5 Tips For Powerful Blogger Outreach

There are some important practices you must adopt when conducting your blogger outreach.  

Too many people fail to do the basics and the result of that is poor results and a poor outlook on outreach as a core marketing activity. I think that is a shame.

At the heart of blogger outreach is making connections with other people and collaborating in a way which brings benefits to both parties.   

Blogger outreach needs to be done no matter what campaign you are running whether it’s a competition, an affiliate relationship or a guest post.

Let’s go through 5 important blogger outreach practices for you to implement in your next campaign for better results.


1. Pin down your offer before emailing

Make sure you know specifically what you are offering the blogger you are reaching out to.  Don’t expect them to come up with a way they can work with you.  

​You are emailing them because you want to work with them and think that collaborating in some way will provide benefit to you both.  

Notice how I say both here.  Do not email a blogger with some vague opportunity just to try and land a free link from them.

Be respectful, this is a person who has spent a lot of time and energy growing an established audience of followers.  They are a business person as much as they are a writer, graphic designer and creative.


2. Only cold email if desperate!

If you absolutely must then cold email is a method to get in touch with bloggers, the response rate is between 5 - 20% depending on your offer and how well written it is.  

Unless you have a way to source a huge amount of high quality leads to funnel into your cold email campaign then it might not be economical for you to do this at scale.

I wouldn’t rely on cold email as a primary source of growing relationships with bloggers.

3. Follow them on twitter

Twitter is still a really great networking tool.  Follow the bloggers you want to reach out to on twitter and put them on a private list.   Log onto this list every day and scan through, it’s amazing how much you learn about the niche you are working in just from doing this.  

​You’ll also get to know something about the personality of the bloggers you want to connect with, as well as what they are up to at the moment and what they enjoy.

If you find yourself wanting to reply to something they have tweeted feel free to do that.  Entering into a natural conversation is a great way to get you on their radar.

After a few twitter chats you can DM them or send them an email to take the relationship to the next level and see if they’d be interested in a collab opportunity.  A really good place to start is a guest post as you both get the benefit and it is quite a low effort activity on both sides.


4. Sell your offer not yourself (first)

When you do reach out to a blogger make sure in the first lines you sell your offer, not yourself.  There is nothing that turns someone off more, than reading an email which starts with a brag >>

Hi Cheryl

I am an award-winning Entrepreneur and I won 3 prizes last year for my startup which is taking my market by storm.

NO!

Lead with what you are offering the blogger first

Hi Cheryl

I’m writing to see if you’d be interested in a guest post for your blog.  

I am an award-winning Entrepreneur and I won 3 prizes last year for my startup which is taking my market by storm.  

As you can see, you are still able to sell yourself and the value you can offer but you lead with your offer, not with your brag.   Always remember your audience wants to know what they can get out of it , your brag seals the deal.

5. Be Respectful

Unfortunately, I feel like I have to include this point - it is sad that this is not just a given.  However, there are a lot of PR & Outreach Agencies which don’t treat bloggers with respect.

I believe every one of them should be forced to try and build a blog and grow an audience themselves, and see just how much effort goes into doing it.

Always be respectful in your communication and remember that there are two sides to the story. You AND the person you are speaking with.  

If you are looking for high-quality blogger placements we have plenty available in our store! Check them out.  Or sign up for a free trial of our blogger outreach tool Guest Bloggers Wanted which helps you connect with bloggers & influencers quickly to produce PR standard guest posts.

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