How To Personalize Your Influencer Outreach Emails
If you really want to ace your influencer marketing strategy and outreach like a pro, you need to personalize each and every email you send to an influencer. As we said in our actionable outreach tips, generic, templated emails just don’t cut it anymore. Influencers receive far too many emails in their inbox to worry about “potential opportunities” that are not customized, highly irrelevant, unengaging and don’t make them feel just a little bit special or excited.
If you want a reply from the influencers
you are contacting and truly have an opportunity that is a good fit, here are 7 easy ways to personalize your influencer marketing outreach emails and start an organic conversation that is mutually beneficial to everyone involved.
It’s all in the name
First things first, make sure you know exactly who you are emailing and their real name. Influencers frequently go by an online pseudonym to conceal their identity, a version of their name or they go by their blog name. Some are relatively easy to find, but for others, you’ll have to do a little digging to ensure you have the correct name to address your email to. It’s super important, and it’s something that you definitely cannot take shortcuts with.
For example, let’s look at the fabulous Nicole Warne who is behind Gary Pepper Girl. I can almost guarantee you that she has received emails starting with “Hi Gary” despite it being very obvious that her name is Nicole, not Gary.
It’s also important to do a little research to ensure you are emailing the right person with your request. Keep in mind that most middle and top tier influencers have talent agents and management teams that look after the business end of their brand. You can generally find out whether an influencer has representation on their website or social media platforms, so make a note to email them rather than the influencer directly as 9 times out of 10, you will get a better, faster result.
Research, and then do a little more research
It is absolutely critical that you only contact influencers that are clearly relevant to your brand and the campaign you are implementing. Influencers receive an endless number of collaborative requests, press releases and invites from brands and organizations daily, however, many are quickly discarded (some not even opened) and deemed irrelevant, mostly because they actually are!
Do your research on their content style, brands they have previously worked with, where they are based, what their audience engages with, their favorite things or places and personal quirks. Not only will this support your original outreach email, it will also help you decide whether the influencer is a good fit for your campaign. Make the influencer aware that you do pay attention to what they talk about and you know their style... essentially, make sure they know you know your sh*t and have a serious (and exciting) campaign in mind.
Add a personal touch
While this definitely isn’t the quickest task, personalizing each outreach email with a little personal comment or remark is something that can win an influencer over and get them to respond back to you. In saying that, always be genuine and don't comment on their content or claim to "love their stuff" when you generally don't. It could be a short comment to let them know you love the dress they wore in a particular blog post, or that you are interested in trying the cafe they shared a #foodstagram from. Of course, as the old saying goes, if you don't have anything nice to say than don't say it at all.
Keep it going
Yay! You got a response! End of your strategy, right? Wrong! The personalization doesn’t end when you’ve received a reply to your initial outreach email. Be sure to respond as soon as you can, whether they were interested in your collaborative offer or not. Influencer marketing is all about relationship building, so it's important to keep the conversation going and ensure it ends on a positive note.
After a collaboration, it is important to keep in touch with your network of influencers and support their work. It could be a comment on Instagram congratulating them on reaching a blogging milestone, or keeping them in mind for potential work in the future. Like any business relationship, it is important to invest time in your influencer network and relationships too!
Be responsive
When dealing with influencers, it is important to respond to their emails, questions, requests or concerns as soon as possible. You'll never be able to reply right away to everyone, but make it a priority to get back to influencers and provide additional information if required. If you are not responsive and are hard to get in contact with, it can seriously damage your relationship and the work you want to do together.
Avoid using templates
It’s so easy to just use a template, customize the name and address field and hit the send. Everyone can do it, it's fairly easy to set up, and it does save a lot of time in the outreach phase of the influencer marketing process, however, you won't get the same results if you use a generic template. Generic, templated emails stick out like a sore thumb in an influencer's inbox, so you definitely don't want to be seen as taking the easy road. When an influencer, or anyone for that matter, can see that you have put effort into constructing your email and considering the opportunity, they are much more likely to respond and continue the conversation.
The subject line can make or break your email
Believe it or not, the subject line of an influencer outreach email has the potential to significantly hinder your traction with influencers. When writing your outreach email, don't think of the subject as an after-thought or leave it until the end and fill in without a plan in place. The subject line is the first thing an influencer will see in connection with your email and name, so you want to make a good impression while you have their attention... you could only have a couple of seconds! The subject line should give the receiver a taste of what your email is going to be about, but also spark their curiosity with something a little bit creative (but not too wild!). Have a play with a couple of different subject lines to test what works best for your particular campaign, brand and outreach style - the results might surprise you!
While personalizing your influencer outreach emails definitely requires some time and effort, it can completely change the results of your outreach and ultimately the entire campaign. We hope you consider implementing these 7 tips on personalizing your influencer outreach emails to give yourself the best chance of getting a response from the influencers you want to work with. If you need some tips on kick-starting your influencer campaign, make sure you check out this article!
