Six steps for approaching beauty and fashion influencers

They’re real and relatable; engaging and creative. They give trusted recommendations that can change buyer behaviours. Ultimately, it’s the authentic, attainable content beauty and fashion influencers have perfected that gives them massive marketing power.

If you’re a beauty or fashion brand, you want a piece of that pie. In fact, you want to get your finger in more pies than a super keen Greggs employee. Which leaves us with the question - how do you get into the world of these elusive social media stars? How do you get your products into their posts and in front of the eyeballs of their avid followers?

Step by step

If an influencer really loves your product or service, they might reach out to collaborate themselves - but the most common scenario is that you will have to approach them. Do this correctly and you can successfully pitch to the perfect influencer for boosting your brand awareness, driving new visitors to your website and generating trust among fashion and beauty consumers.

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• 1 Find the right influencers

  

  Don’t waste your time on influencers who aren’t an organic match for your brand.

  First, check out your social media mentions already. Are there any from users with an engaged following? If so, you’ve just found someone who’s already a brand advocate - they know your product and may be happy to shout about it, loud and proud.

  Hashtag spon

  Another way to find influencers is to search for hashtags related to your beauty or fashion niche on social platforms. This will immediately show you the posts with the highest engagement, leading you to active influencers in the industry.

  Of course, there are companies that can do this for you (looking at you, IMA, Socially Powerful and Influencer) but if your budget is tight, doing your own homework definitely pays off.

  
  

• 2 Build a relationship from the get-go

  

  Important: this is a relationship, not a sales transaction.

  Once you’ve found an influencer with a common ground, a genuine following (read our guide to learn how to spot an Instagrammer using robots) and strong personal brand, you’ll want to reach out.

  Mutually beneficial

  First, you need to know what motivates the influencer so you can position your pitch as helping them out in a win-win collaboration. If you’re not directly getting in touch on Instagram, chances are you’ll have to visit an influencer’s blog to find their contact details.

  Make sure you properly check out their website before you even begin with the intros: read how they work, their collaboration policies and what they will/won’t do.

  Double-check you’re using a professional email address or Instagram account to approach an influencer in order to bump up the chances of securing them.

  
  

• 3 Get personal

  

  Don’t get all PR-y. Beauty influencers receive dozens of emails a day with new products and samples to test and promote - the same goes for fashion bloggers.

  To make your email stand out, don’t just use a generic ‘collaboration opportunity’ subject line. Create a unique email with specific details that will show each influencer you’ve really done your research.

  Maybe link to a blog or social media post you’ve enjoyed and want to channel with your campaign, or tell them you love the way they style a certain piece of clothing. You could even engage with the actual posts before you send the outreach email to help build a thoughtful and interactive relationship from the start.

  
  

• 4 Don't mention money right away

  

  This is a tricky one, but in my experience it’s always better to see if an influencer is happy to receive free products first - either to try and promote or share in a giveaway for their followers (the latter also helps them grow followers - win-win).

  Chances are, most influencers will immediately want to know your budget, so you can take your conversation further from there and propose a fair monetary sum for the effort, expertise and engagement they offer.

  The good news is, many influencers who blog about fashion or beauty purely do it to get lots of lovely free stuff. If they’re an organic fit for your brand and you’re offering a genuinely good product (especially if it has a high monetary value), freebies will probably suffice.

  
  

• 5 Let them do good and make them look good

  

  Ever worried about how you come across online? If you say no, you’re telling fibs.

  Influencers are doubly religious about their online reputation - one wrong move can cause devastation for their career. If you can make an influencer look good - for example, involve them in a #crueltyfree makeup campaign - then you’re offering something they’ll value.

  Charitable influencer marketing is on the rise, with everyone from Zoella to Tanya Burr promoting charity campaigns. It’s cool to care.

  
  

• 6 End with a call-to-action

  

  Any marketer worth their salt knows how important a lofty call-to-action is in a piece - the same goes for your influencer email. Make yours simple and to the point.

  Give them a deadline based on your campaign timeline. Be specific in what you want to hear back from them (whether they want to work with your brand or not) and then leave it up to the influencer to agree with your terms, bounce back with ideas or come up with a counteroffer.