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You know what they say: Every great influencer relationship starts with a single email
You are a brand and you have found the content creator that seamlessly aligns with your product/service. Step one is complete. Now the more difficult part begins - reaching out to the creator in order to begin the partnership.
How do you approach the creator? What information should you share in order to attract their attention (and make them want to work with your brand)?
Whether you are new to partnerships with creators or simply want to brush up on your technique, you probably already know that although you might be shouting “shut up and taking my money”, it’s difficult to grab the attention of creators. With our first hand experience, we have definitely nailed the best practices when it comes to sending out clear, concise (hard-to-ignore) outreach emails that will bring you the highest reply rates - download our free email template here.
Let’s keep it short and get straight to the point. Here are the key ‘dos and don’ts’ of pitching to creators via email:
You only have one chance to make a good first impression, so you want to make sure that the first impression catches the creator's attention for all the right reasons. Creators are constantly getting emails from brands about potential partnerships so one way to stand out (and stay out of the junk mail inbox) is by being super clear about the sponsorship:
For example, you may want to ask the creator to include the following details:
Just like you want to find creators that align with your brand’s mission and image, creators want to ensure the brands they partner up with also adhere to their ‘mission’. Because of this, it's a good idea to highlight why you think this channel could be a good fit for your brand.
This allows you to:
Keep in mind - elevator pitch. Between creating content, brainstorming upcoming content, engaging with followers, and other integrations, publishers don’t have time for a lengthy brand description.
By getting straight to the point - short blurb about your company (literally in a sentence) and the main mission of the product/service - it ensures a clearer understanding. Once you start getting into too much detail, you may encounter confusion, misunderstanding, and losing the interest of the creator.
As mentioned before, creators aren’t sitting around waiting for your email so, there is a chance they missed your first outreach attempt. We recommend sending a follow-up email (or two) a few days after sending the first outreach. This is your chance to change up the wording slightly and give it another go. In our FREE email template, we share how to word your follow-up email.
Nowadays there are so many ways to reach different influencers - email, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, even Snapchat. If the creator you reach out to doesn’t reply, maybe try reaching them through a different route - social media. Just keep in mind - social media messages are crafted differently. In short, they are much more casual and focus less on in-depth explanations of your brand, the product, and the campaign you are planning on running.
Whether you are sending out a mass email outreach or trying to reach out to only a handful of creators, it's crucial to personalize the email accordingly. This includes the creator's name, the channel category or specific topics, and why the brand can seamlessly integrate with the content of this channel.
Keep legal out of the email outreach - you want to share information about the brand and general integration details, but don’t get into too much detail. During the initial outreach, you want to catch the creator's interest. Later on in the process, your brand and the creator will negotiate the rate, ad placement and minimum average guarantee so you don’t want to show your cards too early.
Now that we’ve covered the basics, here are just 3 important components to get you started (and stop staring at a blank email).
You may be saying to yourself - how hard can sending a short email about my brand to a creator be? Well, you’re right, it shouldn’t be difficult or nerve-wracking…if done right. In order to save you the hassle of figuring out what to say, how to say it and, of course, formatting, we are sharing with you our email template for reaching out to creators.
