If brand awareness is your goal, it will make more sense to work with a macro or mega influencer; Creativity – micro influencers create their best work when given some freedom. Find out who they are & how brands can market with them. Brands Looking to Work with Micro Influencers. You’ve heard the term influencer outreach thousands of times before. Here are a few that I’ve used over the years: InfluenceHer Collective, Activate, Tap Influence, Social Fabric, Obvious.ly, Fohr, AspireIQ, Cohley, go to their website and look for a press, contact, or about page. Check out their social media profiles on multiple platforms and get to know their aesthetic, content style, and values. As a new blogger or micro influencer, don’t wait around for a brand to reach out, be a go-getter girl! Introduce yourself and say what your blog is about with a link to your blog, Talk about engagement rate, especially if you are just starting (how your IG page has grown 20% etc). Blogging was and still is a hobby of mine. Reach and accountability are two other aspects to consider when evaluating micro-influencers. Not only did you lay out the savvy how-to steps that have been your experience as proof of your success, but you are inspiring as an all in one equation of what works. 'marketing@brand.com'. Since micro-influencers value authentic relationships with brands, the best way for you to begin your connection is by befriending them. THE PERFECT SKIN CARE LINE FOR BLEMISH PRONE SKIN. If you’re bigger than the brand and you’d be doing them a huge favor by doing a takeover, that’s where I would suggest charging for that. The brand has to make sense with your personal brand because if it doesn’t, then the partnership won’t do well and you will come off as inauthentic to your audience. Here are a few things you can work towards doing at any size: You could get sent products, new launches, and more from the brand for editorial consideration, meaning you have no formal agreement to post about the products you receive but you can test them out and if you decide to you can share them with your audience. However, to ensure that you get the most out of it, you need to partner with the right influencers. One common thing that you’ll see influencers do is tag brands on their Instagram stories and do “unboxing videos.” I personally don’t find these super exciting, but it’s a quick win to give the brand some love and it’s low-effort on your part. If it’s a curly hair post? Reach – micro influencers do have limited reach as they have smaller audiences. To begin your friendship, like, share, and comment on their posts. If you’re a small creator I think it’s a win-win because the brand is likely bigger than you so you get exposure and the brand gets free content created for them by someone who knows what they’re doing. Being an influencer isn’t about you, it’s about your audience. Brands have one shot to make a great first impression when pitching influencers, so it’s best to be armed with a … The higher your engagement level, the better your chances of enticing businesses to sponsor your posts. You should accept a gifting campaign if it means that you: 1. get a product you really want, 2. want to build a longer term relationship with a brand, or 3. you are a smaller influencer who hasn’t had much experience partnering with brands and you want to build a portfolio of your work. UPDATE March 21, 2019 — In 2019, 80% of marketers say that influencer marketing is effective.When it comes it consumer trust, 38% who engage with influencers trust their sponsored endorsements more than when brands self … So, they are constantly receiving messages from their fans and other brands. For all the details on nailing a brand pitch, you can check out my e-book. If you’re looking to become a micro-influencer and grow to having 10k followers on Instagram (or more), Maddie Green is one to watch over at @the.insideview. For example, if you pick ten micro-influencers with 15,000 followers each, your potential reach is 150,000 (same as a traditional influencer). I started blogging in 2012 and got my first paid brand partnership in 2015 so don’t worry if you’re just starting out and you haven’t landed a paid deal yet! This is often smaller brands that can’t pay influencers. When you pick brands to pitch to as a micro-influencer, make sure to choose brands that share your values and have the same target audience as you do. By collaborating with local brands, Maddie says she gets to be the most authentic. Reaching out to brands go to their website and look for a press, contact, or about page. Tag the brand! 5. You don’t need to reach that 50,000 follower count in order to work with brands and actually get paid. Another great way to reach out to brands is through an influencer marketing platform! While a macro-influencer can reach more people, it’s likely that the micro-influencer will reach more of the right users. For example, emails can be more lengthy and detailed than DMs. BrandSnob is an Instagram influencer marketing platform that helps brands find and engage with influential Instagrammers. So, if you haven’t taken the time to personalize the message, influencers are going to catch on pretty quickly, and most likely ignore you. Before considering connecting with brands on Instagram, you need first to build your market reach. Product discount or giveaway – Offering a discount on your services, especially for a micro-influencer, could be a great way to get further brand exposure in the future. Commission – If you have an influencer that keeps coming back into your efforts and leads to bigger sales, setting them up with a commission might not be a bad idea. Maybe your following isn’t large enough or they just ran out of budget. Your email address will not be published. Sometimes I get the question, “how big should my audience be before I reach out to a brand?” and the truth is that if you have 1,000 Instagram followers and quality content that is probably all you need to start working with brands. I was excited to put together this complete guide walking you through what it’s like to work with brands as a micro-influencer whether you’ve been blogging for a few years or you’re just starting out. Ask to circle back next quarter as budgets often reset then, If you are excited to work with a brand you could try working on a gifting project with them and then have the chance to wow them, Ask to switch the deliverables to something they can pay for. I’ll leave the thought of … I’m honestly surprised more influencers don’t suggest this to brands! They are the ones sending free product to Instagram influencers/small blogs. But simply saying that you want more brand awareness or engagement out of it, isn’t going to cut it. WHAT YOU NEED TO DO BEFORE REACHING OUT TO BRANDS FOR PARTNERSHIPS: Put yourself in a brand’s shoes and ask yourself why would they want to work with you. For a micro-minute, I thought I could be a micro-influencer! It's crucial here that you find the right specific person to contact as most people within the company probably has hundreds of emails coming to their inbox each day. Register Today To Get Featured In Our Popular Roundups Influencers will ignore messages from random brands, especially when they notice you didn’t put in any effort to check them out before contacting them. Brands will have no interest in you if your only supporter is your mom, who feels obliged to lend her support to you. When I first began blogging four years ago, I actually didn’t know working with brands was possible until I received my first PR email from a brand. Last thing is if you ever reach out to a brand and they tell you you’re “too small,” you can always offer to create content for them to share with their audience for a set rate. How I found brands that collaborate with micro influencers If you’ve ever been discouraged by your instagram follower count and thought, “I’ll never get to the level that I need to be to work with brands.” WRONG! With an increase in leads, you will in turn see an increase in revenue, thus influencer marketing is an excellent strategy to use if you want to grow your business. Make an agreement: This is a technical process where you need to discuss issues such as campaign objectives, compliance, compensation, and so on. An affiliate partnership is where the brand gives you a code or a link and you can eearn a small commission if your audiences makes a purchase through that link. When you reach out to a brand with a partnership idea DO NOT make it about you. However, the engagement of each micro-influencer is much higher than traditional influencers. Step 4: Reach Out to Your Influencers. Even a general email might give you a hint about email format but you’re looking for a PR or influencer email, check their Instagram bio or Facebook page for an email address, look for PR or marketing people on LinkedIn and try to connect with them or search for their email, join some blogging Facebook groups and build a network of other bloggers who might be able to swap contacts with you. Finally, Austen! First, a brand could email you directly (make sure you add your email to your IG bio in the written description, not just with the email button as lots of brands search on desktop). I wasn’t sure if that would be a good idea at first, but it’s a great way to introduce yourself to the brand! If I can’t find any of those, I send my email to their info@domain.com and usually they direct me to their PR dept. They can tag you for credit and you can build a relationship that way if they like your work. When venturing out to find a promoter for your brand, product or service, your first instinct would be to find the biggest dog with the loudest bark. Pitch companies that collaborate with small influencers. Reach out to your micro-influencer: Make sure to follow and get in touch with this individual. Guide: How To Reach Out To Influencers For Your Brand. Before approaching the brand, do your research and ensure that the brand aligns with YOUR personal brand. THE SUNSCREEN YOU SHOULD WEAR DAILY, EVEN UNDER YOUR MAKE UP! This makes it necessary for brands to reach out to influencers on Instagram. The easiest way to reach out to brands is by messaging them on Instagram. The main reason for this is the high ROI that you can get from it. Remember, though, you have to work to get to this position. I would only do this if you have already followed the brand and engaged with their photos. Direct Message via Instagram – Not professional at all but sometimes when I cannot find a single email, I’ll kindly ask if they have a PR email address they could direct me to. There needs to be compatibility and synergy. Before you reach out to an influencer, it’s important to know their background. BrandSnob. Helping you get a running start on building successful partnerships. When brands don’t have enough word-of-mouth marketing to be able to leverage user-generated content about them, they’re realizing that rather than creating the content themselves, they can simply reach out to micro influencers to do so on their behalf. When you pick brands to pitch to as a micro-influencer, make sure to choose brands that share your values and have the same target audience as you … When I first began blogging four years ago, I actually didn’t know working with brands was possible until I received my first PR email from a brand. According to a poll on the Tomoson blog, 59% of marketers are … I’ve done lots of influencer tips and advice on my Instagram stories and on TikTok lately, and last year I recorded this video detailing the ins and outs of brand partnerships but I really haven’t sat down to write this post, the official “I wanna work with brands” post. Often times, you can see influencers working with them who have less than 10K followers. Why working with brands as a micro-influencer is great! Of course, one of the easiest ways to pitch brands as a micro influencer is to get help from someone with experience. We get it, influencer outreach can be challenging for brands. Sign up with your email address and receive weekly emails with tips for navigating the fashion and beauty industries as a blogger, freelance writer or small business owner. Brands are only interested in working with people who influence active audiences. They are kind of the middle man between influencers and brands. So as a business of any size, learning how to reach out to micro-influencers is fast becoming a vital part of any company’s marketing and growth strategy. If you’ve ever been discouraged by your instagram follower count and thought, “I’ll never get to the level that I need to be to work with brands.” WRONG! If you want to partner up with an influencer who is not in a category that would be typical for your brand, you’ll need to convince them why you want them in your campaign and how you think they can contribute. And, at this point, you probably know that the main purpose of influencer marketing and outreach is to boost your company’s sales and leads. Lastly, it is important for brands to reach out to micro-influencers who share a similar tone and set of values. Now more than ever brands are excited about working with micro and nano-influencers. You can also reach out on Facebook or Twitter to ask the brand for a contact for the person in charge of influencer collaborations. From nano to micro to macro-influencers, influencer marketing platforms allow brands to quickly and easily identify and work with tens or even hundreds of influencers seamlessly. Track results: Measure the results based on the planned KPIs. And finally you can apply to a campaign through an influencer platform. Brand’s website under ‘contact us’ – any email that says brand collaborations/partnerships, digital marketing, public relations. A few things I’d do for brands that say they can’t pay you or can’t meet your rate: Ask for feedback! For this, you’ll need to work on your online research skills. With regards to reach, you’ll want to gauge their klout, and how active they are – not just with their own followers, but other brands and influencers on the platform. Be wary of gifting campaigns where you feel like you’re being taken advantage of. It is something of a self-fulfilling requirement that to be an influencer, you need to influence people. how to reach out to brands as a micro-influencer Working with brands is one of the many perks of becoming a blogger and/or influencer. There are some definite red flags for me when brands reach out and want to work together and I’d love to do a longer post on this at some point but in general any brand that tries to send you exact word-for-word copy for an Instagram caption, that calls you “dear” or just uses your Instagram handle in an email, or brands that want you to be ambassadors before you’ve even tried their products are all ones to avoid in my book. Keep in mind, these first messages should be used to connect with influencers on a personal level and lay the building blocks of what could eventually grow into a potential business partnership. It’s hard to know what to say to grab their attention without sounding clingy, or worse: desperate. It’s worked for me in the past. Macro-influencer – More than 100,000 followers. Four years later and I’m still reaching out to brands! Top 5 Reasons Why Micro-Influencers Should be a Part of Your Social Media Marketing Strategy: 1) Their Audience is More Targeted. Tag ALL the brands too! If you want to stand out, you may need to use multiple platforms to reach out to them. Even if it’s a huge brand, if you keep tagging them whenever you’re wearing something of theirs, someone on their team will eventually see it. This is the dream type of collaboration you want to land where you have clear deliverables and work on a paid partnership with the brand. This trend has resulted in the rise of micro-influencers. So you will get more engagement, more sales, and a higher ROI overall. The exception here would be to use it to ask them for the contact in charge of influencer collaborations. 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