3 Levels of Professionalism in Blogger Outreach

If there’s one thing that is consistent in any successful blogger outreach campaign, it’s this: You have to create a mutually beneficial situation And because of this, it’s always better to help first, ask second. But how do figure how you can help the blogger?  What’s beneficial to one, may not be to another. One important distinction to make in blogger outreach, is the professional level of that blogger.   The way you might want to approach a blogger can differ, depending on their professional goals. You can break it down into these three, still very broad but useful, categories.  They are not independent of one another.  A blogger could be a blend of 2 or even all 3 of the categories. For the most part these categories will lead you to better understand a blogger’s goals and therefore better enable you to offer value that is relevant to them.

1. Revenue Bloggers

These bloggers make it very clear that their blog is a business and should be treated as such.  That means, you can approach these bloggers with more of a business mindset.  They’ll be more open to unsolicited emails or collaboration opportunities, assuming it’s valuable to them. Remember, these are business minded people.  If you’re a competitor, they’re not going to help you, and if you can help their business, they’ll love you. In order to get coverage on these blogs you’re doing to have to:

1. Pay them.
2. Have an opportunity that will coincide with their business model.
3. Have a product or opportunity that will be valuable to their target audience, leading to an increase in readership.

2. Professional Bloggers

These bloggers may or may not make money, but they’ll usually have clearly defined goals for their blog.  Whether it’s lead generation, networking, personal branding, or building email lists, they’re blogging with a purpose. Many of these bloggers are professionals, looking to establish themselves in their field. If you’re going to get coverage from these bloggers, you should be able to:

1. Give them something in return for their help.  Something that will help them achieve their goals of branding, networking, or whatever they may be.
2. Network with them before hand.  They’re usually looking to network too.
3. Support their work by sharing their posts with your network.

3. Recreational Bloggers

These bloggers write for the love of blogging and can be the hardest to understand for outreach purposes.  They won’t always have a specific focus, as personal blogs tend to be a brain dump of sorts.  They DO usually want to increase their readership but that’s often the extent of their goals.  They just like to write, and be heard. So how can you reach such free and spontaneous bloggers with your message?  Really, it’s going to be hard if you don’t have a sincere interest in their work.  Here are a few things to keep in mind.

1. They love to get comments.  Just make sure you’re commenting as a person and not a brand.  They can smell a sale and will squash it.
2. Building a relationship with these kinds of bloggers will take a long time. If you can feature their work and drive more traffic to their site, that’s probably you’re best bet to expedite the process.
3. Unless you have the most interesting product ever, they probably won’t give a crap.  It truly has to be highly valuable or entertaining for their readers or it doesn’t matter how much they trust you.
4. Cold calls are a quick and easy way to fail.
5. They’re a lot more open to community-focused opportunities than business-focused opportunities.  In other words, they might not give a crap about your product, but if you ask them to support or contribute to a community, they’ll be more inclined to help out.

Understanding the goals of the blogger you’re trying to reach is extremely important if you’re going to launch a successful outreach campaign. If you understand what the blogger hopes to accomplish, you’ll have a much easier time figuring out how you can help them first.]]>