How to get on a press list as an influencer?

The press list of a PR agency

As an influencer you naturally like to review products from various beauty, fashion and lifestyle brands. As much as we would like to, unfortunately we can’t add everyone to our press list. We promise our clients to guarantee quality, which means that we only add influencers who fit our press list. To do this, someone must meet certain criteria. For example, a minimum number of unique visitors on your website, a large reach on instagram with a good engagement rate or the number of subscribers and views on your youtube channel. But not only the numbers are important. What we find more important is the quality. What does your channel look like? Does the design look professional? Do you have your own domain name? And so on.

By looking at the whole picture, we can determine whether someone fits our press list and perhaps even matches a particular brand for which we provide PR. A match made in PR heaven!

Tips for being added to a press list

Would you like to be added to the press list of a brand or pr agency? Then we would like to share some tips that can help you with this:

• Your own domain name: make sure you have your own domain name. This does not even have to cost € 10 per year and makes your approach look a lot more professional.
• Design: give your channels their own look and feel. For example, choose a certain style of photos or basic colors that you always use. This creates recognition.
• Photography and videos: the quality of the photos and videos you post is very important. Take sharp photos without reflection of light. Try to use daylight. This makes products, but also yourself, stand out more.
• Personal: don’t just show pictures of the products you review. Followers want to see the person they are following. Therefore, also share photos of yourself with, for example, an applied product.
• Post-flow: try to maintain a certain ‘post-flow’. For example, make an instapost every other day and a blog post at least twice a week. If you post too little, you are less attractive to a brand.
• Google analytics: register your website with google analytics. This will show you the number of unique visitors, the number of page views and your target group. We also always ask for a screenshot of your analytics to see how your blog is doing. Instagram and facebook also have their own analytics tool, which provides interesting data for both you and us.
• Fake followers: many starting influencers buy followers to make it look like they are generating a large reach. Nowadays there are several online tools to see if someone has bought followers, and how many. Again: we don’t just look at the number of followers you have, but the whole picture. If you have a channel that we see potential in, we would love to add you!

Sometimes we have to reject starting influencers. This is because they are not big enough yet, or because the quality they deliver is not up to par. We will then gladly give you some tips and look forward to your message in six months.

This article was written by Michelle van Donge, Beauty PR consultant at Mooi The Agency.