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If you’re planning on starting an influencer marketing campaign you’ll need our guide on how to develop an influencer outreach plan and the fundamentals of an influencer marketing strategy.
Influencer marketing has quickly become one of the most popular methods to help increase your brand awareness and trust. Influencers allow you to reach a unique, niche audience that would otherwise not be exposed to your brand. There are enormous benefits to running a successful influencer marketing campaign and it can often be just as important as Facebook and Instagram campaign management. However, it can be a time-consuming and complicated campaign to set up if going in blind.
An influencer campaign may not be suitable for every brand but it has proven results in certain industries and can even average a return on investment of $6.95 per $1 invested if utilised correctly.
The key to a successful influencer outreach campaign is building a relationship after you have contacted your influencer.
A quality relationship with your influencer generally involves mutual benefit. It grows your reach organically while the influencer also receives something in return.
An influencer marketing campaign may be successful for your competitors, however, without careful consideration into what you want to achieve with your campaign, you may as well be throwing your marketing budget away.
If you do not target the right influencers with the audience you want you’ll quickly run through your budget with a poorly executed campaign and won’t get the desired results. Avoid wasting your marketing budget by following our steps on developing a winning outreach influencer outreach plan.
Before you begin reaching out to influencers, your priority should be evaluating what you want to achieve from your campaign and what you want your influencers to accomplish. Develop a firm understanding of your campaign and discuss which KPIs you wish to measure to evaluate your success. Ask yourself at the end of your campaign, what will success look like?
Following this step, it’s vital to research your influencers, use influencer marketing platforms to get an idea of the key figures related to your brand.
Ideally, they should be involved in your field, if this is the case their followers would also be interested in your content. Growing a relationship with an influencer who is uninterested in your industry is a waste of time for all parties involved.
Do the research through various influencer marketing platforms learn the industry they’re in, the engagement rates, how many followers they have, only then can you evaluate whether you have chosen the right influencer.
After conducting your research, you will now have the ideal influencer for your brand in your mind. Next comes the outreaching, much like forming any new relationship you need to get to know them plus they need to get to know you.
It’s time to start stalking them (not literally of course). Get on their radar by engaging with their content, likes shares comments across multiple platforms. When developing your influencer outreach plan you mustn’t forget they’re human. Be nice, be supportive, they’re not robots.
Liking and following them will not only familiarise your name with them but you’ll also get to know them better before making first content. This also means you’ll be able to personalise your first message, in the next stage.
Once you’ve gotten to know your influencer and feel comfortable contenting them, it’s time to tailor a personal message.
It’s essential to send a personalised message, you’re trying to build a relationship, similar to online dating you won’t stand out unless your message is unique and personal. Our advice is to let them know why you chose them, use your research to show you know a little bit about them and finally be genuine. Don’t try to hide your end goal, influencers are busy people and know you aren’t contacting them to become best friends, tell them what you expect from them and what you’ll give in return.
The platform you contact them on will also play a role, email, Instagram or LinkedIn are all viable options. Ultimately it will depend on your industry as to which format gets the best response rate. Using an influencer marking platform is also a choice, however, some may limit direct contact. Instead, it asks you to provide a brief of what you want. Although influencer outreach platforms are acceptable options, you’ll lose some of the personalisation and customisation.
To truly establish your brand with your target audience, the ideal solution is to find influencers whose audience overlaps. This way you can have multiple touchpoints with your target audience, forming a trusting relationship between your brand and the audience.
If a consumer sees their favourite YouTuber and then their favourite Instagram model promoting the same brand, it’s more likely to become a trustworthy brand in their mind.
Our advice is once you get to know one influencer ask them to introduce you to their friends, by having a friend on your side you’ve already got one foot in the door. You’re more likely to be trustworthy when being introduced by a fellow influencer. Use an influencer to harness relationships with other influencers.
Influencers themselves are generally categorised into different levels, depending on how many followers they each have. At each level, you will have different engagement levels in addition to varying costs.
The top-level consists of celebrity influencers, these are your traditional movie stars, athletes or singers they are recognisable across most industries and have the largest reach. This comes at a substantially higher cost than lower-level influencers. Additionally, top-level celebrities generally have lower engagement rates than smaller influencers.
The next categories consist of the top 5%, influencers in this category receive over 250k monthly visits. Similarly, influencers in the top 10% have between 25,000 and 250,000 monthly visitors.
The final category of influencers is those with under 25,000 monthly views. These influencers are widely considered the most effective due to their low costs and high engagement rates. With these smaller influencers, you can also be sure of the audience you are targeting. In our mind, this is the ideal level to target with your influencer outreach campaign, although it may also depend on the location of your audience.
The ideal scenario when reaching out to influencers is to get them as dedicated to the brand as you are. There are several ways to do this either through affiliate programs, sponsored content, with compensation through products or currency or with brand ambassador programmes. Each influencer will have different preferences, our advice is to find a custom solution that works for both your brand and the influencer. It’s up to you and your influencer to determine the best compensation model for your objectives. It’s also important to thank the influencer for their involvement, once again they are people, not robots.
It’s all about building the right relationship with the influencer you work with, free customised products, exclusive events or inviting them to product launches are great ways to get your influencers on board. A pen with your logo on it may not be enough to help you stand out from the crowd.
Following these steps in your influencer outreach will help you nurture the relationship, into a fruitful and mutually beneficial relationship for all.
Overall, while not as easy as other campaigns an influencer outreach campaign when utilised effectively can be extremely prosperous. If you’re struggling to get started with your influencer outreach campaign, contact the experts today! Let’s Talk!
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