How can you improve influencer outreach and communication?

Brands should realize that the influencer with the highest following might not always be the right one for your campaign. Chose your influencer based on what your niche is and whom you want to target. You want to work with an influencer who might not have a high following but exactly focuses on your target audience.

I agree with this. I think it's important to highlight to your potential influencers the benefit for them to be associated with your Brand and amplify your campaign. Here are a few tips that I found useful from my own experience: 1. Be flexible. Be prepared to negotiate the terms of the partnership. Not all influencers will charge the same rate, and some may be willing to barter their services for products or services. 2. Make sure your campaign is aligned with the influencer's values and goals. This will make them more likely to be interested in working with you. 3. Help them understand how their association with your Brand/Campaign can potentially help them build their personal brand further and increase their following list.

CUSTOMIZE your pitch! Don't find yourself sending a Dear @handle email. Here's what to consider: - Keep your email short and sweet - Include why you're reaching out to them aka why them so they know it's not a mass distro list - Give some detail on the company and a little intro to the campaign. Make sure to link to your companies website. - Tell them what's important to you and if that's a fit set up a call. Put a scheduling link so they can easily grab 15 minutes with the team -- I know some people probably got scared here. It's ok to talk to influencers. Just be prepared to negotiate. You'll get better rates when building a relationship!! What not to include: - Deliverables - Budget - Campaign briefs with all the campaign details

I disagree with this. I have burned my fingers a number of times by giving influencers too much freedom and receiving content that was not up to standard for the client. It is best to write an airtight brief with examples from their feeds of the content you are looking for. If it is a paid collaboration and not a trade exchange, there should be clear communication of what is expected from both parties.

While it's reasonable for a brand to ensure that an influencer's messaging aligns with the brand's vision and expectations, there IS a balance between this goal and simply handing an influencer a script and asking them to read the script verbatim. A more effective approach would involve the brand providing the influencer with information about the product or service being promoted, the key messaging, and their guidelines. How the influencer conveys this message should be up to them, allowing them to present it in a manner that is authentic, genuine, and true to their unique style. At the end of the day, we are working with content creators because of their ability to influence, and this ability stems from their authenticity and content.

Maintain open and transparent communication with the influencer. Discuss your expectations, goals, and any creative guidelines while allowing space for their creative input. A collaborative approach often yields the best results.

If you are a brand with a budget more than 2L for influencer marketing - the best idea is to connect with an influencer marketing agency for the outreach part and entire execution process. The constant work that an influencer gets from an agency always leads to better costs, less execution time and skip the hiccups of any last minute adjustments. In influencer marketing execution is the key and without expertise it’s real difficult. A brand can also hire a team to Get this done but hiring an agency is more cost effective with zero commitments if you don’t have plans to run influencer campaigns all year. Relationship with influencer is critical - they are not anyone’s employee so it’s only respect and relationship that can save the day.