That's the question we've been asked a few times now; so, we thought we'd jot down our thoughts on how you can make best use of what we're providing.
It's all about relevance!
Please, please, please don't email everyone, tweet everyone, and shout at everyone about your brand, product, or service. We know, what you have is amazing and the most important thing to you, but it won't be relevant to everybody out there - honestly, it just won't!
Take some time to think
What you need to do, is to take an hour or two, brew a coffee, and look at the sort of content these guys produce; their style, their ethos, and their angle. Find those people who you feel best match you brand, as well as those people you'd just love to work with.
Let's get strategic
Now, before you get trigger happy on the tweets, the DMs, or on email, have a think about how you want to work with each influencer. Again, check out their content and build a strategy that matches what they do, with what you want to achieve (as well as your budget).
Some influencers might be great for gifting. Some, for producing content. Others, you'd want to get to a launch party. And some, you might just want to chat to every now and again on email.
Approaching the right influences with opportunities directly relevant to the sort of content they produce, is the key to effective influencer marketing.
Start talking and prepare to be collaborative
Now's the time to get in touch. Do it whichever way you think would work best (emails, socials, etc) - but, don't send influencers an essay and don't do the classic of praising them for their last piece of work.
Talk to them in a way that's friendly and not forceful. Remember, influencer marketing is all about them - the influencers - getting to know and understand your brand, reaching a point where they feel comfortable promoting it.
This can happen quickly or it can take time.
You need to be patient and you can't get annoyed if the influencer doesn't feel the brand is a good fit for them.
Instead, why not chat to the influencer about why they think your brand isn't a good fit. Perhaps they haven't understood the brand properly or, perhaps, they'd want to approach the project from an angle that differs from your brief.
Either way, get talking, keep talking, and add up ideas from both sides of the 'table'. After all, the most successful influencer marketing is a collaboration between the brand and the influencer; not a dictation from a single direction.
Finally, think long term
I know, I know - we might be teaching our grandmothers to suck eggs here and, if so, our advice has just clarified what you already know.
However, we just wanted to make sure that everyone's on the same page, because if everyone works in this way, not only will our data be more valuable, but our clients' influencer marketing will be more successful.
And, that's what this is all about - connecting the best brands, with the best influencers, so the two can work together and produce the best outcome for all involved.
Good luck guys! And, if you need any more help, just shout.