Theres a lot of talk about making campaigns 'viral' or contacting bloggers to reach out to their reader base and promote products and services this way. Although in practice, it can be a minefield of sourcing. We've got some advice here on how best to go about this.
By targeting and building relationships with bloggers that address your audience, you can reach and tap into an audience of effective, unbiased reviews of your products. Their readers will be introduced to your brand, get interested in it, visit your site, and hopefully buy.
We're going to start with a few points you should make sure you DO NOT do.
- Don't send the same 'standard' press release to all - the best thing to do here is include a link to that, then the bloggers can choose to use any parts of that release in their future posts.
- Don't address your initial contact out, as 'To Whom it May Concern' or 'Dear Blogger', 'To poster of XXX' or anything vague like that. Keep it personal, find out the person you're writing to, and maintain the correct tone throughout.
- Don't include attachements. They won't open them - just keep all the data, links and content in one email that you send out.
- Don't send it from an enquiries@ email address. Make sure you send it from a personal email address, or at least one that has a name attached to it.
- Don't demand, ask or beg! Just supply the facts, as thorough and as concise as possible, leave out the waffle and the sales pitch, keep it factual and professional.
- Don't send without checking it over each time. Each email out should be different - this is not a email campaign after all, this is all about connecting with influencer's, treat them with the respect they deserve and take the time to make it right.
- Don't waste time! Theres little point in contacting any site that hasn't been updated (perhaps 6-7-8 months) but make this judgement yourself. It has to be part of the list of criteria that you have already decided on. Don't waste your time reaching out to blogs that don't get read, don't include your target audience, or just don't write about the things you want to have featured.
Like any social campaign that you are going to start, make it as social as possible. A successful blogging outreach strategy can be a part of any public relations or marketing strategy. This may be a tricky sell to your boss - just tell them this "Theres over 120 million blogs worldwide, and growing every single day" (We only launched Social Business Today TODAY!) - this is something that has been ignored in other peoples campaigns and marketing initiatives, sooner or later its going to be something that becomes more and more important. Doing it now, puts you in a better position for the future and has the potential to give you a massive boost.
So now, heres some things you DO need to be doing.
- Do RESEARCH. Allocate a bunch of time to go through blogging directories. Add to this a search more on google. I've put some searches you should be looking at below.
This took me 5 minutes. But you need to spend time going through each of the ones that you believe are suitable to contact and then execute.
- Do MORE RESEACH! Its not just about compiling lists (best thing to do is document all your findings in a spreadsheet to continue to use in the future), its about searching through sites such as techorati, alltop and others.
- Do be specific. If you sell football boots for instance, theres little point in contacting every football blog in the world. You can be a lot more specific to your target audience, so do it. Narrow down to the right kind of blogs you want to target, and prioritize your list.
- Do Use the social platforms. Make sure you follow up with a pro-active attitude. Comment on blogs, write in your twitter stream and make your contact known to the particular blog that you are writing to. Obviously, you can't (or must not) do this in every single instance, but you should be thinking about doing it as much as you feel comfortable about.
- Do Make your list concise. Target around 10-30 blogs per month and do all the points (and DO NOT points) above to make your contact stand out.
- Do Be honest, not waffly or too pitchy. Lets be straight about this, it is just a pitch to bloggers, but it dosent have to sound that way if it is well written, to the point and professional - it can become, and should be more about what this information is in relation to the readers, how important it is for them to be aware.
One more important point that you will need to justify for this project - ROI. Return on investment for small to medium businesses can make or break a business. Focus too much on projects (marketing) or (PR) incentives that don't work, and you'll find yourself quickly wasting your time. Document and track everything you do so it can be measured and included in reports showing whats been done, and whats been achieved.
Understand the points of ROI you need to measure by outlining your expectations.
- Ideally, how many blogs do you want to appear on?
- How many social interactions do you need?
- What do you need to promote? (Product/service/offer/promotion)
- What can you achieve from inclusion?
- How many readers do you need?
Transparency and honesty are the essential parts of building a relationship between a brand (or a product or service) and a blogger. Ideally, and by following these guidelines above this relationship can go much further. Brand ambassadors is something that comes to mind when a successful campaign really works - these can in effect, be your sales people to gain the best possible coverage for your company. But, like most really successful blogging campaigns, the numbers are normally smaller and more targeted, providing more 'bang for your buck' - its always about quality and not quantity.
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