Picture this; You are at a rock concert. Screaming yourself hoarse trying to get noticed by your favourite rock star and hopefully get him to sign your T-shirt.
Just when you think you’ve got his attention, he turns the other way. You are getting frustrated. Desperate even.
You know you are not the only one trying to get his attention. There are many other hands raised and many other voices screaming themselves hoarse.
But the truth is, he can only sign so many. Only a few will be lucky enough.
So the only way to ensure that you get that autograph, is to fight your way to front. Get yourself noticed.
The same scenario applies to getting your online business noticed.
You want to get more eyeballs on your business but you do not have the money to advertise.
The competition out there is tough. Aggressive.
To get noticed by influencers and ultimately your customers, you have to be prepared to fight for your business.
Online advertising used be so easy but it is becoming expensive and as if that’s not enough, Facebook keeps changing it’s algorithms. It’s hard to keep up.
So what can you do?
There is a less expensive way of reaching out.
It’s called influencer outreach.
Who is an influencer anyway?
That’s a good question. With so many people in the bloggosphere, who is an influencer?
Truth is, not all bloggers are created equal. Hell no.
There are those who blog then there are those with the power to affect decisions with their blog. The latter are the influencers.
So how do we know that they are influencers?
Because they meet the following criteria:
- They have great engagement rates and high networks: This can be seen in the traffic to their blog and the engagement in the comments sections of their posts.
- They have the power to sway and persuade: They have a history of sharing posts that go on to get traction.
- When they mention a business, customers see it is a stamp of approval: People listen to them and trust their recommendations.
In a nutshell, a mention from an infuencer can be worth more than any advertising.
Once you know who the influencers in your niche are, you can then reach out to them and use their network to help you grow yours.
However, truth be told, influencer outreach is easier said than done. It’s overwhelming and even intimidating.
But the good news is, there is a way of taking the overwhelm out of the process using five easy steps.
Here’s how:
1) Fish for the top influencers
With so many niches out there, it is easy to get side tracked. So first things first — niche down. Be specific and only focus on those influencers who appeal to your tribe.
The whole process can get overwhelming and there is nothing as embarrassing as reaching out to the same influencer one too many times so follow these steps in order to keep track:
- Open an excel spreadsheet with the columns Name of influencer, Date reached out, Retarget date and Response.
- Note down a list of blogs in your niche. Include blogs that you read and also blogs that come up when you do a google search in your niche.
- Check the blog’s domain authorities. (You’ll be interested in those with a domain authority of 50 and above.)
- Search for their traffic and share numbers using Buzzsumo. (You’ll be interested in those with posts with at least 500 shares.)
- Once you have the above statistics, highlight at least 5 influencers with a domain authority of 50 and with posts with 500 shares. These are the influencers to focus on.
Once you have your list, you are now ready to take the next step in reaching out.
2) Make your presence felt
The truth is, it’s a jungle out there. Everyone is fighting for your influencers attention. Many get tens of hundreds of requests from up and coming businesses.
Your role now is to get yourself noticed and the way to do that is by building a relationship slowly but steadily. Making your presence felt.
You may feel anxious at first but don’t let that stop you. It gets easier with time.
Let the influencer know that you are in the picture by doing the following:
- Being a raving fan by following them on social media: (Most influencers will be in one or more platforms.) Like their posts and let them know how their work has helped you.
- Subscribing to their blog: Read their posts and comment. Not just a generic comment like “nice work” but a comment that shows what value you got from the post. If you have a different view point, politely let them know.
- Responding to queries on their social media pages: This will make you visible not only to the influencer but to his/her followers.
- Joining one of their courses: Strive to in the top 1% in class. You can do this by asking questions, contributing to discussions and completing all the assignments.
Once the influencer has started to notice you, it’s time to take the next step.
3) Fight your way to the top
At this point, you may have gotten the influencer’s attention but so have many others. So this is not the time to get comfortable. Instead, it’s time to fight your way to the top by doing some work.
This is what you can do:
- Go through the influencer’s blog and see if there is any topic that is yet to be covered. Send an email with your suggested topics and explain how the topics can benefit readers. Once the influencer has accepted your request to guest post, go on to write outstanding content.
- Write an egobait post. Everyone has an ego and so do influencers. It’s human. We all want to feel recognized from time to time. So write a post that name drops and mentions the influencer in a positive light. Then send an email to the said influencer informing them of the post and ask them to share it.
- Choose one of your best posts. Send it to the influencer and ask them to share it.
As you go about the outreach, remember, not all influencers will share your work but don’t let that stop you. Not all influencers are receptive to sharing but keep asking and asking confidently and courteously.
4) Keep the fire burning
By this time, your relationship with the influencer is growing and it is easy to start getting to complacent.
Don’t.
You are almost there.
It is now time to start deepening your relationship. Focusing on the human part of your outreach.
You can do this by:
- Asking for feedback. Send personalized emails to the influencers with questions like, “How am I doing and how can I do even better? How can I improve?”
- Ask for their opinion on issues pertaining to your niche.
- If they have webinars or live facebook appearances, log in and ask questions.
5) Rinse and repeat
Remember the spreadsheet that we mentioned that you should open once you start reaching out to influencers? Well, this is where it comes in handy.
Using Google Analytics on one hand and the spreadsheet on the other, ask yourself:
Which influencer have had the most impact?
What could I have done to get a positive response from those that did not respond or declined to share?
Which influencer is worth pursung even further and which one is not?
Once you have your answers to the above questions, follow steps 1 to 4 all over again.
Do this every 6 months otherwise you could end up being a one hit wonder.
Now stay connected, stay relevant, stay relatable
With influencer outreach, you will smile as you see your traffic grow in leaps and bounds.
You will be reaching readers like you never thought possible.
You will no longer have to keep up with ever changing social media algorithms. Or have to dig into your profits to pay for advertising that is not guaranteed to work.
Your hard work will pay off and very soon, you will be that influencer that other bloggers will be turning to to help promote their content. You will no longer be the Johnny come lately.
But it won’t have happened by chance. It will have happened because you worked hard at reaching out and did so with tact and discernment.
And once your name is on everyone’s lips, remember to pay it forward.
So get started. Pull out a note pad and start fishing for those influencers.