German Influencer Outreach VA

We are looking for a German-speaking Virtual Assistant to help us build genuine relationships with micro-influencers in the German market. This is a long-term, part-time role for someone who can actually communicate in natural German — not simply translate English messages into German. The work is primarily Instagram influencer outreach, with a smaller amount of inbound customer communication on Instagram and Facebook. ABOUT THE ROLE We are a consumer brand operating in the German market. Our core audience is men aged 40+. Our influencer strategy is deliberately different from mass outreach. We are not looking for celebrities with millions of followers. We are interested in authentic German creators, often with relatively small audiences, who post about their real lives, hobbies, family, work, weekends and the products they genuinely use. A creator with 8,000 engaged followers can be much more interesting to us than someone with 200,000 followers and an account full of paid promotions. Your job will be to find these people, understand whether they are a good fit, start a natural conversation with them and manage the relationship. This is NOT a copy-paste outreach position. WHAT YOU WILL DO Influencer research: - Find German micro-influencers on Instagram according to clear criteria we provide. - Review their profiles, content, audience signals and engagement. - Decide whether they are genuinely relevant to our target customer. - Avoid obvious “professional promotion machines” whose feeds consist mainly of sponsored content. - Record suitable creators and relevant information in our working database. Influencer outreach: - Warm up selected accounts according to our process. - Write personalised first messages in German. - Follow communication flows and guidelines provided by us. - Manage replies and follow-ups. - Offer creators free product samples with no obligation to publish. - Ask for honest feedback after they have tried the product. - Keep communication friendly, human and low-pressure. - Maintain accurate statuses and next actions for every contact. Inbound communication: - Reply to German-language DMs on Instagram and Facebook using the materials and rules we provide. - Answer straightforward questions. - Escalate medical, product-specific, sensitive or unusual questions instead of improvising. - Record recurring questions and issues. WHAT THIS ROLE IS NOT You will NOT be responsible for: - creating Instagram content; - designing posts; - managing our content calendar; - running Meta ads; - writing long-form marketing copy; - mass DM campaigns; - blindly sending the same template to hundreds of accounts. We care much more about 20 well-chosen, well-handled conversations than 500 generic messages. THE MOST IMPORTANT REQUIREMENT: YOUR GERMAN You need to be genuinely comfortable speaking and writing German. Formal certificates are welcome, but they are not enough by themselves. We need German that sounds natural in a casual Instagram conversation. For example, we do NOT want outreach that sounds like: “Im Namen unseres Unternehmens möchten wir Ihnen hiermit eine mögliche Kooperation anbieten...” That may be grammatically German, but it is not how we want to speak to a lifestyle creator on Instagram. We need someone who can communicate simply, warmly and naturally while still representing a professional brand. You should ideally have: - German at C1, C2 or near-native level; - strong written German; - confident spoken German; - previous regular communication with people from Germany; - a good feel for informal vs. formal German; - the ability to notice when a sentence sounds translated, bureaucratic or unnatural. German nationality is NOT required. We care about how well you actually communicate. EXPERIENCE WE VALUE Any of the following can be relevant: - influencer outreach; - customer support; - sales; - account management; - community management; - lead generation; - partnership outreach; - German-language customer service; - working for a German company; - studying or living in Germany; - teaching or translating German. Previous influencer outreach experience is useful, but not mandatory. A candidate with excellent German, good judgement and strong work habits can learn our outreach process. HOW WE WORK You will not be expected to invent our sales strategy. We provide: - clear influencer selection criteria; - examples of suitable and unsuitable creators; - communication flows; - product information; - escalation rules; - examples of good messages; - guidance on follow-ups. However, we do expect you to think. For example: If you are looking at five Instagram profiles, we expect you to understand why one is a strong match and another one only looks attractive because of the follower count. If you are writing to a creator, we expect the message to contain something specific enough that it could not simply be sent to 50 other people. If something is unclear, we expect you to ask rather than invent an answer. We are looking for someone who can become increasingly independent once the system is understood. AI USE We are not anti-AI. You may use AI tools to support research, proofreading or brainstorming. But copy-pasting generic AI-generated German is not acceptable. You are responsible for the final message. If an AI tool produces German that sounds unnatural, overly enthusiastic, bureaucratic or generic, we expect you to notice it and fix it. The final communication needs to sound like it came from a competent human being. WORKLOAD Initially approximately: 2 hours per working day Around 10 hours per week The role is designed around two short communication windows rather than one continuous block. For example, part of the work may happen earlier in the day and part later, so that replies and follow-ups are not left unanswered for an entire day. Some overlap with German daytime / early evening is important. The workload may increase later if the collaboration works well and the volume of conversations grows. This is intended to be a long-term collaboration, not a one-week project. WHAT A GOOD FIRST MONTH LOOKS LIKE You understand our target creator profile. You can reliably distinguish relevant creators from accounts that only look impressive because of follower numbers. Your outreach messages require little or no correction. Your German sounds natural and appropriate for Instagram. You follow the provided communication flows. You keep the outreach database clean. You do not lose follow-ups. You know when you can answer independently and when you should escalate something to the team. Most importantly: we should gradually be able to trust you with the process without checking every single message. WHO WILL PROBABLY NOT ENJOY THIS ROLE This role is probably not a good fit if: - you prefer mass outreach and high-volume copy-paste lead generation; - you dislike researching individual people before contacting them; - you need a manager to tell you exactly what to do every few minutes; - your German is mainly academic and you are uncomfortable with casual conversation; - you rely heavily on machine translation; - you optimise for number of messages sent rather than quality of conversations; - you routinely make assumptions when information is missing. SELECTION PROCESS We want to keep the process simple. Step 1: We review your Upwork profile and proposal. Step 2: Shortlisted applicants will have a short conversation with us, including German, through Upwork. Step 3: Final candidates may receive a small PAID practical assignment through Upwork. The practical assignment will be very close to the actual job: reviewing potential creators, choosing the strongest candidates and preparing personalised German outreach. We are not looking for a perfect marketer. We are looking for someone with excellent German, sound judgement, attention to detail and a communication style that feels human. HOW TO APPLY Please do not send us a long generic cover letter. Instead, include the following: 1. What is your current German level? 2. Tell us briefly about your real experience communicating with Germans. For example: customer service, colleagues, clients, sales, study, residence in Germany, teaching, etc. 3. How many years have you regularly used German in a professional or everyday environment? 4. What experience do you have with influencer outreach, customer support, sales, lead generation or social media communication? 5. Write 4–6 sentences IN GERMAN introducing yourself to us. Please write naturally, as you normally would to a new colleague. We are not looking for formal business German. 6. Tell us your normal availability and time zone. 7. Tell us how many hours per week you could eventually take on if the role grows. 8. Please include your hourly rate. One final note: We care about the quality of your German more than the quality of your cover letter. If your German is genuinely strong but you have never done influencer outreach before, you should still apply. Outreach can be taught. A natural feel for the language is much harder to teach.