Now that consumers put too much trust in recommendations and advice coming from blogs, blogging is fast rising as one of the best digital marketing tools. The only problem with this kind of attention is that it gets too competitive. When faced with challenges such as generating leads and growing the blog’s traffic, the biggest concern is, in most cases, how to get a larger audience.
Unfortunately, a larger audience would only get you as far. The other piece of the puzzle is effective blogger outreach.
What is Blogger Outreach?
Whether you want to expand your audience or brand awareness, blogger outreach is the tool for the job. A strong relationship with the most influential bloggers within your niche is the best tool you will ever need to promote your content, let alone build your credibility.
Recent trends prove that blogger outreach is the tool that builds your authority among other bloggers, the audience, and search engine optimization.
Best Blogger Outreach Strategies
The call for outreach doesn’t mean that now all you have to do is duplicating templates and sending to hundreds of influential bloggers out there. In any case, all that such would achieve is earning you more and more frustration.
It is always a professional courtesy to appreciate that these influential bloggers had to put in a lot of work to get to where they now are. Effective outreach strategies do exactly that. Below are such best strategies:
1. Identify the Most Influential Bloggers Within Your Niche
Irrespective of the industry or niche, there are thousands, likely even millions, of blogs from which you could seek partnerships. But not every one of these blogs makes a haven for your outreach goals. In every outreach mission, your first task will always be seeking the right blogger for your outreach goals.
There are several ways in which you could do comprehensive research on bloggers just right for successful outreach, notably;
- Social media search, especially LinkedIn for professional bloggers, but platforms such as Twitter and Instagram make a good cut for the pack.
- Google Search
- Perusing industry blogs
As a blogger, you must know that you do not get the exposure just because you are featured on any other blogger’s homepage. Ensure your visual content provide value to your audience. Provide unique insights, offer helpful tips and resources, and be informative. You can use a video presentation maker to make your video more professional and appealing. One thing that you must get right is the right fit for your outreach goals.
2. Attract Influential Bloggers’ Attention
For bloggers such as influential that you look up to, good chances are that they receive thousands of outreach emails. A mere comment on their posts is hardly enough to capture their attention. So if you think a “Great post!” comment would get you on their radar, you might as well settle for the idea that your outreach message is doomed to be one of the many that litter their spam folders.
Attracting influential bloggers’ attention calls for a genuine initiative. Follow them on social media, share their content, and give genuine comments. Precisely, prove that you are willing to embrace just about anything that means appreciating their work. Also, Ryan Biddulph thinks another secret is to make your comments insightful.
Outsourced publicity services are also a good tool for attracting attention. More to the beauty of technology, it is every blogger’s dream come true that blogger outreach agencies can now create effective bespoke campaigns that will earn you authority and visibility to even those among the best. The key here is to be noticed because if someone has already heard of you, they would more likely respond if you reached out.
3. Reach Out
After attracting attention, you might think reaching out would not be that much of a problem. Not always. Remember, outreach calls for a little bit more. It is about making an effort, not just seeking a favour.
Go all the way out to earn a fourth and back communication. Even if the targeted blogger didn’t respond to your message, make a follow-up or seek an alternative means of communication to be sure that your message reached out. You could also use outreach tools such as BuzzStream, BuzzSumo, and Hunter that provide email templates with detailed features that let you create personalized messages, track, and do automatic follow-ups. That extra one step might be the option that gets you in.
4. Personalize Your Outreach Messages
We’ve already talked about the dangers of dry, general comments. A similar requirement holds for outreach messages. It is always prideful to receive an email that gives no doubt that the message was intended for you. Give this exact feeling to every targeted blogger that you reach out to.
A name is the best place to start. There is hardly an individual that tires of hearing their name. Begin with mentioning the bloggers’ names, then follow up with intimate details about their posts. That could be the detail about one special blog post or a personal habit divulged in most blogs. Just anything that makes the message personal.
5. Go Social
Publicity is nothing like that one thing that a blogger will appreciate the most. We already discussed the need to share the targeted bloggers’ posts on your social media platforms. But do you have a plan for publicizing the work of your partnership?
Naturally, a blogging partnership or guest post always ends up on your partner’s homepage. But it also generates more value if you post guest articles as well. A plan for publicizing your partnership could serve well as one of the pitching ideas when approaching an influential blogger.
You Want to Create an Effective Outreach Strategy!
Nothing works best like knowing the exact blogger that you look after, getting on their radar, reaching out, and striking a healthy partnership.
