Whatever you think of them, blogs and the bloggers behind them are very significant aspects of the internet today, and research shows that they are the third best resource in terms of the kind of influence they hold on digital resources. Read that again – the third BEST.

Providing services to brands and businesses forms part and parcel of the services a blog and blogger has to provide. A solid Blogger Outreach strategy is the key to a businesses success, but many fail at the first hurdle. Are you one of them? This article shows you where you might be going wrong, and how to remedy this, so your blogger outreach strategy kicks some serious ass.

Is Your Blogger Outreach Strategy Solid?

First of all, Blogger Outreach is sought out by most businesses due to the fact that it helps to promote campaigns, improve a site’s SEO, and to influence consumers to buy a product or service. If you’re tackling Blogger Outreach yourself, there is the possibility of your strategy failing you. Why is this? Your Blogger Outreach strategy will only fail you when you have a weak or poorly thought out execution plan.

The Perfect Pitch

You have to think carefully about your pitch when communicating with a blogger or influencer. Perhaps you think you have the perfect content idea or product – That means nothing if you can’t communicate to a Blogger in the correct way. Think about the way you approach them!

Put Yourself In The Shoes Of The Blogger

You absolutely have to do this – put yourself in the shoes of the recipient. Consider the busy individuals who receive these types of emails on a daily basis. Some bloggers can get 40-50 emails like yours every day! Why is yours different? Identify the reasons why your content, products or services best fit what they would want to read and serve to their audience. In addition to this, look into ways to get them to notice your proposition. Top tip…make sure you actually have a proposition first!

Show Your Offer Is Attractive

Demonstrate that you have taken your time with the content, and/or identified the reasons your products or service needs to be featured on their blog. Look at similar topics covered, and ways your offer will benefit the Blogger and their audience.

Think About The Format

How are you going to send your information to the Blogger? What format is it going to be presented in? Different Bloggers will most likely use different formats, so consider easy delivery.

If it’s an infographic you’d like a Blogger to share, is it hosted online? Is it compressed? Do the dimensions lend themselves to the blog format? Can you read the text on mobile devices? Giving these things some thought up front will save you time going back and forth with a Blogger, and save yourself from looking unprofessional and underprepared. There is nothing more infuriating than having to fiddle around with poor content to TRY and make it work on a site. Why would a blogger want to host your poor content on their site?

Have You Considered The Costs Involved?

In the past there may have been lots of bloggers who just blogged for fun, sharing their lives online and their favourite brands as a hobby. Blogging today is a business, people blog in the main as their profession and will therefore expect to be paid. Think about how insulting and infuriating it can be for bloggers to receive emails from PR companies (paid by the client for their work) expecting them to work for free – if the PR is being paid, so to should the blogger!

Most Bloggers don’t work for free. It is totally reasonable for a Blogger to request fees to cover their hosting and time costs. By keeping this in mind, you’ll save yourself any little surprises. Most Bloggers have media packages with details on the kind of services they provide on their page. Look at them in advance, and if they aren’t visible, an initial email asking them to send them over is a good idea.

No money? In the event that you do not have a budget, you have to be honest from the start. To this end, understand your success rate will be minimal, unless you have a really, really good proposition and can offer a reasonable alternative.

What’s Your Backup Plan?

Why Bloggers Aren’t Replying to Your Outreach Email – Research by Search Engine Journal

Research was done on a total of 300 bloggers just recently. It showed that one of the main reasons why most outreach emails are ignored is based on the fact that the kind of story being showcased does not fit into the kind of audience that the blog is providing.

Bloggers won’t always tell you the reason why they don’t like your pitch, but an unanswered email is one basic sign that maybe they thought it was a bit pants. One thing that can help you increase your chances is being able to suggest different options. The fact that they didn’t like the previous pitch does not mean that they won’t take note of a different one. Come up with alternatives!

Is The Content Relevant?

This is a very common problem. Your content, products and services have to match up to the theme of the blog. For example, if you’re offering a business blog the chance to review an amazing new hand cream you’ll most likely be knocked back.

Do You Have A Poor Blogger Outreach Strategy?

Rushing your approach is one reason why your outreach is failing you. Sending out the same poorly prepared and articulated email to 150 bloggers you pulled from somewhere is not the best approach.

Have You Got Too Many Expectations?

An unrealistic expectation of a Blogger Outreach strategy is the number one killer of progress. Therefore, compromise is so important when you want the results. Ensure that you take time to build real relationships with the bloggers, and you will reap the rewards. This could mean taking time to follow your target list of Bloggers on their social channels and blogs, engaging with their posts and creating meaningful conversations.

Getting agreement from a blogger to review a chair for example and then sending out rude emails asking for hits and clicks because you’ve not sold 100 chairs in a week is not acceptable.

Ultimately, the best Blogger Outreach strategy includes good preparation, which consists of time taken to understanding the blogger and the themes that are shared on their blog. It includes consideration into content themes and forms, and a great belief of why the content, product or service will fit into a Blogger’s life. It also requires asking yourself – would I do that for that price?

Have you considered letting someone else carry out the heavy task of Blogger Outreach for you? Get Blogged can do just that. If Blogger Outreach is something you are struggling with, register now for free.

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