5 Ways To Approach Social Media Influencers

Bloggers and social media influencers are trusted and respected voices who can help get your product, service, or brand in front an untapped (and potentially large) audience. They have vast and engaged followings across a variety of social channels, including Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and Facebook. While connecting with bloggers and influencers in your niche has many benefits, the process of reaching out can be tricky.

Reaching out to bloggers and social media influencers should be a thoughtfully planned and executed process, centered around developing both an “ask” and an “offer” that is mutually beneficial. So, how do you reach out to these types of people for your business? In this post we’ll cover the 6 steps to reaching out to bloggers and influencers so you can get started with these collaborations.

Step #1: BUILD PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS

Now that you have identified a group of influencers in your niche, start building personal relationships with them. Remember, they also are human, so send them warm introductions with a personal touch.

Here are few things you can do to initiate the relationship, which will help you to reach out to them easily.

Follow Them on Social Media

If there’s any of their content that you particularly like, share it with your followers or leave an insightful comment. This can help you grab the attention of the influencers.

Comment on Their Blog Posts

Don’t comment on an influencer’s blog post just for the sake of getting noticed. This will have a negative impact on your outreach. Make sure your comments are valuable, precise, and interactive.

Mention Them in Your Posts

You can also mention the influencer’s name or link to one of their posts, in your social or blog posts to get noticed. When you do this correctly, this will leave a long-lasting impact on the influencer.

Step #2:  Make Initial Contact.

 

Once you have established a relationship with influencers and bloggers, it’s time to shift your engagement to a more direct manner, through social channels first and then with a more personalized email.

Direct Message on Social Channels

 

When you begin to reach out to bloggers and social media influencers directly, you want to cast a wide net but at the same time keep it personal. Reach out to influencers first on social channels where they are most active and make sure that your messages includes detailed reasons why you love their content and/or personal story.

Keep in mind, these first messages should be used to connect with influencers on a personal level and lay the building blocks of what could eventually grow into a potential business partnership. Keep these initial messages light, and try to avoid sounding like a spam sales pitch.

Try something simple like, “Hi there. I really enjoy your Instagram feed and loved your last post about XYZ! You have such great style, and I think that you would love my new clothing line, X. Look out for an email from me soon. I would love to connect!”

Step #3: Reach Out with Personalized Email

 

After sending an initial message (like a Direct Message within Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook) to your blogger or influencer, you should then send a more in-depth introduction email. Note: most bloggers and social media influencers list their personal email addresses or preferred contact info within their social profiles. Take the time to look around their personal profiles and find these before you reach out.

In this email, continue to lay the building blocks by providing more information about your services, products, or brand. Here are a few tips:

• Keep tone reasonably informal and not “sale-sy”
• Avoid a generic subject line that could be confused as spam
• Include links to your website as well as direct links to any products or services that you think would be of particular interest
• Avoid laying out any specific “asks” or “offers”
• End the email with a vague ask like, “please get back in touch if you are interested in working together/learning more/collaborating”

 

 Determine an Appropriate Offer.

Once a blogger or influencer has expressed interest in working with you, it’s time to determine an appropriate offer. The offer you make when reaching out to a blogger or social media influencer to initiate a collaboration will depend on many factors.

Here are a few to consider:

• How many fans or followers does the influencer have? Someone with 20K followers on a social media channel will expect a more generous offer than someone with 2K.
• What are you thinking about asking for in return? A featured blog post plus additional posts and mentions across multiple social media channels is “worth” more than one tag and mention in an Instagram post, or one mention within a larger blog post alongside multiple other brands.
• How much (in time, products or services) are you comfortable spending? Be generous but don’t offer more than you are able. The best offers are high in value but low in overhead cost. For example, if you are a hairstylist, doing a free blowout may have a value of $20-50 but only cost you your own time.
• How will the influencer use your offer? Influencers don’t necessarily want to go places and use services on their own. If you are offering a free service—like a haircut, meal, or lesson—make sure that your offer includes the option of the influencer bringing a friend along or coming at a time that’s easiest for them. This will ensure that the influencer has the proper incentive to actually take you up on the offer for a service.

Step #4: Measure Results.

As with all marketing, you want to make sure that you have a way of determining if your efforts were worthwhile or not. Make sure that you set up a way to track the results of a blogger or social media influencer collaboration.

Was Your Blogger or Social Media Influencer Collaboration a Success?

Consider creating a custom landing page, a custom tracked link, and possibly a tracked phone number, if applicable. You will want to have your tracking components set up when you communicate the final “ask.” Make sure that you provide your bloggers or social media influencers with the necessary tagging and tracking elements that they will need for their blogs and posts.

Step #5: Follow Up.

If the influencer does not reply to the first email, there is nothing wrong with following up. Because the influencers have a huge number of followers, there is a good chance that they might have missed your email.

Wait for a couple of days, and then send a follow-up email. You can use this template follow-up email for your reference.