The Art of Pitching Your Brand to Influencers

There’s no question as to whether or not influencers are changing the game for marketers. As social media connects companies directly with their consumers, influencer marketing allows you to engage with target audiences in a way that feels even more organic than a brand communicating with followers. Beyond that, you are also reaching social groups that may have never heard of your product before their favorite influencer posted it to their Instagram story.

With this growth in influencers, countless brands are now entering the arena…meaning stiffer competition for procuring influencers. In this environment, you must distinguish your brand from competitors with effective influencer pitching techniques.

However, procuring the right influencer for your brand can be a challenging task. If you’re reaching out to influencers who receive hundreds of emails a day with advertisement opportunities, how are you going to make sure your client stands out?

This step-by-step guide outlines how you can create the perfect influencer pitch for your client’s brand.

Know Your Influencer

Creating a successful influencer pitch starts with selecting the right influencer. Get to know the influencer you want to reach out to before you send that email or DM. Even though contacting an influencer can be highly time sensitive, you are far more likely to get a response if the influencer can see that you actually understand them.

There are many different factors about your influencer to consider before presenting your pitch. For example, what does the target influencer value? What do they not value? Does their audience share the same values? Or, equally as important, is their audience the right group you’d like to reach with your advertisement?

After learning more about your influencer, you then have to assess whether or not their content aligns with your brand. Is this the type of person you want to associate your brand with? While your brand can earn success by associating with an influencer, it can also be negatively impacted depending on the influencer’s behavior.

Choosing the right influencers is half the battle to employing the right influencer marketing strategy. While performing this analysis on each influencer may sound tedious, it’s a necessary process to set yourself up for success.

Getting to know the people you want to represent your client’s brand is the best way to generate high-quality influencers. All of these questions should have answers prior to you giving your pitch.

Crafting Your Influencer Pitch

Once you’ve carefully picked the group of influencers you want to reach out to, it’s time to craft your pitch. The art of the perfect influencer pitch is in a clear, transparent proposal. Make your pitch specific to the influencer and be concise when describing your brand’s campaign – remember, you are probably not the first marketer to email them that day.

You want your pitch to be easy to understand and convincing by appealing to the influencer’s values and personality. This simple process will help you grab the attention of the influencer and wow them with your offer.

Start by complimenting their craft

Begin your pitch by complimenting the influencer on their craft. You can tell them how much you love the theme of their Instagram, engaging content in their blog, or funny Youtube channel, etc. Starting with a genuine compliment will warm up the influencer to hear what you have to say.

The compliment should be personalized to the influencer to avoid seeming like you are just trying to “butter them up.” Try referencing an article they’ve written that you particularly enjoyed or tutorial they filmed. Doing so will help you come across as sincere and show the influencer that you actually care about the content they produce.

Immediately following your compliment, you should mention how you are looking to work with quality influencers like them. This way there’s no confusion as to the purpose of you reaching out.

Introduce your brand

Once you’ve opened up your pitch and explained the purpose of your message, introduce the brand you are working for and include a brief summary of what it does. The condensed description of your brand shouldn’t be longer than a one-line sentence.

Again, keep in mind the countless emails that popular influencers receive on a regular basis. This early in your pitch is not the time to copy and paste the “About Us” sections from your brand’s website. You want the influencer to be able to skim through your email and immediately understand what your brand is without any confusing or unnecessary marketing lingo.

A short description helps the influencer decide which opportunities align with their own personal goals. If you overwhelm them with a long spiel about your brand, you can end up getting written off before the influencer has even read the rest of your pitch.

Describe your client

After the initial description of the brand, this is where you’d want to go into further detail about your brand of your client and what they offer. Highlight what differentiates the client from its competitors and explain how its offering is better than similar brands.

One of the best ways to make your client stand out is by discussing what the brand stands for and the company’s values. This will help the influencer connect with the brand and be more inclined to listen to what your client has to offer. If possible, provide a concrete example to seem more authentic.

You should especially highlight values that the influencer would identify with. For example, if you are reaching out to an Instagram fitness influencer, mention qualities that they would relate to such as good health or positive energy. Or, if you are targeting an influencer known for Mom blogging, emphasize family values and safety.

However, don’t go into too much detail during this stage of the pitch. Focus on helping the influencer understand your client’s brand. Showing deeper connections between the brand and the influencer will come in the following paragraph.  

Connect the brand to the influencer

If the influencer has gotten to this point in your message, you’ve already peaked their interest on some level. In this third paragraph in your pitch, you must show how the brand aligns with the influencer.

This should be customized for each type of influencer you are speaking to. Whether it be an influencer in the beauty, mommy life, fashion or fitness industry the more specific you are, the more trustworthy your offer will come across later.

Begin by describing how the brand could help the influencer or how it fits in with their lifestyle. Tell them how your client’s products or services would be great for the influencer’s audience. This helps create a connection between the brand and influencer that feels mutually beneficial and logical if you were to do business together.

Take this one step further by highlighting specific offerings from the client that would be perfect for the influencer. Say you are a health food company and you want to work with fitness influencers on Instagram. You can talk about how the brand shares the same values and mention how your protein bars are all-natural and help speed up muscle recovery time for avid gym-goers.

Show why your offering can actually help the influencer and isn’t just another spam offer. Influencers usually have close relationships with their audience and want to advertise quality products from credible brands. During this stage of your influencer pitch, specific details help paint the picture for influencers as to how your client’s brand can help influencers and their followers.

Introduce the deal

In the last paragraph of your proposal, wrap up your pitch and present the deal for your campaign. You should repeat how you’d like to work with the influencer, introduce the offer and ask for rates or media kits if they are interested in moving forward. Be sure to reassert your excitement to collaborate with influencer.

When explaining the deal to the influencer, be as specific as possible. Give them the logistics of how many posts they are expected to make, certain keywords they should highlight, social accounts to tag, a timeframe to make the posts, etc. A lot can go wrong when working with an influencer so outlining the logistics now can save you a headache later.

For example, let them know you are looking for influencers to do 1-2 Instagram posts about a new campaign and tag the brand through Instagram stories. Request the posts be made in a certain timeframe to go along with other marketing efforts and maybe set a minimum amount of time the post should stay on their profile.

Finally, close your pitch by asking for their media kits or rates if they wish to work with you. Encourage the influencer to follow up with you if they have any questions about the offer or would like to learn more.