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What exactly is "Influencer Marketing"?

Influencer marketing is the practice of engaging and collaborating with influential market players to increase brand awareness and sales. It's a powerful tool for eCommerce businesses to attract potential customers, build trust, and establish relationships with key influencers in the industry.

What does your brand stand to benefit from this?

The main benefit of influencer outreach is access to an engaged audience that is more likely to purchase products or services than a general one. Influencers can help spread the word about your brand or product, creating increased visibility and customer engagement.

Collaborating with influencers also helps strengthen relationships with key players in the industry, giving businesses greater credibility and trustworthiness.

In this article, we will be looking at the following points in further detail:

- What is Influencer Outreach?
- What are the Benefits of Working With Influencers?
- Unlock the Keys to Successful Influencer Outreach with 5 Simple Steps
- Taking Your Business to the Next Level

It's imperative to get it done, the right way...

Now, as an eCommerce business owner, influencer outreach can be a very effective way of gaining visibility for your brand and increasing sales, and in order to do so, you need a firm understanding of how to actually implement this into your business.

It seems straightforward in theory, right?

But with so many different channels and strategies to consider, it’s important to understand what influencer outreach is and how it works before you begin. Let's explain the fundamentals.

What is Influencer Outreach?

Influencer outreach, in summary, basically involves identifying key influencers within the industry relevant to your business (or target audience), who have a strong influence over their followers or community. You want to find people that have audiences they have genuine impact on.

Brands typically then work together with these influencers in order to build up an online presence, gain credibility and reach new audiences. This inherently results in clicks, sales, and profits.

This influencer outreach and marketing process could involve anything from sponsored posts on social media accounts to product reviews or collaborations. There are many ways to skin a cat.

What are the Benefits of Working With Influencers?

There's a reason why thousands of the most profitable well-known brands around the world work with influencers. Why? because it works, it generates results.

Working with influencers can be extremely beneficial for your eCommerce business. By partnering with an influencer, you are gaining access to their large audience, which can result in increased brand awareness and sales.

Additionally, people who follow influencers tend to trust their recommendations more than they would a traditional advertisement.

This means that working with an influential person associated with your industry could bring in new customers who are already pre-disposed to like or even purchase your products.

Unlock the Keys to Successful Influencer Outreach with 5 Simple Steps

1. Identify Your Primary Goals

Before you begin looking for potential influencers, it’s important to decide what kind of relationship you want them to have with your brand. Do you want them to review products, post sponsored content, or something else? This will help you decide which influencers to focus on and make sure that your efforts are successful.

2. Create a Predictable Influencer Strategy

Once you’ve determined what type of relationship you’d like with influencers, start putting together a strategy for how to approach them. Developing an outreach plan should involve researching potential influencers in order to determine who is most suitable for your brand. You can then create individualised messages or pitches tailored to each person.

3. Reach Out

After developing a comprehensive strategy and identifying the right people for the job, it’s time to reach out! When contacting influencers, be sure to include why you chose them and how working with your brand would benefit their followers.

4. Monitor Progress

Once your outreach efforts are underway, it’s important to closely monitor the progress being made. This will help show which influencers have the most success in terms of driving sales or increasing brand visibility.

5. Track Results, Analyse & Optimise

Finally, when all is said and done, you need to track the results of your influencer outreach efforts. Look at both qualitative (such as customer feedback) and quantitative (such as revenue generated) data to get a better understanding of how successful your campaign was. Use this information to adjust future strategies accordingly.

Bam! Now you've got the complete blueprint to developing a successful influencer outreach strategy.

By following these 5 primary steps, you can create an effective influencer outreach strategy that will help your eCommerce business grow and succeed!

Good luck, and you'll notice that the more you work with influencers, the better your approach will be, as you optimise it based on flaws and successful actions that you decide to double down on.

Here's an example of a typical business to influencer conversation:

Our team has personally reached out to thousands of influencers, and we've successfully completed hundreds of mutually-beneficial influencer collabs.

What we've found to work the best is be direct, be straight-forward and keep things short, sharp and shiny.

Below is a typical conversation that we have with influencers. So many people over complicate the outreach and negotiation process, but we find less is more. Read this conversation below to get a better understanding of how we get free influencer posts all day, every day, as needed. This outreach process works a charm.

You:
Hey! We’d love to send you some free jewelry? Love your content.

Influencer:
Hey, sure! What did you have in mind?

You:
Great. We’d be happy to hook you up with a free pendant (worth $120) and a free bracelet (worth $80) - feel free to pick your favorites from our website!

Then just let me know your best shipping address and we will sort it out for you.

> insert website link

Influencer:
Thanks! I checked it out. I like the ___ in gold, and the ____ in white gold.
My address is _____

You:
Great! Perfect choice. I think those would suit you well. In exchange for that, we’d love 1x shoutout and tag on your IG story, and if you could wear these pieces in a feed post and tag us too, we’d love that! That's cool by you? We can arrange this care package to be shipped this afternoon! Thanks.

Influencer:
Of course, I'm more than happy too! Love the look of your jewelry and will rep it on my page.

You:
Fantastic, looking forward to it! Speak soon, will send the tracking details over ASAP.

Remember, this is by no means an exact word-by-word script, just be natural and keep in mind WIIFM (what's in it for me), and understand that each influencer, and every human in general has a "selfish" nature.

When reaching out, as the brand, you should give a clear offer first, and once they accept the offer, and/or you negotiate, the law of reciprocity tends to kick in where they feel they need to also bring something to the table. We know the game, and this works a treat. Good luck with your outreach.

Want to Take Your eCommerce Business to the Next Level?

Here at Ecom Takeoff, we are certified experts in helping our clients take their brand to the next level with influencer outreach.

Having decades of combined experience in this game, both as "influencers" and as "business owners" - we understand via first-hand experience, just how powerful influencer's voices can be and are well-equipped to navigate the complex world of influencer marketing.

We've personally worked with hundreds of influencers, generating millions of dollars in sales across many online businesses, serving tens of thousands of satisfied customers through different stores and ventures.

Want some help taking action on what we've discussed in this article? We can guide you to success, day-by-day, via personalised mentoring/consulting or done-for-you services.

Contact us today to find out more about our different eCommerce services and packages. You can jump on a no-obligation strategy session call with one of our founders or experts, and we can tailor a custom solution to suit your ambitions and budget.