Ten proven tips to get the attention of influencers in 2017
The million-dollar question on everybody’s lips is – How do you attract an influencer to your website/blog?
The heading says it all. When you create something really unique and really timely in your niche, you will get the attention of your influencer and everyone else. Create content that can’t be easily replicated and if the content speaks for itself, everyone else will share it.
2.Link to their Content
Online influencers who are at the top of their game pay attention to the links that they build and also where their traffic comes from. Link to your influencers' content from your own pages and your domain will show up when they do a backlink analysis. They will get curious about the context of the link and click through to your site. If your links start generating real traffic for their blog, they might even want to return the favor.
3.Share your influencers’ content
Set up a notification or add an influencer’s blog to your RSS feed and make sure you’re the one of the first to share their content after it’s published. If a person is good enough to be an influencer for you, they would definitely keep an eye on analytics. This means that they would notice you as one of the influencers for their blog when they see you sharing their posts regularly and immediately after they are published. Chances are they will return the favor and share your content as well.
4.Comment on their blog
The best bloggers and influencers are conversation starters and respond to comments and questions on their blog posts. Your influencer will appreciate it if you ask questions and make valid points. Make sure that you have a clear name and photo on your gravatar account so that your influencer recognizes you on other platforms as well.
5.Write a Blog Post About Them
Nobody can resist sharing stuff about themselves, especially when the stuff portrays them in good light. Write a blog post that features your influencer or talks about his/her blog. Then let them know that you have written about them and share a link to the post so that it is easier for them to share it.
6.Start and Lead a Discussion
Everybody keeps saying “engage on social media” but most people miss the point. Engagement simply doesn’t mean writing “I like your post” or “great post”. It actually means writing something relevant that encourages people to continue a conversation. Your influencer might not reply directly but some of the other followers might, which in turn could lead to a big discussion that your influencer could notice.
7.Create Content For Their Audience
Before you think I have lost my marbles, hear me out. Influencer marketing is all about getting others to help you and also helping them out. It is a two-way street. Go through your influencer’s blog, find topics which they might have missed out on and then create content on them. Later, when you reach out to them and ask them to share your content, they will see the value in it and share it.
8.Offer to guest post on their blog
Guest posting is a great way to build a relationship. Check for a “write for us” page or something similar. If not, reach out to them by email, and broach a topic their audience would love. Guest posts are great because they are posted on an influencer’s blog and thus, they obviously get shared. Also, as a guest post is something you write before asking someone to be an influencer for you, you basically have time to build a relationship.
9.Ask them to be an influencer
“What? That’s it? Seriously?, ” yes, that’s it. While you are making all the plans in the world to grab influencers' attention, some people simply do the most obvious thing that should be done. They just ask for help. One of the three things can happen in this scenario:
They say 'Yes'. (Awesome! Mission accomplished.)
They say 'No'. (Time to look elsewhere.)
They don’t respond. (Time to try out some of the other strategies in this list.)
10.Don’t be a pushy salesman
Getting influencers' attention by stalking them online and filling their social feed won’t make you look good. You should definitely try multiple strategies to get noticed, but pace yourself. Appear too pushy and you’ll get a negative response or be ignored.
So, you see that there are myriad ways of grabbing the attention of influencers and when you have pulled out all stops, there's no reason why you should not get the desired results.
