The influencer world is definitely not a cheap one to tap into. Especially if you are a startup on a tight budget! 

In the past, we have been lucky enough to have connected to a few celebrities who promoted our product for free – without the high-end agency fees of up to £5,000 for an Instagram post simply by cutting out the middleman and contacting them directly through Twitter.

But how can you reach out to brands?

We recently had some luck and had our product retweeted by a major influencer in our niche, directly to a very large audience base perfect for us. Was it down to us retweeting their content? Endless commenting on their posts? No.

We simply offered their followers a free gift.

For example, if my client was a co-working office and they wanted to have a boost in monthly signups, I would look to contact a large startup group based in their area of London and connect with them on Twitter.

I would then ask them if they would like to encourage readers to subscribe to their newsletters for a chance to win a free co-working day in our offices.

They loved the idea of offering their followers something that would actually come in handy and also to increase their engagement and it ended up giving us a few more sign ups!

So here are my simple steps that will help you on your way. 

• Find someone in your niche but not a direct competitor. Common sense here, if you are a florist, you would not approach another florist to offer to give away your flowers! Instead get in touch with a large bridal or event company in your area and ask them would their followers like a free bouquet or centerpiece in exchange for them retweeting it.

• If you don’t get through at first, do not give up! There are many ways to connect with larger brands and I always found their Facebook pages were the easiest. Just ask them is there a contact in their marketing department you can pop an email too.

• This works on Facebook and Instagram too! 

• Make sure you keep tabs on the winner, the likely hood is they will retweet their free gift and then you can comment on the post and thank them once again putting the focus on your brand.

• Take a look at your target’s site. What are they currently promoting? Is it an Ebook? An event they want people to attend? An online course? Then approach them and mention that to help get people to sign up tp their online business course, you will give away a free consultancy.

Ok so very simple, you just need to spend a little time finding a brand with a worthwhile following in your niche.

Good luck and any questions, just click here!