The rise of influencer marketing has presented a huge opportunity for PR firms—and is slowly transforming the industry. Now, social media influencers are the people helping to shape the thinking and opinion of the masses, and they typically have a band of loyal followers.
But the field is not without its own pitfalls. The biggest challenges that PR companies face when engaging in influencer marketing include:
- Identifying the right influencers
- Creating and maintaining long-term relationships
- Having a focused approach
Like all challenges, these can also be surmounted by a careful strategy. This includes sending emails to generate a dialogue. As a PR professional, have you been wondering why influencers ignore your emails? It may just be that your emails are not striking the right note. To persuade influencers to partner with you and help in your PR campaigns, you need to be able to interest them in what you are proposing. This requires the same thought and effort as you would invest in your PR campaigns.
This article will delve into the reasons why influencers are ignoring your emails and what to do about them.
Reasons why influencers ignore your emails
The main reason why influencers ignore your emails could be simply because they are not catchy enough to stand out. Influencers get hundreds of emails every day and if yours doesn’t stand out it is likely to be ignored. Here are a few common reasons why influencers ignore your emails.
You’re sending out emails in bulk—Influencers are celebrities in their own stead, and they need to be treated with respect. Sending out bulk emails to hundreds of influencers does not bode well. If the influencer thinks that the email is a generic bulk one, they are likely to ignore it. Since they receive so many spam and copy-pasted mails, they are exceptionally good at spotting them. For example, if you are reaching out to an influencer to inquire about contributing a guest post, a generic email like the one below should not be sent:
Sending out customized messages is the way to grab attention. To do this you need to familiarize yourself with the influencer you are hoping to recruit. Research well and find out as much as you can and then create a personalized email mentioning any articles of theirs that you found particularly interesting, why you think they are suitable for what you are proposing and other such specific details to show that you know about them and appreciate their work. This is sure to get you the response you crave.
You’re targeting the wrong influencers—If you have researched well about an influencer you will know whether they are aligned to your brand or interests or not. Influencers take their brand partnerships seriously and do not want to be seen promoting a brand that does not align with their interests and ethics or is not relevant to them.
So before you start out sending those emails, understand the relevance of the proposed relationship and see if they are a fit. Never send out a message to an influencer based only on their popularity, it is sure to backfire. To choose the right influencer first sort them on the basis of industry, number of followers, category, activity, interests, location etc. This can be done effectively by using Influencer outreach tools that help you to identify the right influencers for a specific purpose. Two good tools are BuzzSumo and BuzzStream.
You directly went for the ask—Being straight and precise does help in communication, but being too direct can often backfire. So before you ask an influencer for a favor you need to let them warm up to you a bit. Introduce yourself, your brand and talk about them a bit before hitting the nail on the head and presenting them with the proposition that you have. No one likes to be pushed for favors, especially from strangers and what works in real life also applies to virtual interactions, hence you need to present a background before asking the favor.
There’s no value in it for them—Asking for favors without offering anything back in return doesn’t get you anywhere. Influencers are the same. If they do not see a value in doing something, they will ignore it. Why would they spend their time and effort in creating content for you unless they gain something out it for themselves? Keep this in mind when approaching the influencers. When asking for a favor offer something back, in exchange, which seems to be more valuable to them than what they are giving. This is sure to get your email noticed.
Your pitch isn’t great—Being precise is the key. No one likes to read rambling emails that go on forever. The key is to know exactly what you are pitching; put your ideas through succinctly and clearly. Begin with some information that may be of value to the influencer and then present the rest of your proposal. Structure your emails so it is easy to scan, and the main points are easy to find. The mail should be comprehensible and relevant. While a mail should be short, it shouldn’t be so short that it lacks any value. So, striking the right tone and structure is important. For example, an email that’s too short and doesn’t add value looks like the one below. Make sure yours doesn’t look like this one:
Wrapping up
Paying attention to the above details is likely to grab the attention of an influencer. There is no sure shot strategy or guarantee that it will work. At the end of the day, there is an individual that you’re trying to approach, and how people react is very individualistic. Building a relationship takes a lot of time and effort and the same is true for the relationship that you are hoping to build with an influencer.
When reaching out to the influencer with your proposal, make sure it is relevant to the influencer and personalize it to start fostering a bond that may be beneficial to both you and the influencer. Using technology to enhance your influencer marketing strategy is sure to add to your PR strategy. It will also help differentiate your brand from other brands.
