Best Practices For Blogger Outreach

How-To Guide: Blogger Outreach Strategies & Best Practices

If you’re a brand that is looking to build its catalog of influencers, content creators, and ambassadors, don’t miss out on blogger partnerships.

Bloggers are the whole package. Not only are the most successful bloggers engaging storytellers with a grasp on user experience design and photography, but many of them have also parlayed their blogs into popular social media accounts. 

Take, for example, Huda Kattan and Joanna Gaines. Both women are public figures who have wildly successful social channels, television series, product lines, and more. Though they have different verticals — beauty and interior design, respectively — they have one thing in common: they started out as bloggers.

As a result, bloggers are a great option for brands to reach out to for partnerships. Not only would they be great partners for the creator’s blog, but they’d also be helpful for brand ambassadorships, affiliate programs, and so much more. 

However, some marketers shy away from reaching out because of the required time commitment to honing relationships with bloggers. But nurturing your connection with bloggers for future brand partnerships is well worth the effort.

 

What Is Blogger Outreach?

Blogger outreach is an email-driven strategy where marketers communicate with online influencers — in the form of bloggers — to build a brand ambassador network, promote new products, earn authentic mentions, and get noticed by a variety of new consumers.

Blogger outreach is a valuable strategy because it’s proven to attract creators to join brand initiatives — when done correctly. 

Most initial blogger outreach is executed in the form of personalized emails. Other marketers prefer to use direct messaging on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest. The chosen method is dependent on the best way to engage each blogger.

Unfortunately, personalized blogger outreach messaging has a tendency to fall flat when marketers sound too much like a sales pitch. 

When done correctly, however, blogger outreach communications are able to forge a meaningful connection with bloggers and go on to work together.

Not only are blogger partnerships a strategic move for brands because of their strong connection with their audiences, but it’s a relationship that can be parlayed into more. Blogger content is a gold mine for influencer marketing for agencies and brands. Additionally, it’s great for content marketing, search engine optimization, public relations plans, and much more.

 

 

The 5 Phases of Blogger Outreach

Blogger outreach follows a six-step process. To launch a successful outreach initiative, we recommend integrating a similar process into your workflow: 

1. Plan Your Outreach Campaign

Start your outreach process by planning out your campaign from start to finish. You’ll want to picture your end goal and how your overall objectives fit into those goals. Make sure to reference your buyer personas so you can subsequently create a persona for your ideal blogger partner.

2. Identify Bloggers To Work With

Using a blogger outreach tool like Mavrck, formulate a shortlist of bloggers you want to reach out to. Review and approve the best, most authentic bloggers based on your blogger persona, niche topics, ideal verticals, and recommendations from your professional network.

3. Pitch Your Bloggers

You found a blogger. Now what?

Write and send your personalized messaging to potential blogger partners that illustrate who you are, your brand’s background, what you’re offering, and why they would want to work with you. Make sure that you clearly specify the commitments you will need bloggers to fulfill when they work with your brand. 

4. Send Content That Inspires

Show bloggers that your brand is the real deal by sharing content that will help them write holistically about their experience with you. Fresh content like infographics, exclusive interviews, or something else that you’ve agreed on will help bloggers help you.

5. Promote The Blogger’s Content

After earning media from blogger partners, utilize it on your own channels! Not only will the engaging content get additional exposure on your channels, but it will also expose them to a new audience.

6. Monitor Your Campaign’s Progress

Mavrck streamlines and powers all stages of your brand’s blogger outreach program. From influencer CRM to finding new bloggers to reporting on campaigns, Mavrck customers love having a tool to execute and centralize all aspects of their blog outreach strategy.

 

Why Is Blogger Outreach Important?

Blogger outreach is important because blog posts are one of many pieces of content that the average buyer will review before making a purchase decision. At least 81% of the digital population trusts opinions and recommendations from blogs.

Bloggers are also excellent subject matter experts because they typically write about niche topics wherein they have a wealth of knowledge and experience, especially if they also have professional certifications proving their efficacy. 

Chrissy Carroll, for example, is a registered dietician and training coach. Her knowledge and expertise are highly trusted among her peers and readers. Therefore, she and her blog, snackinginsneakers.com, is a resource that similar brands and niche products would find valuable in a partnership. 

Because of this expertise in Chrissy’s blog and others, blogs are in the top five sources of trustworthy information on the Internet. 

Additionally, bloggers are considered mid-level influencers. This influencer segment, which has a smaller but more loyal audience, drives 16 times more engagement than paid media content and mega-influencers. 

 

How To Build a Successful Blogger Outreach Strategy

For a strategy that converts into successful partnerships, keep these five best practices in mind:

1. Build Your Network

We recommend approaching blogger outreach in a network-building approach that takes your target bloggers and segments them in an advocacy group that is nurtured over time.

2. Give Bloggers The Star Treatment

Focus on giving bloggers a top-notch experience with your brand. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it will also influence bloggers to then produce content that speaks highly of your brand. 

3. Quality > Quantity

Additionally, we recommend focusing on quality over quantity. A small but highly-targeted audience is more effective for your campaign than a blogger with a high follower count. 

4. Repurpose Content Across Channels

Make sure to also remember that bloggers may have multiple channels for you to activate together. When bloggers promote themselves (and your brand) across social platforms, interact with them and make sure to earn media by sharing on your branded platforms.

5. Don’t Be Afraid To Fail

A successful blogger outreach campaign rarely closes without lessons learned along the way. Trial and error will help you take away helpful methods to try (or avoid) next time.

 

Best Practice for a Great Blogger Outreach

In conclusion, blogger outreach is a valuable strategy that involves identifying bloggers that would be assets to your brand and pitching them to collaborate through a network-building strategy. Bloggers are an effective way to market your brand because of their loyal audience, great engagement rates, experience creating beautiful content, and the likelihood that they will also have well-followed social channels. 

Any brand would benefit from activating bloggers to create content and speak to the brand’s strengths. To learn more about how Mavrck can help marketers executive a blogger outreach strategy that works, schedule a demo today.