Blogger Outreach: The Essentials You Must Know About (Plus Tools)
Traffic.
That’s what you’re after, isn’t it?
And why not? Your business depends on it. So there’s nothing wrong with wanting to gain more traffic on your blog posts, offers, website, or just so that you can build relationships.
Then how is it that you can do it?
I know you want to learn more about how to reach out to a blogger to increase your scope of being visible to your target audience. Well, I’ll get you there, don’t worry!
First, why don’t you go through the topics that will be covered in the article?
- What do you mean by Blogger Outreach
- What it Can do For You
- Why do Strategies Fail
- A 7 Step Strategy you may use
Alright!
First things first, let’s begin the article by sharing some knowledge about what blogger outreach really is.
Blogger Outreach 101
A process by which you help out influencers in their journey of becoming huge, and then asking them if they would do the same for you.
Now, this scenario changes for B2C companies. Blogger outreach is used to attract new and resourceful leads along with customers.
You can reach out to these people via various platforms that have been made available, like emails or social media. This could even be done in person.
Ultimately, you want your outreach strategy to work.
How does Blogger Outreach help you?
There are so many benefits that you can gain by outreaching some of the most influential bloggers:
- Building strong relationships
- Get more exposure
- Get high-quality backlinks
- Participation for a roundup blog or interview
- More than expected shares
- Brand building
- Targeting the right type of audience
- Scoring more guest posts
There’s a lot more to it, but this is all I’m going to mention for now.
We have rather a pressing issue to attend to right now.
Let’s take a look at the reasons for the:
Failure of Certain Campaigns
Of the several reasons that could lead to the failure of a campaign, here are a few listed:
- Zero Personalization
- Using the Same Template
- Asking too Quickly and Early
- Being too Persistent
Well, templates are a thing of the past, and the sooner you accept it, the better. Influencers will take a look at your email and know that they’ve been considered mediocre enough to send out a template. How rude!
They WILL NOT reply to your email. Your template will have done more damage than you could ever recover from, leaving a wrong impression and no possibility of gaining their trust again.
The same idea will work for personalization as well. You WANT to address them on a first-name basis. These influencers are busy people who won’t be wasting their time on a person who didn’t bother typing or learning their names.
Now come two important factors. Determine when it is the right time to reach out to a blogger and how much you need to push them.
I use the word push here because we might not realize when we’re overdoing our outreach effort. No influencer is going to be immediately interested in your email unless they already know you, or you’ve helped them before.
That’s that!
Now, let’s see what your outreach strategy should be!
What to Do
A list, before we proceed:
- Plan the endgame
- Curate a list
- Being seen (in the right light)
- Learn about them
- Do something exceptional for them, something that will have you engraved in their memory
- Ask for what you want from them
- Don’t let them go even when the deed is done
Alright!
Time to get our hands dirty!
Are you ready for the game to begin?
Let’s go!
STEP 1: Plan the Endgame!
WHAT IS YOUR GOAL?
Ask yourself this question multiple times. So many times that you’re sure of what you’re doing and you don’t have to change things midway. And even if you do, you have a backup plan ready.
Are you planning to get your article shared on social media for likes? Do you need backlinks to increase search rankings? Is it a guest post that you want to give or take?
With many more questions like these, you will have to decide what you really want.
If your business is dependant on selling products, either physical or digital, you could need an influencer to review it online. They will be able to appeal to a certain kind of audience that you might have not been able to reach otherwise.
No matter what your aim, write them down. Clear out your brain and formulate a plan.
You should be able to get enough traffic from an influencer who has a large social media following.
And if they’re able to provide you with a backlink, that’s the cherry on top!
With a guest post, you could gain email subscribers, targeted traffic, certain levels of authority.
I think it would be safe to say that a friend you make with an influencer wouldn’t go to waste.
STEP 2: Curate a List
After understanding your requirements and clearing all the dust off your mind about what to and what not to do, you can move on.
Set up an Excel sheet or the Google spreadsheet. A sheet that looks like this and has the following columns, to be exact.
With the goal in mind, pick out the bloggers that you would target for your outreach campaign. You want influencers who have an amazing following and fall into your niche of business or are at least close to it.
If you’re looking to build some links, then you’ll need someone with a decent to high Domain Authority.
For guest posts, you want a website that has an awesome reader base, related to your business niche and has other articles with a decent writing style.
Now, if you want to go for the roundup kinda thing, then you want to bring in some experts. Reaching out to them might be a task, but the result would be just as fruitful.
And finally, if you’re only looking to build some long-lasting relationships, then you should be looking to target people who are on the verge of becoming big shots or the ones who have a huge fan base or following and a rapport with an audience similar to yours.
The next task would be to Find Influencers. How do you do that?
Ahem, I don’t mean to stir the pot, but influencers are literally everywhere, and you could spot one from a mile away!
If you want a couple of options as to how to look for bloggers, here:
- top “industry/niche” experts
- top “industry/niche” bloggers to follow
- top “industry/niche” bloggers
- top “industry/niche” blogs to follow
- top “industry/niche” blogs
No?
Well, take a look at what happened when I searched for “top marketing blogs.”
Now, moving on to a rather simple technique. Use BuzzSumo!
On their homepage, you will have to enter a keyword or the topic you want to target. A vague request should be fine as long as it is related to the kind of people you’re trying to lookup.
Hit the search button on the keyword and then click on the Influencers button on the top of the menu.
You’ll find a drop-down list as you hover on the influencers button, asking you to pick from Authors, Facebook, or Twitter influencers.
Once you click on any one of the options, as I did for Twitter, this is what you’ll see.
That’s that, but it’s not enough.
Let’s see how you can choose people to reach the end game!
If your Goal is to Gain Shares
For this, you need influencers who have a large following. These followers should also be engaging with them.
You want someone like this guy who has 72.5K followers! You can check their profile to get more information about how much engagement they get on an average on their posts.
If your Goal is to Gain Links
Links require a page to have great domain authority. The metric created by Moz gives you a clear picture of where the website stands.
Just how any score goes, and the higher score from 1 to 100 a website gets, the higher their domain authority and higher the chances that it will rank in the SERPs.
Anything between 50 to 60 can be considered as a good score. Beyond that, the website can be considered to be in the excellent category.
You may use Small SEO Tools’ DA Checker, just how I have used it.
See how high Moz’s domain authority is?
If your Goal is to Land a Guest Post
Look for bloggers who have already accepted guest posts to publish on their page. Pick an influencer and start browsing their blog page.
You may soon find that they’re accepting content from various writers.
Take a look at how Outbrain, with a domain authority of 71, has several people publish their blogs on their website.
If your Goal is an Expert Roundup
Whatever topic you’re going to pick for your blog, you want to make sure that the bloggers you approach are experts in the field and know what they’re talking about.
You can find these guys by using Google with search strings like “write for us.”
Here are a few options that you could look into:
- “keyword” + “write for us”
- “keyword” + “guest post wanted”
- “keyword” + “guest blogging”
- “keyword” + “blogging guidelines”
- “keyword” + “become a guest blogger”
- “keyword” + “contribute”
- “keyword” + “submit a guest post”
And many many such strings.
If your Goal is to Build Relationships
With this goal in mind, you have the chance to reach out to literally anyone. Start with bloggers and then build up to getting in touch with experts.
To find such people you can simply turn to Google.
Search for
- “top (industry) bloggers”
- “top (industry) experts”
and then look around the various social sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Facebook, etc.
You may even check out some of the digital marketing communities like Inbound.org, Triberr, Warrior Forum, etc.
Store all of these people’s emails and names in the excel sheet that we created at the beginning of step 2.
STEP 3: Being Seen (In the Right Light)
With a list in hand (well, the computer), you now want to be seen by the bloggers and influencers.
Once you get on their radar, you can send out an email to get in touch with them. It is only in such a circumstance that the chances of them opening your email and even replying, increase.
I have 4 ways through which you can become visible, get on their radars.
- Sharing their Content
Remember the list you made? Yeah! Pick a blogger from that list, check out their page, and share the content that you like. You may share it on Twitter or Facebook.
You WANT to include the “via @user” so that they can see this share in their notifications.
I’m sure you already know that you can share the content on other social media platforms if you are friends with them or follow them.
- Connect through Social Media
Hit that follow button. Like their content. And do not forget to share everything you like!
If you really want to connect with someone, reach them via chat. Ask them a question, some help or advice.
- Leave Comments
Commenting on a blogger’s post can’t be as simple as “hey, this post is really great.”
Absolutely not!
You’ve got to get your creativity out!
Leave a comment that compliments the blogger, their style, and adds value to the article.
- The Subscription and Reply Way
I know I would be happy to have a new subscriber, a new person on board, and it would be safe to say that you’d feel the same way.
This theory would apply to the blogger you’ve targeted as well!
They’ll send you a thank you email, to which you reply with a compliment, an introduction, a greeting, or a question you’ve been looking to ask someone from the niche.
STEP 4: Learn About Them
Getting to know a little bit about the bloggers and experts you are going to approach can only work in your favor.
People will appreciate it if you were to take time to get to know about them.
Now, you do not want to seem like a crazy stalker, so here’s what you do.
- Go through their Social Media
When you check out the targeted blogger or influencer, you will find that they would have shared a tad bit of information here as well.
There could be a chance that they added a detail that they didn’t want to mention on their page.
Do your research!
- Read their “About” Page
There are bloggers who would share a few of their lives on their page. They might have mentioned some facts about them.
Here’s something that travel blogger, Alyssa Ramos, has done with her about page.
You can take some of these points mentioned on their page and use them when you send your outreach email. The email will become a lot more personal and meaningful.
- Look Everywhere
There are so many types of bloggers! Some would love to write long-form posts, while some would prefer short content that is easy to read.
You want to distinguish between the kind of your targeted blogger is. Make sure they have the type of content you would like to have published.
And if you’re not into the kind of content they write, but like their style, you could approach them with a request to consider a different pattern of the piece.
STEP 5: Do Something Exceptional for Them
This is where the fun begins, my fellow bloggers!
Now is the time you pay close attention to what I’m going to share with you.
Let’s take a look at a couple of steps again, shall we?
- Link their Content to Yours
Whether you’ve already published a couple of blogs on your website or are on the road to doing so, you want to first check out a few posts by the blogger you are targeting. See if any of their posts can be related to your blogs, and when you find one, add a link to your blog.
Easy, right?
Now, when you do this, make sure that you let them know about this gesture you’ve put out in the universe. Send an email or use Twitter to your advantage.
- Don’t Be Lazy
You want to be sharing and commenting on most or all of the posts they publish.
You can get to know about the updates through their subscriber’s email list.
If not, use Google Alerts. That’s what it has been built for!
- In Action
If you read their blogs and keep a tab on them then you should know about what they are out here teaching. Makes sense, right?
So what do you do after reading stuff on their page? Forget about it? No!
You use their teachings and sneak a spot on their page.
If you find a broken link on their page, let them know about it. I think it would be highly appreciated.
You could also send an email to them mentioning how their blog helped you with a task you were struggling with.
STEP 6: Ask for What You Want from Them
Phew!
We’re almost there.
Stay with me because now we’re going to see how you can approach them for help, you finally have to reach out!
-
- Open up your email. Yes, the one that may or may not be stuffed with a bunch of emails, read and unread, spams, a trash can full. Clear all the clutter.
- Send out personalized emails to the bloggers you’re trying to reach. DO NOT send bulk emails, they’ll know what you’ve done.
- Email templates are not an option.
- Do not send out emails with Dear or Mr./Miss. Use their given names or pen names to sound friendly.
- Avoid a long-form email. They don’t have time to read all of that data.
- You want to add some value to the email that you’re sending. Your post will have to have something that the rest of the content on the internet doesn’t have. For you to stand out in a crowd, is what will get you their attention.
- Since you helped them out in the past, I’m sure they remember you by now. Ask them what you want from them in the email, in a nice professional way:
- “Would you please share my blog?”
- “Would you add a link of my blog to your content?”
- “Would you be interested in participating in a roundup blog?”
- “Would you mind leaving a comment/review on my site?”
along with other details that you want them to know about.
STEP 7: Don’t let them go Even When the Deed is Done
Wow, after putting in so much effort, don’t tell me you’re going to move on to another blogger and forget about the ones who helped you out today.
It’s just not the right choice to make, that’s all I’m saying.
You should stay connected to the blogger for a long time to come. You don’t want your reputation with even one person to be ruined, because, after that, it’s just a downward spiral.
There’s one more thing you must remember. If they want to know more about you, have a source where they can read things like that. You may even share a link for your page when you’re contacting them.
Well then, that’s all, I guess.
The End…
Oh, wait.
I feel super happy that you reached the end of the blog, so I have something else for you too, a bonus if you may!
If you need help with the steps that we discussed in the blog, here are a few tools that would make your life easy.
Rather than me giving out information for this one, look at what the company has to say for themselves: “Influencer Management Platform. Everything you need to discover your influencers, manage key relationships and measure their impact on your business.”
The tool offers prospecting, scalable outreach, auto follow ups, managing emails, reporting performance, and much more.
Through your Google account, you can schedule, and send outreach emails, and keep track of them, which comes in handy.
There’s so much that the tool can help you with, and one of my favorite things being able to research blog titles, seeing how they are performing, and obviously, creating a pitch.
The tool has a few unique features that you should be keen on checking out. As for what it’s all about, “Research influencers, manage your relationships and conduct outreach that’s personalized and efficient.”
That’s all for this article.
I hope I was able to help you and wish you good luck in your blogger outreach journey!