How to Get Influencers to Promote Your Product [Step by Step]

While there are many digital marketing strategies to choose from, the influencer marketing strategy is becoming increasingly popular. 

So, if you want to keep up with the trend, increase your brand’s visibility, and make your product stand out, you should seek help from social media influencers.

But how do you get influencers to promote your product? 

No, worries, we’ve got you covered. Here are some steps we’re discussing in this guide:

• Identify the right influencers for your product
• Research potential content creators
• Build relationships with influencers
• Show appreciation and foster relationships

And more. 

Now, let’s take it step by step. 

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Step #1: Identify the Right Influencers for Your Product

Before you get influencers to promote your products, you must first understand the importance of finding the right person for the job. 

Namely, you should know that nowadays, customers often place more trust in what influencers say about your product than what your brand says about it. 

If the person you choose doesn’t value what you’re selling, they can do more harm than good for your business. 

That said, how can you find the right influencer to promote your product? 

First, you must understand your target audience. After all, their ages, locations, occupations, and interests directly impact the social media platforms they use and the people they follow. 

For instance, a 40-year-old lawyer passionate about shoes is less likely to use TikTok and follow the advice of a Gen Z fashion influencer. Thus, you must look for a person who best aligns with your target audience’s demographics.

With that in mind, you can start searching for the best influencers within your own niche. These can be people who already have experience with promoting similar products or people who simply show an interest in your niche. 

Here, searching hashtags relevant to your niche is one of the most effective strategies for finding influencers to promote your brand. 

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However, this can prove a bit tricky because influencers are not the only ones using hashtags, everyone is using them. So, for instance, if you search #shoes, you’ll get countless results.

Thus, to make things easier, you can use influencer marketing platforms like Insense. 

Insense has a large database of content creators, including micro-influencers, and offers advanced search filters. It allows you to choose categories, like “Fashion & Style'' for example, and get a list of influencers in that field. 

Now, going with the first person you find may not be a good idea. Instead, you should make a list of your top choices and then do a background check.

Here’s how to do that.

Step #2: Research Potential Influencers

To identify the right person for the job, you must do some further research on the influencer’s history.

First, look at their social media profile to identify past brand partnerships. That will help you determine if they have enough experience in your industry.

Then, it’s time to assess their engagement. For example, if they have a large number of followers asking questions and commenting about their content, it means they have a wide reach.

At the same time, you should also look at how they respond to questions and comments, including negative ones. Make sure their answers are polite and loyal to the brand they represent.

Another aspect you should focus on is the type of influencer content they produce and whether or not they are consistent. That will tell you a lot about their level of creativity and content quality.

Ultimately, make sure the influencer has authentic followers. Here are some tips for identifying fake followers:

• Social media accounts with no photos are usually fake.
• If most of the comments are spammy or irrelevant, those followers are fake.
• If the influencer has a low engagement rate but a huge number of followers, most of them are fake.
• When in doubt, use a fake-follower checker tool, such as inBeat or SpamGuard.

If a person checks all the right boxes, move on to the next step.

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Step #3: Build Relationships With Influencers

Influencer outreach means contacting influencers and convincing them to promote your product. However, you should engage with influencers before sending them an outreach message to build a lasting relationship.

Here are some of the main benefits of building a lasting relationship:

• When a successful influencer promotes your product regularly for a long time, that builds audience trust in your brand.
• Over time, the influencer’s audience becomes familiar with your brand, which will boost audience engagement and conversion rates.
• As the influencer becomes more familiar with your product, creating quality content will take less time and resources on both sides.

Given all these advantages, let’s see how you can engage with influencers.

1. Follow them on different social media channels.
2. Like and share their user-generated content.
3. Compliment their work through genuine comments.
4. Offer them a free sample of your product or a discount.

After you make yourself noticed and start building a relationship, you should get down to business.

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Step #4: Craft a Compelling Pitch

To get influencers to promote your product, come up with an offer they can’t decline. Note that routine DMs won’t do the trick here. Instead, you should craft a compelling pitch before you contact influencers.

Here are some tips for writing an influencer outreach email:

1. Start by choosing an eye-catching subject line that’ll make them wanna open your email. For instance, you can go with something like: “Amanda, your followers will love this product!” Note that including their names in the subject line is a great strategy.
2. Be polite and introduce yourself, but keep introductions short.
3. Clearly explain why you’re reaching out to them.
4. Provide a few details about your product and brand, but avoid bombarding them with info. There is such a thing as too much information!
5. Add a personal touch by explaining why you consider them the best person for the job. Consider complimenting their previous campaigns.
6. Explain the benefits of your collaboration. Aka, what’s in it for them!

And, we repeat, keep your email short and sweet! Influencers are busy professionals like yourself. So, they don't have the time to read emails that take too long to get to the point.

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If you don’t receive an answer, avoid spamming them with countless follow-ups. Instead, send them one follow-up email asking if they had the time to check your offer.

While you can provide some information about the deliverables and compensation in the initial email, you might want to see if they are interested first.

Once you get a positive response, it’s time to start negotiating compensation and terms.

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Step #5: Negotiate Compensation and Terms

To build a lasting relationship with a social media influencer, you need to be transparent from the beginning.

First things first, start by outlining the terms of your collaboration. These should include:

• The type of deliverables you need from them
• Whether or not you want to check and approve the deliverables before they are published
• The start and end dates of your influencer marketing campaign
• The frequency of content publishing
• The type of compensation they will receive, i.e. money, free samples, exposure, or all three.

Once they have all the details, be open to fair negotiation. This usually comes down to compensation.

To negotiate fair compensation you must first assess your company finances and set a realistic budget.  

Don’t worry; if you have a small business and the budget is tight, you can propose influencer gifting, instead of monetary compensation. This means that you offer free products to the influencer in exchange for their great content. Note that nano-influencers are likelier to accept this than micro- and macro-influencers.

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Next, you must determine how much the influencer is worth in terms of reputation, experience, reach, and engagement.

With that in mind, you can start the negotiation.

Should you reach an agreement, make sure you sign a legally binding contract to protect both of you.

So, what’s next?

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Step #6: Track and Analyze Campaign Performance

Just because you signed a contract with an influencer doesn’t mean your work here is done. You must constantly track and analyze campaign performance to measure influencer marketing success and improve.

First, establish the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will measure the success of the campaign. Here are some essential metrics you should track:

• Engagement refers to the number of comments, likes, and shares that your campaign generates. For instance, you can use Instagram Insights to measure this.
• Conversion refers to the number of users who turn into active visitors or customers. Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) parameters and Google Analytics are very useful for tracking conversions.
• Brand awareness refers to the new follower count, campaign hashtags and search volume, and post impressions generated by your campaign. Once again, Google Analytics is a useful tool.
• Increased ROI (return on investment) is clearly the end goal of any influencer campaign. For example, you can use Google Sheets to keep track of revenue and expenses to determine the return on investment.

Once you track all this data, you can easily analyze the strengths and shortcomings of your campaign. As a result, you can optimize your current campaign in real time or optimize future ones. 

But what happens after the marketing campaign ends?

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Step #7: Show Appreciation and Foster Relationships

As previously mentioned, building long-term influencer partnerships can be extremely beneficial for your business. 

Here are some tips on how to achieve that, post-campaign:

1. One of the easiest and most efficient ways to foster relationships is by showing your appreciation post-campaign. Sending a thank-you note via email or social media can have a big impact here.
2. Another good way to show your appreciation is by offering rewards and incentives. These can include free products or discounts.
3. At the same time, seeking feedback from influencers shows them you value their opinion. Plus, you can use any negative feedback they provide to optimize your future campaigns.
4. To build lasting relationships, you should continue to engage with influencers post-campaign. For example, you can share, like, and comment on their content and mention them in yours.
5. Also, make sure you keep the lines of communication open at all times. Reach out to them between campaigns to ask for their suggestions and feedback on new products or campaigns.

Ultimately, all these strategies will lead to lucrative future collaborations. So, they are worth your time.

But is there an easier way to get influencers to promote your products? Let’s see.

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An Easier Way: Using an Influencer Marketing Platform

It’s obvious by now that it takes time and dedication to find the right person to promote your product. But there’s an easier alternative: using influencer marketing platforms.

While there are several good options out there, like NeoReach, or Upfluence, today we’ll focus on our very own, Insense, whose unique features make it the best choice. 

So, let’s take a closer look at those special features!

1. The Creator Marketplace is your go-to feature for finding the right influencer for your campaign. While it offers a large influencer database, it has advanced search filters that help you narrow it down. Insense also lets you check out influencer profiles and previous experience.

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2. Direct Chat helps you communicate with up to 50+ creators in one place. Therefore, you save time and can easily keep track of your communications. 

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3. Last but not least, the Campaign Management feature lets you track and analyze your influencer campaign using a centralized dashboard. As such, you can easily identify potential shortcomings and optimize accordingly.

On top of all this, Insense offers various pricing plans to accommodate different budgets. So, even small businesses can benefit from this platform.

Have a look at how WaveBlock, an e-commerce electronics brand, worked with Insense to drive more external traffic to their store. 

Long story short, using Insense, they managed to find high-quality influencers to partner with. 

More precisely, they got in touch with 60+ TikTok and Instagram influencers who generated 302 product testimonials and reviews. All this at an average cost of $50 per collab. 

The result?

Instagram became one of their top acquisition channels.

Impressive, right?

Now, you’ve read quite a lot!

Let’s wrap this up!

Start Reaching Out to the Right Influencers

Now that we’ve covered the main steps on how to get influencers to promote your product, it’s time for you to reach out.

Just make sure you find the right social media influencer for the job. 

Ultimately, that is what will help you reach a larger audience and boost your brand’s visibility.

If you find it a bit overwhelming to search for influencers on multiple social media platforms, you can simply book a demo with Insense. You’ll be able to find a match hassle-free, we promise!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions on this topic. Should you have additional ones, please contact us.

Q1. How much does it cost to get an influencer to promote your product?

The costs involved vary, based on the number of followers and the social media platform used. For example, on Instagram, you can expect to pay between $80 and $220 for only one item of video content. 

Alternatively, you can opt for influencer gifting, which is free. Namely, you send influencers your products for free and they promote them. However, not all influencers will accept this trade.

Q2. What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is a strategy used to improve brand visibility and authenticity. It entails reaching out to social media influencers and convincing them to promote your product or service in return for some sort of compensation. 

Q3. How do I start Instagram influencer marketing?

To get started with Instagram influencer marketing, you must first set clear campaign goals and identify your target audience. Then, it’s time to search for the right influencer to promote your product and start a collaboration.

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