Part Two: Collaborating with Influencers and What it Can Do For You
Now that you know the steps to finding your key influencers, you can start thinking about how you can reach out for collaboration opportunities. Below I’m going to tell you some ways you can do that, and what types of collaboration may work best for you.
Paid vs Unpaid Collaboration—Should I Pay Someone to Increase My Visibility or Sales?
First, I want to talk about the difference between paid collaboration and unpaid collaboration. I think when it comes to authors, speakers and entrepreneurs, it’s most likely that you’ll be collaborating with influencers on the micro level. The reason? You’re not trying to sell a product necessarily. You’re trying to build your brand and influence. You can use paid collaboration, but you should first consider your budget and your ROI (return on investment). Unless it’s going to increase your book sales by a high enough margin, it may not be worth it to you.
Some Types of Influencer Collaboration That May Work for You
Micro influencers are more connected to their audience, have higher engagement and tend to be focused on a niche, and therefore, more trusted. So the key influencers in your niche are who you’ll want to put your focus on. These influencers are the ones that have a following between 1,000 and 100,000—that’s not insignificant! Below are some ways you can collaborate with these influencers.
Mentions, Shares, and Reviews
Social media mentions (when someone tags you) and shares, are some of the best and most effective ways to increase awareness. This type of influencer collaboration is fairly effortless and low stakes for both party’s can expose your brand to potential new followers. Just make sure there is high relevance in relation to your brand and the influencer’s audience.
Another good way to build awareness and authority is to ask for reviews of your book (if you have one). You can offer the influencer a free copy of your book or exchange books and reviews.
Podcasts, Guest Blogging, and Interviews
These types of collaboration, called Earned Media, not only build awareness, they build your authority and can drive traffic to your website via the links. These types of collaboration require a little more trust in your brand and a little more effort from both parties. You can try interviewing a key influencer for your blog, or getting a spot on theirs. And the same is true of podcasts and blog posts. If you’re just starting out, and don’t have your own podcast, obviously you’ll be the one asking for an appearance on your key influencer’s podcast—and I’ll tell you more about when and how to ask for these types of collaborations towards the end of this post. Here’s a tip: You’ll be more likely to get a yes if you’ve already done quite a bit of the types of collaborations I listed first.
Co-Promotions
Co-promotions are kind of top of the pyramid types of influencer collaboration you’ll want to strive for. These types of collaboration can start with your owned content—like your book, your blog, your interviews, and any events or webinars you’ve done. These types of collaboration are the kind most likely to turn into registrations and leads—meaning sign ups for your newsletter, blog subscriptions, and new people signing up for your classes or services. These don’t directly affect your authority, but lead to authority down the road. Co-promotions can be as small as exchanging book reviews, as mentioned above, to featuring each other’s links on your websites, to offering promotions etc. Ideally, you’ll want this type of effort to revolve around getting clicks and registration for your seminar/webinar/speaking event and so on.
What Type of Influencer Collaboration Will Work Best for You?
Knowing what type of influencer collaboration will work best for you is as simple as knowing your goals and being realistic about your expectations. So, if you’ve never collaborated before, start small, with mentions and shares on social media and move up towards the kind of partnerships that lead to co-promotions. But first and foremost, you must know who your key influencers are, in order to know how you may collaborate with them.
Ok, But How Do I Approach These Influencers for Collaboration?
This is the part that seems a bit daunting. When it comes to approaching influencers, you may feel like you don’t know how to approach a stranger, it may feel awkward or sales-y, and no one likes that.
And here’s where once again, I will remind you of the importance of engagement. If you have been following your influencers on social media, commenting on their posts or blog, and liking and sharing their content, you aren’t actually a stranger. You’re part of their tribe. Like a friend of a friend you once met at dinner, or something like that.
With that in mind, your next step is to (figuratively) walk up, introduce yourself and shake their hand. See, it’s not that hard! And what I mean by shaking their hand is sending an email, DM, or other brief communication. Here are some tips on that:
- Make it simple and quick
- Explain who you are
- Explain the benefit to them (because there needs to one)
- Be considerate and open
- If you don’t get the response you want, keep engaging as you were before
- Reach out again at a later date if it seems welcome
In conclusion
Yes, you have to put in work, and yes, you have to sell yourself—which no one really likes doing. But if you make yourself part of a community and find your tribe, collaborating with your influencers will become much easier.
Start at the shallow end of the pool and wade in as you get acclimated to the water. Be patient, be dedicated, and have a system! Do this and you’ll be growing your brand and influence before you know it. Stay healthy, friends!
