Finding and securing fruitful long-term influencer partnerships begins with the very first outreach email. You need to know how to convince your chosen creator to work with your brand from the start. A great influencer outreach email shows what your brand has to offer, is clear about expectations and tells an influencer exactly why they’d be a great fit for your brand. It’s a tall order but it doesn’t have to be difficult! With the right influencer outreach email template you can contact many influencers at once and get that all important ‘Yes!’.
While each influencer and campaign will be different, there are 6 key elements to writing a successful influencer outreach email. We’ll break down the key steps to include in every influencer outreach message. Then, we’ll offer up two tried-and-tested influencer outreach email templates that can be adapted for a paid influencer campaign and a product gifting campaign.
How to write an influencer outreach email?
Introduce your brand
This might seem obvious, but unless you’re Coca-Cola or Apple, it’s possible your influencers are not familiar with your brand. You should open your message with an introduction to who is contacting them, and tell them about your brand’s products or services. You don’t need to give the full backstory here, just one or two sentences will do.
Keep it short and sweet and include keywords that might pique their interest in your brand and resonate with their niche. You should highlight what sets you apart. For example, if your brand creates organic beauty products or luxury fashion items.
If using an influencer email outreach template, prepare an introductory text about your brand that can be used in any outreach email!
Invite the influencer to collaborate with your brand
Next, you want to make it obvious that this email is an invitation to collaborate with your brand. For example, you can include the fact you’re inviting them to collaborate in the subject line, and in the body of the message. This helps your influencers to know straight away the purpose of the message and if they want to keep reading. You don’t need to go into too much detail, just make it clear about what kind of collaboration you’re looking for, e.g product sampling, or paid collaboration. .
Show how your brand aligns with the influencer’s content
This is your opportunity to show your potential new creator why your brand would make a good fit for a brand partnership. It’s important to have a good understanding of the influencer’s niche and content style. What are they passionate about? What are the values they share through their content? These points will help you explain how their content aligns with your brand values and vice-versa.
Influencers choose partnerships that will be of value to their audiences, so be sure to include what your brand can offer their audience. What problems does your product or service solve? Is there an opportunity for a giveaway or discount for their followers? This can influence a favorable answer from the creator.
Make your value proposition
At this stage, you should share information about the nature of the campaign and the compensation you’re willing to offer. Give details of whether you’re offering only products, or would like to offer a one-off payment or revenue-sharing program. Be clear about what you’re looking for in an influencer and what the expectations are. Are you asking them to create several posts, attend an event or become a brand ambassador? Sharing this information up-front tells the influencer about the type of commitment your brand is looking for and will help them make their decision. Get some ideas for your value proposition with these 4 ways to incentivize influencers.
Emphasize the value the influencer would bring
Here you should explain why you selected this influencer to be part of your next campaign. Share what you like about their work, and recognize the qualities you appreciate such as their creativity, professionalism, etc. Show that you’re interested in what they are working on by referencing a recent campaign or piece of content they worked on. Influencer marketing is about making a human connection so it’s important to mention what you like beyond their performance metrics or audience size, and what makes them stand out as a top creator. This will help to lay the foundation for a strong relationship further down the line.
Keep the discussion going
Close your email by letting them know who they can contact for further information. You should also include any important final details. For example, tell them if there’s a deadline to receive their response. Don’t forget to end on a positive note that invites a favorable response!
Did you know?
Upfluence’s campaign workflow tool allows brands and agencies to contact influencers at scale by creating personalized outreach emails in bulk. To help you decide which influencers will be most open to accepting new campaigns you can check their influencer response score attributed by Upfluence. The score will let you know if they’ve replied to emails using the platform before and inform you of their average response time. This will help you optimize the time and resources spent on influencer outreach!
Tips for using our free influencer email outreach templates
- Do your research! Have notes about each of the influencers you would like to contact – including their real name, their social media handle, and which social media platform they use.
- Know what you’re willing to offer as compensation – know the payment amount you can give or the model of the products you will send.
- Decide if you want to share the campaign brief at this stage, and share it as a separate attachment.
- Personalize your email as much as possible! Use specific examples of what you like about the influencer’s work and make sure the tone of your brand comes across.
Boost your influencer campaign preparation with even more templates from Upfluence! Check out these influencer marketing templates for collaboration emails, agreements, contracts and briefs.
Influencer outreach email template: product sampling
Subject line: {{influencer_handle}} & {{your_brand_name}}: Partnership Offer
Hello {{first_name}}! I hope this email finds you well.
Introduce your brand:
My name is {{your_name}}, from {{your_brand_name}}. We [insert what you do/sell].
Make the connection between their content and your brand:
Since [insert what they are passionate about or what they like to post about that coincides with your brand], I thought I would reach out to see if you would be open to testing our product and doing a collaboration together!
Emphasize what you like about their work, be specific!:
I have been following your profile on [insert social media platform] and really love your content on [insert topic]. I particularly loved your recent post about [insert post details] because [insert reason for why their content stands out].
Make a proposition:
I would love to send you {{your_product_name}} in exchange for posting a product review on [insert social media platform].
Let me know if you are interested and I will send more details!
{{your_name_and_signature}}
Simply copy and paste the template above or download a version of the influencer outreach email template for product sampling.
Influencer outreach email template: paid campaign
Subject line: {{influencer_handle}} & {{your_brand_name}}: Paid Collaboration
Hello {{first_name}}! I hope this email finds you well.
Introduce your brand:
My name is {{your_name}}, from {{your_brand_name}}. We [insert what you do/sell].
Make the connection between their content and your product:
I’m reaching out to you because we are running a social media campaign to promote our {{your_product_name}}, [provide a short description of your product]. After some research on [insert social channel], your profile {{influencer_handle}} caught our attention.
We definitely think the {{your_product_name}} would be a great fit for your audience, given your focus on [insert your common industry niche/topic interest].
Make your value proposition:
We’d like to offer you {{your_product_name}} as well as {{monetary_value}} in recognition of your work in exchange for the publication of {{X_number_of_posts}} on {{social_channel}}.
You can learn more about the campaign in the influencer brief {{insert link to influencer brief}}.
I hope to hear from you soon and am looking forward to hopefully collaborating with you!
{{your_name_and_signature}}
Simply copy and paste the template above or download a version of the influencer outreach email template for paid campaigns.
