If you’re eager to feature TikTok influencers in your marketing campaigns, you’re not alone.
That’s because TikTok content creators are crushing it on behalf of brands right now. From greater brand awareness to social SEO and beyond, the benefits of a creator-centric presence are clear.
The problem? TikTok doesn’t let you message accounts that don’t follow you.
Connecting with potential influencers on the app is tricky if you're conducting outreach yourself. Messaging influencers one-on-one is time-consuming enough even without this roadblock.
That said, there are ways to get in touch with influencer accounts without DMs.
In this post, we’ll teach you how to contact TikTok influencers even if you aren’t mutuals (yet)!
Trust us: we know it’s frustrating to not be able to tap the DM button right away.
The good news? You have a few options when it comes to getting in touch with influencers.
Before you follow tons of TikTokers and pitch them cold, consider these strategies first.
Despite popular belief, DMs aren’t the only way to communicate with creators.
Consider that many influencers actually prefer receiving emails over direct messages. With a dedicated business inbox, influencers can keep their personal and brand messages separate.
Thankfully, finding an influencer’s email address usually doesn’t require much digging. If an influencer wants to receive messages from brands, they’ll put their email address front and center in their TikTok bio.
Source: @emilymadisons
Simple enough, right? The upside of contacting influencers via email is that you don’t have to second-guess whether you’re reaching them the “right” way. Assuming your outreach email doesn’t bounce back, all you have to do is wait and see if your pitch landed.
Note: for macro-influencers, you might come across the email address of their management agency versus the influencer themselves. Keep that in mind when crafting your pitch.
Social media landing pages are all the rage right now among influencers.
And they’re awesome resources for figuring out how to message TikTok influences.
Bio link tools act as microsites where influencers can link to their promotional pages, socials and contact information. Popular social media landing page platforms include:
You’ve probably seen your fair of these links in the wild. If a potential influencer has one in their bio, chances are you’ll be able to reach out to them shortly.
Check out the influencer below pointing people directly to her bio link. From there, prospective brands can see her email address and blog among other pages.
Source: @trulyleesh
When you click on the email icon from here, you can actually start writing your outreach message right away. You can also save email addresses into your contacts or copy them over to your influencer spreadsheet if you're tracking outreach manually.
Of course, we recommend taking extra time to personalize your pitches rather than try to rush them. This is yet another reason to check out someone’s social media landing pages prior to outreach.
For example, bio links can uncover which brands someone already collaborates with or what their content beyond TikTok looks like. These details can be valuable for letting influencers know you’ve done your homework.
Let’s say you’ve found an influencer you’d really like to work with on TikTok but there’s no email address or bio link to be found.
Bummer! But if you see an Instagram icon, you might be in luck.
We’ve found that many influencers have their Instagram optimized for brand outreach but not their TikTok account. Think of Instagram as a secondary social search engine if you can’t find someone's contact information on TikTok.
For example, check out this Statusphere creator that has a Linkt.ree and an active email button on Instagram. She also has her TikTok linked directly in her bio as well.
Source: @orangeginger
If an influencer links their TikTok in their Instagram bio, that’s a good sign. Doing so means they want people to go there and potentially reach out about their TikTok presence.
You have to be tactful if you get a TikToker’s contact info from Instagram, though. For starters:
The TikTok Creator Marketplace is the platform’s official space to connect with and hire creators. Through the Marketplace, you look up influencers to collaborate with based on their industries, audience size and engagement rate.
Thing is, the TikTok Creator Marketplace isn’t as much about messaging as it is about hiring.
Rates on the platform also vary wildly from creator to creator, too. Although this isn’t a free way to message influencers on TikTok, it’s still an option.
If you want to find influencers’ contact information faster, consider third-party tools that can help.
For example, you could potentially pay for access to an influencer database. Depending on the type of database you invest in, you have near-instant access to hundreds of influencers’ email addresses.
The catch? Database access isn’t cheap (hint: some cost $2,000 per month). Beyond that, consider that databases aren't always 100% accurate or up-to-date. If you’re reaching influencers that aren’t part of a creator network, you’re still on the hook for pitching them successfully.
The takeaway? Paying for access to a database can be a gamble.
If the pitching process is way too time-consuming, consider how a platform like Statusphere can streamline the process. Our software programmatically matches brands with influencers from our vetted creator community based on 250+ unique, first-party data points. This eliminates the need for outreach and ensures great-fit influencers to promote your brand.
Let's say you're conducting a large-scale TikTok outreach campaign yourself.
Now that you know the basics of contacting influencers on TikTok, let’s talk about how to reach out.
Many influencers will specify how they prefer to be contacted in their bios.
And if they do, you should stick to that!
For example, the influencer below actually uses her TikTok bio to advise brands to DM her on Instagram if they want to collab.
Source: @.haulsbyaddisonn
Influencers provide brands with instructions like this for a reason. For example, some creators might want brands to show interest by getting followed prior to a pitch. Others might want to reduce spam requests.
Brands should respect creators’ preferences regardless.
But let’s say an influencer doesn’t specify how they want to be reached. Then what?
Again, accounts on TikTok need to be mutual followers before they can message each other. Whether a DM is necessary for a collab request comes down to your pitch and their preference.
Below are the pros and cons of messaging TikTok influencers via DM versus email.
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On the flip side, here are the pros and cons of emailing TikTokers directly for collabs.
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The simple answer to how to contact TikTok influencers? Stick to how they want to be reached. Doing so is a subtle way to make a positive first impression during outreach.
Let’s say that you’ve decided to go the DM route. Below is a quick breakdown of what direct messaging on TikTok looks like.
Step 1: Once you’ve found a creator you want to contact, tap the “Follow” button if you haven’t already.
Source: @thebookend.diner
Step 2: Once the creator follows you back, you’ll see a checkmark icon indicating that you’re mutual followers. Now you’ll have access to the “Message” icon and can send them DMs.
Source: @thebookend.diner
Step 3: From here, you’ll be prompted to write your DM. Like other social media platforms, TikTok will keep track of your entire conversation history.
Source: @thebookend.diner
And that’s that!
Trust us: partnering with TikTok creators is the best way to grow your TikTok presence and maximize the ROI of your content on the platform.
Still, you need to be strategic about how you go about your outreach. This is especially true if you want to earn a high volume of content rather than just a handful of posts.
Below are three must-dos for brands before trying to follow and message influencers on TikTok.
Don’t feel pressured to message each and every influencer you encounter.
Doing so is a waste of your time, not to mention their time.
Skip the mass messaging mentality and focus on finding TikTok influencers that you really want to work with. If you want to increase your odds of successful outreach, consider approaching micro-influencers first. It’s typically easier to get on smaller creators’ radars and earn follow-backs, too.
There are countless creators out there for any given industry. You can likewise comb through potential creators’ feeds for existing collabs and promotional posts.
For example, does someone already promote brands or use products similar to your own? These answers are valuable for finding influencers that want to work with companies like yours.
We streamline the research and vetting process for our brands by programmatically matching them with creators based on 250+ unique, first-party data points. If you're currently conducting outreach DIY, you'll likely only have the bandwidth to focus on the big-picture details of someone's profile.
Simply by being a brand account, you might be surprised at how many follow-backs you earn.
That said, anything you can do to make your account stand out and look credible is a plus. Ask yourself:
Chances are you already have these details taken care of. If you want to make sure your account looks like a million bucks, we suggest looking at some of the best brands on TikTok for inspiration.
Assuming that you’re following an influencer, it’s a good idea to engage strategically. That might mean leaving “Likes” on their TikTok videos or dropping a complimentary comment or two.
Try not to be too aggressive, though. You don’t want to look like a spammer.
And whatever you do, don’t drop a bunch of canned comments begging for collabs!
If you enjoy someone’s content, be authentic about letting them know and inviting them to collab.
Again, don’t go overboard. Seeing 52 notifications from your account in five minutes is a poor first impression for a potential influencer.
Whether you reach out via DMs or email, you need to make your pitch count.
And no creator wants to read a novel in their inbox.
Be as concise as possible in your message. Sure, you want to hype up your brand, products and potential partnership. Doing so is a balancing act, though.
That’s because influencers won’t respond to giant walls of text. Our recommendation? Keep your outreach messages between 100 and 150 words.
While you need to be concise, you also don’t want your messages to leave your influencers scratching their heads. Ideally, your pitches should anticipate and answer their questions before they have a chance to ask them.
Here are the key points you need to get across in your outreach ASAP:
For more guidance and inspiration on how to condense all of the above into an effective pitch, check out these TikTok message templates.
Given the proven ROI of TikTok influencer marketing, more and more brands are rightfully reaching out to creators for collaborations.
That means that competition is fierce in the inboxes of creators. Not to mention that brands a high volume of creators on deck to stand out from the crowd.
Knowing how to message TikTok influencers makes sense. That said, manual outreach is too time-consuming for teams that realistically need hundreds of TikTok creators posting about them.
And that's where Statusphere can help.
Our micro-influencer marketing platform by matching brands with creators from our vetted influencer community. We eliminate 98% of the workload involved in running campaigns DIY, too. This includes matchmaking, reporting, fulfillment and content rights management.
We've already generated over 75,000+ pieces of authentic content on behalf of 400+ brands.
Want to learn more about how our software works? Get in touch with one of our experts to see how we can scale your influencer marketing efforts on TikTok in a fraction of the time.
This article was first published in November 2020. It was last updated June 4, 2023.