EMBiz: How Brands Should Reach Out To TikTok Influencers

How To Reach Out To TikTok Influencers

Laurel Mintz

Hi, everyone, Laurel Mintz here, CEO of Elevate My Brand. TikTok is still a highly influential platform and still growing exponentially. And so brands are figuring out how to work with TikTok and build their own content along with influencers. And it's just like most of the other platforms. Although now that social media has evolved and is a more mature category for marketing. There are so many platforms that allow you to do this in a much easier, more impactful way both from a budget and visibility perspective. 

Use Content Aggregators

The most important piece for you to take away from this is that influencers now expect you to reach out to them on influencer aggregation platforms. These are platforms that collect influencers and actually categorize them via channel via following and via engagement and as a brand that should be really important to you. It means you don't have to do all of the seeking out and building of lists on your own. So it's a very time-efficient way to build your influencer strategy. And these platforms allow you to manage the influencer's payments, content and creative all on one platform. So, I would say and I said this before making sure that you're using influencer platforms really is expected in today's social media era.

Slide into DMs

If you are looking to target a more influential influencer, sometimes they've got management teams most of the time, you could reach out to those management teams via their email in their bios or you can DM them directly. I would say most of the micro-influencers are still in preference of direct contacts because they don't have management teams and they might not be on the influencer platforms yet. So it really depends on the age and stage and kind of scale of influencer that you are looking to attract specifically for TikTok. 

Engage in the comments

It's also really important to follow them and engage with them on their social. It's a great way for you to create visibility and awareness around your brand and make sure that these influencers don't think that you're full of, you know, what, which a lot of agencies and brands actually are. A lot of them expect to be able to use influencer content for free.

Be Direct

It's also important to be upfront. Is this a pay-to-play opportunity or is there an expectation because it's the most fabulous new skincare brand in the world that you are gonna gift the product in exchange for content? There are still in influencers out there that will do that. But I would say it really is more of an industry than it ever has been. So, don't expect to be able to get something for just product anymore. Make sure you're being really specific about the expectations in terms of volume of content, content channel and cadence of posting and you'll get along just fine creating cross-marketing partnerships and influencing their content on TikTok.