Influencer marketing can bring many benefits to brands. You can increase brand awareness, get new followers, drive web traffic, and gain sales.
The key to a successful campaign is collaboration with the right influential people. But collaborations will hinge on whether you can find the right TikTok influencers, contact them, and work out a deal that both sides are happy with.
We know that this can sometimes be frustrating. So we have some tips on how to contact and negotiate with TikTok influencers.
1: Contact twice as many influencers as you really want
Reach out to at least two times the number of influencers you want to work with. Would you like to bring 5 influencers on board to your campaign? Contact at least 10.
Why? Because not everyone will want or be able to be a partner of your brand. And some influencers won’t even open your emails, let alone reply.
Based on our experiences, we see:
- 70-80% percent of emails are opened
- 50% of emails receive clicks on links
- 30- 40% get a reply (which is sometimes unfortunately no)
A few factors can affect the rate of your responses. First, it all depends on which type of influencers you are reaching out. If it’s a top influencer, you will most likely get a reply. It will, however, be the manager, who will simply reply with the influencer’s fees.
Micro-influencers may not be able to reply as often or quickly. These influencers have less than 50K followers and are not yet full time influencers. They don’t dedicate all their time to social media, and they don’t have managers. However, if your product is very relevant to what they do, you’ll have better chances of getting a reply.
2: Create a warm, personal pitch
Influencers don’t want to see a boilerplate template. It is important to personalize the pitch, so they see that your brand took the time reviewing their profile and understanding why you two are a good match.
You can still do this with automation. Use a mail merging tool that allows you to add custom fields. You can change the name and description of every email you send to influencers, so that each person gets an email personalized with their name and a compliment about their profile.
If you want to reach out to a KOL, or key opinion leader, it’s better to just go ahead and craft your email by hand. First, there are fewer KOLs so you won’t be email blasting loads of people. Furthermore, KOLs can be very busy so it’s difficult to make an impression. Make sure to be clear about what you want, and what the benefit is for them.
Do not forget to be friendly and open when you are sending your pitch emails. It’s important that influencers feel comfortable enough with you to openly communicate their creativity and ideas.
3: Send a TikTok DM to influencers if their email is not available
To have the best chance to find influencer email addresses, use an influencer-marketing platform. This software allows you to search and analyze the influencers, and also provides contact information.
Anyway, no email, no problem. If you don’t know the email address of an influencer, but want to get in touch with them, DM them on TIkTok. Send them a message there, letting them know you are interested in collaborating.
Sometimes you can even get around managers by sending DMs on TikTok. While they can assist with brand collaborations, gatekeeping managers can also be frustrating. So sending a message directly on social media might help you get in front of the influencer themself.
4: Answer questions and provide details during negotiations
Negotiation is where you lay out all the details. This is the point where you decide the most important details about the collaboration. You should ensure that both parties understand what the brand is paying, what the influencer is providing, and when both need to complete their task.
Also, consider these things:
- Do you want the influencers to use any hashtag or discount code in your content?
- Is there anything you would like the Influencer to focus on about your product specifically?
- Do you have any specific audio clips that you’d like them to include, or any other aesthetic guidelines?
Finally, plan how you will disclose the collaboration. The Federal Trade Commission and similar regulatory agencies are more vigilant than ever regarding unfair advertising. This is not only the responsibility of the influencers. Brands are responsible too.
So talk about if you’ll use an ad hashtag, specify it in the video, or disclose the collaboration in some other way. Finally, make sure the method you choose conforms to the standards set forth by the regulatory body which has jurisdiction over your campaign.
You don’t have to sign a contract all the time
Contrary what you might think, not all influencer collaborations require a contract. If you pay influencers with money, it is best to use a contractual agreement. But you don’t need to use a contract if you only pay them with gifted products (unless it’s a very expensive product).
In fact, influencers who are less experienced can often be turned off by contracts. For micro and nano influencers, who are relatively new to the game, a contract could overwhelm or intimidate them. And that means you may lose a business deal.
If you want to create a contract for your collaboration, you can access an influencer contract template online. Edit it with the specific details for your collaboration and look it over with a legal expert who understands your unique situation.
And if you don’t need a contract, simply put the collaboration details in an email. This way, if there’s any doubt throughout the campaign, both parties can refer back to what was agreed upon.
Conclusion
These 5 tips hopefully make it easier for you to contact influencers and negotiate your collaborations. As a final comment, do not get discouraged if someone does not respond to your message. It happens to all of us. They might have lost your email, so follow up. Or, go back and re-evaluate the situation, finding different influencers to try again.