Influencer Marketing
Use the power of popularity to turbocharge your brand
Influencers carry serious weight on social and in the blogosphere, with the most popular celebrity
influencers like Kylie Jenner enjoying followers in the 100’s of millions. Not all influential people on
Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are celebrities though, yet their endorsement could be just as, if
not more valuable to your brand.
Why is this the case?
If your brand is in a niche sector, like a local café, or your product targets a specific segment of
people, getting the endorsement of someone your customer demographic relates to and admires
will help you more than getting a generic celebrity thumbs up.
All positive exposure is helpful, and if you can hook an A Lister, then go for it. However, by niching
down you’ll save your time, energy, and resources, as well as maximise your chances of a reply.
Plus, you’ll have yourself a ready-made already interested audience
Imagine this scenario.
You want to connect with small businesses and entrepreneurs to let them know you can provide
quality websites at great rates.
Instead of attempting to contact every celebrity you can think of, who likely will never respond, it’s a
better idea to target business orientated influencers. They will already have lots of followers in your
target demographic who will probably be interested in what you do. After you’ve built up a
relationship, you can introduce yourself to these influencers, and offer them a free website or
website makeover, in exchange for a mention or endorsement to their following.
When you are approaching influencers like this, who typically can’t rely on million dollars pay checks,
and are actively trying to engage their following with relevant content, products and services, it’s
more likely you’ll receive a response.
There are some things you should check first before contacting influencers to help optimise your
chances.
Check out influencers to make sure they can benefit your brand
First do some basic background research by asking some questions.
1) Is the influencer active on the platform you are contacting them on?
If they haven’t posted in months, their followers may not be engaged anymore, and they may not
even see your message.
2)
Are they fully compatible with your brand and your target customer?
If you have a family orientated brand, but you know that this influencer’s values aren’t family
friendly, they may not be the best person to promote your product.
3) How many active followers do they have and how engaged are their followers?
Some influencers artificially inflate their followers with fake followers, so have a look through their
following and check for some red flags. The main things to watch out for are profiles with no
picture, spammy repetitive comments, accounts with zero or very few followers. You can check
follower stats using free automated tools such as Follower Check or paid tools such as Social Audit
Pro.
4) What are their interests and what have they posted about recently?
By doing some research on the likes and dislikes of the influencer you are planning to contact,
you find it easier to start and hold a conversation with them. This is important if you don’t want
to come across as genuine and not too pushy.
Easy ways to find influencers in your niche
If you’re stuck for people in your niche to contact, there are a number of tools you can use to help
you connect with relevant influencers, many of which are free, or free to try out.
Buzzsumo and Mention both help you search for relevant people in specific sectors. Both platforms
offer free trials too, so you can get a list of people to contact without signing up for a full
subscription. As a handy bonus, by using software like this, you’ll also learn how to spot influencers
too.
AllTop.com is another useful free tool that you can use to find popular blogs, in almost every
industry niche. Just enter a relevant keyword and you’ll generate a list of the most viewed blogs in
any sector. This is particularly handy if you are looking for bloggers, who will go more in depth than
social media influencers are able to. Bloggers also typically orientate their content to an audience
that has a longer attention span than social media users. Certain industries will benefit more from
reaching out to bloggers than others, like marketing consultants, authors, and social media
companies.
If you’re an author with a book or course to promote, popular book bloggers will often be more
valuable to you than influencers on Facebook or Instagram, as they typically have a highly engaged
following. Don’t discount using social media though, as these platforms can be a great way to get
your book or course in front of new customers too.
Another tool you should try if you want to get your content trending on Twitter, is
FollowerWonk.com. This helpful tool allows you to find the most influential people on Twitter in
your industry sector, by searching for people who have a specified keyword in their bio. This is a
great way to find the most relevant people in your niche and will help you define a list of top Twitter
influencers that you can reach out too.
PRO TIP 1: Don’t just pick one influencer to approach. It’s not a good idea to put all your eggs into
one basket. Ideally, shoot for a list of the top 20-30 ideal influencers that would benefit your brand.
PRO TIP 2: Validate their authority. If you are searching for an influencer on Twitter, use
FollowerWonk to find out how much social authority each of your influencers has, and prioritise
your list in order of this. If your list is mostly comprised of bloggers, use Moz’s tool Open Site
Explorer to discover their Domain Authority Rating (DA) and move them up or down your list
accordingly. High Authority sites like Huffington Post have a DA score of 98, and though influencers
might not make it this high, you should focus most of your resources and attention on the ones who
have the biggest scores.
Okay, so you’ve selected your influencers, have checked to ensure they are active and made sure
their followers are genuine. You’ve also checked out their recent posts, so you are familiar with
their content.
What should you do now?
Before you reach out and contact an influencer you need to build some rapport, preferably on the
platform you want them to promote your products on. Engage consistently, in a way that adds
value, instead of posting a hundred spammy comments in one night, then sending a begging
message. If you spend the time to build a relationship first, influencers will be more likely to
remember you and respond positively to your request.
Don’t spread yourself too thin. Focus on the influencers on your list who have the largest reach, as
these will be the people who will benefit your brand the most.
Key ways to build FAST rapport with influencers
So how do you start building a relationship with your chosen influencer?
1) Engage Often. A great way to get some rapport going is by making regular, intelligent
comments on your influencer’s posts. After a while, you’ll stand out and they’ll start to trust
you as a regular, engaged follower. It’s even better if you can engage them in conversation
and if you take some time considering your posts, and comment often, eventually you
should be able to achieve this. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram all allow you to comment
under posts and many influencers will respond to helpful or insightful comments.
2) Respond to feedback requests. Influencers often run polls or ask for feedback from their
followers asking questions like which book covers they prefer, or which t-shirt designs they
favour. By leaving a comment under a poll explaining why you voted the way you did,
answering their next call out for feedback, or posting a helpful answer to a question, you’ll
make yourself stand out and begin to win their trust.
3) Share, share, share. Another way you can build a relationship is by sharing an influencer’s
content, or even better sharing their content with a comment. Everyone loves followers who
help them reach an even wider audience, so although this might seem like a small action, it
will be greatly appreciated. Remember to tag your influencer in when you do this, so they
know you’ve shared their stuff and they’ll start seeing you as a follower who is of value to
them.
4) Be an ACTIVE subscriber to their mailing list. If you want to reach out to a blogger, make
sure you’re signed up to their mailing list as well as their social media sites. When you get
an email from them, that’s more than just a confirmation message, differentiate yourself
from the scores of passive users on their list, and respond when they ask a question or
request feedback.
To do this, introduce yourself briefly via email, and then ask a relevant question or make
your comment. Don’t pitch to your influencer yet, this comes later, after you’ve built up a
relationship. Make sure your reply relates to the content they’ve just sent out, and ensure
you’ve read their email first, or your approach will look fake.
Even if you don’t get a reply the first time, you can be sure they will have read your email,
and now you’ve started the process of getting them to remember your name. If you
regularly respond to their email content, you will eventually get a reply, so be sure to check
and reply to their mailouts as often as possible.
5) Comment on their blog. If your influencer allows comments on their blog, you can leave an
insightful reply under their posts, preferably something that gives insight or a fresh take into
their posted content. Or you could ask a smart question, which can be a great way of
engaging influencers in conversation and kickstarting a relationship.
6) Alert them to errors. Another way to stand out is by informing your influencers about errors
in their content or on their blog. People want their content to be mistake free, with working
links, and no annoying typos, so this kind of feedback will be hugely appreciated. Make sure
you don’t come across as a know it all though, aim for sounding helpful rather than
lecturing. Never point out mistakes in their work on a public forum, instead send them a
brief email or private message notifying them of the problem.
7) Link to their content. If you run a blog, consider linking to their posts in your own content.
This can be beneficial for both of you, as Google rewards you and the influencer for a link,
providing the site you are linking to is relevant to your page. To get the most out of doing
this, notify the influencer in question, otherwise they will be unaware you’ve linked to them.
It’s best to do this after you’ve spent some time building up a relationship in other ways,
otherwise it can come off as though you are hunting for a link in return.
To notify them, send them a quick email, telling them that you’ve linked to their work and
why it fits in with what you do. Or tag them in on social media with a brief mention when
you share your latest blog post, to let them know you’ve given them a namecheck.
8) Include them in a list of influencers. The last thing you can do to build rapport with an
influencer is include them in a blog post of influential people to follow in your niche. This
will be more appreciated the larger the following you have, but it’s a gesture worth making
even if you only have a small following. This step is most effective after you’ve spent some
time cultivating a relationship with your chosen influencer in other ways though.
To make this work, you could write a blog post entitled Top Six Most Influential Marketing
Gurus of 2021 for example, and include their name, along with a short paragraph about
what they do and a link to their blog or social media. Then send them an email introducing
yourself, and notifying them that they’ve been included, along with a link to the post. You
could even ask them for a quote for the piece.
So, you’ve engaged your chosen influencer, you’ve been engaging with their content, and they’ve
replied to some of your comments or responded to your email feedback. Maybe they’ve even
started to follow you back on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
What’s next?
Once you’ve built up some rapport, the next step is to prepare your pitch, which you should send via
email, if you can. Your pitch should be punchy, attention grabbing but not gimmicky, and should not
be over long. Influencers are busy people, and they get 100’s of requests every day, most of which
will end up getting rejected or ignored.
Preparing your first reach out pitch might seem daunting, but it’s relatively easy, providing you
follow a few guidelines before you press send.
Top 7 things to remember when pitching to an influencer
1) Make sure your brand looks the part. Are your branding and visuals professional looking
and niche relevant? Have you removed any problematic, out of place or unprofessional
looking posts from your feed? Does your brand seem like it would be a natural fit with their
audience? Do your marketing, design and posts communicate this?
2) Include both an ask AND a benefit in your pitch. You can’t just ask for free promotion, you
need to offer something of benefit in exchange. This can be a free product, your
complimentary services, or mutual cross promotion, or it could be something else that has
value that you know will appeal.
3) Check out your Influencers FIRST. Make sure you’ve checked to see if an influencer is worth
approaching before spending time building rapport and pitching. Use free tools like
FollowerWonk.com, Moz.com, and AllTop.com to find the key influencers in your niche.
4) Assess whether they are relevant to your audience. This is key, as though someone can be
highly influential, if their following doesn’t match up with your target customer, you won’t
get the best results. You particularly need to watch out for this if you are trying to promote
a local business, as though an influencer can be well known in one area, they could be
almost unheard of in your own location.
5) Spend time cultivating a relationship with Influencers. There are multiple ways to do this,
from commenting on social posts to sharing their content, emailing them to ask a smart
question, or letting them know how much you enjoyed their latest blog post.
6) Be active not passive. Engage as much as you can with their content, whether it’s
commenting on a social post, or responding to their emails. Don’t be afraid to reach out and
give your feedback or ask a question. These are the things that will help build trust and get
your name remembered.
7) Prioritise your time. Focus on the influencers who can help you the most rather than trying
to build relationships with everyone on the internet in your industry. Use tools like Moz’s
Open Site Finder and Followerwonk.com to determine which influencers have the highest
authority in your sector.
Sample reach out pitch to influencers
Your pitch will vary depending on what it is you want, a shout out, guest post, or a free endorsement
of your products or services.
PRO TIP: Make sure you’ve fully proofread your pitch before sending it out as you don’t want it to be
riddled with typos, or you won’t look professional. Use grammar checking software like Grammarly,
or Word’s free editor to ensure your message reads correctly and is error free.
Another thing you must do is make sure you have the right contact details for your influencer. You
don’t want to waste time preparing a pitch and sending it, only for it to go unanswered because the
email address you’ve sent it to is incorrect, or no longer in use.
It’s better to reach out to influencers via email, rather than direct message them through Facebook
or Twitter, although sometimes you may have to do this, if they haven’t posted email contact
details.
The exception to this rule is LinkedIn, which can return good results, as it is a more professionally
focused platform where people expect to be contacted with business offers. You should still make
sure you’ve followed all the necessary steps to nurture a relationship with an influencer first though.
An ideal pitch to an entrepreneurial type influencer if you were trying to get them to endorse your
service or mention your content could go like this. The brackets are the parts you can customise to
better suit your brand and your goals:
Sample Pitch for getting an endorsement from an Influencer
Hi [THEIR NAME],
I’m [INSERT YOUR NAME] from [Whizz Websites], and I wanted to get in touch as I’m a big fan of
your content and loved your recent post on [time management]. I know you have an active
following of [entrepreneurs] and my [affordable design service] is great for [start-ups short on cash
flow], so I thought we might be able to work together?
I’ve already worked with [INSERT BRAND NAME] and [INSERT BRAND NAME] and have built up a
good reputation for delivering [quality websites].
Would you consider mentioning my [SERVICE/ OR BLOG] to your followers in exchange for [my
design work on any project of your choice]?
I understand if now’s not the right time but if you do have [any design work that needs doing], I’d
love to help.
Thanks for considering my offer, take care, and I look forward to your future posts,
[INSERT YOUR NAME]
[INSERT YOUR WEBSITE]
Sample pitch for getting a guest blog
If you wanted to nail a guest post on an influencer’s blog, you could send a pitch like the following.
The brackets are the parts you can customise to better suit your own brand and goals.
Dear [INSERT THEIR NAME],
Hi, I’m [YOUR NAME] from [YOUR BRAND], and I have an idea for a post I think might be of interest
to your followers.
[MENTION BRIEFLY WHAT IT’S ABOUT]
It’s for a [500-word piece] piece on [time management], as I know your audience is interested in
[learning how to maximise their time better.]
[GIVE THEM YOUR HEADLINE]
The piece is called [Top Ten Ways to do more with less] and will mention [six handy hacks to get
more done], with a [short paragraph of approximately 150 words] for each.
If you’d like to see samples of other blog posts I’ve created, you can view some of my posts here:
[INSERT YOUR LINK]
Or here:
[INSERT YOUR OTHER LINK]
[TELL THEM A LITTLE ABOUT YOU AND WHAT YOU DO]
I’m a [marketing consultant who helps solo start-ups]and I run an active blog that features articles
on [productivity and getting organised].
[MENTION IF YOU’VE BEEN PUBLISHED OR IF YOU OR YOUR WORK HAVE APPEARED ANYWHERE
ELSE THAT’s RELEVANT]
My work has also been published on [INSERT LINK] and [INSERT LINK] and I’ve appeared on the
[INSERT NAME] podcast speaking about [INSERT TOPIC].
Thanks so much for considering my pitch,
[YOUR NAME]
[WEBSITE LINK]
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