Getting influencers to review your product can give it a huge boost in exposure, and send your sales rocketing sky high. However the tricky part is actually convincing influencers to review your products in the first place – which is where most people end up stumbling.
Making Contact with Influencers
Assuming you’ve already done your homework and have shortlisted influencers that you want to review your product, the next step is to get in touch with them. The mistake that most people make at this juncture is to immediately email a lengthy proposal – and likely never hear back from the influencer.
Considering influencers (particularly prominent ones) are sent tons of emails and messages on a daily basis – less is more in this case. In other words, when you make contact you will want to be concise and get to the point while at the same time providing all the relevant information.
Keep in mind that ‘relevant’ in this case means information that the influencer is interested in. In other words you should:
- Introduce yourself
- Explain what you want from them (i.e. sponsored blog posts, video reviews, etc.)
- State when you need it by
- Detail the compensation that you plan to offer
Those four points are really the only ones that you need to cover at this stage, and it should give the influencer enough information so that they can decide whether they are interested or not. Anything more than that is unnecessary, so just focus on what’s important.
What Influencers Expect
Keep in mind that for most prominent influencers, the content that they produce is their full-time job – and they expect to be paid for it. Mid-tier influencers may be persuaded to settle for free samples of the products, but top-tier influencers will require a fee.
Assuming you’re contacting a top-tier influencer, you should be ready to approach them with a figure. Most top-tier influencers are very aware of what they are worth, and attempting to low ball them is not likely to work. Because these influencers have other offers lined up, they are likely to just ignore anything below their expectations.
On the other hand, if you’re contacting a mid-tier influencer with a modest following you may be able to negotiate somewhat. The very least that tends to be expected is a free sample, though many mid-tier influencers will get numerous offers of that nature so providing a modest fee on top of that would get their attention quickly.
Remember to temper your expectations depending on the type of influencer you’re engaging. Working with an influencer who has a moderate-sized following is far different from one that has a massive following, and you should make sure you are aware that the results will vary accordingly. That being said a few good sponsored blog posts from several mid-tier influencers with highly targeted followings could very well be just as good (or better) than one from a single top-tier influencer with a more generalized following.
