5 Best Practices for a Win-Win Blogger Outreach Campaign

From food, fashion, fitness, and finance to travel, tech, home improvement, and self-help, there are over 500 million blogs covering nearly every niche you can possibly imagine.

And in every niche, there are a few blogs that stand head and shoulders above the rest with truly staunch, massive followings (think hundreds of thousands or even millions). The content published by these bloggers is trusted by a huge community of like-minded people.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make the most of their following by partnering up with them in a mutually rewarding way. Do it right, and the results can take your business to the next level.

What is Blogger Outreach?

Blogger outreach is an influencer marketing technique wherein you join forces with niche bloggers to create high-quality promotional, yet authentic, content that promotes your brand or its products. In essence, you leverage their influence and strong following to gain more exposure for your business.

A typical blogger outreach campaign involves identifying authority bloggers in your industry, keeping your end goal (such as raising brand awareness, boosting sales, or gaining quality backlinks to a specific landing page) in mind.

Next, you pitch them in a personalized manner and let them know what’s in it for them (such as a free subscription to your product/service or remuneration) and what you want them to do for your brand. Once you reach an agreement, you assist them in creating content by, say, providing a sample product for review or letting them interview you.

Ultimately, once the content is published, you and the blogger both promote it on your own respective channels which leads to next-level brand exposure to new audiences for your business (and the blogger).

Why Bother With Blogger Outreach

It’s simple — people turn to blogs for product and service recommendations. In fact, blogs outrank social networks like Twitter and YouTube in terms of their power to influence consumer decisions.

So, why do blogs wield so much influence? Well, the top bloggers in every niche are known to be genuine individuals who’ve been providing sincere reviews and useful advice for years. They talk about both the positive and negative aspects of the brand they’re featuring in their posts.

They provide information about a product or service from the consumer’s perspective, in an unbiased and personable way. Also, in most cases, bloggers are candid about their association with the brand.

By doing so for years on end, they’ve built a strong following and have become a trusted, go-to source of information for the modern consumer. So, when you associate your business with such trustworthy personalities, you are bound to see a substantial uptick in brand awareness, mentions, credibility, and even conversions.

Types of Blogger Outreach Campaigns

You can work with a blogger to create various types of promotional content aimed at conversions, each of which results in a mutually beneficial collaboration for both parties while being true to the audience (in other words, a win-win-win!). Depending on your business needs and goals, here are four great options to choose from:

1. Sponsored Posts

These are posts that the blogger is paid to write and publish, with prominent mentions and backlinks to your brand. The fee you pay for a sponsored post depends on the popularity and influence of the blogger, as well as the type and length of the post you’re aiming for.

2. Product Reviews

Another tactic you can use in your campaign is to send your product (say, directly from your Shopify Plus store or could be a free subscription to your software solution) out to bloggers in return for an honest review, which could be in the form of a comprehensive blog post or just a photo-rich social media shoutout.

Everyone, including influencers and celebrities, loves getting free stuff. And being as passionate about their niche as they are, bloggers are likely going to have a smile on their face before they’ve even tried your product. So, if they try it out and love it, rest assured they’ll be super enthusiastic about spreading the word.

3. Product Features

A product feature is similar to a review, but instead of a formal review exclusively about your brand, your product will be featured in an extensive post on a broader topic.

For instance, a fitness blogger might write about how they built their biceps, and subtly mention that they were using your brand’s adjustable dumbbells.

4. Giveaways

Finally, you can work with a blogger to host a giveaway in the form of a contest. This is a super-effective way to drive audience engagement for both the blogger and your brand.

The idea is that you as the brand will provide the prize while the blogger hosts the competition on their blog or on their social networks. Regardless of where the blogger hosts the contest, you can bet that their followers will enter, resulting in oodles of positive brand exposure for you.

Image Source: Digital Authority Partners

Best Practices for a Successful Blogger Outreach Campaign

Now, let’s take a look at five guidelines for an effective blogger outreach campaign that leads to a huge win-win for your brand, and the blogger you’re partnering with.

1. Pick Your Blogger Carefully

The key to a successful blogger outreach campaign is picking the right blogging partner. With hundreds of thousands of blogs in your niche, this is easier said than done, but this first step itself can make all the difference.

Don’t partner up with anyone willing to accept your pitch, take the time to do your research about the blogger. Check how long they’ve been in the blogging business, their writing tone, follower count, and the level of engagement they get from their audience.

Also check the blog’s domain authority, traffic statistics, and search engine performance. Assess the blogger’s “About Me” page to understand their background and what they might be looking for in a collaboration.

Finding the most relevant bloggers with the best track record takes some hard research, but they will connect you with an audience that’s very likely to be interested in your product or service, and in a powerful way. Plus, once you find the right blogger, you will have to invest less effort in conveying the information related to your brand as the blogger would already have niche-specific knowledge.

So, make sure to pick the most relevant blogger.

2. Connect With the Blogger on the Social Web

Before reaching out to a blogger about a possible collaboration using a cold pitch, consider engaging with them on social media or in the comments section of their own website.

For example, leaving thoughtful comments for a week or two on their new blog posts can be great for building a foundational relationship. Don’t just simply add a spammy comment like “Great post, thanks for sharing”, but add value to the conversation by actually reading their stuff and making a genuine comment.

Similarly, retweeting or sharing their social media posts with an additional caption (such as “Solid advice for newbies in this post!”) is a great gesture that shows you’re interested in cultivating a real relationship, rather than a one-time brand-blogger transaction.

You can be further proactive by linking to their blog from your own site and giving them a prominent positive mention with the link, or offering an unsolicited testimonial about their product or service that you’ve used and liked. Showing such familiarity and interest in the blogger and their work is almost a surefire way to build a strong connection with them before a formal pitch even goes out.

3. Tailor Your Message and Be Concise

The most eminent bloggers, the ones you really want to join forces with, receive hundreds of branded emails and cold pitches every single day. That is, bloggers are busy people with their inbox full of guest posts, sponsorship, and promotion requests.

So, your best bet is to ensure your pitch has a personalized, attention-grabbing subject line and that the copy is clear and crisp. In the email’s subject and body, the level of personalization should go beyond mentioning the blogger’s name, the blog’s URL, or a particular post.

All the background checks you did about the blogger will come in handy here. Mentioning subtle details about their content or work is how your pitch will stand out. Don’t go bragging about your brand’s history or accolades because they may not have the time to bother, just make it about them and show that you’ve done your homework.

Also, if you’re using a blogger outreach email template to reach out to multiple potential blogging partners at once, be extremely careful not to copy-paste details and send the pitch to the wrong recipient. Such a mistake may instantly close the possibility of a collaboration with that blogger. Ensure impeccable spelling and grammar, too.

The only goal of your first email is to capture the blogger’s interest and get them to reply. Once you get the ball rolling, you can share all the details about what you have to offer…

4. Provide a Clear Value Proposition

In the consequent email conversation with the blogger (or their representative), it’s time to provide them with all the necessary information about what you’re looking for and what’s in it for them.

Be honest and straightforward (in a friendly, casual tone) about how the collaboration will be beneficial for them in terms of remuneration, free products, or increased online exposure. As with everything, never over-promise/exaggerate and under deliver.

Emphasize how your brand, product, or service is worth their time and would be loved by the blog’s audience. If possible, illustrate the unique value you bring to the table with an example from the recent past. In fact, you can even use a “no strings attached” approach, wherein you send them free branded stuff and don’t require the blogger to write about it or share their experience. But if bloggers like what they get, they usually write a sincere and super authentic post.

Sam Zivot, head of digital at Lorna Jane, does an exemplary job of showing what his brand offers without any strings attached, with his outreach garnering authentic advocacy as shown below.

Also, show your passion for the blogger’s work, or their own product/service, and the potential mutual benefits of the partnership. Your enthusiasm can be contagious and the blogger may also get excited about the possibility of a fruitful partnership.

5. Focus on Building a Sustainable Relationship

“A win-win blogger outreach strategy is not just about hunting, pitching, and persuading bloggers to do something mutually rewarding, but it’s also about maintaining lasting relationships with them,” explains Devesh Sharma of Design Bombs.

Once the campaign comes to an end, make it a point to keep in touch with them and continue to provide value by following them, sharing their content, commenting on their posts, and so on. In turn, they may keep promoting your brand and make it increasingly trustworthy for their target audience.

Influencer marketing is essentially about building and maintaining fruitful relationships and the more positive connections your brand can maintain, the more opportunities you will have to further grow your online authority going forward.

Long-lasting blogger relationships are an effective, convenient, and affordable way to continue boosting your traffic and leads. From the very outset, position your brand as a growth partner that’s genuinely interested in cultivating a sustainable and fruitful relationship, not a one-and-done deal.

Over to You

Having a niche influencer with a strong following to promote your product/service is a wise way to grow your brand’s online authority. Not only does it get your brand a valuable endorsement but it enables you to capture the attention of new audiences who may try your product, love it, spread the word, and stick around with your brand for years to come.

Plus, your branded content published on an authority blog is going to rank high in search for at least a few months after publishing, so the traffic and brand awareness generated by it will likely keep coming for quite a while.

In a nutshell, when done right, blogger outreach is an excellent form of online branding that almost guarantees stellar results in a short amount of time and in a cost-effective manner. Follow the aforementioned best practices to ensure the success of your blogger outreach campaign in a way that benefits everyone.

by Pratik Dholakiya

Founder, Growfusely

Pratik, founder of Growfusely, specializes in SEO and content marketing. He speaks at conferences and writes for major publications.