Abridged with the author’s permission from a post on Convince and Convert.
If you have a product or service to promote, these days you need to promote it among bloggers as well as old-school reporters—and bloggers take a different touch.
All blogs start with zero readers and have to build their own influence. Bloggers’ influence is derived from their own ability and moxie, whereas journalists’ influence is in large measure derived via the outlet they represent. And unlike with journalists, writing is usually not a full-time job for most bloggers. Thus, bloggers are typically inveterate multi-taskers that protect their time like a pissed-off goose with a nest full of goslings.
That’s why bloggers get so irked about ham-handed pitches from clueless PR folks that are still in the “harvest email addresses and send bulk releases” school of outreach. It wastes time, which is a commodity that’s in short supply for bloggers—who don’t have any readers unless they make it happen.
The Influence Economy
Most bloggers are not compensated directly for their writing. Sure, they may have some ads or affiliate links, but unless the blog gets serious traffic, the ability to monetize eyeballs is limited, indeed. The max I could make through conventional advertising for the time I spent on my blog, for instance, would be about $14 per hour.
But blogging is incredibly important to my business because it generates social media speaker opportunities, and social media consulting projects. Thus, every reader of my blog is a potential client, or a connection to a potential client—as well as a potential colleague, friend, drinking buddy or fantasy football league-mate.
So even though I’m not in the advertising business, traffic absolutely matters to me, as it does to all bloggers.
So What Do Bloggers Want?
There are two currencies that matter to bloggers—traffic and influence. When you’re pitching bloggers, find a way for your interaction with them to generate one of those two things (or both), and you’ll have yourself quite an effective pitch.
What generates traffic and influence for bloggers? Access and information. Don’t just send a blogger a write-up of your nifty marketing program. Give the blogger access to your metrics and ask if they’d like to create a post analyzing your ROI. Provide an interview with the customers that participated in the program. Link to the blogger’s post from your corporate Web site.
It’s not about exclusives and embargoes. It’s not about doing all the work FOR the reporter, so he or she can hit a deadline with minimal effort. With bloggers, it’s about co-creating the content WITH the blogger, helping him or her package the content in a way that’s unusual and memorable. That’s what drives traffic, and that’s what drives influence.
Jay Baer is a social media strategy consultant and coach for corporations and public relations firms.
How to Pitch a Blogger
Abridged with the author’s permission from a post on Convince and Convert.
If you have a product or service to promote, these days you need to promote it among bloggers as well as old-school reporters—and bloggers take a different touch.
All blogs start with zero readers and have to build their own influence. Bloggers’ influence is derived from their own ability and moxie, whereas journalists’ influence is in large measure derived via the outlet they represent. And unlike with journalists, writing is usually not a full-time job for most bloggers. Thus, bloggers are typically inveterate multi-taskers that protect their time like a pissed-off goose with a nest full of goslings.
That’s why bloggers get so irked about ham-handed pitches from clueless PR folks that are still in the “harvest email addresses and send bulk releases” school of outreach. It wastes time, which is a commodity that’s in short supply for bloggers—who don’t have any readers unless they make it happen.
The Influence Economy
Most bloggers are not compensated directly for their writing. Sure, they may have some ads or affiliate links, but unless the blog gets serious traffic, the ability to monetize eyeballs is limited, indeed. The max I could make through conventional advertising for the time I spent on my blog, for instance, would be about $14 per hour.
But blogging is incredibly important to my business because it generates social media speaker opportunities, and social media consulting projects. Thus, every reader of my blog is a potential client, or a connection to a potential client—as well as a potential colleague, friend, drinking buddy or fantasy football league-mate.
So even though I’m not in the advertising business, traffic absolutely matters to me, as it does to all bloggers.
So What Do Bloggers Want?
There are two currencies that matter to bloggers—traffic and influence. When you’re pitching bloggers, find a way for your interaction with them to generate one of those two things (or both), and you’ll have yourself quite an effective pitch.
What generates traffic and influence for bloggers? Access and information. Don’t just send a blogger a write-up of your nifty marketing program. Give the blogger access to your metrics and ask if they’d like to create a post analyzing your ROI. Provide an interview with the customers that participated in the program. Link to the blogger’s post from your corporate Web site.
It’s not about exclusives and embargoes. It’s not about doing all the work FOR the reporter, so he or she can hit a deadline with minimal effort. With bloggers, it’s about co-creating the content WITH the blogger, helping him or her package the content in a way that’s unusual and memorable. That’s what drives traffic, and that’s what drives influence.
Jay Baer is a social media strategy consultant and coach for corporations and public relations firms.