5 Tips for Working with Influencers to Promote Your Business

It’s easier than you think

Photo by Mateus Campos Felipe on Unsplash

Influencers were an integral part of my plan when I turned my hobby into a successful business. In fact, working with them skyrocketed my business in less than a year, and I now have many regular clients.

It was only about a decade ago that influencer marketing was reserved for celebrities and maybe just a handful of bloggers with huge followings. Fast forward to 2021 where it seems there are new influencers popping up in an already saturated market.

In fact, it has grown so much that influencers can actually be broken down into categories: Mega, macro, micro and nano.

So, is working with an influencer good for your business?

For me, I found that engaging with Melbourne-based micro-influencers was vital to the success of my business. The influencers I used expanded my reach in the local area and I continue to work with two of them in an ongoing ‘product for post’ exchange.

Here are my tips for working with influencers to promote your business:

1. Decide on your budget and terms early on

I didn’t have much money set aside to invest in my business. I already had my equipment, but my advertising budget needed to remain low.

I decided I either needed free promotion or a very low payment of $50–100 per post. For that reason, I wanted to target nano and micro-influencers.

I wanted my influencers to make one Instagram post with a clear image of my product in use, with a very positive caption and my business tagged. I also wanted them to share their posts in their stories.

I also decided that if I had an influencer with a particularly high engagement of Melbourne-based followers, I would ask her to Instagram story her whole experience using my service.

Finally, I wrote down dates when I wanted the influencers to promote my business.

I had everything written down so I knew that I wouldn’t stray from my business plan and blow out my budget or agree to terms that I didn’t like.

Key takeaway:

Have a clear budget and terms written down so you know your goals

2. Find the ‘right’ influencers

The ‘right’ influencer, is not the person with the biggest following. In fact, the influencer who got me most of my regular clients only has 7,000 followers on Instagram.

The right influencer:

has your target audience following them
is in your niche (or at least a similar one)
has a highly engaged following
is selective with what they promote

It is easy for a person to fake followers because they can buy them. Those bought ‘followers’ are actually just bots, so they do not organically engage with posts.

Engagement, however, is harder to fake. Yes, you can buy ‘likes’ and ‘comments’, but you would have to keep buying them over and over for every post you make, in order to look like you have high engagement. An influencer would easily let this facade fall through the cracks.

My tip is to use online tools to help you see the ratio of bot followers. All accounts will have some bots in their following, so you want to ensure that the influencer has a much higher ratio of real followers.

Furthermore, you can see engagement by clicking on each post and seeing the percentage of likes and comments they get. I aim for a 5% engagement. So, in the example of the influencer with 7,000 followers, I wanted to see at least 350 comments for each post. This article can help you with calculating engagement.

Key takeaway:

Find influencers who meet your target audience and have a high follower engagement.

3. Establish a relationship

This is probably the most important step. An influencer is more likely to work with you if they can see an ongoing, reciprocal arrangement.

I began by following influencers and regularly commenting and liking their posts, and sending private messages in response to their Instagram stories. The feedback from the influencers I’ve worked with was they appreciated that I knew them and their brand. I was actively helping their engagement.

Here are some great ways to support an influencer:

watch and comment on Instagram stories
read and comment on posts
like posts
watch and comment on YouTube videos
subscribe/follow
share the influencer’s stories on your own account
feature in an “Influencer to watch” post (make sure you tag them)

I followed and actively engaged with my chosen influencers for at least 6 months before making a business proposal.

Key takeaway:

establish a relationship with your chosen influencers by promoting them and engaging with their content.

4. Pitch your business proposal

Check the profiles of your influencer to see how they prefer you to contact them. Some will have an email or website for enquiries. If they have no contact information, you can always send them a direct message on their platform.

I only worked with Instagram influencers and I contacted most of them by sending a direct message on Instagram. Only one had an email listed for business purposes.

When you contact them, it is vital that you:

are polite
use correct spelling and grammar
personalise your message
explain why they would be a good fit
have a clear message
have flexibility

Here is a sample letter that I have used with great success:

Dear_________________

I have been following you for __________ and I love your content. I particularly enjoyed your most recent post/video about _________________.

My business, called _____________, sells ___________________ and I would love to work with you. I think you would be a good fit with my business because ___________________________________________.

I would like to send you a product of your choice from my website in exchange for an Instagram post/story/mention on YouTube/other.

Here is the link to my website:__________________________________.

I am interested in making an ongoing professional relationship with you. I am flexible with the terms, too, so I am happy to negotiate with you.

Please message me if you have any questions.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Kind regards,

____________________________________________________

I prefer to only work via email or direct messaging so I can make the agreement in writing. One influencer asked me to chat over the phone about it, which I agreed to, but I followed that up in writing.

Key takeaway:

send a clear, polite and personalised message to each of your chosen influencers

5. Ensure both parties uphold their end of the agreement

After you reach an agreement with an influencer, always hold up your end. You need to keep it professional because you never know which influencers talk with each other.

A good reputation and word of mouth are important for your business.

It is ok to chase up influencers if they don’t uphold their end of the agreement. Start by sending a very polite reminder message asking how the post is coming along. It is possible that they may have simply forgotten.

One of my influencers forgot to post on the day she agreed, so the next day I simply sent a quick message to say, “How’s it going? I am just messaging to check how the post is going? Please let me know if you need anything from me.”

After she got that reminder, she apologised and posted immediately.

You can be more firm as more time passes and if the influencers don’t respond to you. Fortunately, I haven’t had that experience yet.

The most important thing: If you made a monetary agreement with the influencer, don’t pay until they’ve made the post. You can send them a product before so they can sample it and create the post. If you feel comfortable, you can even give them an upfront, partial payment. But I wouldn’t ever pay the full amount until I see the post.

As I said before, always make sure you get every agreement in writing.

Key takeaway:

always hold your end of the deal and follow up with the influencer

Influencer marketing was a key proponent of my business plan. While there are trial and error involved, my experience showed me that targeting the right influencer in your niche can do wonders.

For further information on the topic, I highly recommend seeing these videos:

How I Made £8000 passive income SECRETLY in 8 Weeks by The Break (Patricia Bright’s second YouTube channel)
How to Find Influencers to Explode you Shopify Store by Foundr Magazine

Those two videos share what I’ve said but have some more detail.

Good luck!