Brands can reap many benefits from influencer marketing. Brands can gain awareness, increase web traffic and boost sales by collaborating with influencers. However, success depends on the collaboration with the right influencers.
And collaborations depend on your ability to find the right TikTok influencers, get in touch with them and negotiate a deal that both of you are happy with. We get that this can be difficult, so we’ve got some tips to help you go about contacting and negotiating with influencers.
Tip 1 – Reach out to more influencers that you are able
Reach out to at least twice as many influencers as you actually want to work with. Imagine you want to hire 5 influencers for your campaign. Well, contact at least ten.
Why? Because not everyone is willing or able to work with your brand. Not everyone will respond. Some influencers may not even open your emails.
These are our experiences with open and response rates:
- 70% to 80% of emails are opened
- 50% of emails will receive clicks on a link
- 30-40% will get a reply (and some of those replies will be a no)
There are a few things that affect these rates. Firstly, it all depends on the type of influencer that you are reaching out to. You’ll almost always receive a reply if it’s a high-profile influencer. This is because it will usually be the manager of the influencer, who will respond with their fees for various types of content creation services.
However, micro influencers might not respond. These influencers with less than 50k followers are likely not full-time influencers and have other jobs to complement their social media earnings. And they definitely don’t have managers tending to their emails. So their response rates will vary depending on how closely your product matches their content niche.
Tip 2 – Create a friendly and personal pitch
You can’t just send an influencer a boilerplate template. Personalize your pitch to make influencers feel that you actually took the time to read their profile and explain why your brand is a good match for them and vice versa.
This can in fact be done with automation. You can add custom fields to a mail merge program that allows you to change the name, description or compliment in each email you send out to influencers. This way you can make your mail blast feel more unique for each person who receives it.
You might consider going further if you want to reach a KOL, (key opinion leader) If you’re looking to collaborate with KOLs, they are often very busy and highly sought after. It is best to craft an email by hand, to make sure that there’s no chance it comes across as a template. Try to reference some of their recent work, and clearly state the benefit of collaborating with your brand.
No matter how you send out your pitch emails to potential clients, it is important that you maintain a friendly, open tone. While influencer marketing is a business, it should also be fun. Influencers should feel at ease with you and be able to share their ideas and creativity freely.
Tip 3 – Contact TikTok influencers by direct message if you can’t find their email
No email? No problem! Before we get into DMs, know that an influencer marketing platform is the best way to find influencer emails. This software allows you to search for and analyze influential people and usually gives contact information.
Anyway, if you are unable to find the email address of an influencer, but still want to work with them, you can reach out on TikTok directly. You can send them a message to let them know that you are interested in connecting. Then you can ask for their email so you can move the communications to that media, should you so desire.
TikTok DMs can also sometimes allow you to skirt around managers. Managers are there to help with brand collaborations, but it can be frustrating sometimes to have to go through a gatekeeper. TikTok may allow you to get past the manager and directly reach the TikToker.
Tip 4: Answer questions and provide information during negotiations
Negotiation is when you put everything on the table. This is the time to determine the most important details of the partnership, such as the incentive, content creation, deadlines, and other terms.
Both parties should be clear about the terms of the collaboration, including what the brand will pay and what the influencer will provide. Also, make sure they know when everything is due to happen.
You can also go over the details of your campaign. Consider the following:
- Are you interested in the influencers using a specific hashtag in their content or not?
- Do you have any specific points that you want the influencers to highlight about your product?
- Are there any particular music or general aesthetic guidelines you would like them to follow?
Last but not least, you need to decide how you will disclose the collaboration. The Federal Trade Commission in the US, along with other regulatory agencies, are more vigilant than ever about unfair advertising. And it’s not just the responsibility of influencers, they have also cracked down on brands.
Discuss whether you will disclose the ad with hashtags or in another way. Also, ensure that it meets the requirements of any disclosure guidelines that apply to your campaign.
Tip 5 – Don’t assume that you have to sign a contract
Contrary to what you may think, a contract is not necessary for all influencer collaborations. It is a good rule of thumb to use a contract if you are paying influencers in cash, but it’s unnecessary if you are only giving them products for free, unless the product is very expensive.
Contracts can in fact sometimes be a conversion killer, especially for less experienced influencers. Micro and nano influencers don’t have experience with constant collaborations and all the bureaucracy they involve. A contract can overwhelm or intimidate them and you might lose an otherwise promising deal.
When you want to use a contract, you can find an influencer contract template and edit it to include the terms of your collaboration. And if you don’t need a contract, you can firm up the details in an email. If there is any doubt, either party can refer back to the agreement in the email.
Conclusion
These 5 tips will hopefully make it easier to reach out to influencers and negotiate with them. Let me end by saying, don’t be discouraged if influencers fail to get back to you. Follow up. You can also go back to the drawing board and find other influencers, then try again.
