small business owner's guide to influencer outreach
It's exciting to see just how much social media influencers have changed the business landscape. Not only do small business owners have a fighting chance in the competitive market, but brands are no longer confined to their immediate target audiences.
Take Duolingo, for example. The app generated significant brand awareness among Gen Z audiences in the U.K. by partnering with Yung Filly and Chunkz, popular U.K. influencers.
Your brand, too, can benefit from using influencer marketing — but you’ll need a solid outreach strategy.
Luckily, Hummingbirds has you covered with this ultimate guide on how to reach out to the right influencers and get them excited about partnering with your brand.
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outline your influencer outreach strategy
Defining your outreach strategy is the first step in any influencer marketing campaign. This way, you'll know exactly how to reach out to and “sell” your brand to potential influencers.
An influencer outreach strategy is simply an organized effort to identify, contact, and build/maintain relationships with influencers for marketing purposes.
how to build an outreach strategy
The process of building an outreach strategy is relatively straightforward.
First, start by identifying your goals. Do you want to increase brand awareness, boost engagement rates, increase leads, or generate traffic to your website or other channels?
Identifying your key goal can help you find the right influencers. For example, if your primary goal is to boost engagement rates, you may want to look for YouTube content creators, as they have the highest engagement rates, at an average of 8.2%.
Next, research influencers. When doing your research, consider your brand and goals. If you're a beauty brand, you want to focus on beauty influencers. If your goal is to increase traffic to your salon, you'll need to focus on influencers with followers in your location.
Then, set a realistic budget. To do this, you’ll need to take into account both your marketing funds and your potential influencers' value. Calculate engagement rates, research how much different types of influencers charge, and create a realistic budget based on your findings.
While trades, like free products for content, are an alternative to monetary compensation, it's important to note that most influencers prefer money-based partnerships.
Finally, choose the type of content you want. Different influencers offer different types of content creation, and some may work better for your brand than others. Consider what resonates with your target audience, as well as the kind of content your potential influencers post.
why an outreach strategy needs to be your first step
We know what you're thinking — why go through the trouble of building a strategy before reaching out to influencers? Well, a strategy is vital as it acts as a guide and prepares you for talks with potential influencers.
In developing your strategy, you'll learn which kinds of collaborations will support your overall business goals, limiting the risk of working with the wrong influencers. Further, you'll know how to talk to different influencers and be ready to answer all their questions.
A strategy also lets you know how much you can afford to pay influencers, preventing you from overpromising on what you can afford.
The key to successful influencer collaborations is to be very clear about your expectations up front, so no one's time is wasted. An outreach strategy helps you do just that!
find influencers in your local area
Local influencers are a great choice for small and mid-sized businesses that want to create a community-centric brand. So focus your time and resources on finding the best influencers in your area.
You can find local influencers by searching local hashtags on social media platforms. Say you're located in Iowa City and want to partner with Instagram influencers. You just need to log into your Instagram account and search hashtags like #iowacity for general suggestions or #iowacityfitness (your brand's niche) if you want more specific search results.
Another way is to check your social media accounts for followers with a significant follower count and high-quality content. Focus on influencers who are not only based in your area but also have followers in your location.
The third and easiest way is to partner with an expert in the influencer marketing industry, like Hummingbirds. Hummingbirds has proven the value of local influencer marketing, and the platform can pair you with influencers in your local area. In fact, it's the only influencer platform that takes a hyperlocal approach to influencer marketing.
Plus, Hummingbirds offers a wide range of benefits, such as:
Time savings and convenience: You don't have to search for influencers — the platform already has plenty of hummingbirds (our name for our local influencers) interested in creating content for brands.
Interested influencer matching: You'll be connected with individuals who have expressed interest in your brand.
No negotiating: Our hummingbirds don't ask for monetary compensation from brands, so there's no need for negotiations.
Local targeting: Hummingbirds has influencers in numerous cities, allowing for geo-targeted social media marketing.
Full service or DIY: You can manage your own campaigns or have your Hummingbirds team do it all for you.
Simple campaign management: A user-friendly analytics dashboard shows your influencers' results, allowing you to assess metrics like engagement rates and comments.
create a shortlist of top influencer partners
Odds are, you'll find many local and nano-influencers during your search. While it may be tempting to reach out to all of them, it'd be better to create a shortlist of influencers who closely align with your digital marketing needs and budget. This way, you can avoid wasting time contacting those who wouldn't be a good fit.
At Hummingbirds, we recommend reaching out to four times the number of influencers you want to use. While this may seem like a lot, it's quite practical, as not everyone you contact will see or respond to your message.
If you're unsure how to budget or want to avoid the hassle of negotiating with each potential influencer, Hummingbirds's credits-based system is the perfect choice for you.
how to pare down your list of potential partners
After you shortlist potential influencers, move on to the vetting process. Consider factors like how often potential partners post, the quality of each influencer's content, whether they engage with their audiences, and if they align with your brand.
While follower counts are important to make sure you reach a noteworthy audience, they’re not nearly as important as engagement. In fact, research shows that influencers with less than 10,000 followers yield better ROI than larger influencer types. Instead, you’re looking for people who regularly post high-quality content, engage with their followers, and relate to your target audience.
If you don't have the time or resources to vet each potential influencer, Hummingbirds has you covered. With the platform, you can access a team of hummingbirds in your chosen area with a proven track record of success as brand promotion partners. You can even see directly in the platform their campaign completion rates.
craft a compelling message (Or use our template!)
Getting potential influencers to notice you is half the battle — the other half is convincing them to work with you. Your messaging can determine whether they say yes or no.
Start your relationship off on a good note by creating a compelling introduction message. You need to be engaging, transparent, to the point, and friendly. Let's take a deeper look at how to create persuasive messaging.
3 important questions to answer in your message
For a successful influencer outreach campaign, include all the information potential partners need to decide whether to work with you. This includes your brand, desired deliverables, pay type (money, free merchandise, etc.), timeframe, theme (Mother's Day, summer), and the campaign subject/topic.
It's essential to provide all these details, as many influencers don't want to have to ask follow-up questions. Additionally, providing all pertinent information upfront can help build trust by showing that your brand is transparent and will be an honest and reliable partner.
Questions to answer in your message include:
1. who is your brand?
It's easy to assume everyone knows your brand as well as you do. However, this isn't usually the case, more so when working with new influencers.
Ensure you address this question in your message to let potential partners know exactly who they're talking to. Include your brand name, product or service offerings, and what makes you stand out from other brands in your industry.
2. what are you asking for?
The last thing you want is for potential influencers to feel like you're hiding key details. This can make you appear unprofessional and reduce their likelihood of saying yes.
So include details on the expected partnership period:
Do you want to work with them on a single campaign?
Or do you want them to promote your brand for the foreseeable future?
And don’t forget about the deliverables you expect from each potential influencer:
How often do you want them to post?
What kind of content do you want them to post?
Will they need to do anything beyond tagging your brand in the post?
Do they need to submit potential posts for approval before publishing them?
3. what's in it for the influencer?
Compensation is one of the most important details influencers need before deciding whether to work with you. Let's be honest — it'd be a determining factor for you too, if you were in their shoes! Letting them know what's in it for them will help them decide if your campaign is worth their time.
This can be anything from monetary compensation to free products and exclusive experiences. Hummingbirds has had significant success with trade partnerships. The Des Moines Symphony generated considerable buzz on social media by offering hummingbirds exclusive experiences, and Hooga Health's Red Light Therapy did the same by providing test products for free.
Whatever value you can offer influencers, include it in your messaging. And remember, the better your offer, the more excited influencers will be about working with your brand.
use our free message template
Want to avoid the hassle of crafting your message from scratch? No problem! Just use our free outreach template.
Hey [influencer's name]!
We’re big fans of your [type of content] here at [company name with link], and would love to do a brand collab with you.
We’re looking for influencers to promote our [product, service, event with link]. [line about what it is.] We think you’d be a great fit because [example from their content].
Ideally, it would be a [duration] engagement with [number and type of posts] on [social media platform].
Let me know if you’re interested and want to learn more!
Thanks!
[First name and official signature]
With this template, communicating with potential influencers will be a breeze. Simply replace the details in the brackets with your information.
send your message
This is the step you've been preparing for, and it should be easy if you’ve followed all the other steps. After all, you already have your list of influencers and the message to send.
Still, you need to be careful here and follow these best practices to ensure all your efforts don't go down the drain:
Use the influencers' preferred communication platform, even if it isn't what you typically use. For example, if they like to communicate through Instagram, send a direct message through Instagram DMs.
Mention content of theirs that you like to show them that you follow their work.
Send the message during business hours to be professional.
Ensure you’re available to respond — stay online after sending the message or make sure your message notifications are on.
Don't get discouraged if you don't receive an immediate response. Sometimes, the influencer may not have seen your message. This leads us to our next point . . .
don't forget to follow up
Some influencers may miss your message if they're too busy or just get a lot of messages. So don't give up if you don’t get a response right away.
Instead, give it a few days, then follow up with anyone who doesn't respond. You can set up reminders to make it easy on yourself. Ideally, you’ll want to keep messages two to three days apart, so as not to come off too pushy.
let Hummingbirds simplify and improve your outreach efforts
As you've seen from this post, influencer outreach can be a lot of work. Let Hummingbirds make it easy by establishing and managing brand partner relationships for you.
The Hummingbird influencer marketing platform provides access to hummingbirds in numerous locations across the U.S., simplifying the outreach process for brands looking for local influencers.
Our hummingbirds are a better alternative to traditional influencers because they can help drive more engagement and inspire action. They're authentic, have local followers, and create content that feels like a friend recommending a product or service to another friend.
Book a call with Hummingbirds today for an easier and more effective local influencer outreach process!
