How to Contact Instagram Influencers: The Perfect Process for 2021 [Free Template] - inzpire.me Blog (2023)

With more and more brands collaborating with influencers, it can be difficult for you to make your brand stand out and successfully connect with Instagram influencers for collaborations.

So what can you do to get their attention?

Below is a handy guide on how to reach Instagram influencers and get them to promote your business.

What is influencer reach?

Influencer outreach is the process of finding and contacting influencers you want to work with.

You need to define your outreach strategy to convince influencers to work with you. If you can't craft messages that pique their interest, you could end up spending hours researching and sending emails — and never getting a response.

How to contact Instagram influencers

Step 1: Know your campaign goals

Before contacting influencers, you should first define marketing goals and objectives for your campaigns in yourInfluencer Marketing Strategy. They can include increasing brand awareness, creating content, or increasing sales.

Without defined marketing goals, it becomes difficult for you to determine which oneskind of influencerYou should work and how you will succeed with yoursThe Influencer Campaign. You also have no way of measuring your results!

With a poorly planned campaign, influencers will not understand what you want to achieve with your collaboration. This can limit their willingness to work with you and affect their ability to deliver a strong brand message with Sponsored Posts.

Step 2: Ask influencers for relevance

Search, search, search! Your outreach strategy will be more successful when you reach relevant influencers for your business.

To maintain their authenticity, influencers want to partner with brands that match their profiles and values. They are also more likely to promote products they already love. Influencers ignore messages from random brands, especially when they see you haven't bothered to verify them before contacting them.

If you want to work with an influencer who doesn't belong in a typical category for your brand, you need to convince them why you want them in your campaign and what you think they can contribute. Sometimes influencers are willing to take risks by collaborating with brands that aren't an obvious option and can create creative content.

Connecting with relevant influencers not only increases your chances of getting positive responses to your outreach messages. It will also increase the success of your influencer marketing campaigns in general. When your brand aligns with influencers' social media profiles, your sponsored posts will resonate with your audience. This will help you drive positivelyROI of your influencer marketing.

Before you start reaching out to influencers, ask yourself:

• Would you like to work with micro-influencers or macro-influencers?
• Does the profile category (e.g. fitness, food and drink, etc.) match what you want to promote?
• Does their content align with your brand aesthetic and values?
• Do they have good engagement and quality content?
• Do they have an audience relevant to your brand?
• What types of brands have you worked with before? Any competitors?
• Do you think they would promote your products?

Find more tips herehow to find influencersrelevant to your brand.

Step 3: Engage with influencers on social media

To make it easier to reach out to an influencer, start following and interacting with them on Instagram about 2-3 weeks before you start reaching out! You can do this on the influencers' other social media channels if they are available. This shows them that you've done your research and are interested in what they're creating.

When it's time for you to reach out to an Instagram influencer, they may recognize your brand because you've already engaged with them. This makes it easier to start a conversation and increases your chances of a successful contact.

Step 4: Organize campaign logistics

Before approaching you, you should already have a clear idea of ​​what you want the influencer to do, when to complete the collaboration, and how much they are willing to pay. This will give you an idea of ​​how much time it will take you to start reaching out to influencers and anticipate any questions you may have.

For an average campaign, you have a list of around 20 influencer leads to contact. We recommend sending outreach messages at least 2 weeks before the start of the campaign. If the campaign is larger, you should start the process earlier.

When creating oneInfluencer Marketing SummaryBy outlining your campaign and marketing goals, you'll have all the information you need to get influencers excited about the opportunity to work with you.

Without sorting out the logistical aspects of your campaign, your campaign summary and responses will be vague. As a result, the influencer cannot assess whether they are interested in working with you or whether you would be a reliable partner, which can lead to them ignoring your messages.

Finally, remember to schedule your outreach process. Create a table with:

• The names of the influencers
• Links to your Instagram profiles
• Key Instagram Metrics
• Notes to remember
• Date you want to get in touch
• Date you actually made contact
• Data you want to track
• Data you actually tracked

Write down the dates you will start contacting and when you will follow up. Having a set schedule will help you keep track of your reach and give you an idea of ​​how long the process will take.

Step 5: Choose a contact method

There are several ways to target influencers. The most common methods are Instagram direct messages (DMs) and email.

Direct messages do Instagram

Instagram DMs are a casual and informal way to reach influencers.

When using DMs for public relations, you must keep them short and concise as you are limited to 1,000 characters. Keep in mind that your DMs are likely to be read on mobile phones as well. So the shorter you can keep them, the easier it will be for influencers to get through!

E-Mails

Email is a more formal way to reach influencers than Instagram. And it can be more effective. often you canFind influencer emailsbelow their Instagram bio under "Contact" or "Email".

When an influencer has your email address in their bio, you can be sure that they are ready to promote business on their Instagram.

Because you don't have a message limit, you can add more information to an email to get influencers excited about potential collaborations. However, they should be kept short.

For emails, you need to consider which subject lines to use. You need to intrigue the influencer and pique their curiosity without being too vague about what the email is about. To find subject lines that work for you, try different ones and don't be afraid to get creative!

Step 6: Promote your brand

Influencers receive dozens of collaboration offers every day and may be too busy to go through them all. So how do you craft a message that grabs their attention and makes a great first impression?

Here's our recommended template for contacting cold influencers.

Download our proven influencer outreach models we use for clients like Nescafé, Subway, Warner Music and many more.

Here are some best practices to follow:

Customize your messages

When reaching out to influencers, ditch the generic templates and work on customizing your outreach messages. Personalization helps you get a better response rate from influencers and shows that you're genuinely interested in connecting with them. It will also help your brand stand out in your crowded inbox.

To tailor your outreach messages to specific influencers, you should:

• Use influencer names in your greeting
• Explain why their content resonated with you - avoid general comments!
• Introduce your brand and explain why you think it would be a good fit
• State your expectations and how you will benefit from the cooperation
• End the message with your name so they know who you are.

Keep the message short

Because influencers are busy, you want to make sure the length of your outreach messages is short and to the point. Avoid submitting paragraphs with information about the collaboration and their brand. They will probably stop reading the entire email if they don't get what you want in a few sentences.

Instead, mention just enough information to encourage them. Once connected, you have the option to share more information or attach a summary that describes your brand and collaboration details.

Be clear and concise

For an influencer to get excited about potential collaboration opportunities, they need to understand what you're asking about. If your messages aren't clear, it will affect how likely they are to reply to you.

Good outreach messages are well-structured, clear, and concise. It should be easy for influencers to review your messages and decide whether or not they're interested in working with you.

To write messages that are easy to understand, try to keep your sentences short and to the point. Avoid too many emojis and complicated vocabulary. Check the flow of your sentences, and if you reach out to influencers in other countries, try to translate your messages into the local language.

Add a call to action (CTA).

Every outreach message you send to influencers should include a clear CTA so they know what to do next. Your CTA could be a question or a reference to a meeting or call.

Step 7: Follow up

After sending your first wave of outreach messages to influencers, update your spreadsheets or lists with the dates you contacted them. This will help you know when you made your first contact. You'll also find it easier to know when to send follow-up messages and give them a friendly nudge.

You should follow influencers for several reasons:

• The influencer may not have seen your messages because their inbox was full
• If the influencer isn't following you on Instagram, they'll need to accept your DM request to see your messages
• They may have seen your messages but forgot to reply to you.
• They increase your chances of being seen.

You can send up to 2 follow-up messages before risking spam. We recommend sending follow-up messages 2 days apart as it helps your brand stand out. If you wait too long to send a follow-up, the influencer may not remember your original message.

Both follow-up messages should be short, but provide influencers with value that can convince them to work with you. Remember, you're still marketing your business to them. You can offer to answer their questions or send them a brief summary of what you're offering.

Step 8: Be professional

Throughout the outreach process, be sure to communicate with influencers in a respectful and professional manner. After all, your outreach messages could be their first interaction with your company, so you want to give them a good impression!

You can offer influencers a great experience by answering all questions promptly. In this way, your company becomes a reliable partner.

Even if the influencer refuses to work with you on a collaboration, thank them for reading your messages. This will help you maintain a healthy relationship with influencers who may be interested in working with you in the future.

If influencers are interested in working with you, send a formal email with a campaign summary detailing potential collaboration. You can also discuss the terms of yourinfluencer contract. For easier tracking and providing influencers with more information, we recommend using your email address.

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