What is Blogger Outreach Campaign?
It is an influencer marketing strategy. It aims to reach out to a key influencer who has a substantial group of followers.
For example, a famous blogger, an editorial, or media representatives
The idea is to have this influencer blog about your company’s products or services. The influencer is considered an authority to their millions of fans.
If they endorse your company, their fans will likely want to do one or all of the following:
1. Check out your website, thereby driving traffic to your site and increasing your ranking.
2. Buy your products or services, thereby growing sales for your business.
3. Share the post with their families, friends, and communities, thereby increasing your brand profile and reach.
Who are Key Influencers?
Key influencers are busy individuals or establishments. They do not have time to engage with just any company. If you want to reach them, your business will need a strategy to attract their interest, connect with them, and provide a compelling reason why they should partner with you.
Social Influencing vs Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing has evolved from those mass-produced faceless and soulless emails to share one another’s links to the sophisticated, targeted social influencing of today.
A social influencing campaign that delivers results is one that not only gets three readers to ‘like’ your blogs or web page but to get all three of them to share it to three or more people.
The next group then continues to share the material until you reached the optimum mass, and the piece goes viral.
Some Important Blogger Outreach Strategy
Our team of experts from GoForPost has revealed the secrets to reaching key influencers.
Before you build your Blogger Outreach Content, you must first identify the goals you want to achieve.
Here are three primary goals:
1. Get the key influencer to notice, read, and share your content
2. Get the rights to be a guest blogger on their platforms.
3. Get high-quality backlinks.
The Step-by-step Guide to a Successful Blogger Outreach Campaigns
Here is the magical formula that will help you to build a blogger outreach campaign.
We have simplified the process into five simple steps. There is some free blogger outreach software you can use to help you develop winning Blog Outreach Campaigns.
STEP # 1: Develop the Target List
You can’t target an influencer just because they are popular. You have to find the right influencer for your niche.
For example, if you are a fashion accessories retailer, you will want to target fashion bloggers, not environmental writers.
To find the right match for your business or industry, check out the ‘About Me/Us’ page. You can also obtain valuable information from their Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts.
You can also use various free online tools to help you find the right influencer for your business. We will discuss some of these tools in another post.
Create a simple spreadsheet and add to the list as your research expands. For a good outreach campaign, you will need at least 30 names.
STEP # 2: Refine the list
Once you have a list, you are happy with, proceed to the next step by spending some researching their influence. The next step is to shortlist your initial list of 30 names into a more manageable campaign.
To help you shortlist your initial research, consider three key factors: social influence, domain authority, and comments.
Social influence takes into account, not just the influence the blogger or editorial has on its followers but also on that of their followers.
For example, a celebrity actress' social media will have millions of followers. Her followers, in turn, have their online communities, and every one of them will see her posts and can be influenced by it.
Domain authority refers to search engine authority. It usually correlates with reach and influence. There are online tools like On-Site Explorer you can use to check their domain authority. It is a simple process of keying in their URL and letting the software search their level of influence.
A quick survey of comments on the influencer's platform will also reveal readership behaviors. A blog that has many comments indicates a tight-knit community, so if you can get your content into their platform, then you will automatically have access to their online followers and fans.
Once you have sufficient information, go back to your excel spreadsheet and add in three new columns ‘domain’, ‘social’ and ‘comments’. As you complete these columns, you will find some of the names on your list dropping off. Congratulations! You have just created your shortlist.
STEP # 3: Design the Blog Outreach Communication Strategy
The third step in a successful blog outreach campaign is to design specific and targeted communications with each of the target groups. By the end of Step 2, you will have profiles of each influencer. You also have them grouped into clusters with similar characteristics. The communication strategy you design to connect with each cluster must be tailored to their unique features.
As a rule of thumb, make sure all communication you initiate is:
- Simple: The messages must be clear and concise. Bear in mind that key influencers are busy individuals or organizations. They do not have the time to read lengthy organizational stories or large proposals.
- Authentic: The messages must represent your unique brand – your mission and the core values that drive your business.
- Enthusiasm: The messages must convey your passion for your pitch. If you want the influencer to take notice, you must first ‘sell’ them the idea that it is worth reading further.
- Creative: Originality counts. The more creative you are with your communication, the more likely the influencer will take notice of your business.
- Trust. The underlying aim of your messages is to build trust and relationship with the influencer so they will want to continuously endorse your product or services. The outreach campaign is not a one-off tactic. It is a long-term engagement with mutual benefits for both parties.
STEP # 4: Reach out
When you start connecting with the influencer, always keep your blogger outreach goals in mind. There are three essential goals to keep in mind– getting them to share your content, getting them to invite you to guest post on their platforms, or getting a valuable backlink for your site.
The next step is just to get stuck into it and be patient. Results may take a while to materialize. If you do not have the time to invest in managing your blogger outreach campaign, it is wise to engage the services of a professional blogger outreach specialist.
STEP # 5: Grow a long-term relationship
The work does not stop when the blogger responds. The principal reason for investing in blogger outreach is to build trust and long-term relationship with the influencer so they will continuously want to promote your business.
Some simple gestures you can do to build relationships:
- Thank them if they have helped you.
- Take the relationship offline. Invite the influencer to launch, a personal viewing, or an event.
- Put a face to a name. There are many alternatives available, including Skype, Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber, and so forth.
- Propose collaboration. If you think the influencer is ready, then you may want to consider proposing a mutual partnership.
Blogger Outreach is an excellent way to reach more customers, build lasting relationships, and grow sales. If your business is in the social media space, it’s time to take it to the next level by also engaging in a blogger outreach campaign.
How to find Key Influencers?
There are a number of ways you can find and engage with a key influencer. The activities you choose are dependent on the profiles and classifications you have created in the shortlist.
We have listed some ways you can connect with influencers:
1. Share their Content
Bloggers and online writers like it when you share their content. It is true. They watch their posts like hawks because many of them make a living through their blogs.
For example, if you run a café or restaurant, mentioning a popular food blogger in your post will eventually make them take notice of you – especially if you are doing it consistently.
Do not forget to include their blog’s handle by using “+” on Google+ or “@” on Twitter so they can see your share.
Also, make sure you read what they blog and write a short description to show them you are seriously interested in what they have to say.
2. Respond to Key Influencers
Bloggers like to ask questions. If they respond, you must make sure you send a reply as soon as you can.
3. Comment on their Blog Post
Sharing their opinions and post in your blog is excellent. It is even better if you join their online community and start contributing comments to their posts. If they respond to you, your business will suddenly be in the peripheral vision of their followers because most loyal fans will also read their favorite blogger’s comments.
4. Send them a personalized mail
If you have access to their email, sending them a personalized email can be an effective first step to touch base with a key influencer.
5. Offer assistance or send an invite
If your business is in a position, you could try offering assistance or resources to the blogger.
For example, a vacation resort involved in blogger outreach may send invitations to targeted travel bloggers to visit their venue. A restaurant will invite food bloggers and foodie websites to sample a new menu launch.
Creating a Blogging Outreach Campaign will require you to invest time and labor. It is an ongoing strategy, not a one-off tactic. It is vital that before you embark on the campaign that you understand you have the time and labor to commit to it.
If you are a busy business that is time-poor, it may be wiser to reach out to a Blog Outreach specialist to create and run the campaign for you.
Note: The shortlist does not have to be an exact science. It is an overview to help you obtain a deeper understanding of the key influencer you want to target. This insight will be very beneficial to you as you design the communication strategy to connect with them.