Brands connect with influencers to increase sales, brand awareness and business growth in general. For example, Tom’s of Maine partnered with micro-influencers to get a 30% sales lift across product lines. Or Pottery Barn reaching 4 million people to spread awareness about its new Ken Fulk collection.
In a nutshell, influencer marketing can be your one-stop destination for increasing brand awareness, generating leads, and boosting engagement.
But to replicate these kinds of results, you need to know how to connect with influencers and establish long-lasting partnerships that keep them engaged with your brand.
So keep reading to find out:
- How to find the right influencers?
- Simple ways to truly connect with influencers
Let’s get started!
3 Ways you can connect With Influencers
There are several effective strategies to connect with influencers you want to work with. In addition to fostering a fair and understanding partnership, these 3 key approaches can improve your ability to connect with influencers.
1. Craft a compelling pitch
The first impression you make with your pitch will set the tone for the communication to follow. So make sure your pitch has these 5 elements:
- Personalize the message. Talk about their content or what drew you to that particular influencer.
- Be concise. Instead of sending all the details in the body of your message, offer to send more details in a follow-up conversation.
- Explain what’s in it for them. This could mean freebies, discount codes, or cash compensation.
- Have a clear CTA. Be it setting up a call or replying with a Yes/No, don’t end the pitch without a CTA.
Here’s a pitch example that has earned us an average open rate of 55% and a reply rate of 15%.
Hey {first_name} –
{rep_name} here from {brand_name}.
Really glad we connected on {social_media_platform}. I’ve been a fan of your content for a bit and truly appreciate what you bring to the table.
{add personalization content here}
We’re rolling out some exciting stuff at {brand_name} that I believe you might find interesting. We’d love to discuss potential collaborations.
Can I send you some more info?
{rep_name}
2. Engage with influencer content
Only 8.5% of outreach emails get a response. This is because recipients likely ignore emails from people they don’t know.
Instead, you can interact with influencers and engage with their content over a few weeks before you send them your pitch. This way influencers would likely remember you and respond positively to your email.
Here’s how Chewy comments on posts they are tagged on, some of which posts are from influencers.
You can even answer your target influencer’s questions or leave your recommendations on their posts. Here’s how Buffer replies to a Twitter user’s post:
3. Build genuine relationships with influencers
Influencer marketing is more about building relationships than winning a one-time deal. Here are three strategies you can use:
- Show ongoing support and interest in your influencer’s work. This will make them feel noticed and keep you at the forefront of their minds. Here’s how Daniel Wellington has a story highlight where they share stories featuring a creator every week.
They also engage with these creators’ posts, even when they aren’t part of an active campaign.
- Give your influencers exclusive access to new products or events. This generates excitement and fosters loyalty. Here’s how Glossier holds exclusive events for influencers, where they can try new products and create content on the spot.
- Celebrate your influencers’ personal and professional milestones. This could mean congratulating them on their wedding or hyping them up when they reach a new high in their careers. Here’s how Red Bull does that.
- Send personalized gifts or perks to show your influencers that you appreciate their work and partnership. Sephora frequently sends personalized thank-you cards and PR packages to its influencers.
How to Find Influencers: 3 Proven Steps to Follow
Finding the right influencers is a crucial step in an influencer marketing campaign. Here are three strategies (with examples) to help you kickstart your influencer search.
1. Identify your target audience and campaign goals
Before you start looking for influencers, you need a clear understanding of your target audience and campaign goals. Here are some questions to get you started:
- What are the demographics, interests, and preferences of my target audience?
- What specific objective are we looking to achieve with this campaign?
- Why do we think influencer marketing would be the best choice to achieve this goal?
- What criteria would make an influencer the right fit for this campaign?
One mistake brands often make while defining the criteria for influencer selection is sticking to the same niche. For example, shortlisting beauty influencers for a beauty brand. While this is a good approach, it narrows your options and puts you in a competitive arena.
Instead, also look for influencers who aren’t in the beauty niche but reach the same target audience. For example, collaborating with a mom influencer who can include a beauty routine in her busy life or showcase her favorite products.
Here’s how Daxxify, a prescription beauty medicine brand, collaborated with Christine Andrew, a mom and lifestyle influencer.
2. Search on social media platforms
Platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube are great for discovering influencers. You can get an idea of the kind of content an influencer creates, the brands they partner with, and the target audience they cater to.
Here are three ways to find these influencers on social media:
- Use hashtags. These could be niche-specific hashtags like #makeup #beautycontent or collaboration hashtags like #beautycollab. You can even use the suggestions hashtags that pop up on your search.
- Leverage the suggested profiles feature. This gets you a list of similar influencers.
- Use Twitter lists. These lists are curated groups of Twitter accounts that generally focus on specific topics. Many influencers create or participate in these lists.
Read more: How to Approach Influencers: 6 Proven Ways
3. Use influencer discovery platforms
Manual methods take a lot of time. On the other hand, influencer discovery platforms have a large database of influencers you can easily access.
For example, you can use influencers.club dashboard to search through a database of 80M+ influencers from Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and all creator platforms (Patreon, OnlyFans, etc) within minutes.
The platform also offers 40+ data points like gender, location, niche, engagement rate, etc., for precise search and finding the right influencers for your campaigns.
Once you have a list of influencers you like, you can export your custom list with a verified email address for each influencer.
From there, you can reach out and connect with influencers on your own, or you can let our team of 40+ creator sales experts connect with you with your ideal influencers.
Connect with influencers that are ideal for your brand
Search through 80M+ influencers and get a custom influencer list with verified email addresses within a few minutes
How Pearpop Connected with 100K+ Creators in 7 Months?
Pearpop, a creator collaboration platform, wanted to find and connect with influencers. They decided to partner with influencers.club because of the minimal involvement required from their end.
With our partnership program, all they needed to do was guide us in understanding the value of their product, how it benefits influencers, and what they wanted to achieve with the campaign.
Our team found influencers according to their requirements. Next, we started by sending 15,000 emails per week, and over time we increased the number of emails to 200,000 per week. This increase in quantity didn’t hamper the quality, and we got an average open rate of 47% from which 12% resulted in a reply.
The most notable achievement was – we connected Pearpop with thousands of influencers at a lower cost per acquisition (CPA) than Google and Facebook ads within a specific timeframe.
The team at Pearpop also saw that the sign-ups from our influencer outreach efforts had a higher lifetime value (LTV) than those from paid channels.
Here’s a quick summary of the results we achieved:
To Sum Up
Connecting with influencers will set the path for campaigns that bring results. These partnerships take considerable time and effort, like engaging with influencers’ content or making them feel valued, but they result in long-lasting partnerships.
To connect with influencers you can use the strategies mentioned in this article or you can enroll in our partnership program, where our team will connect your brand with influencers. We can handle every step of the way from influencer discovery and outreach, to deal negotiation.
Want to connect with influencers?
Share your criteria with us, and our team will handle everything else. We will find, contact, and connect you with your ideal influencers.
