By Jhoni | September 13, 2020 | How to hear more yes's
I made this Blog 🌹 pink to soften this blow...snatching edges...but I love y'all...
So many small business owners or even influencers just getting started do a ton of “reaching out” and they either don't hear back or hear a no. I have a feeling I know why. Let’s talk about it. This may feel like redundant material, but I think it is so necessary to understand if you want to utilize influence marketing. Lets dive right into it with 4 major points.
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Business is conducted via email. I know in this social media generation, we tend to think that a DM is the new email. It’s not. If you are attempting to secure any major campaigns with an influencer, it would behoove you to find this person’s email. I’ll use my instagram account as an example. I get, easily, 20 DMs per day. Most of them are spam or men shooting their shot. I don’t view my instagram DM as a place where business gets conducted, so if you send me a DM, my reply will be to send me an email. The second reason is that I WILL be discussing budgets...I don’t do free promo, so the kind of money I will be discussing needs to happen via email. Influencers pitching brands, the same thing applies. Do not dare DM a major company asking to work together. I guarantee you’ll get ignored. With that said, I'm sure you can DM some influencers and get a response...usually when you are offering free product for an IG post or shout-out. As people grow in their influencer journey, the prices they require increase, contracts are now necessary and business will be conducted via email.
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Give soooooooo much more than you ask. Let me say this another way..Offer value to a person before you do a cold reach-out for a favor. One more way....offer something 100 times before you ask once, HEAR ME. These cold reach-out’s via DM are NOT IT. If you send a message asking someone to post your product, shout you out, listen to your song and you get no response....it’s probably because the influencer said “who is this?” and deleted it. Your ask should not come out of nowhere and it should definitely not come with no discussion of budget. If you have no budget, that makes point number 2 that much more important for you. If a company cold reaches out to me and they are talking money, they're going to get a different response from someone cold-reaching out to me asking me to work for free. And yes, an influencer posting to their IG or Blog is their work. It's also important to understand that "sales" is more emotional than anything else. If I like you, I'll buy what you’re selling. If I like you, I'll listen to your song. If I like you, I'll post you to my story(probably for free). Understand the importance of relationships and the importance of being liked. In business, in general, people network and build relationships. Those relationships provide recipricol benefit to the two parties involved. RECIPROCAL- Its not just one party asking for a favor. It's two people providing usefulness to one another. Influencer marketing is no different. When I say “offer value”, this does not have to cost you anything. It doesn’t . You can give out free advice (like on a blog😉). You can post this person consistently to your blog or instagram. You can engage with their content. The key to this though, is not to just do it once or twice. I believe earlier I said “way more”...I said "100 times". Be consistent in your offering of value before you reach out. Don’t take from this that you just need to like one post and then ask...
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You’re probably not hearing yes from an influencer because you have no budget. It's the elephant in the room." Influencer" is short for "influence marketer". It's a job. The difference between an influencer and someone with a lot of followers is that influencers have a business. We don't advertise for free. We don't post for free. Sometimes we post for free product, but eventually we need to discuss the coin. Oftentimes, after an influencer does promo for free product, the company comes back again offering free products and no money. This message is to influencers: Don't be afraid to bring up money. If a company does not have a budget, don't be afraid to decline the offer. To companies approaching influencers, if you are hearing a lot of "No's", it could be because you are not offering money. I understand that start up companies oftentimes have no budget, but please make it a priority to get a marketing budget. I promise it will make all the difference in the growth of your business. Even if you don't have the budget at that time, it may be a worthy conversation to mention to an influencer the potential for a paid campaign with your company.
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Be professional. I can't stress this enough. When reaching out to an influencer or a brand. Use the person's name and spelt correctly. No pet names. I get plenty of offers that start with "hey gorgeous", "hey girl", "hey boo"....Automatic no from me. I'm going to be talking $$$$, usually people who "hey girl" me, are about to ask for something for free. I've had conversations with large-scale companies, and those conversations are always emails that begin with "Hello Jhoni". Be professional. I know we tend to think that social media marketing is casual, but it's not casual when you start talking money.
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Thats all I have for you today. Love y'all 🌹