Influencer Outreach for Authors doing Book Promotion

If you're wondering how to tackle influencer outreach for your book promotional efforts, then this video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie the Book Broad founder of a fabulous self publishing services firm called Book Launchers. As part of the work we do at Book Launchers for our authors, we create a marketing roadmap for your book launch and we also have a researcher on the team who will do influencer research. That roadmap is your strategic launch plan and then it's updated every quarter and includes a list of folks who are potential candidates to help you with book promotional efforts. We provide a lot of support around what to do with these influencers, but it's usually up to the authors to contact them because it's rarely as effective for a third party to do the outreach on your behalf unless that third party already has a relationship with that influencer. So what should you do or say? Well, first I think you need to do a mindset check to make sure that you have the right mindset going into this outreach. Rather than approaching this feeling needy, approach it knowing that your reader needs you to do this work so they can uncover your important book and unlock the knowledge you're sharing. Additionally, enter into this outreach with the mindset of building a long term relationship where you will add value and ask for something so minimal it's easy for the other person to say yes. So with that in mind, here are your tips to do your outreach and be more likely to get a yes. These aren't steps per se, but I would try to do them in order most of the time. Tip one is to do something that might get the influencer's attention in a more natural way. Your inclination might be to send an email and you can, but first I would try to get them to notice you in some other way. Let me give you an example from my YouTube besties, Steven Searle. See this really cool metal I'm wearing? This is from his top contributor Awards. Thank you. But long before he did this award he he was commenting on the YouTube videos I create. I pay attention to YouTube comments, so go ahead, pause the video and say hello down below because I'll probably reply to you. He was a cheery, encouraging voice adding value to my videos and the comments of others. So when he connected with me on Twitter, I connected back. And when he posted that he wanted pictures of people in dinosaur costumes with his book, I bought his book and got my son Jackson to pose in his dinosaur costume horse holding the book. See, he didn't even ask me directly. I Just did it to support someone who had been such a great supporter of me. So what can you do to get the influencer's attention first? Well, I've done this in other ways, like going to an event where they're speaking and getting an introduction to them through a common connection. I've also applied advice they've given and then posted on social media. The results of that advice with a thank you and just being a regular supporter and implementer and commenter who, who's willing to showcase the benefits of following their advice can be a huge, huge value to many influencers. That's friction free connecting. I highly recommend it. Tip 2 It's probably time to send an email, but what should that email look like? Well, here's some examples of what your email should not look like. Can I send you my book for you to read and write a review? Will you please retweet this to your audience? My book is relevant to your audience. Will you share it to them? Our companies have a lot of synergies. Can we chat to discuss how we can help each other? I get all of those all the time and I can't tell you how many emails that they are already getting that look like that, but I'm sure there's a lot. Also, this is just annoying because they're getting a ton of messages and I'm not even a big name and I get five to 10 of those requests a day in my email, LinkedIn or Instagram. So if you're at this step and you're now hid in Someone's inbox or DMs, your approach should not be to ask for a link or a share or a review. You should ask them to contribute to something or ask for advice of some kind or ask for some other light connection. Just as an example, I got invited last week to speak at two different summits. One made it clear my participation was contingent on me sharing a solo email to my audience about my participation. That was an instant turn off because I don't want to do that. I treasure all of you who read the launch letter and I probably would have shared a link in a newsletter, but I wasn't going to send a solo email. And also saying that on the initial outreach just made it feel like my participation was only wanted for my audience, not for my content. The other one went like this. I see your two videos per week and I just love them. I had to ask if you would participate in this upcoming summit. We have other experts like X and Y and actually know X and have a ton of respect for him. And we'd love to have the book Broad participate too. That worked for me. I said yes even though the timeline was tight, but they showed me they had checked out my content and that was the reason they were reaching out. They didn't ask me for anything but to be an expert on a panel at this summit, which is easy for me to do. And they also established credibility by naming one person I know and respect in the industry. So think about what you can ask for that is a much easier yes and make the person feel valued. Not used. Tip 3 no mass emails I say this even when you're asking for Amazon reviews, which is a smaller ask than what you're doing when you do influencer outreach. So if you're asking someone with an audience of 100,000 people of your ideal readers, you definitely should not be throwing them on a mass email and making an ask. This is not a numbers game. You need to be a sniper, not a torpedo. Also, this takes time. Tip one and two are not quick and easy wins. They work, but easy they are not. Number four Send something of value Robert Workman was a client of ours who successfully got his books into airport bookstores with a rather unconventional approach. His follow up after a sales call to carry his book was sending a box of cookies. Yep, and it worked. His book was carried in nearly a dozen airport bookstores. You can see that oldie but goodie video on our channel. I'll link to it at the end. Kevin White is also doing a video with us about how sending a package in the mail that included a letter and his book raised six figures for his nonprofit group. Make sure you've subscribed to the channel and turn the notifications on so you catch that one when it comes out. You can ship your book around with a letter, but doing a little extra something can get more attention. Maybe a really amazing T shirt or something else with your book. Not swag, necessarily. Something that influencer would care about. We had a guest expert on a call for our clients on making the most of your podcast interviews and she sent me a box of tea afterwards. So maybe a box of local tea with your book and a letter. If you know the person loves something, take that into account. It shows you're personalizing that outreach, which will be far more meaningful to that person. Tip 5 Get introduced if you can. I've talked about this before, but knowing someone who knows someone is a great way in. Dale Roberts, which is self publishing with Dale an awesome channel. Check it out he connects me with tons of amazing people in the publishing industry. He's a rock star of connections. If I need to meet someone, I ask him if he knows them and he almost always does. I have a few other friends that are like that that are just amazing connectors. So I always ask around if I want to meet somebody and I often can get a warm intro. And a warm intro will make it so much easier to ask for exactly what you want or need. I used to feel silly or awkward asking people like Dale for an intro, but I don't anymore. I focus on delivering value and building strong relationships. I treat everyone with respect and kindness and if I can't help, I try to find someone that can. If you do the same, then you should feel good about asking for help because you'll be the first one to line up when someone asks you. So how do you know if someone has connections that you might be interested in? Well, link LinkedIn and Facebook will tell you, or you can just email some of your friends and ask. There are also some online tools that you may find, but most of them are paid services that will help you do this research. I find asking works tip 6 deliver massive value to others on a daily basis EZ Graphics made a video for Self Publish and Succeed. It was a super cool video. I actually don't know what came of it, so if you're watching this, let me know. But it got my attention and it was incredibly generous to create that video. If you do something that is unique and kind and you can be generous, well, you'll probably find yourself getting a lot more yeses. Deliver value to others frequently and influencer outreach will be so much easier. Think of others and offer support if you can. For example, if you connect with someone and they say I'm doing X in my business and you happen to come across someone you know in that space, you can say, hey, you mentioned you were doing this and I happen to know this person who's also in the space and they might be a good connection for you. Which would you like me to connect the two of you? You put in the work to listen to see how you can help, and then you follow up with a generous, thoughtful offer to assist them. Now they will know who you are and often ask you how they can return the favor and voila, you've got an Easy, easy opening. Tip 7 Eavesdrop on them to find a way you can help. Most influencers are on social media or they do live streams or they do podcasts. In those things they will Leave clues as to how you can help them or connect with them. Please don't tweet someone and say, how can I help you? They don't know you, nor do they really want to share where they need help. I mean, who likes asking for help? So they are going to ignore you. So listen and pay attention. I made a friend with influencer coach Deb Cole because I heard her speak at an event and she said you should never have lunch alone and that you'd be surprised how many speakers don't get asked to go for lunch when they're speaking at an event. So most people just assume they're busy or too important. So when I saw she was speaking at another event I was going to be at, I started tweeting her about things I'd learned from her and was putting into action. And as the event approached, I reminded her of what she'd said and asked her to go for lunch. She said yes and it turned into a beautiful friendship. And she's also been an incredible supporter too. Super bonus. If you're really paying attention, you might spot something that your influencer is talking about that that isn't getting their usual level of traction, whether it's a video, a product, an idea, a picture. If you're the one that posts, shares, writes a testimonial, or does something else of value to support that thing, you'll be noticed. Tip 8 Do something that highlights the work of others Throwing back to Steven again. He's launched this series of Outstanding Creator Awards. He gave me the first award and and now I'm promoting it wearing this awesome medal. And I definitely know who he is. The same can work if you do an article series, a video series, podcast series, or a book full of expert interviews. Not everyone you ask will say yes, but some will, and you'll be building some powerfully strong bonds with some people who are influencers in their space. However, this is work. That's why it's effective and most people won't do this kind of work, so it makes it easier for you to stand out. And if you need to email your influencer, please start off with something that you respect and appreciate that they've done recently that's real. And get to the point fast. Be kind and try to deliver more value than you're asking. For now, I'm curious what has worked for you when it comes to influencer outreach? Let's chat about it in the comments below. And when you comment the day a video is released, not only do I remember, but you get entered to win some sweet book launchers. Swag. Okay, so this is the video with Robert Workman on getting your book into airport bookstores. His outreach is clever. And this one over here is the latest and greatest from the channel. Because outreach is all about staying on top of the latest and greatest. And commenting on my videos makes you my friend. So see you there, friend.