Reaching out to someone you have never worked with in the past can be challenging. No matter how many times you send out a business email or a direct message on Instagram or Twitter, finding the right words to say is tricky.
Working with Micro-Influencers can be a great way to start your online marketing journey for your business. Not only are they easier to reach out to, but they will also be more honest. If you wish to start a collab with a Micro-Influencer of your choice, here are some tips to help you achieve that.
Who is considered a Micro-Influencer?
Micro-Influencers are people that run their own social media pages within many different niches. From art creators to beauty bloggers, everyone can become an influencer. The difference between those creators and the ones with the more popular pages is the amount of people that follow them.
Micro- influencers usually have anywhere from 1000 to 100.000 followers on the social media pages. While this number might not seem all that high, there are quite a few benefits that come from working with them. Before we get there, here are some tips to help you make the first move and come in contact with the right influencers.
1. Make sure they fit your niche
The very first thing you should be looking into before reaching out to any Influencers is whether they are a good fit for your business. This usually starts with the niche they are in. If you are working in two completely different fields, it will be a lot more difficult for them to create the right content for your needs. In addition to that, they will have a hard time providing you with followers that will truly be interested in what you have to offer.
The best way to make sure you will not be making a mistake is to go through their pages and see whether the posts they create are related to your field of business. While you don’t want them to work with your competitors, you still want to see that they have followers interested in what you have to offer. In addition to this, you want to check whether they use SEO tactics in a helpful way for your niche.
Working with people from the same niche will allow you to have similar expectations and ideas on certain topics. This will help the marketing campaign you will run go a lot more smoothly. The closer the content they usually make is to your brand’s standards, the easier the experience will be for both of you. In addition, your collaboration is way more likely to last a much longer time.
2. Follow and support their accounts
One of the things you need to keep in mind with Micro-Influencers is that they want to know the people they work with. Giving them a follow out of the blue and asking them for a collab is probably not the smartest idea. Before you decide to reach out to them, it might be a better idea for you to follow them for a while first.
Since they have such a small following, they want to make sure that they set the right foundations with their audience. Being honest is very important for them and they want to make sure the companies they work with are truly worth it. Following them and showing them your support will help you create a very positive relationship that will benefit both parties for a long time.
Leaving likes frequently on their page is a good idea when trying to show an influencer you follow their work. You need to show them that you enjoy the content they create when you are willing to let them create content for you. The longer they see your name in their followers list, the more likely they are to want to give that collaboration a chance.
3. React to their stories and praise their work
Another great way for you to make your presence known is through reacting to the daily posts they share on their stories. This way of communication just takes a few clicks and you can easily show you have been following the Influencer for a while. Stories have reaction emojis and apart from those you can also send them a direct message, replying on what they posted.
This can be a great opportunity for you to let them know how you feel about the content they create. You do not have to mention anything about any collaboration at first. All you have to do is honestly praise them for the content they create. If they are still just starting out with very few followers, they are bound to appreciate the feedback and praise.
This will help you work towards creating a relationship with them where they trust your business. In the long run, this will aid the work between you two and help you work better together. Knowing that you both enjoy and support each other’s work is crucial in any type of collaboration.
4. Send them a direct message
After you have created some sort of relationship with them, you can go ahead and propose the idea of a potential collaboration. Since you will be working on social media and met there, the best way to reach out to them is via direct message. This might seem more unprofessional l than an email, but such working relationships require more directness.
When you let them know about your idea, it is a good thing to ask them about where they would prefer to continue talking. They might want to arrange a video or voice call with you so you can talk about everything in more length. You can propose this in advance so they can choose what they prefer best.
You should keep in mind that there is a possibility they will not reply immediately. You need to be patient and give them some time to think about your proposal. They might also ask some additional questions, so you need to be prepared to devoting some time to answering them.
5. Use the right proofreading tools
One thing that many people do not think about when sending out a business proposal is the way that proposal looks. Not only is it important to think about the length of the text, but also the context of the message. Whether you send an email or a direct message, you need to make sure it looks well put-together and professional.
The best way to achieve that is through using the right writing services and tools for your writing needs. Simple and easy to use tools such as Grammarly and Hemmingway Editor can truly help you with correcting grammar and spelling mistakes as you write. This way, every message you write and end to the micro-influencers you are working with will look just as professional.
6. Find micro-influencers that already support your brand
When trying to decide on the people you wish to work with, you might want to start searching through your own profile. There are definitely going to be people that follow your business profile that have a certain amount of followers to fit those standards.
This is a great idea for a variety of reasons. First of all, since these people are already following you they will be a lot more excited to reply positively to the collaboration. This means that if you need a larger amount of people to review your products, choosing people that are already interested will do the trick.
In addition to that, you might come across people that have already used your products in the past. You can easily find them through looking at the accounts that tagged you in posts or in their stories. Picking those that left positive reviews and asking them to collaborate will work well for both parties. Most importantly, you will always be able to find more and more people interested in your brand and wanting to collaborate.
7. Always be as honest as possible
Last but not least, another thing you need to take into consideration when working with anyone really is to be honest. Starting up a partnership with a new micro-influencer will require you to be honest with them about a plethora of things. Most importantly, you should be honest about their payment, your expectations and their part in the whole collaboration.
One more very important thing is to also ask them to share their honest opinion of your brand with their followers. While you might be tempted to ask them to only review your brand positively, this will not work in your favor. Instead, asking them to be honest will make you look more professional and trustworthy.
In most cases, the influencer will even mention that fact to their audience, which will help everyone think more highly of your brand. Even if they have something negative to say though, you need to take it as positive feedback and work on improving your services. This will also work positively in your company’s favor.
Benefits of working with Micro-Influencers
After knowing all the right ways to come in contact with these people, you should also know about all benefits of working with them. Here are some of the most important ones that will help you make your decision a lot easier.
They tend to be more honest
One of the main reasons why people follow smaller influencers online is because they need a break from all the drama bigger accounts carry. In many cases, fame and money tend to blind people and make them care less about the importance of their honest opinion.
Smaller accounts tend to keep their opinions real and don’t have much to lose from speaking their mind about a company they work with. This is important as it will help you appear more trustworthy to their followers.
Their followers trust their opinion
Since these people tend to be more honest and realistic about the reviews they give on different products, they are trusted by their followers. Having such a relationship with their audience is crucial to their success and it can greatly benefit brands they work with.
The more the audience values the opinion of the person reviewing your products or services, the easier they will trust you. This way you will end up increasing your sales and website traffic a lot more easily and quickly.
They are less likely to work with your competitors
Most micro-Influencers tend to hold long-term collaborations with a brand they work with. Since they don’t make a large amount of money, they prefer to keep working with brands they trust and like. This is a sort of a stable source of income and followers for then and it helps them grow.
After a successful collaboration with your brand, they will be much more likely to continue working with you. This helps you set boundaries and let them know about your competitors and why you would like them to avoid working with them. This will ensure the future of your collaboration and your long-term success compared to other people in your field.
Bio:
Dorian Martin is a professional writer, editor and content marketing expert. He has a strong passion for helping his audience and this is why he frequently provides paper writing help through guest posts he creates for many websites. In his spare time, Dorian loves to read and spend time outdoors.
