Bloggers are in the top 5 sources of reliable information. Eighty-one percent of the online population trusts bloggers and 61% of the population has made a purchase based on a blogger recommendation.
With stats like that, we don’t have time to waste not forming a game plan and reaching out to bloggers, so let’s dive in to the most common use cases of blogger outreach!
Form Relationships with Influencers
By establishing relationships with bloggers in your niche, you’re establishing relationships with people who have curated an audience of your target consumers and have proven themselves to be influential. Or they wouldn’t be a successful blogger in the first place.
Try reaching out with a simple purpose of introducing yourself and your brand. Offer to let the blogger take your product or service for a test drive or simply say you like their blog and hopefully there is room for collaboration in the future.
I’m a fan of nonabrasive pitching as it builds a foundation for a long lasting relationship. All brands need their “go to sources” to help spread awareness and brand recommendations consistently and sincerely.
Make an Announcement
Whether it’s a new product, a service upgrade or greater version of your product, bloggers are among the best assets in announcing information about your brand.
In your personalized email, propose how your relationship will be a mutually beneficial one. Whether you offer a free product or service, exclusive information, discounts for their audience or financial compensation.
Check out how Ford released its new Fiesta car only to influential bloggers and social media users to announce how cool it is.
Create Brand Awareness
Enlisting bloggers for product reviews are fantastic for brand awareness. Ask them to test out your product for themselves, visit your restaurant or retail location or try out your online store and write about your brand from actual experience.
One of the most efficient and effective ways to go about this is to send bloggers you want to work with either a gift card or product with no strings attached to ensure you only elicit sincere posts!
In my recent ebook I compiled ten of the greatest examples of blogger outreach campaigns, and in it I cited Red Lobster as a brand that does blogger outreach for brand awareness in an exemplary fashion. They host dinners for bloggers at their restaurant to re-introduce their brand and modernize their image. You can read about that and 9 other examples here.
Lead Generation
While blogger outreach is most commonly used for brand awareness and the promotion of a new product, B2B companies are finding that it’s a fantastic tactic for lead generation.
By working with bloggers who appeal to your target consumers, your brand is spotlighted as a solution for a common problem. Thus an influx of leads and new interest in your product or service.
SAAS companies do a great job of this by offering their software for free to bloggers in their professional space.
Promote Your Best Assets
Whether you want to amplify a message or promote a piece of content—bloggers can spread your message to their audience in a loud way.
Many bloggers are followed because they educate and keep their audience up to date on a current topic or trend. Establishing relationships with these bloggers creates an avenue in which educators recommend your content as a resource.
Infographics are promoted heavily with blogger outreach because a blogger can simply embed it in to a post when relevant to their audience.
When you reach out, say something to the effect of, “judging by your audience’s engagement in the comments section of your posts and the type of content you put out, I think they would love this infographic I’ve created on the history of Halloween costumes…”
Do you have any examples of blogger outreach done well? Whether it’s your own brand or one you’ve seen, I’d love to see some good examples in the comments below. Cheers!
Kristen Matthews is marketing and community manager, GroupHigh.
Where did you get these stats? I find them highly suspect. And not denigrate your effort, but the rest of the article seems to be PR 101.
@disqus_06tBiVA9bn:disqus Agree.
Apart from that the links are not useful if you don’t use Microsoft products as a blogger…