce yourself and to ask them to follow you back. You could also ask questions and give them feedback on their content.
A smart move would be to comment on their posts and share their content with your own followers. This helps the influencer out and establishes you as a fan of their work.
By doing this, their channel metrics will improve, including the all-important engagement rate.
It’s always easier to reach out to someone if you’re not a complete stranger to them.
Taking these simple approaches before pitching a potential influencer with a proposal to work together will be greatly appreciated.
What to Include in Your Pitch
What should you be doing to optimize your approach when discovering how to reach out to influencers for your brand?
First, make it personal. Address the influencer by their first name or it will look and sound like spam.
Second, talk about one or two posts that:
- Stood out to you as being of the highest quality
- Resonated with your company’s products, services, and brand values
Tell your influencer what you liked and why you liked it in such a way that your enthusiasm bursts out of the message.
Third, let your potential influencer know:
- What it is you like about their social media channel in general
- Why you think their channel is different from and better than others in the same niche
Fourth, introduce yourself and your brand clearly.
Share why you believe a partnership with a potential influencer might work and briefly explain why your target audience shares much in common with their follower base.
Ideally, your opening message should be no more than 200-250 words. Be friendly, don’t mention pricing, and get right to the point.
Think of your first approach not as a pitch but as the first exchange in a prolonged conversation with a potential long-term business partner.
Follow Up After Your Initial Approach
A key in understanding how to reach out to influencers successfully is knowing that a lack of an initial response does not necessarily mean that your initial approach has been rejected.
They could be on vacation, they could be sick, or they may have just woken up on the wrong side of the bed that morning.
Persist. Make sure that each follow-up message you send is different and shares something new and relevant with the influencer.
And be careful to leave enough time before each message so that influencers don’t view you as spammy and block you.
5 Opening Contact Templates for Your Brand to Try
When working out how to reach out to influencers, many brands lack the direct experience of crafting an initial approach like a personalized email to open a conversation.
Below, take a look at five sample approaches we take in creating introductory messages to top influencers.
When writing your message, try to use the types of words and phrases most commonly used by your target influencer in your copy to create extra affinity between you.
The most important aspect of your initial message is to get a conversation started. Your relationship may eventually go way beyond the original suggestion you approached them with.
Template 1: Product review, feature, or sample
Hi [influencer name],
My name’s [name] and I’m from the content marketing team here at [company name].
We’ve been following you for a while now.
We love [outline 1 or 2 things that make their content great].
We’re about to launch a new product and we’d love your opinion on it. The product is [outline 1 or 2 features of the product].
The reason we’d like you to review it is [link this to a review done by the influencer on a competitor’s product or a review done on a different product of yours]. We like your approach and we’d appreciate your feedback on our product.
If this is of interest to you and you think it’s the type of content your followers would appreciate, can we set up a Zoom call to discuss a potential collaboration or partnership on this and going forward?
Best,
[your name]Template 2: Part of our beta team
Hi [influencer name],
My name’s [name] and I’m the [job title] here at [company name].
The reason I’m writing to you is [point to reviews/endorsements given to similar products or services by an influencer].
We’ve been working really hard for the last [x] [months/years] on a new product/service — [name].
What [name] does is [outline 1 or 2 features of the product].
We thought you might enjoy getting a sneak peek because [outline 1 or 2 key differentiators from competitor products or earlier products].
We started following your Instagram account a while back.
It’s clear to us that your followers trust your judgment and guidance on products like ours. We’d really appreciate the chance to get it in your hands to iron out any issues before we launch. Please feel free to share your experiences with your followers.
If this is the type of content your followers would enjoy, can we set up a Zoom call to discuss a potential collaboration or partnership on this and going forward?
Sincerely,
[your name]Template 3: Be on our panel of experts
Hi [influencer name],
My name’s [name] and I’m the [job title] here at [company name].
On [date], we’re hosting a video event where we’ll be discussing [topic of mutual interest].
We’ll be promoting the video event via [explain what you’ll be doing to ensure maximum exposure].
We want to invite different voices to contribute to the discussion.
Having followed your account since [month], we strongly believe that what you have to say will be of real interest to our audience of customers and other industry experts.
Can we set up a Zoom call to discuss this project and potentially other partnerships going forward?
Best,
[your name]Template 4: Longer-term relationship
Hi [influencer],
My name’s [name] and I’m the [job title] here at [company name].
I started following your Instagram account in [month] and I really enjoy your content. It’s not just that — I appreciate the time you take to respond to your followers as well.
There’s one post in particular that stood out to me.
It was your post about [subject matter] on [date]. What I really liked about it was [explain the reasons you liked it].
I strongly feel that there is a good fit between your channel and our brand. [Briefly outline 1 or 2 reasons.]
Can we set up a Zoom call so we can find out more about each other?
Have a great week!
[your name]Template 5: Join us at a special event
Hi [influencer name],
My name’s [name] and I’m the [job title] here at [company name].
We’ve been following you for a while now.
We love [outline 1 or 2 reasons what makes their content great].
If your products have been featured: We appreciated your coverage of our [product] and we thought it might be of interest to you to attend our launch event for [new product].
If your products have not been featured: We think your coverage of our competitors’ products has been very fair and balanced and we can tell how much your followers appreciate your opinion. If it’s of interest, we’d love you to attend our launch event for [new product] to learn more about us.
The date is [mm/dd/yy] at [venue, address], and in attendance will be [VIP names].
You’d be one of our guests of honor. [Briefly mention any arrangements like transport costs, hotel fees, etc..]
We hope this could be the first of many collaborations between your channel and our brand.
Can we set up a Zoom call so we can find out more about each other?
Warmly,
[your name]4 Channels to Use to Reach Out to Influencers
There are four main ways you can approach influencers to discuss a potential partnership.
Many influencers (especially on YouTube and LinkedIn) include their contact information, including their email address, in their profiles.
Before sending any influencer outreach email, be sure to run your text and subject line through a spam-checking service like Mail Tester to ensure maximum deliverability.
Although it’s fine to use an email template, make sure there’s sufficient personalization in each message you send. Don’t just pop off the same generic email to 30 people — it will be obvious.
Social Media
You could always DM an influencer on the social media platform you found them on.
Most social networks impose a maximum daily limit on the number of messages you can send. For example, you can send no more than 30 Instagram DMs or Facebook DMs a day. On LinkedIn, the limit is 50 and Twitter is up to 80.
Web Contact Form
Behind many successful social media influencers is a blog. Many influencers use their blogs and social media accounts to promote other bloggers.
An ideal way to reach out to a social media influencer is by using the “Contact Me” form on their blog, since it’s intended for this exact purpose.
Alternatively, you can contact Markerly to search for influencers for you who also run their own blogs.
Influencer Marketing Agency
Markerly is one of the leading influencer marketing campaign management service providers in the U.S. and our team knows how to reach out to influencers.
For the past 10 years, we’ve built up strong relationships with social media influencers across hundreds of different niches. Every year, we add thousands more influencers to our platform.
We can help you find the right influencers and help you decide on the right influencer marketing strategy for your brand.
And, because we already work with these content partners, you don’t have to spend time crafting introductions for your brand—let us do it for you.
Find the Right Influencer Partnerships for Your Brand
Still not sure on how to reach out to influencers to start a discussion on partnership opportunities?
At Markerly, we have launched, tracked, and directed hundreds of influencer marketing campaigns over the past 10 years.
Whether you want to work with influencers to increase brand awareness or drive more traffic to your e-commerce site, we have the marketing tools and insight you need.
Fill out our contact form to get in touch with our digital marketing experts and let us know more about your brand and the results you want to achieve.
