As brands are increasingly allocating their marketing budget to influencer marketing it is crucial to have a good understanding on how to effectively manage your influencer campaign which starts with influencer outreach.
In this article we will explain step by step how to organise an effective influencer marketing campaign by segmenting the campaign into the 4 key stages. By including free influencer outreach email templates you can easily get started by simply copy pasting our templates which we have A/B tested on thousands of campaigns to maximise results.
When building up a successful influencer program it is all about systems and processes. As you need to work with a lot of influencers overtime in order to maximise impact (more on this later) it is crucial to set up a structured system so your team knows exactly what to do in which stage. This is especially important as influencer marketing is one of the most operational forms of marketing.
Compared to paid social where one person could manage the campaign, influencer marketing involves finding, contacting, negotiating, sending out products and nurturing relationships which all have their own communication requirements. The good thing is most of the communication is repetitive for which influencer communication templates are ideal which is what we will be sharing with you today.
After finding the right influencers you want to work with the first step is to contact them. When looking for the right influencers there are several metrics every marketer should analyse:
To find out how to get the contact details of an influencers read our full article here. When contacting influencers there are typically 2 ways to do this:
You could directly contact the influencer through a direct message on Instagram. The advantage is that you often reach the influencer directly instead of their talent agent which could be beneficial.
However, the challenge is that it isn’t scalable. Instagram will limit you to around 10 of the same messages a day making this a very time intensive process which won’t allow you to build and scale your influencer program.
Contacting influencers through email outreach is a great way to start your influencer campaign. The advantages are that the enquiry comes over more professionally and most importantly you can scale your influencer outreach. If you use the right tools you can contact hundreds of influencers at the same time allowing you to pick your best deals. Now this doesn’t mean that you should send generic emails make sure to combine automation with personalisation.
With Influencer Hero you can create drip campaigns with automated follow ups, use personalisation tags and even add in an Ai generated personalised sentence to maximise your reply rates. The Ai looks at the last 3 posts on social media to generate a personalised sentence which will be included in your outreach. The challenge is that especially with larger influencers you often reach the talent agent or manager which can complicate the negotiation process.
The best way is to combine both start with email outreach and then reach out through DM to the influencers where you aren’t able to come to an agreement with the agent or manager. This requires the right communication approach as you want to quickly highlight to the creator what value they get out of it. What you want to achieve is that they tell their agent that they want to work with this brand despite the limited budget E.g. because they are really interested in getting one of your products for free.
Read our full article with all the right strategies and free outreach templates for influencer outreach here or simply copy the influencer outreach templates below:
EMAIL 1
SUBJECT: {{ firstname|default(influencer_handle) }} – ENTER YOUR BRAND NAME Partnership
Hi {{ firstname|default(influencer_handle) }},
{{personalized_sentence}}
My name is ENTER YOUR NAME and I’m from ENTER YOUR COMPANY NAME. We are ADD ONE SENTENCE DESCRIPTION ABOUT YOUR BRAND.
We are looking for potential partnerships and we love the content on your account {{influencer_handle}}!
It would be awesome if you could test our ENTER YOUR PRODUCT.
HIGHLIGHT YOUR USP AND YOUR PRODUCT IN ONE SENTENCE.
I’m happy to send you one ENTER YOUR PRODUCT for you to test. We also offer a 20% commission or a discount code to give out to your followers. Please get back to me if you are interested in this opportunity.
Can I send you one of the ENTER YOUR PRODUCT?
Thanks!
Best,
ENTER YOUR NAME
FOLLOW UP 1
SUBJECT: {{ firstname|default(influencer_handle) }} – Partnership Invitation
Hi {{ firstname|default(influencer_handle) }},
I hope you are doing great!
Our campaign is about to start, and I wanted to make a quick follow up on our offer.
We are really impressed by the quality of your account, and it would be amazing if you would agree to join our campaign.
HIGHLIGHT YOUR BRAND USP IN ONE SENTENCE.
If you're interested, please reply to this email with your shipping details so we could send you, our products.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Best,
ENTER YOUR NAME
FOLLOW UP 2
SUBJECT: {{ firstname|default(influencer_handle) }} – Partnership Invitation
Hi {{ firstname|default(influencer_handle) }},
Just wanted to quickly follow up on my previous email as I haven’t received a reply yet. Would you be interested in this opportunity?
We would love to work with you, and we are looking for long term partnerships!
Can we send you some of our products so you can experience the quality of our ENTER YOUR PRODUCT?
Best,
ENTER YOUR NAME
FOLLOW UP 3
SUBJECT: {{ firstname|default(influencer_handle) }} – Partnership Invitation Last Email
Hi {{ firstname|default(influencer_handle) }},
Would be great if you could let me know in case you are not interested so I can take a note of this.
In case you are interested we would love to carry on. We’ve worked with hundreds of individuals who love our products and it would be awesome if you could experience the same! You can see our reviews here. HYPER LINK TO REVIEWS IF AVAILABLE OR USE OTHER SOCIAL PROOF.
Looking forward to hearing from you! :)
Best,
ENTER YOUR NAME
Once the influencer replies there are typically two ways the conversation can go.
This is one of the most important stages which differentiates the brands which succeed and the ones which don’t. Don’t simply give up if the influencer shares high rates. Simply negotiate and state your available budget. Worse case you get a rejection and you move on to the next influencer. You already got a no by asking you potentially can get a yes.
Read our full article on the right strategies and free influencer outreach templates for the negotiation stage here. Or simply copy the influencer negotiation templates below:
N1 – Influencer is Interested
Hi {{firstname}},
Thank you so much for your response. We're glad you're interested in this collaboration.
For this first collaboration, you would receive an ENTER PRODUCT NAME to keep + ENTER % COMMISSION YOU OFFER commission and/or discount code in exchange for an Instagram story post with the sticker link.
If this trial story post goes well, you can expect us to make an offer based on your posting’s performance which includes fixed payments or our brand ambassador program.
If this works for you, please provide your shipping details including your full name and contact number so I can send you our ENTER PRODUCT NAME.
Looking forward to your response :)
Best,
ENTER YOUR NAME
N2 – Influencer asks for a Budget
Hi {{firstname}},
Thank you for your reply.
We completely understand that you don’t work on an affiliate basis. However, we hope you understand that the first story post is only to get a better understanding of the match towards the brand.
We work with a wide variety of different compensation packages which include fixed payments and long-term brand ambassador programs. We have been collaborating with creators for a few years now and from our experience, we know that the performance varies widely which is why we work with an initial story post in order for us to make a fair offer.
Based on the results of this initial post we would be making you an offer that includes one or a combination of the before mentioned packages.
IF INITIAL OFFER IS INCREASED
Usually, we only send out the ENTER INITIAL PRODUCT OFFERED, however, because we value your work and accommodation, we'd love to offer ENTER UPDATED OFFER.
Please let me know if I can send you the ENTER UPDATED PRODUCT OFFER.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Best,
ENTER YOUR NAME
NF1 - 1st Negotiation Follow-up (No Response)
Hi {{ firstname|default(influencer_handle) }},
How are you? I hope you’re having a great week!
I just want to make a quick follow-up on our offer. We would like to send you our ENTER PRODUCT NAME + RETAIL PRICE.
If you're still interested, please provide your shipping details including your full name and contact number so we can send you the product.
Also, please feel free to browse through the website if you want to know more about our brand: ENTER WEBSITE URL.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Best,
ENTER YOUR NAME
NF2 - 2nd Negotiation Follow-up (No Response)
Hi {{ firstname|default(influencer_handle) }},
I hope you’re having a great week!
I just want to make a quick follow-up on our offer. I know our offer is below what you usually receive for this kind of collaboration. However, we are looking for longer term brand collaborations which is why we need this initial post to see the match towards the brand. If everything goes well with the initial story post, you can expect us to make an offer based on the posting’s performance.
IF INITIAL OFFER IS INCREASED
Usually, we only send out the ENTER INITIAL PRODUCT OFFERED, however, because we value your work and accommodation, we'd love to offer ENTER UPDATED OFFER.
If you're interested, please provide your shipping details including your full name and contact number so I can send you the product.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Best,
ENTER YOUR NAME
ND - Influencer Declines
Hi {{ firstname|default(influencer_handle) }},
Thank you for your honest response. We understand and respect your decision. For feedback purposes, would you mind letting me know your reason for declining?
Best,
ENTER YOUR NAME
%20(1).png)
Once you successfully negotiated and onboard your first influencers to your campaign you will need to share the instructions for their post. You can use our free influencer brief template here. Besides the campaign brief you will need to dispatch the product and ideally also share an affiliate link and personalised voucher so you can track the performance of the post.
There are several other important communication elements in this stage to avoid confusion and maximise results. Read all the strategies and influencer outreach templates for the awaiting post stage here or copy the templates below:
PS - Product Sent
Hi {{firstname}},
Thank you for providing your shipping details. The ENTER PRODUCT NAME is on its way and should be arriving in a few days!
You can use the following custom link and discount code to share with your followers.
Link: {{custom_link}}
Discount code: {{discount_code}}
Looking forward to your post!
Best,
ENTER YOUR NAME
PD - Product Delivered
Hi {{firstname}},
How are you doing? I saw that the package has been delivered :)
Regarding the story post, here are your custom link and discount code again for reference.
LINK: {{custom_link}}
Discount code: {{discount_code}}
Your custom link and discount code will be used to track the number of clicks and referrals. Based on this information, we offer different packages and brand ambassador programs.
Could you tell me on which date you are planning to post?
That way I can check your account as I am super excited to see the post myself :)
Best,
ENTER YOUR NAME
APF 1 - 1st Awaiting Post Follow-up
Hi {{firstname}},
How are you? I hope you're having a great week!
I wanted to make a quick follow up on the ENTER PRODUCT NAME. Have you gotten to use it already? :) I hope you like it! We’re all so eager to hear your thoughts on it.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Best,
ENTER YOUR NAME
APF 2 - 2nd Awaiting Post Follow-up
Hi {{firstname}},
How’s it going? It’s been a while since I heard from you.
I hope you’ve gotten to test the ENTER YOUR NAME. Could you give me an estimate on when you will be able to make the post?
Looking forward to hearing from you. :)
Best,
ENTER YOUR NAME
APF 3 - 3rd Awaiting Post Follow-up
Hi {{firstname}},
I hope everything is well.
I just wanted to check if we're still on for the story post. I'm sure your schedule's pretty packed. If you could make a simple story using the ENTER YOUR NAME that would be great. If you're pressed for time, a quick and casual story showing the product with the sticker link will be greatly appreciated.
Here are your custom link and discount code again for your reference.
LINK: {{custom_link}}
Discount code: {{discount_code}}
Please let me know. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Best,
ENTER YOUR NAME
With Influencer Hero you can create affiliate links, discount codes and dispatch products to influencers directly through your centralised influencer marketing platform.
Once the influencer has posted you will be able to analyse the results. What you do after this is crucial for building up a successful influencer program. You ideally want to categorise influencers based on performance so you know how much resources you can allocate to each of the relationships. You want to keep your best performing influencer engaged and build long lasting relationships. To maximise ROI organise seasonality campaigns using your top performing influencers.
Read all the right strategies and access our free influencer relationship management templates here or copy the templates below:
P1 - Posted <3 Conversions
Hi {{firstname}},
Thank you so much for the beautiful post! Your participation in our campaign means a lot to us, and we appreciate your efforts. :)
We have left your link and code active so you will continue to earn affiliate commission. Feel free to use the link also on other platforms which will benefit your affiliate earnings :)
In addition, I have sent you an invitation to the Dashboard so you can create your log in, put in your bank details, and track your commission.
Your collaboration is incredibly valued.
Thank you once again for your amazing support!
Best,
ENTER YOUR NAME
MP & HP - Medium or High Performer
Hi {{firstname}},
Thank you so much for your beautiful post!
We would love to continue to work with you and send you our ENTER NAME OF NEW PRODUCT for you to try! ENTER SHORT PRODUCT DESCRIPTION.
I have also sent you an invite to your dashboard where you can see your earnings. If you connect your bank details in your dashboard we can process the payment :)
Can we send you the new ENTER NAME OF NEW PRODUCT?
Best,
ENTER YOUR NAME
Influencer Hero offers a full suite influencer CRM through which you can effectively manage your entire campaign allowing you to streamline the process and continue to gather valuable data to scale your influencer program.
In conclusion, effectively managing an influencer marketing campaign involves strategic planning and meticulous execution across its four stages: outreach, negotiation, awaiting post, and relationship building. By leveraging our free, A/B tested influencer outreach email templates, brands can streamline their processes, enhance communication, and maximize their campaign results. Utilize these tools to build lasting influencer partnerships and drive significant growth in your marketing efforts.
Influencer outreach is a marketing strategy where brands identify, contact, and collaborate with individuals who have significant influence over a target audience. The goal is to leverage these influencers' reach and credibility to promote products or services, thereby increasing brand awareness and driving engagement or sales.
To start an influencer outreach campaign, first define your goals and identify the right influencers. Research their content and audience to ensure alignment with your brand. Personalize your outreach messages to each influencer, clearly stating the mutual benefits of the partnership. Utilize email or social media for initial contact and follow up if necessary. Tools like Influencer Hero which offer an influencer database and email automation can help streamline the process.
An effective influencer outreach email should be concise and personalized. Include the influencer’s name, a specific reference to their content, and a clear value proposition for why they should collaborate with you. Highlight what you can offer them, such as free products, commissions, or exposure. End the email with a clear call to action CTA and ensure the subject line is engaging. Adding the first name in the subject line will increase open rates by 30%.
Influencer outreach is important because it allows brands to tap into established, trusted audiences. Influencers can create authentic content that resonates with their followers, leading to higher engagement rates and conversions compared to traditional advertising. Additionally, influencer marketing helps build brand credibility and trust through third-party endorsements.
Success in influencer outreach can be measured through various metrics such as engagement rates (likes, comments, shares), website traffic driven by influencer content, new sales attributed to influencer campaigns, and overall ROI. Tracking these metrics helps in understanding the effectiveness of the campaign and making data-driven decisions for future outreach efforts.
Schedule a Demo with one of our media experts below.
.png)
.png)
.png)
