Our family restaurant gets a fair share of influencers reaching out to “help” us promote our product.
We don’t do most of them, because to me, most of them are bad deals.
What I mean is that most influencers who reach out to us aren’t in love with our products like many of our customers already are. They’re coming in cold, with little context of how we do things in our small part of town.
Their messages go something like this: “Hey! My name is x, and I love working with all sorts of food businesses/restaurants and I see that you’ve got a great selection of product on your page. I love tasting and reviewing new foods, and it would be great to do a collaboration.”
Great. Here’s where it goes wrong.
“If you want to access my audience of over 50k, we can speak about my bookings and my compensation. Also I’m asking you to cover the expenses of the food for me. Thanks. By the way, I’m only considering your product if it’s for free.”
Not only is it completely selfish, it provides little value to a business looking to build an actual brand.
In a world where people look for brand partnerships to make themselves look like they’re worth spending money on, it’s more uncommon to come across someone who cares.
As someone who’s on the other side, show me you care about the culture. I need to know what’s in it for me too (and it’s more than just the followers). I need to see how your community reacts to what you produce.
Here’s how influencers can do a better job of helping businesses: Help the business, and give a flying fladoodle.
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