the Beginner’s Guide

to Blogger Outreach

by

ambergreeninternetmarketing.com

Out With the Old Old practices just don’t work

Google encourages bloggers to make links to your website nofollow, meaning they’ll do little to improve your site’s SEO

“Paying for links,” even via incentive, is frowned upon by many bloggers

Everyone is multichannel now, so an old-fashioned blog campaign won’t get you very far

In With the New Focus on new goals

Brand Awareness: Encourage bloggers to use their social media to promote your campaign

Quality Content: Incentivise creating quality content by offering rewards or prizes to the best blogs

Search engines will view this as more authoritative content, and it will better engage readers

Building Relationships: Bloggers will work harder for you if they like you — and they might even provide you with follow links

But What to Do? There are new rules, but that doesn’t mean you

can’t win the game! Follow these simple steps to get the most out of

your blogger outreach…

The Initial E-mail Some things never change

Friendly Tone: Be respectful, and remember that you’re talking to real-life people

Personal: Never send a generic “Dear Sir/Madam” e-mail. Personalise each message, and let the blogger know why you want to work with them specifically

Honest: Acknowledge that they’d be doing you a service, but let them know how it would benefit them

A free product in exchange for a review can go a long way

The Initial E-mail, cont.

But step it up! Modernise: Encourage bloggers not only to blog but

also to use Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, and even Snapchat — whichever fits with your campaign

Engage: Keep in touch with bloggers, showing your interest in their efforts and collaborating for even better ideas

Examples Many bloggers even post about their outreach

experiences “From a Blogger’s Point of View”

Veteran blogger Dana Forman judges the good, bad, and ugly e-mails she’s received from outreach marketers

“Create a Killer Outreach Email” Blogger Mark Trueman even has a whole website about

blogging and outreach based on his experiences “5 Blogger Outreach Stereotypes”

We did some digging of our own, discovering the 5 worst types of e-mails bloggers receive all the time

Multimedia Encourage and incentivise your bloggers to use as

many channels as possible to maximize engagement and brand awareness

Research blogs relevantto your products and brand

Actually read blogs youthink might fit your brand

Access contact informationEfficiently discover

metrics and followingsSend personalised messagesto large numbers of people

Create a databaseof cross-client contacts

Tools of the

Trade

Buzzstream

Tools of the

Trade

Buzzstream is a good research and discovery tool for outreach and project management. Pros

Find prospects and discover influencers Create e-mail templates Utilise their database and track your relationships

Cons Needs user-friendly improvements

searches and page loads are slow information overload

Occasional glitches Visit their website for yourself!

Examples

Inky Bee

Tools of the

Trade

Inky Bee is another good discovery and outreach tool with a user-friendly interface. Pros

Integrate with Twitter for influencer discovery Set different research terms within the same list Write reports using their streamlined function Measure how well your campaigns are working

Cons Discovery function could be faster

Visit their website for yourself!

Examples

GroupHigh

Tools of the

Trade

GroupHigh offers its own platform for the discovery and management of your blogger outreach. Pros

Search and save thousands of UK blogs Refine results by anything from Domain Rank to social

following Manage all email correspondence through the platform Generate a report of your success

Cons Price will rule out all but the most prolific outreachers

Visit their website for yourself!

Examples

Brand Awareness: By encouraging bloggers to use their social media to promote your campaign, you generated some great PR for your brand

Quality Content: By incentivising the creation of quality content by offering rewards or prizes to the best blogs… You’ve improved your website’s SERP rankings Bloggers’ content will better engage readers

Building Relationships: Bloggers will work harder for you in future campaigns — and they might even provide you with follow links

Reaping the Rewards

Successful outreach is about more than link building

Focus on building reputation and brand loyalty Links and other benefits will follow

Make your campaigns multichannel to get the most out of bloggers’ content

Final Thoughts

Good luck!

Learn more from our blog:“The Hero’s Journey:

4 Stages of Better Blogger Outreach”

from

ambergreeninternetmarketing.com