Influencer marketing is an effective tool in business strategy. A campaign with well-chosen influencers, connected to your customers and your product, will give your company visibility and an excellent ROI compared to other techniques such as advertising. However, influencers are constantly in demand by brands, even the smallest ones. So how do you stand out, contact them and above all get responses from them? Influence4You shares some tips.
Are there email templates for contacting influencers?
If you search “contact influencer” on Google, you’ll find many articles offering email templates that you copy and paste to each influencer. Many companies use them and this is a huge mistake. Influencers are like journalists, most of them are extremely in demand. Imagine receiving a hundred sample emails a day, not only in your mailbox but also in your DMs. All of them introducing you to some miracle product, all of them praising company X or Y, in the same way and almost all the time using the same format. What would you do? They would probably all end up in the trash bin unopened, right?
Steps to take before you send a message to an influencer
Identify the influencers you want to contact
To maximise your chances of receiving a positive response, and before you even get in contact, you should identify influencers that are relevant to your product or brand. If you want to promote your latest anti-spot cosmetic serum, it’s probably not worth sending an email to a cooking influencer! Perhaps they’re a little too different… But here’s way of identifying an influencer for an anti-spot cosmetic serum:
- Does the influencer specialise in beauty? Or more specifically in cosmetics or skincare?
- Are these posts aligned with your products and image? Example: an influencer who only uses clean beauty and vegan cosmetics is very unlikely to be interested in your latest dermo-cosmetic innovation.
- Most skincare influencers put their skin type in the bio. Does this correspond to your product launch? If so, the influencer is more likely to be interested.
- Does the influencer have a recurring partnership with a brand that already offers a serum similar to yours? If this is the case, perhaps the influencer will want to stick to their agreement with that company.
Don’t rule out nano and micro influencers
Your goal may be to target the biggest influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers. Keep in mind that it will be very difficult to get a response. They almost all have agents dedicated to partnerships, contracts, etc. and are so busy that nowadays they hardly response to their messages.
Focusing on nano-influencers (fewer than 10,000 subscribers) or micro-influencers (fewer than 100,000 subscribers) increases the odds that you’ll get responses to your messages. In terms of results, they often have much more engaged communities and a much higher engagement rate than the biggest influencers as they take the time to respond to their followers and create discussion in their field.
Interact with the influencer you are going to contact
It is worth knowing a little more about the influencer you are going to contact, and to find out their first name and status. To get noticed, you can engage with their content. A few likes on posts you like and relevant comments in their posts may invite them to look at your profile and reply to your message later.
Be sure to leave relevant comments that engage with the content using long, personalised sentences. Avoid using smileys and don’t say things like “sent DM, please read”.
What is an example of a good message to send to an influencer?
If you want a good message to send to an influencer, don’t look for templates. Show that you are a human being, friendly and willing to interact. They’re much more likely to read your message if you introduce yourself by your first name, being dynamic, than if you introduce yourself as a representative of company X or Y.
Contact them showing that you know their content
Show that you are interested in their work. Tell them you liked this or that post in their feed, and why. Then link it to your product or company if you wish.
Build a relationship of trust
Don’t play all your cards in the first message you send. Try to generate interest. Is your goal to send a gift for a chance to be featured in a story or post? There is no need for a long-winded message. Why not arouse curiosity and simply say after a brief introduction and a personalised message that you have a small gift and would like a postal address?
This is a spontaneous request that can work well as the influencer in question does not feel like they have to do something for you. If they respond, they will (hopefully quickly) receive a small gift that they might like. This way you appear as though you have something to offer, not something to demand.
Don’t have anything to offer but want to work with an influencer? Follow their stories, follow the topics they discuss and get involved! Let’s go back to our skincare example. Perhaps you’re launching an anti-spot serum, but you have a full range of cosmetic products. In the influencer’s story, they’re talking about a bad sunburn they got on holiday at the beach. Why not respond immediately and send a message saying that you can recommend a product from your company and that you would be happy to send it to them! This would be a nice, impactful introduction that could make a difference.
A long-term trusting relationship with an influencer is much more important than a single email.
To sum up
Be human, get involved and bring value rather than expecting an immediate return.
If contacting an influencer is still tricky for you, Influence4You can help you put you in touch with relevant influencers for your campaign. To do this, simply sign up to our influence marketing platform.
