Influ­encer out­reach is crit­i­cal for any con­tent mar­ket­ing cam­paign, because influ­encers expose your brand to a larg­er audi­ence, and because your audi­ence val­ues endorse­ments from third par­ties — often more than they val­ue your word alone.

Accord­ing to Zuber­ance, 92 per­cent of con­sumers trust brand advo­cates. Fur­ther, Visual.ly found that con­tent shared by influ­encers receives 16 times more engage­ment than paid adver­tise­ments or con­tent pre­sent­ed by a brand itself. Despite its impor­tance, influ­encer out­reach is often one of those to-do list items that mar­keters fail to get around to — most­ly because it’s such a huge task.

Want to sim­pli­fy things? Here are five free tem­plates you can use to stream­line the influ­encer out­reach process.

1. Initial outreach template

Once you’ve com­piled a list of poten­tial influ­encers, I sug­gest you pri­or­i­tize top influ­encers and send them per­son­al­ized emails. For those a lit­tle fur­ther down the list, a tem­plate will do just fine.

Here’s an example:

Hi [name],

My name is [your name] from [com­pa­ny]. I’ve been fol­low­ing your blog since 2013.

Your recent post [blog top­ic] real­ly res­onat­ed with me. I thought it was some­thing my audi­ence would appre­ci­ate, so I shared it with my social media and email subscribers.

I want­ed to get in touch with you to dis­cuss [top­ic] fur­ther, and see if we can work on some­thing sim­i­lar together.

If you’re inter­est­ed we can set up a phone call this week to dis­cuss start­ing a col­lab­o­ra­tion that would bring val­ue to both our audiences.

Best,

[your name]

2. Curation template

A com­mon way to build a rela­tion­ship with a poten­tial influ­encer is by ask­ing them to con­tribute to your con­tent. Here’s a clear, polite tem­plate you can use for this purpose:

Hi [name],

Can I fea­ture you in a blog post?

I’m writ­ing an expert advice piece and am reach­ing out to all the big play­ers in the [top­ic] field, and I think your con­tri­bu­tion would be very valu­able. I plan to men­tion your brand in the post as well, so it could bring you some help­ful exposure.

Here’s what I would like to know for the piece:

[insert question(s)]

I know you are prob­a­bly busy and com­plete­ly under­stand if you don’t have time to con­tribute. If you are inter­est­ed, I would appre­ci­ate it if you got back to me with­in the next sev­en days.

Thank you,

[your name]

3. Influencer mention template

Once you’ve fea­tured an influ­encer in your con­tent, you have to make sure they notice.

Here’s a tem­plate you can use to let influ­encers know you wrote about them, and to polite­ly request that they share the con­tent with their networks.

Hi [name],

I want­ed to thank you again for con­tribut­ing to my expert advice post. I was amazed by how much great advice I got, includ­ing yours, and I think the post will bring a lot of val­ue to my readers.

The post just went live:

[insert link]

Take a look at it if you have time. I would love to know what you think. It would be great if you could like and share it with your audience.

Thanks again,

[your name]

4. Guest blog template

This tem­plate can help speed up the process of con­tact­ing poten­tial blogs to guest post, but be sure to note whether or not they have spe­cif­ic guide­lines before you send a message.

Hi [name],

My name is [your name] from [com­pa­ny]. I’ve been fol­low­ing your blog since 2013.

I read all your posts and I loved your recent one on [blog top­ic]. How­ev­er I noticed that it’s been awhile since any­one wrote about [your top­ic idea] on your blog.

I know a lot about [your top­ic idea] and think I would be a valu­able con­trib­u­tor if you let me write a guest post about it.

Here are a few head­line ideas that I think would real­ly draw your read­ers in:

[head­line 1]

[head­line 2]

[head­line 3]

Also here are a few sam­ples of oth­er pieces I’ve writ­ten in the niche:

[link 1]

[link 2]

Thanks for your time,

[your name]

5. Invitation template

Final­ly, this tem­plate will be help­ful if you want to ask an influ­encer to review your prod­uct or fea­ture your give­away on their website.

Hi [name],

My name is [your name] from [com­pa­ny]. I real­ly enjoy your [rel­e­vant con­tent] and am impressed by how well you’ve done with [their com­pa­ny name].

I’m reach­ing out to you because I have a prod­uct that I think your audi­ence would appre­ci­ate. Would you be will­ing to test and review [prod­uct]?

I can pro­vide a free sam­ple for you to review, and three extra ones that you can give away to your audience.

Please let me know if you are interested.

Thanks for your time,

[your name]

Influ­encer out­reach is a huge task, which is why it’s impor­tant to take advan­tage of any tools you can to make the process a lit­tle eas­i­er. These five email tem­plates are a great place to start, though you’ll want to cus­tomize their lan­guage to suit your busi­ness and your niche.

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