New Rules… For approaching influencers.
One of our very own micro-influencers, Hannah, gives her top tips & tricks on how to curate healthy working relationships between brand and influencer.
Say my name (say my name)
It may sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how many cold emails and copied and pasted instagram DM’s influencers get – and they’re recognisable a mile off. Even name changes can be forgotten and a simple ‘love your content’ doesn’t cut it. For example, if ‘Susie’ is a fashion blogger and her bio says she’s travelling to Rome soon, referencing that in an initial reach out will make Susie know that you’ve actually looked at what she’s doing.
Gimme more
When sending briefs or moodboards , whether for Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter or TikTok (an ever growing platform list!), it’s important to consider how it will come across to a content creator. Is it written in corporate speak, is there jargon they may not know, is it visually engaging enough for an influencer that gets multiple briefs a day? Make sure you have the right mix of Yes and No responses to these questions before you send your brief!
Money, Money, Money
Don’t assume an influencer is going to work for free. They’ve worked hard to build their profile and to keep their following engaged – and you need that engagement! If you don’t have a budget and an influencer asks about payment, this doesn’t necessarily mean they wont work with you – but an upfront, simple explanation of how the campaign works and what’s in it for them (note: not necessarily exposure, if their audience is bigger or more engaged than yours) will help. You can also check-in if it’s the kind of collaboration they’d be interested in for the future, if there was a budget.
Wannabe
You can use sites such as Social Blade (or even our very own Squarestats!) to help you figure out engagement rate and other relevant metrics to help you ensure you contact the right people – on Instagram for example, an ER of 3% or higher is who you’re after. You can also manually check the influencer’s platforms for bot comments – think ‘wow so great’ – and through their likes for bot accounts, which will generally be accounts with no posts and little or no followers.
Take away
- Remember: it is their job (or one of them!)
- Take a human approach
- Be considerate of their time and content
- Keep it fun!