Blogger outreach, or in other words, blogger relations is when a brand cooperates with bloggers for promotional purposes. This usually results in creating original, genuine content, and via bloggers, the businesses are able to communicate to their community, garnering trust and influence.

For the longest time in the history of the internet, creating websites was an activity reserved mostly for companies and tech-savvy hobbyists.

However, as technology developed, eventually it became practically feasible to create functional web pages with little to no effort, allowing more people to host various kinds of content online.

This “democratization” of web development led to the emergence of a new website format, the blog. Containing mostly personal thoughts and reflections of their creators, blogs spread around the web like wildfire, ushering a new internet age.

Once blogs became popular, enterprising individuals started searching for ways how leverage their popularity for commercial purposes.

One of the more direct ways they came up with was ad placement, which even today remains the cornerstone business model for tech giants such as Google.

A more recent trend in utilizing blogs for profit and influence emerged once companies started paying attention to the kind of content they provided, instead of just their form.

In other words, they saw an opportunity to embed their sales pitch in the content itself, and do it as seamlessly as possible.

One way of accomplishing this was by going straight to the source of content, namely the blogger himself.

If a blogger started mentioning a brand as a part of their regular content updates, it wouldn’t come out as blatant advertising, which is something most people find offensive.

Instead, the advertising copy would disguise itself as an opinion piece of the blogger, allowing it to silently exercise its influence in the background.

The technical term for establishing a promotional partnership with bloggers, as well as other kinds of online opinion purveyors, is ‘blogger outreach’.

It refers to the whole process of creating a business relationship with a blogger, from initial screening of potential candidates, to ironing out deal specifics, to maintaining a long-term partnership.

In the rest of this article, we will give you a walk-through of this process in more detail, which will enable you leverage the blogosphere for expanding brand awareness and commercial gain.

Potential Benefits Of Outreaching To Bloggers

Let’s take a look at the specifics of how blogger outreach can benefit your brand, and how it scales in comparison to other digital marketing methods.

At the basic level, bloggers promote your brand by introducing their audience to your product or service. A part of the audience will develop an interest in what you are offering, and yet another subset of them will go on to make a purchase.

In other words, the process of blogger outreach has the structure a classical conversion funnel.

What are the advantages of the blogger outreach model of marketing? In essence, what a blogger can add to a marketing campaign is a touch of personality.

Bloggers rise to prominence as more and more people start to value their thoughts on a particular subject. They start to be perceived as an authority, which means their opinion carries weight.

The point here is that the audience is willing to listen to what the blogger has to say from the outset. Conventional online marketing relies on depersonalized messages tailored for no one in particular, and as such they are not held as valuable pieces of information when considering a purchase.

Blogger comments on the other hand have the power to convince, at least as far as their audience is concerned.

Another benefit of blogger outreach which isn’t usually mentioned is increased search engine optimization through linkbuilding.

Popular blogs are treated as authoritative backlink sources by search engines, so having your product pages linked by influential bloggers will increase your odds of appearing near the top of SERPs.

Other benefits of blogger outreach, which it shares with other digital marketing methods, include relative cost-effectiveness, measurable returns on investment, and greater potential of your advertising copy going viral if a blog-post explodes in popularity.

The Process of Outreach in X basic steps

Since every blogger is a unique and special individual, there is no set way to guarantee that your attempts at procuring their services will succeed. However, there are some basic steps you can take to increase your odds of developing a successful relationship.

Audience research:- When preparing any marketing strategy, you always have to have a target audience. So before outreaching to a blogger, make sure their audience has relevant interests in common with your ideal customer.

Blog research :- Equally important to establishing a target audience, is examining the kind of content they consume. This is why it is imperative to learn as much as you can about the blogs whose authors you are planning to reach out to.

First contact :- Send your offer to the desired blogger. This is the crucial step in the entire process. If you act unprofessionally, don’t provide the relevant information, or offer nothing in return for the services, your outreach program is dead in the water.

Formal agreement :- Once you come to terms with the prospective blogger, wrap your agreement in a formal contract. Clearly establish what kind of service you will be expecting, what is the remuneration for the blogger, and the length of the contract.

Track progress :- After you sign the deal, use analytic tools to measure the impact of your marketing strategy over a period of time. Important metrics to keep track of are ROI and SERP position. Tracking progress is essential for determining whether to continue your blogger outreach marketing strategy.

Build long-term relationships:-  If your blogger outreach program is producing measurable results, consider developing your relationship with the blogger in question. Offer additional perks and benefits like freebees, sneak previews, passes for press events, or anything that the blogger will find useful.

Conclusion

Blogger outreach can be a powerful addition to any marketing strategy, or even the sole focus of your marketing efforts.

With the authority of a famous blogger on your side, developing a loyal customer base for your products and services can be made much easier, in comparison to other digital marketing strategies. Don’t hesitate to try out.