An influencer sending a cold email asking for free cake seems pretty analogous to a company like Yelp making a cold call looking to sign up a restaurant for pre

An influencer sending a cold email asking for free cake seems pretty analogous to a company like Yelp making a cold call looking to sign up a restaurant for premium features. Or in decades past the Yellow Pages reaching out to local businesses to sell ad space. I suppose the difference is that traditional advertisers are looking to be paid in money, while influencers are often looking to be paid in free goods and services. Also, while I have never dealt with an influencer personally, it sounds like many of them may come across as unprofessional or lacking courteousness (to be fair, many traditional salespeople do too). It's a seemingly glamorous career with a low bar to entry, which probably attracts a fair amount of hacks. I would have to imagine that the most successful influencers out there do tend to favor monetary transactions, and can afford to hire dedicated sales people to handle their business dealings.