Influencer Marketing with a touch of Harvey Specter from Suits

If you are a huge Harvey Specter fan like me, you probably remember the lawsuits and dialogues, which I am going to mention in this article. You will learn how Harvey Specter from the famous series Suits used some of the following Influencer marketing strategies to get what he wanted and win his lawsuits.

I understand those cases were fictitious, but there is a lot to learn from them as they are directly connected to influencer marketing.

But first, let’s understand.

What is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing helps you target influencers who can impact your potential buyers and their decision-making process. With the help of influencers, you create brand awareness and consideration for your product.

Whether you are a company providing blockchain development services, an accountant in Toronto, or a leading publishing company trying to get a good reputation for your brand, it is important to get publicity.

A good piece of content can be written by anyone, but it is important to bring it in front of the mass audience who can promote and make the post go viral.

But how do you build a relationship with influencers?

How do you connect with them?

How can you convince influencers to share your content?

In this article, you will learn some of the strategies that Harvey Specter used in Suits, and apply them to convince influencers to share your content with their strong network.

All these strategies are derived from different episodes of references and crafted to explain how to build a relationship with an influencer.

Strategy 1 – Don’t play the odds. Play the Man!

 

Make a list of the influencers you want to reach out for your content

Finding the right people for your industry is the first important step.

If you don’t know who you want to impress, how can you prepare yourself to make the right first impression?

Harvey also said, “if they are doing it now, they probably have done it before.” You have to find who they have done it too and understand their stories.

To make a list of the relevant influencers, you have to follow the following steps:

Find the influencers

Note: Anyone who has written articles relevant to your topic could be your influencer.

Use tools like BuzzSuMo or Feedly to search people/authors who have written articles on the topic relevant to your industry. Look for articles with the most shares, likes, and comments.

You can also find authors on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Instagram.

Make a list, (LIST #1), of all the authors you want to ask to share your content or ask for your product link pointing back to your website.

Put these influencers/authors in a spreadsheet. Make sure to fill the following details about these influencers in your spreadsheet:

• Name
• Twitter Handle
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Article URL
• Title
• Total Shares
• Published Date
• Links in this post to other posts
• Let’s save it!

Find the Minor Influencers

From your influencer’s search, the articles which got the most shares should have some links, which were added by the authors to give backlinks to other author’s articles or websites. You have to now make a list of those authors and their articles. We will call this List #2.

Save the details such as Influencer’s name, author’s name, post title, URL, total shares, social profile details, etc.

These are now your minor influencers.

Remember, minor influencers are those who have fewer people in their network, fewer post shares, and less popularity compared to main influencers. But they have got a backlink from the influencer you are trying to target.

Strategy 2 – You Owe Me

 

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  A GIF of Harvey Specter from ‘Suits’

Influencer marketing is all about building a relationship first and then asking for help or backlinks to grow your business online.

Now that you have the list of your targeted influencers and minor influencers, use these three steps to make a connection with them.

Step 1 – Get their attention

Subscribe to their blog and comment on their blog posts. If you find a recently published blog that did not get a lot of likes or shares, being the first one to share, like or comment would make you special for them. You should also leave a comment on their blog and ask them a question. If you don’t know too much about the topic, simply appreciate their work. Also, tag them on social media as you share their content or post.

Repeat this multiple times to get their attention. But don’t become obsessed with it, you might look like a stalker!

Step 2 – Express your affinity

If you managed to get a like or a share of the post you shared for promoting their piece of content, they might already recognize you by now. Also, on LinkedIn, if they visit your profile, you can see it in your insights. If they do not visit your profile, visit their’s to get noticed. But don’t give up, repeat this a few times to get their attention. Letting them know that you follow them would not be enough, you should find a way to get their acknowledgment.

Here are some ways to express your affinity and loyalty.

• Go to LinkedIn and follow the same groups as your influencers’ followers. Now share their article on LinkedIn and mention them in your post. This would help you at the time they dig your profile on LinkedIn and finds that you both have common interests.
• You can do this on Twitter as well, but I prefer to do this on LinkedIn because that way, they can see a little bit more about you.

Step 3 – Write an article and include their link

It is important that you tell them somehow, that you have included them in your post. If they do not respond to your social media mention or email, you should send them a direct message on LinkedIn. If still there is no response, it is fine. Write another article and repeat the above points in Step 3 to let them know. Because maybe they did not find it enough interesting the first time. Note: In this same article, you can include multiple influencers and links. Instead of following one influencer, you can follow multiple and ask them to share your post. Do this after repeating step 2 a few times.

Write an article based on the topics you know your influencers are likely to follow.

Give their old article a backlink.

Now reach out to them via email or social media and tell them that you have mentioned them. Ask them to share the article with their network.

In Suits, Harvey owes a favor to very few people but almost everyone owed him one. He would do something for others first and then ask them to return the favor when he requires help.

By following the above steps, influencers may not really “owe” you one, but at least if you go to them to ask for a favor, the chances are they know you already and would consider your request over others.

Strategy 3 – If you can make them look good, they will value you.

 

Remember, when Alison Bolt, a rival of Harvey Specter, poaches Harvey’s client and convinces the client to sign a merger deal? After that when the client fired Harvey, he takes his chances and figures out what was in it for Alison. After his research, he proves to his client that if he went with Alison Bolt, the new attorney, he would lose his dream company because the deal was just a bait.

In this example, Harvey shows when you need to mark your place in someone’s eye, you need to show them the value of the relationship.

Strengthening the relationship with the influencer is as important as building it. Here are two things you can do to achieve this:

Assist them with their content – Find out the opportunity to add value to their previously published blog posts. If the content is popular but outdated, provide them additional information to make it better. Do some research, find the missing pieces, and add value to their existing content and their audiences.

Save their reputation – Use Broken Link tools like Ahref or Screaming Frog to find out if they have any articles with broken links. Send them a replacement for that link. If you can write on a topic to replace that link, great, if not then just give them some other article to replace it with. Either way, you leave an impact on them. Simply send an email to them and tell them what you found and offer your help.

I hope using the five Harvey Specter’s strategies you achieve success with influencer marketing.

To summarize:

1. Make a relationship with the influencer
2. Add value to their content by sharing or commenting on it
3. They might return a favor if you have done something meaningful for them
4. If you cannot get them to trust you, go through the people they trust
5. Make them look good

If you are a part of a digital marketing agency, a business owner, or a marketer who wants to read about influencer marketing, please leave a comment to share your thoughts. Let me know who is your favorite: Harvey Specter, Mike Ross, or Jessica Pearson?