Our clients hire us because they want advertising. They have a message that they want to get out to their target audience. Blogs are an excellent tool to use, because they attract specific audiences. The only problem is that we don’t have control over what is posted on a blog, because blogs are completely controlled by their creator, the blogger.
This is why the act of pitching bloggers can be so vital to some of our word of mouth campaigns. In this blog post we will show you 5 tips on how to pitch bloggers so that they are most likely to write about you in a favorable light. This will increase your website search engine optimization, and more importantly get your message out to your target audience.
Tip 1: Create an outreach plan.
We never talk to bloggers without a lot of planning. First, we make sure that we are reaching out with bloggers that make sense with our client and our campaign. Just because our client is a chain of restaurants doesn’t mean that all food bloggers are appropriate. If our client’s restaurants are high-end, then we might reach out to foodie bloggers. If the restaurants were low-end we might reach out to blogs that focus on saving money. It all relates back to the overall campaign and how we are positioning the client. Our blogger outreach has to sync with our creative work so that the messaging is consistent.
After we’ve created a database of bloggers and their contact information, we get creative with our pitches…
Tip 2: Think about the blogger and the blogger’s audience. What’s in it for them?
Bloggers only want to post things that their audience will find valuable. However, that doesn’t mean that every blogger outreach has to involve some sort of contest or giveaway. Sometimes we offer an exclusive discount on our clients product. Sometimes there is such a good match between what our client does and what the blog audience wants that simply hearing about our client is value enough. It can even be as simple as offering a link exchange or writing/featuring a guest post for the blog.
In short, you need to be creative and strategic in what you are offering bloggers. Make sure that there is something of value for both the blogger and the blogger’s audience. For example, offer the blogger a free trial product and have them run a contest on their blog for their readers. You get exposure, the blogger gets free product and a cool blog post, and the blogger’s audience gets gets a message and giveaway tailored to their interests.
Tip 3: Make your email personable
We never mass email our bloggers, for several reasons:
1. Bloggers get pitched all the time. They can sense a spam email from a mile away.
2. We want to create a relationship with this person. We treat them as more than just a name and an email address on a list.
3. We offer each blogger a unique incentive or discount. An “exclusive discount code” doesn’t do much good if the same code is posted on about 10 other blogs.
Tip 4: Can’t find their email? Do some research!
Bloggers often refrain from posting their email address on their blogs because of spam or other reasons. This can make it difficult to contact the blogger, but it’s not necessarily impossible. Worst case scenario, you can always leave a comment on their blog. But often there are other ways to contact bloggers. Try their facebook page, twitter page, linkedin profile, or even try googling them. We’ve had success by interacting with them on other social networking platforms, and they appreciate being contacted in a new or different way.
Tip 5: “Blogger” is a loosely defined term
You don’t need to have a blog for us to want to reach you. We like bloggers because they have specific audiences that pay attention to them, but with the advent of social networks, they don’t necessarily need a blog to have an audience. For example, Ashton Kutcher doesn’t have a blog, but he does have over 5 MILLION Twitter followers. We never pass up an opportunity to reach out to influencers, whether they have a blog or not.
BONUS TIP: Bloggers have a strong sense of loyalty to their readers. If they don’t think that your product/service/event is up to their standards, they may not post about it, or even worse – they could write an extremely negative review. This just emphasizes how you need to ensure that the bloggers you are reaching out to are a good fit. You also need to be confident in your product. If you think there is a chance a blogger might not like your product, you might want to think twice before sending it to a highly influential individual.
Now that you understand some of the issues surrounding blogger outreach, you are better prepared to get some visibility for your company. But be careful, you don’t want to start something like this without a plan, or without considering the risks. What are your overall goals? Is this the best way to achieve them? Are there other marketing tactics that would compliment this outreach? If you have any questions, feel free to give us a call. We’re happy to help.
