In particular, for full-time content creators, brand collaborations are a significant source of revenue for many influencers.
Several influencers who spoke with Insider previously agreed that direct message (DM) or emailing a brand first is the best way to initiate contact for a potential collaboration.
Some influencers concentrate their outreach efforts solely on Instagram or another single platform. It’s simple to make money from collaborations once you’ve established yourself as a famous influencer. But there are things you need to do as an influencer before you can begin direct messaging brands. It is helpful to keep a template and refine it over time to make a compelling presentation to brands. In this piece, we’ll go over the fundamentals of direct messaging brands about potential partnerships.
Differentiating Direct Messages and Emails
Should I send a message via DM (direct message) or email? The quick response is, “it depends!”
How you word your messages will change depending on your communication medium.
Unlike direct messages, there is no limit to the length of an email’s body. Emails are a great way to provide in-depth information about your company and its offerings. Outline the nature of your campaign and why you think the Influencer would be a good fit.
Direct messages on Instagram allow you to be less formal and more candid. Direct messages should not be drawn out but relatively concise and to the point. Specify your collective goals and expectations. Keep your message short to get the attention of the influential person and cut down on unnecessary back-and-forth.
Think about how the creator prefers to be pitched as well. Instagram profiles of content creators open to working with brands usually include a preferred method of contact for the brands. You should heed their wishes if they say they prefer a direct message to an email asking for a collaboration.
How to Get the Direct Marketing Brands Working Together
Step one in creating a successful Instagram campaign in partnership is identifying potential influencers and brands to work with.
Create a shortlist of about 20 prospective collaborators. The objective is to find compatible collaboration partners to help your brand flourish. Initially, it’s essential to write down as many ideas as possible so you can narrow the list down later when you’ve evaluated them.
1. Initial Action: Put together a press kit
We advise conducting an online search for “how to make a media kit” if you have no prior experience with such things.
Simply put, a media kit is a resume for influencers to send to how to dm brands for collabs. You should include details about the effectiveness of your social media posts, your writing approach, your areas of expertise, your prior work experience, and so on. Everything should be presented in a way that is both visually pleasing and appropriate for the brand you are trying to sell.
2. You should compose your sales presentation
To begin, it is not necessarily the case that the person in charge of a brand’s Instagram account (the community or social media manager) is also in order of its influencers. The influencer manager is the one who chooses which content creators to work with, so they are the one who makes the distinction. A social media manager’s sole function is to generate content.
In addition, brands, preeminent ones, get a tonne of mail every day.
A well-timed email, where requests for partnerships are commonplace, would be preferable.
Now that we’ve established that let’s discuss how to create your pitch. Inclusion of the following is required:
Use a clear subject line, provide a brief (one or two sentences) overview of your professional experience, and outline precisely what kind of collaboration you’d like to propose.
Include your media kit and explain why they should work with you. Provide social proof showing how your audience responds to your content (for example, a screenshot of a follower saying they bought something you recommended in the past).
3. The framework for your Instagram partnership agreement
The next step is to formalise the terms of your Instagram partnership. To avoid any misunderstandings later on, it is crucial to draught a formal agreement outlining the terms of the campaign.
Make sure you and your partner are on the same page about the following:
• Which products need advertising;
• What sort of advertising will be done by your partner, and how often; and
• What is the expected payment (cash, promotion, freebies, etc.)?
Include the following information:
• Goals
• Duration of Campaign
• Any Other Information You Believe to Be Important.
4. Find the Right Individual
The DM needs to be sent to the proper person in charge of influencer marketing efforts.
The question now is where to look for such a person.
You can find the brand’s influencer manager by visiting the brand’s profile on Linkedin, Instagram, or any other appropriate social media platform. Try to track down some way to get in touch with them.
You can also check the website of your ideal company to see if there is a designated social media platform with information for collaboration requests.
Last but not least, there’s always the good old-fashioned phone call.
5. Conduct the Campaign
This is the most exciting part of the process: running the campaign. Be sure you’re ready to go before you start.
If your partner helps you boost sales by offering special discounts, you should use promo codes that can be monitored individually.
Photos of each other’s products posted to social media must be polished before publication.
Maintaining open lines of communication throughout the campaign is essential to ensuring that everyone is happy with the direction things are heading in.
Enhance Partnerships Between Brands
It takes much time to do influencer marketing and collaborate with brands. But you want to join in on viral brand collaborations like the pros. In that case, you must invest in collaborative marketing tools to increase productivity and support your social media management team. Get in touch with Influencer, the robust influencer platform that can link you with the brands that suit your influencer goals.
