Create Sponsored Blogging Content
Partnering with a blogger who can create sponsored content for your brand is a great way to acquire SEO-rich content with a long lifecycle and strong ROI. Blog content is an excellent marketing tactic for many reasons, most notably because it’s commonly evergreen and can be amplified on social channels, in email marketing, and beyond. Between its versatility and search engine-indexable attributes, blog content is a value-add that strengthens your brand and cultivates potential long-term relationships with bloggers.
Blogs are regarded as the fifth most trustworthy source for gathering information, with bloggers often possessing a wealth of expertise in their respective subject areas. And a lot of bloggers are often influencers in their own right. Some successful influencers, like Joanna Gaines and Huda Kattan, started as bloggers and parlayed their blog’s success into massive brands.
But the difference between the Joannas and Hudas of the blogging world is that blog content has evolved from its earliest iterations. Where blogging was once a writer-focused endeavor that hinged on the blogger’s personal brand and interests, it transitioned into a reader-focused industry. Bloggers with strong, longstanding followings have moved into the audience-focused space, which puts the focus on the consumer while also resulting in an SEO-optimized content experience that benefits brands even more than when blogging first started up.
Let’s EAT
So, what should you consider when it comes to partnering with bloggers? One acronym that describes the vetting process is “EAT,” which stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. An EAT analysis conducted by Google impacts any blogger’s credibility and whether they have what it takes when it comes to product recommendations and sponsorships.
In addition to EAT, consider and ask about these other areas when evaluating a potential blogger partner:
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- What do their monthly page views look like?
- What percentage of their website traffic comes from search engine results vs. from their social media channels?
- What is their niche or specialty? Does it align with your brand’s vision?
- What is their social media presence? Do they regularly post on any specific platforms?
- Has the blogger used or promoted your product outside of any paid brand collaborations?
- What is the blogger’s style? Does it align with your brand’s style?
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Plan To Succeed
After you’ve found a blogger you want to partner with, there are several steps you should take to make sure your brand collaboration is successful. Here are our top recommendations:
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- Choose the right campaign type. Blogs are not the most effective channel when it comes to promoting promo codes or limited-time offers. Focus instead on evergreen content or content that can be updated and repurposed year after year. Listicles, recipes, how-tos, and DIY project documentation are great topics for blogs. Make sure to be clear about the campaign’s deliverables — i.e. if the blogger needs to submit a blog post, video, photo content, or a combination.
- Communicate your brand’s expectations and requirements. In addition to your creative expectations, make sure that you share your campaign’s KPI goals and due dates (including any draft submissions, if applicable) with the blogger. They’ll also need to know specific details about FTC disclosures that will need to be included in their content. Make sure to be clear about the campaign’s deliverables — i.e. if the blogger needs to submit a blog post, video, photo content, or a combination.
- Understand the timeframe of ROI on blog content. Blogging rarely yields immediate results and metrics will need to be tracked over a longer period of time. It can take at least six months for blogs to begin to show ROI, but the value, in the long run, is worth the wait.
- Allow for creative freedom. If the blogger is excited about their ideas, listen to them and see how you can work their concepts into the campaign content. Bloggers are intimately familiar with their audience and can help point you in the right creative direction.
- Leverage other blog benefits. Work with the blogger partners to strategize on affiliate marketing opportunities, digital storefront collaborations, and display ad placements if they are relevant to the campaign.
- Think outside the blog. Some successful bloggers also have large followings on other channels. If you can leverage their social media presence in addition to their blog, make a plan with the creator to include additional touchpoints in return for additional compensation.
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Don’t Sleep On The Blog
In conclusion, blogging is a valuable part of the marketing mix that shouldn’t be an afterthought. This type of content is an especially helpful aspect of any influencer marketing campaign since it can be leveraged to drive traffic and act as repurposable, evergreen content that will push ROI for potentially years to come. Partnering with the right blogger for your brand is just as important as the campaign details themselves, so take time to find creators who are aligned with your values and mission and compensate them appropriately – and get ready to achieve your KPIs!
