Influencer marketing is undeniably an incredibly powerful and successful marketing tactic. Other traditional marketing tactics have been proven to achieve 11X the ROI. But how do you go about doing it? By putting together a solid influencer outreach plan.
According to studies, influencer marketing is the most effective way for businesses to gain online clients. However, if you can identify and engage with the right influencers, your campaign will be a true success. Those with a reasonable number of followers, significant engagement, and a niche that matches your business.
This may appear difficult to most marketers. However, with the correct tools and careful planning, you may develop an effective outreach strategy. This is how.
Getting Your Influencer Outreach Strategy off the Ground
Finding the right influencers for your brand and encouraging them to work with you is the goal of an outreach campaign. You must organise your outreach appropriately for an effective campaign that yields the desired outcomes.
Finding and Evaluating Influencers
Finding the right influencers should be the first step in any influencer outreach campaign. The most crucial thing to remember here is that their niche should match your brand.
If this happens, your message will reach an already engaged audience that is likely to be interested in you. Not only will this improve the reception of your message, but it will also produce more relevant leads.
It will also increase the credibility of both your influencer and your brand. By aligning with a brand in their specialty, the influencer ensures that their following are kept engaged. A suggestion or remark from a well-known influencer can also help you gain a reputation.
Many brands make the rookie error of associating with influencers whose niches are unrelated to their own. This can hurt your campaign’s chances of success. Cybees influencer marketing platform can assist you in finding the right influencers for your campaign. You can find the ones you need by filtering them by niche, influence, or reach.
Evaluation of influencers should be a vital element in any influencer outreach strategy. When identifying influencers for your campaign, consider the following characteristics:
Reach
The reach of an influencer refers to the number of people to whom you might be able to communicate your message. Make sure to factor in the quantity of followers they have on social media in your evaluation. You should also look into their MozRank, monthly blog traffic, and Alexa rank.
Engagement
While reach is vital, the level of engagement is much more so. It’s not enough to just make your message visible to a broad audience if they don’t care about it. Followers can also be purchased inorganically by paying.
Paid followers are significantly less engaged than genuine followers. As a result, you must determine your influencers’ engagement rate. Examine the percentage of followers who engage with their content on a regular basis.
Content
Examine the material posted by an influencer after you’ve looked at the reach and engagement stats. It will allow you to assess their quality and determine whether their storytelling is consistent with your brand.
Warming Up and Reaching Out
You must first make yourself visible to the influencers you’ve identified before you can begin your influencer outreach. This phase guarantees that you become acquainted with them and begin to form relationships with them.
You should also practice your pitch, which you will use in your influencer outreach plan. While working on your pitch, the most crucial questions to ask yourself are:
- What do you hope to accomplish with this campaign? Maybe a 10% rise in Twitter followers or a 5% boost in website traffic?
- What do you have to offer your influencers? Money, a free product or service, or a sales commission?
Start putting yourself on the radar of these influencers while you’re working on your pitch. Use social media to interact with their content. Leave meaningful comments, and share their content on social media. You should make an attempt to demonstrate that you are truly interested in them and their job.
You can create a Twitter list with the influencers you’ve found. This will assist you in better organising your outreach strategy. You can keep track of the influencers you’re following and connect with their content on a regular basis.
You can start sending your outreach emails after you feel your influencers are aware of your presence. Make sure to create an original and genuine personalised email. The following should be included in your outreach email:
A subject line that catches their attention and makes them interested in reading the email.
- A subject line that piques their interest and encourages them to open the email.
- Make it personal by telling them how you found them and how much you like their work.
- Make sure your reasons for reaching out to them are explicit and well-articulated.
- Mention the financial and non-monetary benefits you can provide them.
- At the end of your outreach email, provide a clear call to action.
If your outreach emails are short and clear about your goals, they’ll be more effective. They should also motivate the reader to take action. Because influencers are busy, there’s no need to ramble on and on about how much you like their work.
Instead, make it sound exciting by telling them how cooperation will benefit them. Also, make sure your subject line is interesting. If they aren’t interested in reading your email straight away, it may end up in their spam folder.
Above all, look back on previous relationships or influencer collaborations. They’ll help you establish credibility, making your outreach more effective.
Following Up
Because influencers are busy, there’s a good risk your outreach emails may end up in their spam folder. Should you just send the email and hope it gets read? Sure, if you want to squander all of your influencer outreach efforts.
Don’t give up just yet if you don’t get a response to your initial outreach email. It’s conceivable that they just did not receive your email. This does not imply that they are uninterested. So wait a few days before sending a follow-up email.
You can even send a direct Twitter message to follow up if you like. The purpose of your email or message should be to see if they’ve seen your earlier communication. The following should also be included:
- A summary of the advantages you provide and why they should collaborate with you.
- A clear call to action encourages people to contact you for further information.
Conclusion
When it comes to running an influencer outreach campaign, staying organized is crucial. You must be able to maintain track of the influencers you’ve shortlisted as well as those you’ve contacted. The recipients of follow-up emails and those who have answered, and so on. This will come in handy while planning your outreach efforts.
Once your influencers are on board, strive to form authentic relationships with them. Take an active interest in their achievement and assist them in spreading the word through your networks. They are more inclined to be invested in your achievement if they feel valued.