Do you want to grow your business by leveraging the power of influencers, but you’re not sure what to do?
It’s been done so right and so wrong, so today, let’s break it down in full.
That’s right; today, we’re talking all about how to work with influencers and micro-influencers.
Profitable versus popular
Just because an influencer is popular doesn’t mean they’re profitable.
Here’s the deal with follower count: it doesn’t impress at all. It doesn’t mean that somebody with 100,000 followers is more successful than somebody with 10,000 because, on the back end, the influencer with 10,000 followers might make twice the money.
It’s easy to get caught up in the hype and believe if we just had more followers, we’d have more success. It’s not true. Influence, on any scale, is what you make of it.
Let’s start by explaining what a brand ambassador, influencer, and micro-influencer are and what to look for.
Influencers versus micro-influencers
The difference between an influencer and a micro-influencer is the size of their following.
Generally, somebody with 20,000 to 50,000 followers is considered a micro-influencer. They have impact, command attention, and have a following, but they aren’t at the $50,000-for-a-shoutout-level.
When you’re looking at the difference between influencers and micro-influencers, be mindful whether you’re tapping into a following of buyers/action-takers or just fans of a popular person.
What to do if an influencer approaches you
If an influencer slips into your DMs and says, “Hey, I love your work. What would it take for me to come in and get my hair done?”, we know what they’re probably looking for free color, extensions, whatever.
They aren’t always looking for free services, but often it’s something like that. You get excited because somebody with a blue badge or a high follower count thinks you’re cool and that this is your big break.
Don’t jump headfirst in quite yet; here’s what you need to do.
Proceed with caution
Instead of DMing them back and moving heaven and earth to get them into your chair, slow your roll and respect the fact that you are now in demand. They would not approach you if you weren’t talented. And, whether they want a free or a paid service, take it as a huge compliment just as you would if any other guest DM’d you.
Do some research
Go to their profile and look at their followers. Click the follower number and actually look at who they are. Are they men or women? Do they live in your state and country? Are they your demographic and target market?
You’ve branded yourself to work with specific people, so make sure their followers are your target market. If your target market is women ages 30 to 45 and their follower count is all 16 and 18-year-old boys, is that what you want in a clientele?
Are they local?
If their followers are your target market, next check if they’re local to your area. Your goal is not to get the influencer in your chair, but that influencer provides influence to help grow your business.
First, check to see if somebody bought a following. Scroll down, click some profiles, and see how many are blocked and how many followers have no followers themselves. Those are bot accounts.
If it looks like a real following, check to see if their followers live nearby by clicking on the profiles to see where they’re from. Are there any in your local area, or are they attracting a broad market who will likely never sit in your chair?
Check their feed
Really scroll through their feed for a minute and look at the conversations and types of posts. Are their posts in line with the kind of clients you want to attract?
For example, if you get a DM from a fitness expert who wants to work with you, think about whether you’re a fit by checking their feed. It might look great at first, but if her audience is more interested in hearing about what she ate for dinner last night, then where she got her hair done, it might not be a good fit for you.
Beware the shoutout
As you’re scrolling through the posts, see if they’ve given influencers a shout out before. This is where it gets tricky.
Imagine a beautiful person who is in your target market and area, has 3,000 followers, DMs, “Hey, is there any way you could do my hair? I would prefer not to pay, but I promise to give you a social media shout out.” It looks like it’s all gravy, so you go for it and she gets the works – color, cut, extensions.
After a few days go by, you get the tag notification. You’re excited until you see the tag is a photo of this influencer… wearing a ball cap and talking football, underwear, Frito dip, and at the very end, says “hair by @you.”
Do you think anybody would care about that tag? Do you think you’ll get a single client from that tag? But the influencer did what she promised – gave the shout out – and now it’s too late.
Whether it’s an influencer, a micro-influencer, or your regular clientele, a client has to shout you out properly for it to be effective,
We want them shouting about you from the rooftop, right? So the only way that shout out is impactful is if they shout you out from their platform.
Unless the influencer (client, micro, or macro) shouts from the rooftops how amazing you are, and they won’t trust anybody else, you are being taken advantage of.
Until the influencer gives you love with no strings attached because they genuinely think you are the best and want to give you some love, you’re not working with the right influencer yet.
How to make sure you don’t get taken for a ride
Biggest thing? Have a written contract in place. If an influencer doesn’t want to sign a written contract, see you later.
Don’t donate your time, money, time away from the salon with clients who might send you actual referral business to work on this person if they won’t sign a contract. That’s bad business, and this is a business arrangement.
If you were to look objectively, you’d wonder why you would ever work for free, discount, or for shout out without a contract in place, right?
Get super specific
The contract should be super specific and detail the following:
-
What a social share would say
-
How many posts they’ll share
-
The platforms they’ll use
You could even detail out how many referrals that shout out must generate for this agreement to stand. If the influencer has real influence, they should be able to make one or two posts, and your DMs will fill up. If your influencer gives you a shout out and it doesn’t generate two or three clients, are they really an influencer or just popular?
Your contract could be set up, so if that influencer stops generating business, it’s cool. She can still be your client, but it’s not for free anymore.
And if that influencer says they won’t come in if they have to pay you, they didn’t love you that much anyway. Have enough respect for yourself to be cool with that.
The reality of you sharing their photo on your social media gives you some high fives and kudos. You can’t pay a mortgage on high fives or buy groceries with kudos. It has to be money. So if it’s not generating business, ask yourself, what are you doing?
If you want to reach out to an influencer
Maybe there’s an influencer in your area who you feel like you’d work really well with. She is your market, and it could be a really great relationship.
The natural inclination is to DM them and ask if you can do their hair, right? But here’s the thing: That’s uncomfortable.
You don’t have any relationship, but you want to sign them up for something. In your mind, you’re offering to do their hair for free, so it doesn’t matter. But it’s highly uncomfortable because they don’t even know you.
Build a relationship
Instead, be normal and build a relationship. If you think you could never build a relationship with an influencer, you have it twisted. You can’t build a relationship the first way: coming in hot and being creepy. But it works if you’re coming from a real, authentic place.
Like and comment on their photos and pop into their DMs. Show up, court them. Maybe for weeks or even months. Perhaps they’ll DM you back a time or two. Let the relationship build and show them you’re normal.
Make your pitch
If they have not pitched you yet – because if you do this courting process right, they just may reach out to you – you can pitch them.
Let them know you live in the same area, you really admire their work, and you think they’d have a great experience if they came to get their hair done. Say if they’re interested, you’d love to set up a consultation to talk about it.
No heavy pitch. You don’t have to say the terms, spell it out, or mention a contract.
They’re either going to respond with thanks, but no thanks or that would be awesome. Or maybe they don’t respond at all. Either way, you’re winning because there’s nothing to lose and everything to gain if you do this correctly.
Have a conversation
If they say yes, offer an in-person consultation or over the phone. Just have a conversation with them and ask what this relationship would look like to them. Don’t just hand over your contract. See if you can get on the same page.
Say, you’d like to do this, and you think you’d work well together. Mention what you want the relationship to look like for you.
If your terms are they have to share two photos, tag you in, and give you a sincere review, that’s not asking a lot. It would take an influencer five or six minutes in exchange for free or discounted hair. It’s hard to argue with that and, if the trust is there, they will be enticed by the offer.
If you’re approaching them, it is different. If they approached you, you can come in a little harder with the contract because they’ve already asked. But you are trying to bring them into your fold, so your approach has to be a little more gentle.
Don’t work with an influencer to feed your ego; do it to feed your business. They’re two different things, and you have to be clear when making business decisions about your why.
There are a few options when working with influencers, depending on if they approached you or vice versa. But the best referral source is your marketing funnel. The best influencer in the world cannot help you grow your business if your marketing funnel is weak.
If you partner with an influencer and they give you the right shout outs, but your Instagram, Facebook, Yelp, whatever is scary or abandoned, it doesn’t matter how many shout outs they give you.
And if you don’t hold up your end of the bargain, no amount of shoutouts will get you anywhere. Remember, the funnel is social media, website, target market, brand, and guest experience. Once you get those pieces in place, you can work with these influencers.
