Gifting 101: How to reach out to influencers

Published in

Octoly

6 min readAug 22, 2018

In the first part of our Gifting 101 series, we broke down how to find the right micro-influencers for your gifting campaign. Now that your have your list of high-quality creators ready, it’s time to contact them and pitch your influencer marketing campaign.

The four posts in Gifting 101 will guide you step-by-step through the process of gifting in influencer marketing. Gifting is a more scalable, affordable, and authentic alternative to paying influencers to create posts on behalf of your brand. By sending free products to a wide range of micro-influencers, you invite them to create authentic reviews for niche, engaged audiences — driving awareness and conversions.

So, without further ado, let’s dive into Part 2: How to reach out to influencers.

Where to find influencers’ contact information

The good news is that this first step is super easy. You don’t have to search too far for influencers’ contact information because many include it in their bios or “About” pages on social media.

*Many influencers include their contact information in their bios on Instagram.*

If you can’t find their email on social media, don’t fret. You can try their website or just DM them and ask them directly.

Also, if you followed along with us in Part 1 of our guide to influencer gifting, you’ll already have created a Google Spreadsheet with this information ready to go.

Craft an irresistible email

Now for the tough step: Writing a message that will grab an influencer’s attention and entice them to work with you. Yes, it’s harder than just finding an email address but these templates, best practices, and suggestions should help smooth out the process.

Hook them with the subject line

Influencers likely receive tons of solicitations every day. That’s why — before you even focus on the body of your email — you need to write an intriguing subject line that motivates them to open your message.

Our suggestion is to include your brand’s name and a tease of your offer with phrases like “collab proposal” or “possibility of collaboration.” This makes it clear that you have a business proposition without giving away too much or being too wordy. Remember that some email platforms will cut off your subject line after a certain amount of characters, so you want to get your point across quickly.

Make your offer in the email body

The hardest part of this section is keeping your email brief. You probably have a lot of information you want to get across, but keep in mind that this email is just meant to get the conversation started. It should give influencers enough information to decide whether they want to reply but not so much information that they feel overwhelmed.

Getting down to the basics, here are elements you should include in the body of your influencer marketing email:

Your knowledge of the influencer: How you found them and what you like about their content.
Your offer: You’re interested in working with them and will send them a free product in exchange for a review.
Your story: If your brand is new or not well-known, quickly describe your product or business if you feel it’s relevant to the creator’s interests.

Here’s an example of an email you could write to a micro-influencer for your gifting campaign:

“Hello Natalie,

I came across your Instagram account/YouTube channel, and I really enjoyed your posts/videos about these great beauty products. They’re really witty and fun. I think you’d be a great fit for our brand.

Our brand is a newcomer, specializing in beauty products. They are special for [these reasons]. Here’s our website [link].

If you’re interested, I’d love to send you our product to get your feedback and a review if you enjoyed it.

Let me know.”

Add a personal touch

This is crucial. If you want influencers to reply, you have to personalize your messages to speaks to their interests.

Here are a few tips for crafting personalized emails:

Research the influencer’s social pages and make reference to their popular posts, successful brand partnerships, or audience engagement. Did they post a quote on Instagram that inspires them? Let them know if it inspires you, too. Do they have a fun nickname for their devoted followers? Put it in your email. These thoughtful additions will show them that you’re interested in working with them in particular.
Explain why you think this creator in particular would be a good fit for your brand.
Use plain text — not HTML. Your email shouldn’t look too salesy with graphics and rich text. It should look like one you might send to a friend or colleague.

Once these elements are complete, you’re ready to send!

Contact influencers at scale

Crafting personalized emails for five or even 10 micro-influencers is doable, right? But it gets a bit tricker when you want to collaborate with 50, 100, or even thousands of influencers. Creating a custom message for each of them can take an enormous amount of time and effort.

Say you want to work with 50 micro-influencers and you spend 15 minutes writing each email. It will take you 12 hours to finish them all — and that’s just the first batch! You’ll likely have to send more than 50 emails if you want to collaborate with 50 creators in the end; inevitably some won’t reply or receive your message, so you’ll have to follow up or reach out to a new group. And even when influencers do reply, your work isn’t done. You have to answer them, provide more information, and give them a nudge if the conversation stalls.

Long story short, you’ll be glued to your inbox and pulled away from actually running your company or marketing operation.

So, what’s a brand to do?

There’s a simple solution here. Ask for help.

Since some influencers won’t answer you on the first try, you can use tools like Mixmax or Yesware to create email sequences that follow up automatically.

*Email platforms can send automatic follow-up emails to influencers.*

These tools can even help you personalize emails and track metrics, such as opens and clicks.

*Track the performance of your influencer emails with metrics such as opens, clicks, downloads, and replies.*

You can also use platforms like Octoly to put the power in the influencer’s hands. We share relevant products with creators in our network and let them decide on their favorites. The influencer can then contact the brand and initiate the influencer marketing collaboration. Essentially, the hard work is done for you. You don’t have to spend hours or days scouring the Internet for the perfect creators. They can come to you, and since they’re reaching out, you know they’re genuinely interested in what you have to offer.