Brands can reap the many benefits of influencer marketing: increased brand awareness, new social media followers, more web traffic, higher sales, and more.
But collaboration with the right people is the key to a successful campaign, and this hinges on being able to contact TikTok influencers and negotiate a deal that both parties benefit from.
We understand that sometimes this can be frustrating. So here are 3 actionable tips to help you contact TikTok influencers and negotiate.
Tip 1. Reach out to twice as many influencers as you need
Do you wish to have five influencers join your campaign? Contact at least 10. Why? Because not everyone can be your partner.
There will be influencers who won’t want to work with you, or others who have scheduling conflicts. Then there will be people who never reply to your email, as well as those who don’t even open it.
Based on our experiences, these are the rates we usually see:
- 70 to 80% percent of emails get opened
- 50% of emails receive clicks from links
- 30 to 40% receive a response (which is sometimes unfortunately no)
Your response rate can be affected by a number of factors. The first is the type of influencer you’re reaching out to. It’s more likely that you will get a reply if the influencer has a large following and has already gone pro. The catch here is that while you’ll get a response, it will be the manager responding with the fee sheet for the influencer’s services.
Micro influencers may be slower to respond. These influencers don’t have more than 50K followers, and they aren’t yet full-time. They don’t spend all of their time on social media and they don’t have managers. However, you’ll have a better chance of getting a response if your product has a lot in common with their content niche.
Also, no email? No problem. It’s possible to contact influencers via TikTok even if you don’t know their email address. Send them a message on TikTok and let them know you’ve seen their profile and are interested in connecting. You can always move the communications to another media if necessary later on.
Tip 2. A warm and personal pitch is essential for getting replies
Influencers don’t like to see boilerplate templates. Personalization is key. This will show them that you took the time to read their profile and understand why you are a good match. If you didn’t even take the time to do this, why should they take the time to investigate your brand and reply?
You can still automate your outreach and keep it personalized. A mail merge tool allows you to add custom fields. Every email you send to influencers can have its name and description changed. So, each person will receive an email customized with their name and a compliment or description about why their profile interests your brand.
If you wish to reach out to a KOL, or key opinion leaders, ditch the templates all together. KOLs are busy and it can be hard to cut through the noise and actually make an impression on them. To maximize your chances of succeeding at this, it is important to communicate clearly, and personally, about what you want and what the benefit will be for them.
Regardless of what type of influencer you contact or which contact method you use, be friendly and open. It is important for influencers to feel comfortable enough with you to communicate their creativity and ideas.
Tip 3. You don’t need to sign a contract every time
Contrary to popular belief, not every influencer collaboration requires a contract. It is better to use a contract if you pay influencers in money. But if you are only paying them with gifted products only (until it is a very costly product), you don’t necessarily need to use a contract.
Contraries can actually turn off less experienced influencers. Contracts can be intimidating or overwhelming for micro and nano influencers who are just starting out in the game. This could lead you to missing out on good deals. If you must use a contract with one of these types of influencers, make sure you take the time to walk them through it and go over any questions they have.
For when you do need a contract, you can start with an influencer contract template. It can be edited with the details of your collaboration, and you can then review it with a legal professional who understands your unique situation.
If you don’t require a contract, just send an email with the details of the collaboration. This allows both parties to refer to the terms and conditions if they have any questions throughout the campaign.
Conclusion
These 3 tips hopefully give you some insight into how to go about contacting and negotiating with influencers. As a final note, don’t be discouraged if no one replies to you, especially if it’s your first time trying out influencer marketing.
Follow up, send DMs when necessary, and if still no one replies, go back to the drawing board. Find other influencers who more closely connect with your brand and give it another go.