When leveraging influencer marketing, one of the most important steps is to find an influencer who aligns with your brand's values. After you have shortlisted a number of possible candidates, you need to start sending out emails. With one of the influencer marketing trends being a focus on nano and micro influencers, you may have to create many emails.

If you have to draft every email from scratch, this can be time-consuming. This is why a better strategy would be to use an influencer email template to ensure you don't have to create everything from scratch. In this article, we guide you in creating an influencer marketing template to simplify outreach to influencers. 

What is an Influencer Marketing Template?

An influencer marketing template is a pre-formatted, reusable framework that aims to streamline communication between a brand and an influencer. While influencer outreach templates are a great way to streamline communication, you can also send direct messages. 

With a good template, you can avoid having to create every email from scratch while sacrificing on authenticity. Since you already have a guide for your message, you can save the time you would have spent writing the message from scratch. You can then tailor the message to the specific campaign and influencer. A good influencer marketing template aims for a more cohesive, compelling message during outreach.

Why Influencer Marketing Templates Matter?

Influencer marketing templates can be a useful tool for ensuring a consistent message, style, and tone across your different communication channels. With a consistent, professional approach, brands can improve their brand perception, ensure a positive image, and enhance brand trust and recognition.

Influencer marketing templates can provide a strong foundation, helping you focus on personalization, enhancing your outreach, and ensuring high engagement. For instance, when you explain the specific reasons for reaching out, you show your appreciation for the influencer’s work and expertise, increasing the likelihood they accept your collaboration request.

An influencer template can also help set expectations. It can provide clear deliverables that prevent misunderstandings in the future. Adding specific compensation terms can help convey a higher level of professionalism.

Ensure you send a personalized template; a generic one will treat all creators similarly. When you haven't researched the influencer, they can easily tell, and your message will be ignored. On the other hand, sending a personalized template will show that you care. It will show the influencer that you understand their niche and can easily boost response rates. According to a Statista study, a personalized influencer outreach message is likely to yield a 3x higher response rate than a generic one. 

Preparing to Send Out an Outreach DM

Before you send an influencer DM or outreach email, there are several preparations you need to make. These include:

Updating Profile

When finding an influencer, you are most likely going to choose one who has an active social media presence. On the other hand, influencers also want to work with brands that are active on social media. According to a SproutSocial report, 93% of influencers say they consider the brand’s content before agreeing to work with it. That means that by keeping your brand’s account active, you can make it easy for influencers to identify opportunities to work together.

Find the Right Influencer

A good influencer marketing partnership will only work when you choose the right influencer.  Before you start reaching out to an influencer, you can consider several things to determine if the influencer aligns with your brand.

• Content alignment. Consider whether their recent continental match aligns with your brand values. You can determine that by checking their previous 10 posts.
• Target audience. Does the influencer’s following match with your target customers? If their audience insights are public, pay attention to them.
• Previous partnership. Check if the influencer has worked with competitors in the past and whether the partnerships look forced or authentic.
• Growth pattern. Does the influencer seem to have steady growth? A good option is to go with an influencer with a consistent monthly growth.
• Response rate. Check the speed at which the influencer responds to comments. If they are active, they tend to respond very fast to the messages.
• Community health. Does the influencer generate genuine discussions with no spam messages?

You can use the top social media analytics tools to analyze the performance of the influencer.

Familiarize Yourself with the Creator's Content

Take time to research more about the influencer and the kind of content they create to ensure their content aligns with your brand. Pay attention to their passions and values. Check their previously sponsored posts and collaborations to better understand their past performances and works.

After getting an idea of the influencer you would like to work with, you can tailor the messaging to their interests and ensure an authentic, genuine connection. By illustrating that you value the influencer's expertise and content, you can increase their chances of working with you.

Engage with the Brand Account

Instead of cold calling the influencer, start engaging with their content using your brand’s account. When you do that, your business will be on the radar, and you will be preparing for the initial outreach.

Check the Available Partnership Information

Both macro and mega influencers have their own preferred communication method. You will want to find out if they prefer to be reached through email, DM, or their manager/agent. You can find this information on their social media or on their website bio. When you communicate with them using their preferred method, you can ensure your outreach reaches the right recipient.

Influencer Outreach Strategy For Different Platforms

Let us look at some of the top strategies for influencer outreach:

• Instagram DM. This can be a good strategy for reaching out to micro- and nano-influencers. It has the advantage of producing casual, personalized messages and generates a faster response rate within 24 to 48 hours. However, it's advisable to keep the messaging short, ideally 50-100 words. You can read our guide on fixing Instagram DM not working.
• Email outreach. This is a good outreach method for mega and macro influencers or those managed by an agency. It's more trackable and professional as it allows for longer explanations, with the subject line mattering more.
• YouTube/TikTok DM. These outreach methods need a more casual approach and a better understanding of trends. The creators on these platforms expect a more conversational tone that also mentions the specific trends, sounds, and videos they have used.
• Website contact forms. This should be a last resort, only after you have tried the method. Since these aren't checked often, the lead time can be longer. You should only use this method when you don't have DM or email options.

The response rate will vary depending on the method used. A report by Influencer Marketing Hub suggests that Instagram DMs have a response rate of 25-35% for nano influencers. On the other hand, the response rate for the email outreach is between 10 and 15%. 

How to Create an Influencer Outreach Template

The structure of an influencer marketing template consists of:

• Subject line: This only applies to email and should be maintained at less than 10 words. Make sure you use a specific subject line rather than a generic one. Some details to include in the subject line are your brand and your niche audience.  Otherwise, if you use a subjective line like “brand collaboration opportunity,” you will easily get ignored.
• Opening hook. You can mention something from their content that attracted you. For instance, “I like your post on eco-friendly packaging.”
• Value proposition. Make them understand why the partnership is important for them and your brand. Explain the value you will be adding to their audience.
• Specific deliverables. You want to make it clear your expectations for the collaboration, such as 1 Instagram post and 1 reel within 30 days.
• Compensation. Make an offer upfront, such as free product, affiliate commissions, or monetary compensation. When you are transparent, you can build trust.
• Idea length. Make sure the template is under 150 words for maximum response rates. Shorter messages tend to perform better for busy creators.
• Call to action. Provide the creator with their expected next steps, such as responding to messages or scheduling a call.

Elements of a Good Influencer Outreach Template

Include the following in your influencer outreach email:

• Brand story. This should define who you are and why you exist. Focus on the missions rather than just the product.
• Why do you contact them? Mention one or two of their posts to show you understand their work.
• Collaboration idea. Provide concrete guidelines on your expectations with the influencers. For instance, you might want them to create 3 videos.
• Deliverables and timelines. Mention the number of posts, deadline, exclusive terms, and formats.
• Brand guidelines. You can add a brief PDF document of your brand values and assets.
• FTC compliance. Remind them of the need to make appropriate disclosures to comply with the FTC guidelines.

In Conclusion

To achieve a successful influencer marketing program, you should start with a solid template. If you send generic messages, you are likely to fail. On the other hand, a specific, professional message will achieve the desired results. Therefore, use our guide to create a strong influencer marketing template.