5 Tips For Successful Blogger Outreach
As a blogger and social media professional, I see both sides of blogger outreach. Here at Capstrat, I help clients reach out to bloggers who can help them attain their business goals. At home, I frequently get emails, tweets and messages from professionals who want to do business with my personal blog.
What amazes me is the difference in the messages I get daily. Some messages range from the very personalized and professional, while others are shady and disingenuous at best.
Outreach can be a great experience for bloggers and companies. It's flattering for a blogger to be approached by a company because it legitimizes the blogger's work, and a company can generate publicity, views and conversations beyond traditional media.
But for every good experience bloggers have, they have many more that are terrible. Here are a few tips to keep your blogger outreach from going viral with how bad it is:
- Use the blogger's name - Bloggers are people. Respect them and use their name. If that's not available, use the screen name they blog as. This seems obvious, but you'd be amazed how many emails bloggers receive that don't include the courtesy of their name.
- Build a relationship before hand - Why should a blogger talk to someone they've never heard of? Connecting before your outreach via their comments, Twitter, or Facebook. Begin to build a relationship with the blogger before you ask them for something.
- Be helpful - No one wants to deal with a jerk, especially if you're doing something for someone else. Offer to help the blogger you've targeted and answer their questions. Be honest and upfront with this information.
- Be succinct - We're living in the age of tweets and short Facebook updates. Think about how you can grab a blogger's attention without having to send them an entire press release where the content relevant to them is buried in the fourth paragraph.
- Be timely - Let me reiterate that bloggers are people. They have lives away from their screens. They likely don't have the time to drop everything this instant to help you. Giving them ample time to post on their blog is key to getting the results you want.
There's certainly more to blogger outreach than these tips, and every outreach effort and blogger, are different. If nothing else, remember this: Bloggers are people, and you're asking them to do something for you.
What have you found that works in blogger outreach? Bloggers, do you have any horror stories worth sharing?
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