Influencer Outreach: The Ultimate Guide in 2023
Social platforms have catalyzed the evolution of business like nothing else. But the flip side of this is – unoccupied “space” on the Web becomes subject to savage competition, with companies investing thousands and millions in their brands’ promotions. The amount of information produced may impress even fervent futurists – 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every single day! So, to be discovered, businesses need to somehow incorporate into that info flow and act “harder, better, faster” than peers. And influencer outreach may be one of the ways out.
Influencers are public opinion makers. Their audience can be innumerable – one only has to look at Taylor Swift, Beyonce, or JLo Instagram profiles. Celebs have millions of fans, however, ordinary people, say, physicians or makeup artists, can be treated as influencers, as well. Providing that they have at least some dedicated followers, of course.
Bloggers and superstars can turn into spokespersons for your brand if you engage them smartly. And to do so, you need a powerful influencer strategy.
Outstanding Influencer Outreach Direct Message Templates
Direct messages should be brief yet meaningful, polite yet not too formal, notably when you’re going to reach out to Gen Z influencers. Use this all-purpose formula:
{self introduction} + {appreciation of influencers’ recent achievements} + {the matter of contact} +{the win-win benefit, in case of cooperation} + {how to follow up}.
“Direct message template”
If you write on behalf of an organization, mention your position and try to fascinate the influencer by mentioning revolutionary or exclusive products, fundraisings or charity activities, sustainability policies, etc.
“Direct message on behalf of a company”
Opinion makers may receive dozens of cooperation inquiries per day, so mention the reward, especially if it’s monetary. Don’t specify the exact sum – let this little intrigue be a cause to continue the dialogue with you.
Outstanding Influencer Outreach Email Templates
Although an email provides more space for details, compared to direct messages, bulky emails repel recipients. To increase the chances for success of your outreach attempt, follow these tips:
- cut self and company introduction to 1-2 sentences
- don’t use ceremonious greetings
- get to the point right away
- clearly outline benefits for the influencer
- speak the recipient’s language
- mention how to follow up.
“Influencer outreach email template”
Also, make sure the subject line looks neither impersonal nor too tempting. Avoid using cliches, like “collaboration offer”, “partnership opportunity”, or spam-trigger words, e.g “instant reward”, “big deal”, “call me now”, etc. It’s better to add the name to the headline and catch the attention with the wish, for example:
Jack, I liked your recent video about…
Sarah, need your expert advice on…
Reward your subscribers with a…
Influencer Outreach Strategy
Your strategy vastly depends on how methodically and consistently you act. Before any further actions, work out the overall plan. Say, you have compiled the list of music influencers. Next:
- define criteria for comparing performers
These may be – elderliness of the audience, genres or vibes they broadcast, expensiveness of cooperation, or – all these at once.
- segment musicians
Writing style, arguments, and offered benefits may differ, depending on a persona, agree. For outreach purposes, define homogenous groups, e.g. “top-priority”, “nice to have”, or “plan B” musicians.
- decide on collaboration type
Gifts, giveaways, cross-mentions, affiliate or discount codes, guest posting – choose what fits your aim best.
- work out outreach plan
The plan may include a schedule, messages, statuses, and follow-up templates.
Influencer Outreach Best Practices
Every marketer keeps a magic formula for outreach, but several infallible recommendations for everyone:
- Once you’ve earned profits from cooperation with an influencer, search for similar audiences. You can use Alexa’s Audience Overlap or other tools, and reach out to even more people.
- Establish connections with influencers early before you contact them with a proposal because people may want to see that you genuinely admire what they do. Show some attention – subscribe to a channel, donate on Patreon, share music videos in your profile, etc.
- If you have guidelines or requirements for cooperation, make them crystal clear at the very beginning.
- Don’t ignore inquiries or complaints after the cooperation ends because you may need to renew it in the future.
How to Choose the Right Influencers for Your Brand
Celebrities or “million-dollar bloggers” are in sight, but a few companies can afford to contract for them. Besides, reaching out to a broad audience doesn’t necessarily result in many leads or deals obtained. To find a proper influencer, you need to assess its audience location, interests, level of engagement, estimated posts’ prices, etc. To collect all these data, use tools:
- Heepsy
- GRIN
- Tubesift
- Upfluence.
If you want to engage music influencers, you can supplement the above instruments with the following:
- Influence.co (browse the “Music” category)
- TikTok
- Kolsquare.com (find who is popular on YouTube and Facebook)
- Songfluencer.com or Intellifluence.com (to promote their own music).
The 4 Best Influencer Outreach Tools
Snov.io
The tool is popular among salespeople, marketers, or everyone in charge of continuous mailings. Snov.io is one of the email searching tools with extended functionality – email verifier, drip campaigns builder, checker for websites technologies, and emails tracker. You can use Snov.io to plan email sequences, personalize headlines and body text, and control outreach campaigns performance.
Buzzsumo
Use this for exploring trending content: broadcasters, articles, videos, and more. You can browse topics by categories or perform a search by keywords or domain and see the company or person-related information.
Pitchbox
This is an all-in-one software for webmasters. Pitchbox provides tools for SEO, link building, contact discovery, outreach personalization, email automation, and performance analysis.
Heepsy
This is a “search engine” to find YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram bloggers. Heepsy shows hundreds of relevant profiles upon your search criteria and enhances each with a brief description: topics, % of engagement, the total number of followers, and link to the profile.
Putting it All Together
To define influencers, start with a deep understanding of your target audience and its interests. Combine manual data scraping and influencer marketing tools – to find opinion-makers that can potentially become brand advocates. After, elaborate the strategy: define the overall budget and benefits that you can reach out with, cooperation requirements, schedule, and content for emails or messages. Also, measure your results, for example, by monitoring the open ratio, the % of responses, etc.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the role of influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing definition stands for collaboration with opinion-makers to promote a company’s brands among potential buyers.
How to approach an influencer?
Perform prior research and assume the influencer’s nature, interests, maybe – problems or wants. Then offer something, with an eye out for findings.
How much does influencer outreach cost?
Price is a result of many variables, including the number of followers and the platform, but average opening figures are as follows:
- Facebook – $25+ per publication
- Instagram – $10+ per post
- YouTube – $20+ per video
- Twitter – $2 per Tweet.
How to ask for an influencer rate?
You can find approximate prices on Influencer MarketingHub, but it’s better to ask directly in the message or email. Professional bloggers are businessmen – if they perceive your offer as beneficial, they won’t deny disclosing the price.
For many companies, influencer outreach has already stopped being exotic curiosity and turned into a marketing routine. So it can become for you – the only point is to know whom to engage and what incentives to mention.
