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SMM’s: How do you handle influencer outreach and relations?
This one’s mostly for freelancers and social media strategists:
When it comes to social media influencer marketing, are you outsourcing strategy and outreach to a an agency or individual who specializes in influencer marketing, or are you handling it all yourself?
My client just launched a product (beauty/skincare) and I know influencer/UGC is the next step. So far organic growth is decent, but I know the numbers are underperforming because we’re still small and no one is engaging with us.
But how do I get the product in front of people? She hasn’t budgeted for any of this, and it wasn’t in my initial workscope and contract. I wonder if I’m expected to do the influencer work myself, or if I should bring in a professional who can help me with this part. My client said, “let’s just email these influencers and offer them a sample, plus $200 for a post and an IG story.” That seems too…underdeveloped to me. I feel like they’re expecting more, and that there should be a proper strategy behind it. But I’m trying to learn what exactly that more is.
What are some of the basics of influencer relations? Is direct outreach (via email or DM) the recommended route?
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5 Replies
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byu/JonODonovan insocialmedia -
Following.
All this is honestly going to be on my plate in about 4-6 weeks. With the right client it’s a very natural next step, but there’s precious little info out there.
Maybe because explaining the science kills the mystique.
All I know is I need the science.
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Verify their credentials because most of these influencers charge too much for their inflated “reach” & are run by agencies.
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Hey there! I spent the better part of 2 years focused on Business Development & Strategic Partnerships for a major online publisher and did a lot of influencer outreach myself. It wasn’t necessarily to have them promote physical products, but to get them to do special features, videos etc. for us.
It never hurts to use an agency but the truth is, probably not worth it depending on volume. Usually all these influencers have their business email or their manager email in the bio of of their social media accounts. If they don’t, IMDB Pro is a good resource, or just google.
It’s way easier than you think. Some people will say no, others will be very open and depending on how high profile they are, the willingness follows. I’ve had 1M follower influencers do things for $250 and I’ve had some request thousands. It depends and you will never know unless you reach out.
In each of my emails I made it very short. Introduced myself, introduced my product and what I’m looking for from them/their client (including specific deliverables). I made a point to say that this would be paid (+ a product would be sent over) and asked what their going rates were. To be completely honest, it never took me more than 3-4 emails and a call to get anything going. This industry tends to quickly read their emails on the phone so your outreach needs to be easily digestible on mobile.
Just make yourself a list of influencers you want to reach, send them emails and have a budget plan. It’s easier than you think. Don’t get offended by the no’s or by the absurd price requests. Remember that influencers are a dime a dozen.
Feel free to PM me if you wanna chat.
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You can either do it manually (takes a lot of time) or you can use an influencer platform (could be free, but to get the best features costs money). I would never go with an agency. The problem with agencies is that they take a hands-off approach to results. “We’ll get the influencers to post your content, but what happens after that is up to the stars.” And they’ll basically guarantee nothing. Granted, nothing can really be granted in stone with influencer marketing, but it’s better to have someone working with you that cares about your goals.
My advice would be to hire a freelancer that has experience in influencer marketing. For example, I charge a base $300/month for influencer marketing management. This includes reaching out to influencers, arranging terms, making sure that content is getting posted, and various other maintenance tasks that come with such. I say base because if you’re wanting a campaign with 50 influencers, I’m obviously going to charge more as the workload is more.
When you hire someone as a freelancer, they become a part of the team and are invested in your goals and your own success. Often times, they also have experience in dealing with many different influencers, their demands, their pricing structures, what they want, and ultimately how to get them to deliver the results that YOU want.
Second, if you are going to do it yourself, you need to be a social media expert yourself. You need to be able to gauge quickly which influencers will work, and which ones won’t. A lot of influencers have bought followers, comments, likes, etc. A lot take any kind of influencer gig they can, which could hurt your brand. If you sit there and do research on every influencer you’re looking at, you’re going to spend a 1,000 hours just to get 10 good ones. You are going to HAVE to know what you’re doing. This is also why I recommend hiring a freelancer.
Lastly, to your specific example….it’s both underdeveloped and also that easy at the same time. The real question is, will it get you the results you want?
Let’s say your AOV (average order value) for beauty is around $50. If you pay 10 influencers that you’re just taking a shot in the dark with $200 each, you’re spending $2,000. Okay not bad for some exposure and maybe a few hundred followers. But what about sales? What if you only make $200 in sales? You’re going to be pretty pissed. With some decent ads on FB and IG, I could get you a few hundred followers for $50. That’s not worth it, but it seems easy to get this kind of influencer marketing going.
Additionally, you’re going to want to have the knowledge on how to run partner ads so that you can put a little bit of ad spend on those influencer posts so you don’t have to rely on organic reach. Organic reach on IG is about 6%. You don’t want to spend $200 for a 6% reach.
Last lastly, a good approach for beauty is to think about profit sharing. Build a relationship with them where you send them free products, they get a specific link or code, and they get to keep say 10% of all sales. This approach works very well for micro influencers. A lot of “big” influencers think they are above this and will require just a one time payment – and oftentimes these kinds of influencers will not help you achieve your goals. If an influencer doesn’t trust their followers to make them money, why would you trust their followers to make you money?
Feel free to reach out if you need more help!
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