We’ve covered what influencer marketing is, how to choose the right influencer, and now it’s time to give concrete advice about contacting your influencer and starting your campaign. Here we’ll cover the initial interactions and other do’s and don’ts of influencer marketing.
Contacting Your Influencer
This information is drawn directly from panels of influencers who spoke at the BeautyX Summit in LA. These tips are based on their preferences, but it seems reasonable to assume their preferences may apply to many others.
Email: Once you’ve found influencers you are interested in working with, email them. This was universally preferred over DM (direct messaging through apps or platforms). Like all emails to people whose eye you’re trying to catch, try and stand out. This means personalizing the subject line and discussing, in a line or two of the email, your favorite posts of theirs and what you like about their brand. Keep it short and sweet.
Discuss your brand and what it’s about—why is this person a good fit with your messaging? What is the main differentiating factor about your brand or products? What type of ingredients do you use? Be upfront! Make the introduction as easy as possible by providing a fact sheet, picture, ingredients, and a link to your website. Don’t be shy about your budget or other needs upfront; clear is always better than confusing.
Close the email politely (of course!) and ask direct questions about the next steps. Specifically, ask if you can send them a certain product or products to try, and where. Know that the bigger influencers are very busy, so try to be patient.
Determining Your Spend
If you and your influencer have decided on a paid relationship, it’s critical to determine your budget and goals. It is worth noting now that it may take some time to see a clear return on investment (ROI), because much of social media is about building awareness. That said, when an influencer includes a link to your product you can create a custom link and track how many times it has been clicked. This provides a clear measure of traffic.
Consider how much reaching your target audience is worth, and how much a positive, honest review to those people is worth. If you are paying, it’s common for smaller influencers to receive $100 per post, expect more for an extended campaign. But don’t forget your budget might be cost of goods alone: some influencers do not engage in any sponsored relationships to maintain higher credibility with their followers.
Notes on Executing an Influencer Marketing Campaign
The 4 P’s to Consider
- Product: choose a product in your line that photographs well, is easy to explain, and is a reasonable price
- Person: choose the right influencer and the right audience (see our previous blogs on the topic).
- Post: let the influencer post in their own voice and style. If your first efforts don’t work, adapt them or consider switching influencers.
- Partnership: you should create a relationship with your influencer, if they genuinely believe in your products. Think up other ways to work together, like hosting a “feed takeover” where they curate your feed for a day and cross-post to your followers and their own. Host events and invite them as a brand ambassador, share links, or create custom products to suit their needs/hair/skin. You can be sure many of their followers will have the same needs the influencers do.
Mistakes to Avoid
-Let the influencer make the call about the posts. Don’t taint them with an outside voice or micromanage them.
-Don’t ask for more than they can deliver, and don’t expect too much. They have a brand of their own to maintain and it really does take time to create a beautiful and consistent social media presence. In addition, this means keeping your expectations in check.
-Don’t forget to interact with the post(s) on your products! If people have questions, jump in where appropriate.
