Blog outreach involves communicating with bloggers to engage their audiences with your message. Bloggers are online influencers, and the best of them are prolific writers with a dedicated readership. Bloggers value relationships and will respond well to companies and individuals who reach out to communicate with them and do it the right way. Until recently it was innovative, at this point it is a necessary part of any ongoing marketing or public relations campaign.
Blogger outreach can be as simple as getting them to review your product or as involved as building an extended relationship with bloggers in your field that you can consistently give stories to and get feedback from.
1)Increase Sales- Good product reviews on the right blogs will lead to more sales from that blogās readers. There are respected blogs in every field and thousands of readers who use the web to research their purchasing decisions-
2)Increase traffic- A review on a blog that ranks well in search engines is a powerful and effective way to increase search traffic. Since the reader is already online, they are just one click away from your product, a huge advantage over a product review in printed media.
3)Improve Search Engine Ranking- More links to your website will increase the search engine position of your site. This will help people find your product online directly through search engines.
4)Lead the Conversation- If you are not leading conversation in your subject area someone else will be. By reaching out to bloggers, you can start the conversation and make sure you are there to comment, respond and take part in whatever direction it goes.
5)Build Relationships- Reaching out to bloggers will help you build a relationship with the online influencers in your market- and that will add value and presence for your company in the online space.
6)Valuable Feedback- Engagement with your audience will lead to useful feedback for your company. If you are reaching out to bloggers, you will certainly get feedback from them. Even more important, you will get the extended feedback and exposure from their network through social media channels and blog comments.
7)Get the Jump on Competition- You should be building relationships with the blogging community before your competitors do. The online community knows what companies āget itā and who is good at
8)Follow Your Own Lead- If you have read this far you already know you need to do blogger outreach. You are getting guidance from a blog right now- the people you need to reach will do the same.
No matter your reason or duration, understand that blogger outreach is building a relationship. Bloggers respond well if you communicate with them as individuals, not to being on an impersonal mailing list. Itās best to learn something about their blog before contacting them and have a good idea of what they write about and their perspective.
Murray Newlands on blog outreach.