Good Influence: How to Engage Influencers for Purpose and Profit
Paul M. Katz
348 pages, Commit Media LLC, 2023
I heard the roar of the 100,000 people packed into Philadelphia’s John F. Kennedy Stadium long before I glimpsed the scene from my spot backstage as Billy Ocean stepped on stage. It was July 13, 1985, and I’d arrived from London just a few weeks earlier. I’d been transferred to New York to help build up the then‐fledgling Jive Records and Zomba Music Publishing companies in the United States. Several of our artists, including Billy, were involved with the Live Aid benefit concerts. The concert, and a simultaneous one at Wembley Stadium in London, featured over 75 artists including Queen, Elton John, David Bowie, Madonna, Sade, Santana, and the Beach Boys. By the end of its run, Live Aid raised over $125 million (over $415 million in 2021 currency) toward African famine relief. The ensuing public pressure resulted in governments supplying grain to end the hunger crisis.
Nearly 40 years on from Live Aid and 20 years after founding my social impact agency, Entertain Impact, I am still inspired by what I glimpsed that day. I think of myself as a cultural change agent, operating at the nexus of entertainment, pop culture, philanthropy, and social impact. We have handled over 100+ marketing and advocacy campaigns, working with organizations the African Wildlife Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, National Trust For Historic Preservation, Rotary International, ELMA Philanthropies, PMNCH, and WHO Foundation, among others. These campaigns have been supported by hundreds of influencers, including Kevin Bacon, Ziggy Marley, Angélique Kidjo, John Legend, Lupita Nyong'o, Mark Ruffalo, H.E.R., Usher, and Desmond Tutu.
My book Good Influence: How to Engage Influencers for Purpose and Profit aims to give confidence and knowledge to organizations of whatever size or location through stories, fact-based research, and case studies on how to strategically and practically engage the Influencer Effect to raise awareness, support, and revenues; to inspire action; and to drive programs to achieve their goals. The mobilization of influencers is key to economically connecting with hard-to-reach desired audiences, creating a successful campaign, and measuring the impact.—Paul Katz
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The Ask is an industry term for when you “Ask” an Influencer to do or donate something. Crafting an effective Ask is an art. You use the medium to present a compelling case for why an Influencer should give their time, reputation, and more to your cause or brand. The Ask is a manifestation of all your thinking and planning to date. To make a powerful Ask, you need a strong campaign with specific requests for what you want your Influencer(s) to do.
What Is the Purpose of the Ask?
The purpose of the Ask may seem obvious, but there are several benefits of making an Ask beyond getting an Influencer on board. You know the Influencer, but they may not have heard of your organization. The Ask educates your targeted Influencers and their representatives about your organization. If you want five Influencers for your campaign and you reach out to forty, there are probably one hundred people—between the Influencers and their representatives—who now know about your organization. Even if you get a no from the majority, you have established a dialogue and set yourself up for another request down the line. Through the Ask experience, you will know the right people to connect with and better understand how the entertainment ecosystem operates.
Personalize All Asks
Everyone wants to be loved, so a “To Whom it May Concern” generic email guarantees failure. Why? Because your greeting alone makes it obvious that the particular Influencer you’re reaching out to is just one of a long list of names, and is very likely not your first choice. If you are only doing one or two campaigns a year, creating individual emails by hand is feasible, if laborious. Just make sure that you have the correct Influencer’s name throughout the email, and if you cut and pasted, didn’t leave the previous Influencer’s name in one of the paragraphs by accident. To make the “by hand” personalized approach a little quicker, I usually save a version of the Ask letter as a template in Gmail. There are also software services that you can use to send out email Asks in bulk, like Mailchimp, that make each one look personalized. You can get more information on this and other programs on the book’s website.
The Look
While a regular email will suffice, it will stand out from the pack and may get a better response if you spruce it up a bit. For ALIMA’s “Oxygen for Africa” campaign Ask, we put a branded banner in the header of the email. As Andra Day’s manager Jeffrey Evan’s said to me, “If there is a graphic on an Ask, I treat it more seriously.” However, I wouldn’t agonize over this. In most cases, a regular email will do the trick.
Short and Sweet
Given that Influencers and their teams are inundated with requests and have short attention spans, your Ask should be no more than a page long. So, be succinct when introducing your organization, cause, and request. The Ask letter is an invitation for a conversation, not a short story, so over‐detailed and extensive Asks are not optimal for success.
After the Ask: Keys to Success
You’ve hit “send.” Now what? Sit back and wait? Nope. There are a few more things you need to do to improve your chances of success.
Tracking System
You may make dozens of Asks during each campaign, so a method of tracking them helps you be on top of your outreach and reduces any administrative burden. An Excel spreadsheet or Google sheet is a simple but effective form of tracking grid.
I use these categories to track Influencer outreach for each campaign:
- Name of the Influencer and their contact and details
- Outreach undertaken (yes/no)
- Ask: if the Asks are different, I highlight the priority (e.g., social media post versus event attendance)
- Follow‐Ups (yes/no and dates)
- Response (yes, no, or maybe)
- Next Steps
Pro Tip: Have two tabs. One is for the Influencers that are still in play, while the other tab is for those who have said no.
Top Tools: A more sophisticated approach to tracking your outreach is to use a software program. There are several around. I like Pipedrive, which is relatively simple to learn. Once you do, you have a handy tool not just for your Influencer outreach but also for your business development generally. Pipedrive is a customer relationship management tool that automatically tracks and then organizes the calls, emails, and other actions you have taken to get a customer. I especially like the visual aspect of the program, where you can create your headers. You could make each of the columns I stated above in Pipedrive and track outreach. If you do loads of outreach, Pipe drive may be for you, but if you are undertaking one or two outreach efforts a year, stick to Excel.
Follow Up & Timing
Let’s assume you have made your Ask and are waiting with anticipation for a reply. A week passes, and no response. You follow up for several weeks via emails and calls, getting more and more anxious, and start to worry you will miss your campaign deadline. This process may be frustrating, but realize your Ask is one of many that an Influencer’s team has to deal with each day. If you are disappointed or affronted by the lack of a response, it is not personal or a judgment on the validity of your cause or campaign. For every campaign, a substantial portion of your outreach may be no‐responses, even if you have the correct contact information. Other types of responses are discussed in the next section.
Outreach is not about sending an email, sitting back, and doing nothing more. The amount of emails we all get is overwhelming. How many times has a person sent you a follow‐up email reminding you about their original email that has been lost in your inbox? While persistence is a necessary quality in outreach, people are busy and under stress, especially in the time of COVID, so be empathetic to those on the other side of your request. Kindness goes a long way.
I have found this follow-up system works:
Day 1: Original Ask sent. Day 8: Gentle follow‐up.
Day 15: Call to ensure they got the Ask. When calling, simply say that you are following up on your email, explain the Ask in two sentences, and see if they want you to resend the email.
Day 20: Follow up with the date of your event or deadline. Day 28: Send a thank you. Whether they said no, or even if you haven’t heard back and you have decided to move on, send a thank you. You may want to work with the Influencer or their team in the future.
Response Types
Responses to your Ask come in four categories: yes, no, silence, and maybe.
The most obvious one is a YES. Celebrate. We will talk about how to move forward on this basis in the next chapter. The other obvious one is a NO: disappointing to hear and will be a large proportion of the responses you will get. Analyze your noes since there are different types. There is the, “No, we’re not interested,” and the, “No, we’re too busy, but re‐approach us again in a few months.” The latter is far more encouraging and results from establishing a connection between your campaign and the Influencer. Where I am cautious is when I get an immediate no. This means either the Influencer has a set list of acceptable topics for engagement, and requests pertaining to any other are an automatic no, or the request never got to the Influencer. Here you need to make a judgment call. If you feel your request was ignored, ask a second time politely by email explaining the applicability of your Ask to the Influencer. This follow‐up often results in it being given proper consideration.
Silence is tricky because you make assumptions about possible motivations or responses when you don’t hear from your Influencer. The lack of a response could be because you used the wrong email address or that circumstances in their private life don’t allow them to focus on the request. So my rule is that if I haven’t heard back anything after three follow‐ups, I treat it as a pass. This way, I can move on and not have a lingering uncertainty that can be time‐consuming and stressful.
A maybe is an in‐between response and leaves you hanging for several weeks while the clock runs down. This limbo situation is uncomfortable. You are torn between the hope that you will get a positive answer and the need to move on. My suggestion is to set a drop‐dead date by which you need to hear back. Put this date either in your original Ask letter or in your follow‐up email. This deadline concentrates the mind and allows you to turn a maybe into a no or yes.
When dealing with the Influencer’s gatekeepers, remember that a rep’s day is intense and hectic. Like you, they are juggling many opportunities for their Influencer who may be on a remote island doing a shoot, out on tour, or on a well‐deserved “do not disturb” family vacation. While they may want to support your request, their turnaround time may not be as quick as you would like. This lack of communication can make you feel exasperated, but temper your desire to say something nasty, even if you are near your launch date. Delete what I call your therapy email—you know, the blunt, angry one you wrote that may ruin the relationship forever. Then take a deep breath and go to a meditation class or work out. Please never express your negative feelings to the Influencer’s team. Basically, the simpler you can make their lives, the better your chances of success. Professionalism is paramount.
Closing the Deal
If you got a YES, you will need to memorialize the understanding between your organization and the Influencer. A phone call will not suffice. Use one of these three ways; all may be morally binding, but some are more legally binding than others.
An email simply states the basic terms and is sufficient in most cases where it’s a nonprofit campaign or no money is changing hands.
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
The MOU sets out the essential and practical deal points and is used when money changes hands and there is not enough time to sign a full‐blown contract.
Contract
A contract is a formal document detailing each party’s rights, obligations, and remedies. Usually used for brand campaigns when payments are involved, or for larger organizations like Pepsi or UNICEF. The main terms of a contract are as set out below, but you can take the ones you want and put them in your email or MOU:
- Practical terms: Names of parties, description of the campaign, what the Influencer is responsible for doing, what you are doing, when, where, what times and dates, approvals and turnaround times, and payment and expenses
- Legal terms: Warranties, indemnification, notices, choice of legal jurisdiction, confidentiality, and signatures
Samples of each are on our website, but as I am not a practicing attorney, you will need legal advice prior to entering into any agreement.
Next Steps
Once you have made the Ask, be prepared for when an Influencer says, “I’m in.” When I Ask(ed) John Legend for a quote for inclusion in the press release for the campaign to preserve Nina Simone’s childhood home, the quote was pre‐approved by the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. So when John’s management confirmed his participation, the quote and press release went straight to John and his team, who kept the basic sentiment of the quote but adapted it to John’s voice.
Engaging Influencers can be a frustrating and rewarding experience. Frustrating because you go out to many Influencers, wait for what seems like forever, and continually get rejected or, worse still, don’t even hear back. And rewarding because inevitably, your hard work will pay off, and you will get a “Yes, I’ll support your campaign.” Then you will feel exhilarated and be able to move forward to the Activation phase. That is the tip of the iceberg, the part the public engages with. It is essential that you execute this Activation phase well, so let’s see how to do just that.