How could you benefit from working with a blogger?
When looking for a new product online, where will most people browse? Besides retail sites and search engines, a lot of consumers now turn to from online influencers or bloggers.
An influencer is somebody who is well known online and has a large fan base, usually specialising in something like fitness, fashion or food.
Most big brands and retail sites will have a professional team of marketers, photographers, copywriters etc, which could explain why people look elsewhere for more transparency.
What is blogger outreach?
Blogger outreach is the process of a business reaching out to an influencer for product promotion or another type of collaboration. Harnessing the power of influencers and bloggers is a great way to put your product or service in front of an audience with high-intent to purchase.
The tricky part is getting the right blogger to work with your business. You’ll want to work with an individual who already has a high profile, which can mean it’s often difficult to get them on board.
It’s likely a high-profile person will be approached by other brands, so, how can you make yours stand out? Firstly, it’s important to know how you want to work with a blogger so that you can provide a clear strategy.
Different types of partnerships
The type of blogger outreach campaign you choose will depend on your industry, your digital marketing goals and the type of product you’re trying to sell. The most popular blogger outreach methods include:
Sponsored posts
You can pay a blogger to share a paid post on their forum, or an influencer to share a paid post on their social platform. They will link back to your site or social media page to drive traffic and ideally sales.
The amount you pay for a post will depend on the type of post you want and how big their following is (the bigger the following, the more you’ll have to pay).
It’s important to consider your return on investment (ROI) when choosing a budget. If somebody has a huge following, then it’s worth paying more as you’ll likely get more sales in return.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) state that a blogger must always declare when they’re being paid to post. That is why you’ll see a disclaimer at the end of most sponsored posts, especially on social media as these have become so common.
Product reviews
Product reviews on social media have become more popular with the rise of visual platforms like Instagram and TikTok, where influencers can share more creative product reviews and tests.
It works by sending a product out to out in return for a public review. The review can be a video, post, photo or any kind of social media post. Ideally, positive review will encourage more people to buy your product.
Product features
This is a post where your product is featured more ‘naturally’. Instead of a post being dedicated to your product, a blogger or influencer may simply feature it in the background of a video or photo. A prime example of a product feature is wearing a branded item of clothing.
Giveaways
Giveaways have been around for a while but became a huge trend in 2020 and have definitely continued into 2021. It’s another highly effective tactic for both the blogger and the brand.
It works by letting the influencer or blogger host the competition on their page. The more entries and visibility it gains, the more brand awareness you’ll achieve as a result.
These have become popular on Instagram, and we’ve seen both small and larger brands using competitions on influencers pages to increase their own engagement. On top of this awareness, if the competition winner is gifted your product, they will hopefully recommend it to others or become a long-term customer.
Finding the right blogger for your brand
Finding the right people to work with is the key to a successful blogger outreach campaign. From a digital marketing perspective, how would we recommend reaching out to those high-profile figures online?
Learn about them first
Before approaching any bloggers – make sure you know enough about them. Find out what they’re interested in, who their audience is and what kind of brands they’ve worked with before.
It’s important to find somebody who fits into your target market – especially if you have a niche audience. The idea is that the collab will appear natural – so it’s essential that the influencer fits in with your usual branding.
You can look through their social media or blog sites to get a good idea of whether they are a suitable fit or not.
- Keep it simple – Most bloggers will receive a lot of emails day-to-day. Try not to overload them with too much information. Instead, say the most important things first and wait to hear back before going into any more detail. Focus on the main takeaway and make sure you’ve got an appealing subject line. For example, use words like ‘opportunity’.
- Be creative – Make sure that your excitement shows through your email. If you want to stand out, then try to show why the blogger would benefit from working with your brand.
- Build Trust – A collab will only really work if there is a sense of trust between you and the blogger. Try to build trust by engaging with their work. That could be liking and commenting on their posts, engaging with their blogs or asking questions about themselves and how they work.
Try a blogger outreach tool
You can use an outreach tool to automate or simplify different steps and work that needs to be done throughout the blogger outreach process. As well as managing your auto-mailing, tools can help you find the right bloggers of your business, build profiles and maintain relationships. We recommend:
BuzzSumo allows you to enter your keywords and find relevant influencers to work with:
Do you have any questions about a potential blogger outreach campaign? Are you interested in working with influencers to promote your product or supercharge your SEO? Get in touch!