Following on from our recent blog post  - The Beginner’s Guide to Influencer Marketing – in which we touched on how to pitch to an influencer, we thought it may be helpful to break this down in a little more detail.

As you can imagine, when it comes to securing an influencer for a marketing campaign, or even just for added exposure, it can be difficult to stand out from the numerous other pitches they are receiving. In order to help you get the best chance at grabbing their attention we have laid out some tips to remember when writing your pitch.

1.  Focus on Your Goals

As with any task related to running a business, or marketing for that matter, you need to understand what your end goal is. Are you looking for more followers? Increased sales? Brand awareness? Whatever your goal may be, you will be able to better determine the type of influencer you choose and campaign you run.

You may have seen in our beginner’s guide that there are different levels of influencer, with the micro and nano influencers becoming increasingly popular due to their relatability. These are the ones who influence buying decisions through trustworthy recommendations and reviews. They are also slightly more attainable as, with a lower following count, they will be on the lookout for these opportunities to solidify their brand as an influencer. Macro influencers on the other hand may be more difficult (and possibly more expensive) to snag. However, if you do work with them, they will offer a much higher rate of exposure and could be extremely useful in a ‘follow for prize’ style competition.

2.  Do Your Research

Now that you understand the type of influencer you are looking for, you may even go for a mish mash of all levels, it is time to do some research. To start with, look at influencers that fall under the category of what your brand represents e.g. a sports equipment company will look for fitness influencers. Although you may feel like you want to reach everyone, specific targeting will have a better chance of landing the influencer, then let the power of social media do its work.

Now that you’ve narrowed down your genre of influencer, pick around six accounts to start with and learn more about each one. You’ll want to dive deep into all of their social media accounts, see who they may have worked with in the past and make sure they have the same core values that your brand represents. Ensuring your values align is especially important because this is what an influencer will consider when choosing whether or not to work with you. But also for your brands own reputation, you don’t want to partner up with someone only to learn they have questionable or controversial views on certain topics!

3.  Personalise Your Pitches

Personalising the pitch will set you apart from all the mass emailers out there. You may think it is obvious, but you would be surprised how often influencers will receive a copy and pasted pitch – Hi (insert name here). You’ve done your homework so put it to use, include specific references to recent campaigns, blog posts, videos they have done. Let them know you enjoyed it, after all you wouldn’t be contacting them if you didn’t think their work was any good.

Also, always send your pitches by email where possible. Email comes across far more professional and will be far easier for the influencer to respond to than a direct message. Did you know that you can only see a certain number of DM’s at any one time? If your pitch gets lots amongst the many DM’s a popular influencer receives every day, you may have missed your chance.

4.  Don’t Brag

Another important point for the content of your email is not to brag. What I mean here is try not to harp on too much about how great an opportunity it will be for the influencer or worse still make it seem like you are doing them a favour. Though typically both parties will reap rewards from the right collaboration, it is the company who has the most to gain so try to remain unbiased in your approach.

Of course when reaching out to your chosen influencer you will want to give a little background into who your company is and what you do. Try not to ramble on too much here, keep it short and to the point, you don’t want to be copying your ‘About Us’ page verbatim. Highlight the areas where you think you will be compatible and then leave links to your website and socials so they can do their own research.

5.  Explain the Terms and Benefits

Make sure to include a brief about what the terms of the campaign will be i.e. what you expect of the influencer. And also the benefits i.e. what they can expect from you. Again, keep this concise, you don’t want a lengthy and possibly confusing pitch when the finer details can be discussed once they’ve accepted.

For the initial pitch you don’t need to go into too much detail about whether you want this to be a long-standing partnership or just a one off project. Best to finalise those details once they have agreed to work with you. However, if you are looking to approach a higher level macro influencer, it is a good idea to clarify whether or not this is a paid promotion. Again, the finer details can be worked out later but do remember that many high profile influencers (or celebrities if this is your target) will only take on paid projects.

6.  Give Deadlines

For many influencers social media is a full-time job. When sending your initial pitch try to lay out clear deadlines if possible. It is better to have an ideal timeline in place prior to contacting them anyways. The influencer will have a lot of plates spinning and if they feel there is no urgency to your project then it will be bumped down the list.

The best way to approach this is to act like they have already accepted when explaining the campaign e.g. We will send the samples tomorrow and require the video review by (date). You can then request a postal address and include a note that says to let you know if they don’t wish to take part.

7.  Don’t Be Pushy

Finally, this is an area of marketing where it might harm you to be pushy. Our advice would be, if they don’t respond it’s best not to follow up. If you’ve put all the work into the pitch it can be difficult to accept but sending more emails will only deter them more from ever working with you in the future.

This rule applies especially for the macro influencers, however, for the micro or nano influencers it may be worth following up via a different medium. It may be that they’ve not had time to check their emails or have been away. I would suggest in this instance sending a short direct message or perhaps sending a tweet (thought this will be seen publicly) or, if available on their social platforms, a good old-fashioned phone call might do the trick.