Social media marketing has developed a great deal since it first became popular. As social media has reached a point where it has become self-sustaining, most of the things we used to do, such as sending out the same message to your whole audience, have become less effectual. Now, more than ever, it’s time for your digital marketing strategy to become more about building relationships.
Cue blogger outreach campaigns: the idea behind blogger outreach or blogger relations is that a business that wants exposure for its brand, product, or service, works with bloggers or influencers who have grown a substantial following, to produce genuine, authentic content to promote the product, brand, or service.
The fact is that when you reach out to bloggers who are already talking to your target community, your business gains from their trust and influence.
How Does a Blogger Outreach Service Help You?
If you have to identify the right blogs, contact the owners, develop a campaign strategy, price the campaign, and then assess your results all by yourself, you’ll agree it’s a lot of work and it takes a lot of time. You could also end up spending a lot of money, with nothing to show for it.
However, when you use a professional blogger outreach service, a campaign strategist will be working with you to pick out the right influencers, run the campaign, and deliver the best results.
How Can a Blogger Outreach Service Impact Your Business?
You can partner with bloggers in a lot of different ways to achieve your goals. The work of your outreach strategist is to take your goals and design a creative and engaging campaign. There are endless possibilities for this.
Types of Blogger Outreach Services
What you really want to do is discover influential bloggers who have the same ideals as your business, and get them to talk about your brand. Here are some of the services you will get from a blogger outreach agency that knows what they’re doing;
- In-person events
- Blogger events
- Sponsored posts
- Ambassadorships
- Co-branded projects
- Product placement/content development
- Product reviews
- Sampling campaigns
- Podcast and blog sponsorships
- Online promotions/giveaways
Bloggers
Bloggers create vibrant communities by telling honest, genuine, and mostly personal stories. This engenders trust, which in turn drives action. This is why bloggers are so powerful.
Brand Ambassadorships
The most successful blogger outreach campaigns are usually based on a mutually-beneficial relationship between a brand and a blog. Brand ambassadorships are about having a person of influence speak passionately about your brand.
Tips for Blogger Outreach
If you’re about to embark on a blogger outreach campaign, here are a few tips you can work with:
- Make it easy for them to know you and learn more about you. For example, you could link your about page in your email signature.
- If you’re going to offer products, offer only products that will be valuable to the blogger.
- Followed links are at the blogger’s discretion; you have no say in it.
- The fact that a blog ranks for one of your target keywords does not automatically mean it’s a great fit for your product.
- Don’t assume any of the blogger’s IPs belong to you.
- The decision to engage in any future partnerships is down to both of you. You’re not the blogger’s boss.
- Normally, a blogger will share content on their social media networks, but their media kit will contain more in-depth information.
Here are some mistakes you should avoid:
- Sending out a mass press release and expecting bloggers to turn it into a wonderful piece.
- Using the wrong name for the blogger in your email.
- Sending emails to bloggers you regard as being the best in the game, without really considering if their style and your brand work together.
- Inviting bloggers to an event without working out the finer details of what they’ll be sharing, why they’ll be sharing it, and how they’ll be sharing it.
How to Get the Best out of Blogger Outreach
- Think about how both parties can gain something from the partnership.
- Recognise the fact that what you have with a blogger is a mutually-beneficial relationship, and that you’re not doing anybody any favours.
- Think of bloggers as you would your customers. See them as people you want to convince with your great service and relationship skills, not as journalists.
- Get to know them and what they do before you request anything from them. Read their blogs and check them out on social media.
- Think about things that matter to them that might stop them from getting involved or attending your event.
- Stay Connected. After you’ve got your desired result from your blogger outreach, it’s best to stay connected. If you suddenly vanish into thin air after you’ve achieved your goals, you’ll look bad and that could put in a dent in your reputation. Ensure that you stay connected with the blogger and keep building on the relationship.
Online influencers are important to the future of marketing, so you really want to be on their good sides. Besides, blogging communities can be energetic, lively, and highly personal. Bloggers can be very imaginative and they never shy away from a creative challenge, so let your campaigns be fun and original.
Blogger outreach is one of the best growth tactics you can use. However, doing it right can be difficult. There are a lot of mistakes you can make that will lead to the failure of your entire campaign. So, you should consider getting involved with a blogger outreach service to take the weight off your shoulders.
If you need help with your blogger outreach campaign, please get in touch with us today.