Here’s What You Shouldn’t Do When You Email Influencers

How To Email Influencers

For a brief period of time, I was an actual, living, breathing micro-influencer. During this time, I received a lot of emails from small businesses that wanted to collaborate and convey their message to my audience. Influencer outreach is a proven strategy to get your brand to an audience, but what I noticed when I worked (albeit for a very short period of time) as an influencer were the differences in the ways in which brands communicated to influencers. The first email that you send to an influencer is of huge importance, because it can make or break your relationship with them. While basic communication differs from brand to brand, we thought it would be more helpful to detail what you shouldn’t do. Here are three things you should avoid when you email influencers:

Don’t Include Hidden Costs

The great thing about micro-influencers (social media accounts with a following greater than 10K) is that they’re more amenable to barter agreements, where they’ll take your product in, without charging a fee for a review or a shout-out. If you’re reaching out to an influencer you believe has an audience that fits your product, make sure to offer it for free and without any hidden costs. I had an American site tell me that they would gladly send one of their products for free in exchange for a review…provided I paid for international shipping. Needless to say, I didn’t take the offer. When you’re a growing brand, the influencer marketing route can be extremely rewarding if you start working with the right influencer. However, no real influencer is going to be ready to pay anything for what is essentially a free review. If your shipping costs are too expensive to cover, try and work with local influencers instead of international ones. 

Go Easy On The Instructions…and the Caps-Lock

Another brand that emailed me (and I didn’t end up working with) used a lot of caps-lock and a very authoritative, instructive tone in their emails. We want you to pick something that we can send you, it began, followed by a link and a ‘PICK ONLY ONE’ in larger capital letters. The caps-lock was immediately off-putting because it felt like I was being yelled at by an older relative who didn’t really like me. While I am CERTAIN that misunderstandings happen over conditions/instructions over emails, it’s okay if you have to go back and forth a few extra times, cordially. Your influencer will appreciate your patience. Talking and negotiating with influencers is no different from customer service and brand patronage begins with excellent customer service. It’s totally okay if things don’t work out. Be gracious, polite and patient, always. 

Don’t Be Vague and Uninterested

I have a stack of three line emails from brands that I have never responded to, simply because of how vague and boring they were. If you’re a brand owner or representative who is reaching out to someone totally new to talk about your brand, you’ve got to be enthusiastic! While nobody wants three hundred page novels about how you started out, it is essential to convey how passionate you are about your brand and what you represent. If you’re not enthusiastic about your brand, how can you expect the influencer to be enthusiastic about it? 

Do Your Research and Build A Relationship

Influencers are people. They have different tastes, preferences, likes and dislikes. The idea is to find someone with a genuine, engaged audience who are potentially your brand’s audience as well! Do your research before you cold-email influencers about what they’re known for and whether it fits in with your brand. Remember that through the influencer, you are getting access to a group of consumers that you previously couldn’t reach out to. Value them for what they do and try to build a relationship with them. Most importantly – be nice.