A micro-influencer is an influencer that has 10k-100k followers. With their close community and high engagement rate (6% average on Instagram), many brands like Warby Parker and Glossier have seen huge success with micro-influencer campaigns.
And you can do that too. You have to start by finding the right influencers for your brand and learning how to effectively reach out to micro-influencers.
With data on over 80M+ influencers (that helps us better understand every influencer) and a team of over 40 outreach experts, we know how to reach out to micro-influencers, and convert a “maybe” into a “yes”.
In this article, we’ll share these strategies along with some best practices recommended by our outreach specialists.
How to Reach Out to Micro-Influencers: 7 Steps to Follow
An effective micro-influencer outreach campaign is made up of small steps conducted in the right way, using the right process.
Here are seven steps you should follow to reach out to micro-influencers so they can’t say no.
1. Find the right micro-influencers
Brands often see low response rates and think it’s because of their outreach efforts. However, one important factor that impacts response rates is whether you are reaching out to the right micro-influencers.
You need to find micro-influencers based on their niche, demographics, the kind of content they post, if they actively participate in affiliate programs, etc. Here are the 3 best ways to do that:
Use an influencer discovery platform
An influencer discovery platform makes it easy for businesses to find the influencers of their choice quickly. At influencers.club we have a large database of 80M+ influencers with their email addresses and 40 more details about each influencer.
Thanks to that, you can precisely find and reach out to micro-influencers that are a perfect match for your brand.
You can select the social platforms of your choice, set follower range, choose gender, niche, average engagement, etc.
🚀 Pro-tip: Select the filters ‘Has Brand Collaborations’ or ‘Promotes affiliate links’ to find micro-influencers who are experienced with brand partnerships and have influence over their audience.
Find micro-influencers that are perfect for your brand
Search through a database of 80M+ influencers from Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, and find your ideal influencers (and their email address) within a few minutes
Search on Google or social media
If you want to conduct a manual search, you can find micro-influencers on Google. Type in “[your niche] + micro-influencers” to get links to sites that have ready lists.
For example, here’s how to find relevant lists for sports influencers.
After you find a couple of relevant sports micro-influencers, go to their social profiles and click on the suggestions icon to find similar influencers in the same niche. Here’s how you can do it:
You can even discover micro-influencers by using niche-specific hashtags on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook.
The next step in this approach will be to find the email addresses on their Instagram profiles.
Find micro-influencers in your customer base
Currently, there are around 157 million micro-influencers on Instagram only. So, there’s a big chance that you already have micro-influencers among your customers that you don’t know of.
Your loyal customers can be your biggest cheerleaders and to find which ones are micro-influencers you can go over your Instagram following list. Or you can open the profiles only of those who repeatedly purchase your products or services.
Another effective way, especially if you have a large customer list or if you want to get more info about each micro-influencer among your customers is to use influencers.club’s customer enrichment service.
You just need to upload your customer list, and we’ll match them with our data of 80M+ influencers. You’ll get a list of all micro-influencers, plus interests, locations, links from other social media profiles, etc.
Find micro-influencers among your customers
2. Select an outreach channel
When it comes to outreach channels, you can send a DM or email to micro-influencers you want to work with.
Choosing between both depends on the level of formality required, whether you have an existing relationship with the influencer, etc. Also, often they have the preferred method written in Instagram and TikTok bio, or YouTube description, so look for that first.
Yet, keep in mind that emails are best for detailed proposals, sending contracts, etc. You can even use a combination of both – start with an email and follow up with DMs.
Here’s one message you can copy and customize for DMs.
Hi [Influencer’s Name],
I’ve been admiring your work on [platform] and I’m impressed by your passion for [specific niche]. I loved your [custom content based on influencer content].
I have a collaboration idea that I believe aligns perfectly with your content style and audience. Would you be open to discussing this further?
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Best,
[Your Name]
Or if you decide to reach out to micro-influencers via email, the next step would be to find their email address. Here are two simple ways to do it:
- Check their social profiles. They might have their email address in their bio.
- Use platforms like influencers.club. You can use our dashboard to find niche-specific micro-influencers and their email addresses.
If you’re looking for a quick and reliable way to reach out and finalize deals with micro-influencers, join our partnership program. We handle everything from discovery to deal closure, ensuring a smooth partnership process.
To get a better idea of how this looks like, check out how our team helped Pearpop connect with 100K+ creators.
Let us reach out to micro-influencers on your behalf
3. Write a short and simple email
While sending the introductory email, ensure you don’t overwhelm them with a wall of text.
Influencers generally want to know three major things from your email:
- Who you are
- What the partnership/collaboration is about
- What’s in it for them
Here’s an introductory email template that you can customize:
Hi [Influencer’s Name],
I hope you’re doing well! I’m reaching out from [Your brand] because we admire your content on [platform]. We especially love [personalization depending on the micro-influencer].
We’d like to discuss a collaboration opportunity about [brief description of collaboration idea].
What’s in it for you:
- [Benefits for them]
Are you interested? Let us know.
Best,
[Your Name]
[Your Position]
4. Come up with a catchy subject line
47% of email recipients open an email based on the subject line alone. So, here are some best practices you can adopt, along with examples to get more open rates:
- Include an element of personalization – Your followers will love this recommendation, Susan!
- Evoke curiosity with a question – Interested in a win-win collaboration?
- Talk about a benefit – Ready to level up your influence game?
- Keep it brief yet impactful – Exciting skincare collaboration opportunity
5. Write a compelling CTA
Instead of ending your email on a vague note, be clear about what action you need the micro-influencer to take. This makes replying easier for them, making it a win-win approach.
Here are some CTAs we have used in our campaigns to get a good response rate:
- Are you interested in this?
- Can I send you more details?
- Would you be open to exploring partnership opportunities?
- Want to explore this opportunity? Click here to schedule a quick call.
- Are you open to the idea of working together?
🚀 Pro-tip: Make sure the CTA you use is clearly visible and actionable. If micro-influencers can’t easily spot and act on your CTA, your reply rate will be low.
6. Select when to send your outreach email
Besides finding the right influencer and writing a great email copy, you need to consider whether the time you are sending the email is the right time to get the attention you want.
For example, if you send an email on Saturday evening when people are not likely to check their emails, your email will get lost in a swamp of other messages till Monday when the recipient actually goes through their inbox.
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are considered the top choices for sending outreach emails.
Apart from this, also take into consideration the recipient’s time zone before picking a time. We also recommend A/B testing to find the time period where you’re getting the most email opens.
7. Don’t forget to follow up
Introducing one follow-up email in your sequence can improve the reply rate by an average of 68.75%. This could be because your initial email may have gone out of notice, or the recipient may be busy at the time and might have forgotten to reply.
Instead of losing out on these conversions, it’s always a good practice to follow up 2-3 times after the initial email. The frequency also matters, and our outreach team recommends waiting at least 2 days before sending a follow-up email.
But what should you include in your email? Here’s what our outreach expert recommends, “It’s nice to add something extra, something valuable that wasn’t in the initial email, instead of the usual ‘Quick follow-up’ or ‘Just checking in.’ Adding more specific details (value) could really grab the creator’s interest.”
Here’s a follow-up email template that has got us a 67% average open rate and an 18% average reply rate.
3 Bonus Tips to Successfully Reach Out to Micro-Influencers
Sometimes, that one strategy or tip can take your micro-influencer outreach to the next level. Here are some tips that we have used for our clients.
1. Do proper research
Although micro-influencers get less collaboration proposals compared to macro-influencers, they still get a lot of emails in their inboxes.
The ones that will capture the attention most will either be from big brands they’d love to collaborate with or well-researched messages that are personalized.
Here’s what Darko Dashkovski, creator outreach expert at influencers.club, has to say:
“As the creator grows, compliments based on what they have posted online becomes an everyday thing for them, so a personalization based on their posts, won’t be of much value for them.
For cases like this, an additional step forward is needed, meaning you need to dig deeper into the creator’s presence, find information only you would know, and make the personalization based on that. This would show that you are actually interested in them and you spent your time looking up things about them.”
This could mean talking about a campaign/value they mentioned in passing, points that make their content unique, or something about their journey in the niche.
Read more: How to Approach Influencers: 6 Proven Ways
2. Focus on genuine connections
Influencer marketing is more about building genuine connections and relationships that will last for a long time. Instead of making it all about you, turn the table. Empathize with the influencer, understand them, and see how you can help them.
Here are three ways you can build powerful connections with your micro-influencers:
- Make them feel seen/heard. Engage with their posts (especially the ones where that mention your brand).
- Remember important dates like birthdays and anniversaries and send them a short and sweet email, along with some fun deals or offers.
- Keep them in the loop whenever you launch a new product or add a new feature. Ask them to review it. This makes them feel their recommendations and suggestions are valued.
3. Show the value of collaboration
Your email should show what you offer to the micro-influencer in exchange for the collaboration/partnership. If they have to reach out to you to ask for these details, you’re adding an extra step for them to respond.
Instead, here are the things your email should convey:
- What they will have to create (posts, reels, stories, tweets, etc.)
- The tenure of the partnership
- What they’ll get in return for the partnership (freebies, compensation, increased exposure)
The clearer the benefits, the more inclined the influencer to participate.
To Sum Up
A well-crafted micro-influencer campaign can not only generate leads but also get your brand increased exposure and trust.
Whether it’s finding the right influencers or reaching out to them, the steps given in this article will set you on the right path. Ensure you pick professional approaches and spend considerable time doing research to create emails that get responses.
If you need a reliable team to reach out to micro-influencers on your behalf and get good conversions, register for our partnership program.
