We\u2019ve been harping on bad influencer marketing a lot lately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ve given you tips for building an influencer marketing strategy<\/a>, helpful reminders for email outreach<\/a>, and examples of how to build your networks really well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seriously, our goal is normally to highlight the good instead of calling out the bad, to give you everything you need to totally rock at building connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But today we need to talk about some of the uglier parts of influencer marketing: <\/strong>the mistakes marketers make when they don\u2019t give it the time and effort it requires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When we talk about building an influencer marketing strategy, we always, always, always emphasize setting goals before planning anything or reaching out to anyone. The most important reason for that is to keep yourself focused on what matters <\/strong>to your campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But what might happen if you dive into this without thinking, without planning, and without a cake to snack on during outreach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Disaster. World disaster. That\u2019s what would happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just kidding – but any of these influencer marketing mistakes could happen to you, throwing a hit to your future relationships, your brand\u2019s reputation, or your campaign\u2019s effectiveness in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the easiest mistakes to make – especially if you didn\u2019t set goals or aren\u2019t keeping them in mind – is flat-out reaching out to the wrong people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And this is a pretty bad blunder – it doesn\u2019t matter how great other aspects of your campaign are. If you mess up this early on, the rest of your campaign could fall on an uninterested audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The two easiest ways to flub this up are:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n And they riff off each other pretty well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s walk through an example.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You work for a luxury fashion brand that makes professional\/business casual clothing for women. You decide to run a campaign with influencers and immediately start researching the influential female fashion Instagrammers and work up a list of those with the biggest followings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019ll likely end up making both mistakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Doing a wide search like that in a niche so much broader than your own (business casual women\u2019s clothing vs. all women\u2019s clothing) and then only looking at one other qualifier after that (follower number) isn\u2019t enough research to identify who has a brand that will align with yours.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Because of that, the influencers you find and reach out to likely won\u2019t be too relevant to your brand. For example, I\u2019m sure at least one influencer on the list of those with the biggest followings will have a younger audience. Would those younger girls be interested in – or even need – your business casual clothing that\u2019s perfect for the office?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not researching well enough is an easy mistake to fix. <\/strong>There are lots of influencer research tools<\/a> that will help you sort through and filter accounts to look at relevant data and get familiar with their brands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mistaken priorities can be a little tougher to shift. But remember that smaller, nicher audiences are often way more engaged and can be easier to convert, whatever your campaign\u2019s conversion may be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If we assume that you planned out your strategy well and kept your goals in mind when building your outreach list, there\u2019s still one obstacle to overcome in reaching an influencer. You still need to find the right contact information<\/a> and reach out on the right channel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Regardless of how popular social media is, email is always my preferable first outreach platform.<\/strong> You\u2019re more likely to get noticed and replied to there, in my experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It leaves a \u201cstickier\u201d paper trail, making your conversation easier for both you and the influencer to refer back to and continue. It\u2019s less cluttered than social media – for influencers, especially, social media notifications are non-stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But sometimes you will need to reach out on social media first. When that\u2019s the case, there\u2019s a few different rules to play by.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, things are tricky when you\u2019re reaching out on Twitter. With only 140 characters per tweet, you don\u2019t have a ton of room to pitch. But you can\u2019t always DM an influencer without them following you, and you don\u2019t want to blast them with 5 tweets in a row about your pitch. (Ugh!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n So when you need to tweet someone, it\u2019s a good idea to send them a \u201cpre-pitch\u201d instead of an actual pitch.<\/strong> Ask them where the best place to pitch them is, instead of diving straight into things. They\u2019ll likely answer with either email or direct messages, and in both of those places you can go into more detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And on any network, you want to make sure you\u2019re pitching an account that\u2019s actually used for business<\/strong>\/whatever they\u2019re influential about. It\u2019s a huge turnoff to log into your separate, personal account on the weekend to be bombarded with pitches you thought you left at work on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Okay, so influencer marketing has been popular enough for long enough that when an influencer gets an email, they know that it\u2019s an influencer marketing pitch. But that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s okay for your pitch to SCREAM \u201cthis is an influencer marketing pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We can do better than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The most obvious way to tell an influencer that you\u2019re reaching out to a ton of people just like them, is to use a blatantly generic pitch<\/strong> you don\u2019t have to customize from email to email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You know the ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They always say \u201cyour business\u201d or \u201cyour profile\u201d instead of using any personal details outside of the greeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It doesn\u2019t contain any details about you or your audience, or any indication they\u2019re familiar with you (aside from they say \u201cwe\u2019re familiar with your work\u201d…#fail)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your full website URL or social media handle might be auto-inserted into the subject line in a way that doesn\u2019t really make sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The whole thing reeks of \u201ccopy and paste.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The only worse offense is actually sending out the same pitch at the same time, using CC or BCC to mass email people instead of using individual email threads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember that usually if someone\u2019s managed to become influential online, they\u2019re most likely smart, busy, and important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The easiest way to get their attention is to not ask for too much of it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A short email that gets to the point, lays out just the most important information, and prompts the influencer for what to do next is all you need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t write five paragraphs about what you thought about their last blog post. Don\u2019t give them your entire life or business history. Don\u2019t waste time with wishy washy language that makes it unclear what you\u2019re asking for or offering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The quicker someone can read your email, make a decision about the next step, and tell you \u201cyes\u201d or \u201cno,\u201d the more likely you are to get responses from your outreach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019ll also want to be careful with how you frame your pitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a small detail that can change something from an \u201cask\u201d to an \u201coffer.\u201d<\/strong> With that first option, I read it and feel like I\u2019m being asked to do a chore for someone. I\u2019m doing them a favor and it\u2019s not clear what I\u2019m getting in return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the second, I read it and feel like I\u2019m being invited to a special opportunity. It\u2019s still vague, but in this hypothetical we\u2019ll say it\u2019s followed up with all the great details it needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you\u2019re pitching \u201cbig\u201d people and brands, you need to make whatever you\u2019re pitching them sound like an amazing opportunity<\/strong> for them, where you both win and work equally. It can\u2019t sound like you\u2019re a small fish asking a big shark to help them out of goodwill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So make sure to focus on the benefits of your offer to everyone, explain clearly what they would need to do and what they get in exchange, and what you\u2019ll do to help them in return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One more mistake that\u2019s easy to make is only sending one outreach email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Either you\u2019re afraid of bothering people and don\u2019t want to reach out repeatedly and seem spammy, or you just never get around to writing those follow-up emails you originally intended to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I get it. You want to get noticed, but not too noticed. You want the influencer to get that you\u2019re serious about this without seeming creepy serious and pushy. It\u2019s a line to straddle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Know that following up at least once is essential<\/strong>, and it\u2019s all about how you time and handle the follow-up. Don\u2019t send it too soon after your initial email – for example less than 24 hours later. But if you wait much longer than a week, you\u2019re giving the recipient tons of time to forget about you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I usually follow up once 3 to 5 days after my initial email, and depending on the opportunity, once more a week later. It seems persistent, but the casual emails are spaced out far enough that they really serve as subtle reminders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A friendly follow-up tactic like this helped David Ly Khim go from getting one response to his outreach campaign to a 50% response rate<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, for the love of the good outreach gods, do not take things personally when you get a \u201cno.\u201d<\/strong> Be mature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And if you must, must, must take it personally (because we all have those moments), keep those feelings inside your head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do not – I repeat, do not – lash out at someone who rejects your pitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n7 easily avoidable influencer outreach mistakes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Reaching out to completely the wrong people<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Reaching out on the wrong channel<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Sending a generic pitch to everyone (even worse, in BCC)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Rambling on too long \/ not cutting to the chase<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Asking for a favor instead of offering an opportunity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Here\u2019s a super simplistic example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Not following up<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Taking things personally<\/h3>\n\n\n\n