FAN MAIL FRIDAYS: How To Reach Out To Influencers as a Small Business

Happy Friyay! Today, let me put my marketer hat on and discuss this super fresh, different, and totally interesting query from Maritess:

Hi Ms. Martha,
I am an online entrepreneur who's into soap- making; I'm starting my business soon (just need to fix some documents) and I would like to know how can I reach out to bloggers/influencers like yourself? I know marketing is an important aspect of a business and influencers are an integral part of online marketing that's why I want to know how to do this. How do you approach influencers and catch their attention? How do they want to be approached? What are their requirements? How to make a good first impression with them? Your insights will be greatly appreciated. I'm sure you will help a lot of small time entrepreneurs like me as well!
Maritess

Hey Maritess!

Thanks for writing! I could name numerous brands and products that have successfully launched online with the help of influencers so yes, I do agree with the statement that influencers are an integral part of any online marketing campaign as long as you choose the right fit. It is also no secret that some influencers, most especially the big ones, command an exorbitant fee; it's not a problem for big brands, but for small ones and micro entrepreneurs, an instagram post could mean a year's worth of marketing budget.

So what's a small business gotta do? I'm not going to tell you to pawn your house to secure a place on the feed of a top influencer; any good entrepreneur will know that starting small and making the most of what you have is key and that's exactly what I will share with you today.

Just to give you a background about the other side of me, during daytime, I run a boutique agency specializing in Digital Marketing and Public Relations; Our team has handled small to medium businesses as well as multinational brands based here and abroad. We've been around for five years and have encountered some of the various digital marketing projects, from the mildly challenging to the ridiculously complex. There! Just to put credibility to this marketing advise!

Let's begin!

1. SET UP YOUR BUSINESS PROPERLY

- I get approached by online businesses most of the time and one thing that makes me not want to entertain the business is when their assets are incomplete and poorly managed.

Website is not complete or not operational. Social media accounts lack photos. Product photos are not showcased properly. No contact details such as email.

If you approach an influencer the first time to pitch your business and you don't have your business assets in place, expect that you won't either get a reply or they'll just take a look/browse and will never return. Because who wants to deal with a business that doesn't give you all the important details? You will come off as uninteresting or worse, shady.

Before approaching an influencer, set up your business properly first: make sure you have a working website; your products are properly photographed and showcased; you have contact details to make them feel that you're "legit"

You don't have to be perfect the first time, but you must be decent; I always tell our clients: the Internet is so cluttered and it seems like every second, there is something new that's coming up and sometimes, you only get one look from your target audience so make it look count.

2. CRAFT A PROPOSAL

- One of the things that I lament nowadays is that NO. ONE. KNOWS. HOW. TO. MAKE. A. FORMAL. PROPOSAL. ANYMORE. And it's sad! Because a proposal takes effort to make and it shows that you really want to work with the person and you show them that you're serious with the approach.

There are some who like formal proposals sent via email, in a word document, and with prim and proper wording; some are okay with a light- hearted, informal message sent via social media; whichever way you want to send it, don't make it too casual and appear too friendly because technically, you're a stranger to the influencer.

What consists of a good proposal?

- IMPORTANT: Address the person BY THEIR NAME

- Short and sweet greeting

- A short intro about your brand and best products

- What you want to give them

- What you're expecting in return

- A statement stating you're open to a discussion (negotiation has to be a two way street)

Don't forget to add a contact person in the end as well in case the influencer wants to reach out for further details!

3. THINK BIG, BUT START SMALL

- One big mistake that most small enterprises make is they shoot for the stars right away; they aim for the big influencers even if they're very new and have no connections in the influencer world.

That's actually okay if you have the money to pay their fees; but what happens most of the time to very new brands that send products to big influencers right away is their products end up in the abyss (aka they don't know what happened after influencer received it) or it ends up sitting in their "to unbox" list for months before it gets touched. Don't take this personally though; big influencers are most of the time very busy attending to paid projects or they're under a contract with another brand and your products happen to be a competitor or your products didn't just work for them; unfortunately, they're not obligated to inform you why and it's just good will if they do; that's the risk you take for sending them your stuff; welcome to the world of public relations, Press Kit seeding department.

It's not wrong to dream big; park your dreams of being featured on the feed of big influencers for now and start reaching out to the micro or nano influencer community first; these are people who can potentially grow and are willing to do free collaborations. Approach as many as you can and as long as you can provide products; they may not have big numbers, but there's strength in a group!

4. APPROACH THOSE WHO ARE APT FOR YOUR BRAND (AND YOU PERSONALLY FOLLOW!)

- You don't know how many times I've been approached by mom brands, medical supplies brands, and even SEX TOY COMPANIES (!!!!) to promote their products; I don't feel that flattered when I get these requests for a features; if for anything, it shows that the business is desperate, not doing good research, and is just in for a quick feature, not really a partnership. I usually don't spend a lot of time thinking about these proposals and just delete.

When approaching influencers, do a background research first and make sure that the influencers are apt for your brand. Are you a beauty brand? Go to beauty influencers. Are you a fashion brand? Go to fashion influencers. Are you a travel brand? Go to travel influencers. And the list goes on.

It would also make much more sense to approach influencers whom you personally follow; your approach will sound more natural and enthusiastic, thus they may open up more to your proposal; if these are big influencers, go back to tip #3, but if you really want to send them products, then go ahead and try. But do check out micro and nano influencers as well; or you can try following some new influencers for a while and browsing their feed to know which ones are apt for your brand.

5. A NO IS AN UNDERDEVELOPED YES!

- Pitching your product can be hard and just like any business, you'll get a lot of rejection. Sometimes, influencers reject working with you for reasons that they only know, but know that it isn't personal.

Use the rejection as fuel for your desire to grow your brand more. When you get bigger, eventually, you'll get the attention of more influencers and who knows? The influencer that you have approached and really want to work with, but declined your proposal initially would want to work with you finally!

And as the saying goes, "there are other fishes in the sea" so just keep on trying!

That's all and I hope you enjoyed this post!

**Got a burning question on beauty, makeup, fragrance, fitness, blogging, career, marriage, relationships, or anything under the sun? Email me at martha.stabarbara@yahoo.com, send me a message via Contact Form, or shoot me a message at THE BEAUTY JUNKEE OFFICIAL FACEBOOK FAN PAGE.