Clear communication is important in all aspects of business, including your influencer marketing programs. The best thing you can do for your brand is to not be sloppy when communicating with your teams, clients and influencers.

Once you’ve scoped out a few influencers you think are the perfect fit for your brand, you should decide how you’d like to get in touch with them and introduce yourself. Sure, you can reach out on social, but composing a professional and concise email ask is more appropriate for established bloggers and social media influencers. Drafting the perfect outreach email gives you the best chance of the influencer accepting the job.

Think about a time someone wrote you an email or called you up asking for a favor, or trying to sell you something, and they got your name wrong, or sounded like they were reading from a script. Do you remember how it made you feel? My guess is pretty unimportant and that your first instinct was to delete the message or email.

The same goes for when you’re looking to collaborate with influencers. Address them by name and make it clear that you’re familiar with their work and background. Don’t be afraid to give a few examples about what caught your eye. Your outreach email is the part of the relationship building process and it will hopefully set you up for something that lasts.

The most vital question you should answer in your email is the reason you think they’re the right fit to be a part of your brand ambassador program. Social media influencers are picky about who they work with too. They want to make sure it makes sense for their content, audience and personality.

What’s in it for them? What will they (and you) gain from the relationship? The pros must outweigh the cons for both parties to launch a successful marketing campaign. Is it exposure, free product, special events or networking opportunities? Whatever you do, make sure you approach an established influencer with facts, figures and benefits.

Show them you care in your outreach email. Be honest about the time commitment and project guidelines. Express an authentic and trustworthy tone. They’ll be more receptive to discussing the details further if they feel you’re approaching the request professionally and taking their role seriously. Let them know you respect their time and opinions in the initial outreach process.

Don’t leave you email open for interpretation when they’re done reading it. End with a specific call to action and what you deem as the next steps. Influencers have busy schedules too, so if you don’t hear from them and are itching to connect, then give it a few days and follow up to confirm they received your message.

Finding the right influencers for your brand and campaigns is imperative. Otherwise, you risk the whole idea backfiring and turning off your fans and the influencer’s followers. Cutting corners won’t do you any good. Start the process off right by drafting the perfect email ask to your potential influencers for your marketing campaigns.