One of the best ways to put your product in front of new eyeballs is through influencer marketing.

Influencer marketing uses the star power of a popular person in your niche to connect your product with new customers. For example, if you made hand-crafted beads, a jewelry blogger would be a great influencer in your niche.

But too often we’re intimidated by influencer marketing. Maybe we’re nervous about the costs, or we’re afraid to tick off influencers.

Never fear! Here’s how you can do influencer outreach to grow your brand without being spammy.

Be an influencer’s best friend

It’s easy to get excited at the idea of working with an influencer. It’s almost like working with a celebrity!

In the rush and excitement, it’s easy to feel nervous or unsure how to best work with influencers.

The number-one rule for working with influencers is becoming their best friend.

That doesn’t mean sending them emails begging for links to your products, or semi-stalking them online to find any kind of personal connection (“Your cousin worked for Subway! I used to work for Subway – isn’t that crazy?”).

This type of desperate or demanding communication only makes influencers uncomfortable. Your email will promptly make its way to their trash folder.

Effective influencer outreach is like finding a new best friend. Follow these steps to reach influencers in a genuine, non-spammy way.

1. Offer value

The best way to connect with new people is to offer them value.

Think about it. You make friends on the subway by sharing an extra cookie, or paying it forward by buying coffee for a stranger.

Making friends in the digital realm is no different. And once you make friends, it’s much easier to work with them in ways that are mutually beneficial.

Whatever you do, follow the rule of offering value.

Influencers are used to pitches, sales emails, and people who just want to use them. You can build a real relationship while breaking through the internet clutter by giving real value to these influencers.

Influencers are also trying to spread their message and their brand. The best way to give value to an influencer is to help spread the good word—with no strings attached.

Some businesses think this is a waste of time since there’s no guarantee of getting reciprocated from the influencer. While that’s a possibility, I’ve found that, most of the time, influencers are happy to spread the word about businesses they love.

Use these three tactics to provide value to influencers. 

1. Invite them to write for you: If you have a blog for your business, invite an influencer to write for you. Ask them to share their thoughts on an industry issue, or offer tips to help your customers.
2. Interview them: Influencers are influencers for a reason. They have a wealth of information and opinions to share, which fascinate and engage audiences. Interviews are a great way to feature an interesting influencer while sharing information with your followers. Remember to make it easy for the influencer to complete the interview. Many influencers prefer a Q & A style interview over email since they tend to be too busy for phone calls.
3. Send a no strings attached product: Who doesn’t like free stuff? Offer to send your influencer a new product to get their honest feedback. Many influencers review the free products they receive, so it’s a great way to have your product placed in front of an influencer’s followers on the cheap.

Depending on your niche, there may be other ways to reach out to influencers.

However you offer value to an influencer, make sure it actually is about giving them the value, not the other way around.

2. Contact them through their preferred method

You might prefer chatting on the phone, but what if your desired influencer wants to correspond via email?

Before you do anything, see how the influencer communicates. He or she will usually put this information in the Contact page of their site or social media bio.

If they’re really active on social media like Instagram or Twitter, it’s not uncommon for them to accept inquiries there.

However, if you reach out to influencers on social, make sure the conversation is private. Nobody wants to air their business dealings out in the open!

3. Watch your subject lines

Certain subject lines set off alarm bells for influencers.

These folks receive dozens of spammy emails each day, most of which are sorted only by a subject line.

Don’t let your emails get forwarded to trash or spam. You need to spend just as much time planning your subject line as you spend developing the content of your message.

Avoid vague subject lines like “Guest Post,” which might sound spammy to some influencers.

Focus on the value you can give to the influencer in your subject line. For example, if you’re providing value with an interview, the subject line, “I’d love to interview you,” is a simple and effective way to have influencers read your messages.

4. Build the relationship

Once you successfully work with an influencer, it’s not a one-and-done deal. Because, hey, it’s all about building a friendship! You don’t make best friends by talking to a person just once.

Make it a habit to reach out to influencers once a month. Continue offering value and doing the things that got you in the door.

Treat influencers like the valued friend that they are. This can take the form of sending them interesting articles, chatting about industry updates, or sending them a cool resource you found.

Remember not to hound the influencer! They receive a lot of emails and don’t take kindly to daily emails.

5. Don’t forget the ask

After nurturing the relationship for a few months, it’s time to do your ask. This is the moment you ask for a favor from the influencer.

Remember, this should only be done after providing the influencer with value over the course of 1 – 4 months. I know it seems like a long time, but if an influencer has a relationship with you, they’re much more likely to agree to help you.

So how exactly do you ask an influencer for a favor?

It does depend on the depth of your relationship, your niche, and your product or service.

For example, if you knit high-quality clothing, you could ask an influencer to review your pieces and share with their followers. Or if you make pottery, you can ask the influencer to feature your pieces on their Instagram.

Keep in mind that, even though you’ve nurtured a relationship, the influencer will likely request payment.

After all, they make their money based on their reputation and influence; you shouldn’t ask them to work for free!

If the influencer charges, they will sometimes give a discount or throw in extras because you’ve built a relationship first.

The bottom line

Digital influencers are a powerful form of word of mouth marketing. Leverage their celebrity and online following to put your brand in front of more potential customers.

Provide value and build a relationship with influencers to make friends while making more money for your business.