Blogger outreach or influencer marketing has been proven to be an effective tactic. After all, people turn to online celebrities for recommendations and reviews. This explains why brands use this strategy to create a more extensive reach for their brand.
It is an intelligent tactic to implement, especially if you do not have the budget to spend on an actual brand ambassador.
Moreover, guest bloggers can help you reach your intended audience by way of links and posts. And your target customers often see influencers as more trustworthy compared to celebrity endorsers. Probably because they are more relatable.
However, this type of marketing strategy must be carefully done. There are factors you have to consider before jumping on the bandwagon.
If you want to improve your blogger outreach program, here are eight crucial strategies that you can apply to your next campaign:
1. Contact The Right Person
Bloggers have different niches. Make sure to contact which one shares the same principles as your brand or the one that speaks of your business personality.
Do not send your outreach emails to everybody on your list. Instead, decide which ones are the best fit for your cause and start from there. Blindly sending out emails to anyone on your list could be a total waste of time and effort.
Contacting the right person may be the first step, but it is also one of the most critical parts of the process.
2. Craft A Concise Email
Influencers and bloggers receive plenty of emails in a day. When you write a concise email, it gives you a higher chance of being noticed.
These people don’t spend their day reading their mail. You can’t expect them to sit down and read a lengthy email. You can’t also hold them accountable for not reading your email.
Go for the catchy but straightforward route. If you want bloggers to post your brand link, say it. If you’re going to get them as your brand ambassador, go for it. Make sure to keep your subject line as attention-grabbing as possible.
You can give them a brief background of your brand, but don’t give them the entire history. You can go into the details once they’ve shown interest in your proposition. Otherwise, keep the email simple.
3. Make It Personal
If you want to win in this game, make the invite as personal as possible. Most influencers receive several brand collaborations in a day. Some use templated messages and invite, and that doesn’t work.
Make sure to keep the message personal so that they’d feel more special. It could be a dealbreaker for these bloggers. You must craft a message that’s intended for them; that’s why research is fundamental.
You have to get to know who you’re talking to so that you can create an invite that speaks to them and not just send out a hollow message.
4. Use A Catchy Subject Line
A catchy subject line will give you an edge. It makes your email more clickable and could get the attention of the receiver.
But catchy doesn’t mean giving out false promises. Communicate your intent in an appealing but factual manner.
The goal is to catch the influencer’s attention so that they won’t leave your email unread in their inbox full of generic emails from brands like you. The more unique your subject lines are, the more chances of your message being read.
5. Try Automation Software
Automation software can make life easier for you. Once you’ve identified the influencers you want to reach, the software can help you manage and monitor campaigns that you have put up for your brand.
That way, you can check which ones are the most effective and which aren’t working.
Time is of the essence, so manually doing this can take much of your precious time when you can do something more important instead. This includes getting ready for another batch of blogger outreach programs.
If automation software can help you achieve your goals, let them. Don’t resist the idea.
6. Outline Your Outreach Goals
Identify your goals.
- Do you want more links covered?
- Do you want more mentions on a page?
- Do you want more people clicking your links?
Whatever you want to achieve, keep in mind that you have to be specific when outlining your goals. You don’t want broad and generic goals to keep you from succeeding.
7. Include A Call To Action (Cta)
Avoid creating generic CTAs. It won’t get you anywhere. A great CTA will include a link, a request, or a post for your content. It has to be catchy and clickable.
It’s crucial that when you create a CTA, there has to be follow-through. Because if there’s no action after they’ve been called to do something, then that means you failed to get your message across.
8. Remember To Follow Up
When you’re done sending emails to your prospects, don’t expect to get a reply right away. But don’t sit back and wait for years until they reply. Remember to follow up.
Bloggers tend to have a short attention span, especially when they’re bombarded with emails from different brands every day.
Don’t be shy to send a follow-up email. The goal is to get them to reply and be interested in what you’re offering. Giving up when they don’t respond right away is not an option if you want to succeed.
Remember that first attempts aren’t always victorious. Try and try, but don’t overdo it.
Conclusion
Blogger outreach is an effective marketing tool. However, you have to understand its quirks before really getting the hang of it.
It is an innovative marketing strategy that can help you reach greater heights for your brand. That’s because influencers have a great pull, especially on their followers. You can use this to your advantage.
Just be sure to create a compelling package, which would be hard for them to turn down.
If you think you will run out of bloggers to reach out to, do not worry. The industry is growing bigger by the day, so pretty sure you will have plenty of other options when one says no.
