Influencer Outreach: The Ultimate Guide in 2021

7 min readNov 3, 2021

As more and more content is generated daily, staying noticed and heard converts into a challenge for businesses. A chasm of well-written articles and well-done SEO lies before your message and more than 4 billion Internet users, to say — your prospects. Ultimately, there are 2 paths you can go to overcome the informational “white noise”. The first is — to invest in content more than peers and sink any part of the Web with branded articles and blog posts. And the second way out is — to be more precise in efforts and try influencer outreach.

Some may define influencers as YouTube bloggers, others as Instagram or Facebook chic personalities. The truth is, if there’s an audience that sticks to what someone says, whether he or she is a physician or a TV star, this person is an opinion-maker. And — you can manage to reach out to your target audience through ones it listens to. This outreach turns out to be not as broad, as in the case with traditional ads, but you eventually come up with qualified or ready-to-buy customers. And in this article, we’re going to reveal how to implement an influencer strategy.

Outstanding Influencer Outreach Direct Message Templates

Direct messages have undeniable advantages over mailing:

you don’t have to search for and scrape email addresses beforehand
there’s no need in deciding on and following a formal writing manner
you can check out if a person has read your message, for example, if contacted via Telegram or WhatsApp.

However, it’s not that simple. One should use different approaches for distinct social platforms and, of course, do some pre-study about a person. Below are a few messages’ examples that might work out:

Hey {name},

I loved your {post, video, comment} about {the matter}. In my company, we {produce something relevant to the topic or offer services}. I’d love to send some samples for you, so you can try these and share your experience with subscribers 🙂

Please, let me know if you’d be interested, thanks.

Hello {name},

My name is {your name}, I represent {the company} we’ve been following your account and are impressed on how much effort you invest in {the major topic}. We believe you represent our company’s ideal customer and would like you to become our brand ambassador.

As such, you will {describe key terms, and don’t forget to mention incentives}.

If the proposal sounds interesting, I’d love to chat with you {tell preferable options}.

Outstanding Influencer Outreach Email Templates

It’s better to use mailings when you act on behalf of somebody, say, — a client or company. You can mention all stakeholders in Cc or Bcc, and assure everyone gets follow-ups on time. The only precaution is to perform a thorough email search and verification — to avoid spam complaints. Moreover, consider sending out more personalized messages such as a Black Friday email or a Christmas newsletter to make your outreach more engaging and appealing.

Try these templates:

for new product launches

Hi, {}

My name is {}, I’m reaching out to you to give notice of my company’s new product launch! We start selling the next week and decided you might be pleased to hear beforehand.

Would you like us to send some piloting samples to you, so you may test and share your thoughts?

to attract to your blog postings

Hi {},

From your latest post on {}, I’ve noticed that you are captivated with {something that is relevant to what your writing matters}.

I’ve asked {number of surveyees} about what they think about {the matter}.

If you’re interested, you can check out more findings in my {blog, LinkedIn, Twitter + the link}.

to invite for an event

Dear, {},

You’ve been a valued member of {the company’s name} community, and we’d like to praise your loyalty.

We organize {the description of an event}.

We have limited passes for bloggers, and be happy to see you with us.

Please, check out {details about the venue and time},

We’ll appreciate it if you share your experience with your audience.

Influencer Outreach Strategy

A half the success of any deal is a well-ordered plan. To act prospectively, create a shortlist of relevant opinion makers and a timetable for reaching out. There are many outreach plan template examples, like ones on Content Marketing Institute website or in the Alexa blog.

It’s also advisable to compare your outreaching efforts’ efficiency over time, for example, by recording the number of unique website visitors from a particular source through UTM tags.

Source: “Track productivity of your efforts orderly”

Influencer Outreach Best Practices

Influencer marketing definition stands for a separate kind of social media marketing, as a whole. Nevertheless, you can stick to “conventional” best techniques:

establish connections beforehand — not by the time you’re getting in touch
make sure you can provide a win-win offer
mention your expectations clearly, but don’t turn to be persistent or rude
keep in touch after the collaboration, don’t fade out of sight or leave incoming questions without attention.

How to Choose the Right Influencers for Your Brand

You can write an entire dissertation on how to choose the right people. While some criteria are self-evident, e.g blogger’s primary topic (Lifestyle, Beauty, Travel, Business), most are not that on the surface. Pay extra attention to:

engagement with the audience — do subscribers read posts or watch videos and leave comments?
values shared — does the influencer broadcasts what you or your brand hold in high regard?
new platforms, like TikTok or Caffeine — don’t stick to YouTube or Instagram alone.

The 4 Best Influencer Outreach Tools

After you’ve done the research and decided on the strategy, think of how to automate a reaching-out routine. Below we’ve collected 4 affordable software that might assist.

Snov.io

source: Snov.io

This is a tool for all intents and purposes of the outreach — business mailings, lead gen, sales, and influencer marketing. Snov.io allows building email sequences and launching drip campaigns — when the next email to deliver is determined based on the recipient’s reaction to the previous one. Subscriptions start with $33 per month, but you can start with a free option before purchasing the plan.

BuzzSumo

source: BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo is a content-exploring tool. You can search by keyword or an exact domain and find trending articles, news, and videos.

Source: “Findings for what’s trending in FinTech”

You can then check out what author or blogger gets more social shares and has higher engagement ratio.

Pitchbox

source: Pitchbox

Although this software is positioned as a tool for marketing agencies, solo players may utilize Pitchbox as well. Aside from built-in CRM, SEO instruments, and link building, it offers an “Outreach & Follows Up” pack, that includes email templates, sequencing, and scheduling.

Heepsy

source: Heepsy

Unlike the previous three tools, Heepsy allows users to find insights about a particular influencer’s audience. You can create and export lists of bloggers, see who follows them, and what brands do they collaborate with.

Putting it All Together

Here’s a checklist you need to start with an influencer outreach:

clearly define your target segments
scribble down far-famed social media
google for “new social media” and flip through these, as well
use hashtags — to find relevant content and people, and keep count channels or profiles
study influencers’ audience and assess engagement
think about what you can offer in exchange for being brought about; if you do plan using monetary incentives, define budget
design the plan for outreach
after the collaboration ends, keep tracking its efficiency — to adjust your influencer marketing strategy in the future.

Frequently Asked Questions

Below we give answers to common users’ questions in a nutshell.

How to do influencer outreach on Instagram?

When you’re reaching out to someone on Instagram, try to sound less formal and be authentic. Make sure your own profile isn’t empty, privately viewed, or filled in with second-rate photos.

How to outreach on TikTok?

Start with praising an influencer’s TikTok video. Then — mention how your brand resonates with his or her channel. As with Instagram, don’t sound too ceremonious — try to use more easy-going sentences and be friendly.

How to reject an influencer?

If a blogger has applied for collaboration and you’re not willing to offer it, deny the inquiry politely. Ыtart with praise, and then give reasons for a refusal, e.g. “Unfortunately, at the moment we’re not planning to engage an audience from the {city, country, region}”.

Do influencers get stuff for free?

The answer is yes and no. Bloggers may get some products for no money, but, in most cases, they are obliged to advertise these. Of course, — in a native manner.

Influencer marketing is not something complicated or unworkable, regardless of the budget you have or the product that you promote. It’s all about understanding who your customers are, what content they like, and who on the Web has the “value-for-price” authority — to become a brand advocate.

Originally posted on Mentionlytics: https://www.mentionlytics.com/blog/influencer-outreach-the-ultimate-guide-in-2021