By: Emmelyn Cruz
All moms know that the best recommendations and advices about anything concerning their kids and families come from other moms as well. Nothing beats a co-mom sharing vital information about her favorite new product. A diaper rash? You should try this new organic cream. A case of the sniffles? There’s a good essential oil combo for that – such are the typical conversations in any mom group whether online or in real life.
Now if you are a mompreneur, participating in these mom conversations is a great way to get your products out there. Of course, infiltrating every mom group and talking to each and every mom about your products is out of the question. But thanks to the Internet, you do not have to do that.
You might think that we are talking about having your own website and social media presence. Yes, these can help, but it would be better to ensure that you are actually reaching your target market. So this leads us to digital influencer seeding. Digital influencers are respected and established content producers in various niches. So if your business is mainly involved in kids’ products, then mom influencers and bloggers are your target for seeding. Simply put, digital influencer seeding is building a relationship with these influencers, and eventually leveraging their authority to boost your business. Imagine a popular mommy blogger thanking you or tagging your business’ Instagram account in the social media platform. If 5,000 women follow that blogger in Instagram, then those same women could potentially see your product as worn or used by said mommy blogger, and they would then be interested in you. What’s more, that post is almost like a personal recommendation as well from the said mommy blogger, especially if she reviewed your products in either her blog or even in her Instagram caption. And as we’ve said, moms just love personal recommendations of good products.
The next question is, how do you go about digital influencer seeding? Here’s a quick list of do’s and don’ts for you:
1. Do form a good relationship right from the start.
Once you have identified the influencers in your niche, you can then start building a relationship with them. You can start small – such as following and commenting on their social media accounts, and sharing their content online. After doing so, you can then initiate contact by sending a personal message to their social media accounts. This can be as simple and short as: “Hi [name]! I really enjoy your feed and can especially relate to your momma posts. I loved your kiddo’s ootd last time, and I think you would love my new kid’s clothing line, [x]. Look out for an email from me soon, I’d love to connect with you.”
You can then follow this up with a personal email, which you can find in influencers’ social profiles. Of course, we have to emphasize personalizing your message because no one would really react to a generic one. Take time to get the influencers names and address them properly, browse their feeds as well so you can inject a bit of personality in your message. Here are a few more quick tips for your email:
-Veer away from a sale-sy tone and instead keep things less formal.
-Think of a better subject line, generic ones are more likely to be classified as spam.
-Don’t forget to include links to your website, and even links to specific products that you think the influencer might be interested in.
-Don’t specifically ask for a tag, shout-out or anything on social media. You can instead end your email by saying something like: “Please get in touch if you are interested in collaborating.”
2. Do come up with an appropriate offer and communicate it clearly.
Once the influencer has expressed her interest in working with you the next step is determining an appropriate offer for each influencer and of course, communicating it clearly. The right offer for an influencer could depend on a few factors:
a. The influencer’s reach. Be prepared to shell out a bit for the bigger influencers or those with 20k followers on social media compared to someone who has around 2k followers. At the same time, don’t easily dismiss influencers with a small number of followers. The important thing is to focus on the influencer’s engagement. Influencers who have a high rate of engagement would more likely have followers who give due credit to their opinions and reviews. So a good review and recommendation from such influencers would more likely result to new customers.
b. What you want in return. Do you want a feature in her blog or a vlog with your products? Or is a tag on Instagram of her using your products more than enough? Of course, you will also have to consider the cost of your offer/products. So if you are willing to send her a full product line, then a blog feature complete with links to your business website, and tags in all her social media accounts should be part of the deal. On the other hand, one complete outfit or pair of shoes might not warrant a full blog post (as one can only say so much about one outfit), so perhaps an ootd post on Instagram with a tag to your account might suffice.
c. Consider how the influencer will avail of your offer. Products are a bit easier in this aspect as you can just have them couriered to the influencer’s address of choice. However, services are trickier. If you are offering a service for moms or kids, consider offering the option of letting the influencer bring a mom-friend at a time of their choosing. This would ensure that the influencer would take you up on your offer because the experience would be more enjoyable for her.
Throughout your correspondence, be sure to communicate clearly your offers and asks. State everything explicitly in your emails. It would also be ideal if you can provide them a simple guideline of how you would like your band to be represented. Ask as well if the influencer has any requests and clarify if you can or cannot accommodate it. Before sending anything to the influencer, each side’s responsibilities, tasks, and expectations should be clearly laid out.
3. Don’t overdo the follow-ups.
Most influencers are very, very busy individuals, so try to be patient in following up with them. Do not send hundreds of emails asking them to get back to you. And once you are already setting up your campaign, allow them a day or two to respond, then send a gentle email reminder if they still failed to do so. At the same time, do patiently wait for the content you have agreed upon. Content creation takes a lot of work, time, and dedication so be respectful.
4. Don’t limit the influencer’s creativity.
Doing so might not produce good results as instead of coming off as genuine and authentic, it might come off as staged and a hard-sell – which defeats influencer seeding entirely. Keep in mind that these influencers are influencers for a reason, they are good at what they do – connecting and “softly” influencing their audience.
5. Do measure results.
Just like other marketing efforts, you need to ensure that the resources you have spent on influencer seeding is worth it; so don’t forget to measure results. A great way to do this is by considering creating a custom landing page or a custom tracked link that you can provide to each influencer for their use on their content. This way, you can easily track how much traffic each influencer has directed to your site.
If done right, influencer seeding could boost your business into new heights. It is a great way to bring your brand to your target market, and connect with them on a personal level.
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