How to Attract Influencers to Your Retreat Brand (IN NOW) **NO**

How to Attract Influencers to Your Retreat Brand

Influencers are the latest trend in marketing. Like you, they usually want to connect with brands that will bring them more followers. This means both you and them have to be aligned with similar brand values and demographics. This is more important than the numbers.

Before you even begin, ask yourself, “Who does my Avatar follow?”

Another thing to consider is if they are TRUE influencers.

We all know people can buy follows on every platform. Here are ways of getting down to the truth.

Check to see if they have thousands of followers but their engagement is extremely low in comparison. Here are some examples of things to look for:

• They have 100k following but 400 views, or barely any comments or comments from people who have barely any followers.

• Posts, where the influencer shows up in the picture, should have a much higher engagement than a product post. If they have the same engagement across all posts, it is a red flag.

• Their engagement during a “Live” does not correlate with the number of followers.
• If they use campaign-specific hashtags, research that hashtag to see how popular it is.

• There are online tools that will tell you the influencers’ numbers on their social media and on their website.

• Here is a manual way to calculate engagement:

“Total number of engagements / Total number of followers = Engagement Rate”

• A good engagement rate is approximately 5%, but it can be as low as 1%. This depends on the platform and the type of product.

• If you don’t have a big following, do not worry. Here are some other ways to attract them to your brand.

• Connect with them by getting to know them beyond their brand. What is their purpose, their philosophy? Offer them personal value before proposing anything beyond that. This might take weeks or even months. Show up to their speaking engagements, lives, and masterclasses, etc. Engage with them on their social media. Be patient, and be genuine like you would be any other time when building a connection. Relationships need to be nurtured including ones in business. Not only do you want them to be an affiliate, but you need to see them beyond the numbers as a person. People do not want to feel they are only a value to someone only when they are needed for business. An influencer is a person, not a brand alone and therefore we need to be sensitive to that component and always consider how we would want to be treated.

• Find an influencer that might want to offer their services because they are deeply connected to your cause or message. It’s the same reason a foundation would connect with you because it aligns with their values.

• Sometimes they will post about you because they like you. So don’t be shy to put yourself out there and get to know your community. You might be surprised how easily people will want to help.

Once you feel the connection has been made, you can suggest a collaboration. Don’t be surprised if they ask first. You can do so by:

• Creating posts and stories together.
• Offer giveaways or create some type of contest.
• Writing a blog together.
• Do a “Live” on social media.
• Invite them to your podcast.
• Offer them an affiliation percentage to promote your retreat. For example, they get 20% for a referral that booked a spot in your retreat.
• Offer them a spot at your retreat at a discounted rate in return they would need to post about the retreat.

Now if for whatever reason you have a product connected to your brand, once you have established you want to associate with an influencer, you can simply send a quick and short message like “ Hey (NAME), we would like to send you a free sample of our product that we think you would like. May we send you a sample?” Once they get it, try it and tell you they love it, then and after you can speak about a partnership. If they do not reach out to tell you they love it, go on to the next influencer.