Oct 29, 2018
Casey Bjorkdahl is one of the pioneering thought leaders in the SEO community. In 2010, Casey co-founded Vazoola after working for a Digital Marketing Agency for five years in New York City. Vazoola is now one of the fastest growing and most widely recognized SEO marketing firms in the country.
It is not an easy task to get your brand message heard over the noisy crowd on the web. What can you do to make sure your content is read by and continues to provide value to your target market?
Get your content in front of the movers and shakers (also known as influencers) in your industry by utilizing blog outreach strategies.
The value of blog outreach is that it allows brands to gain exposure for their business offerings by leveraging influencers in the same niche who already have an established following.
Blog outreach is not a one-step solution and takes time. However, it is time well spent as it will help amplify your brand's visibility, content, and messaging.
What are some of the ways you can take advantage of the benefits of blog outreach, raise your brand awareness, and earn quality backlinks?
Identify the Most Relevant Websites
Do your research to make sure you are reaching out to relevant bloggers in your niche. Every business' ultimate goal is to increase their bottom line and get more customers or clients.
Are the site owners you are considering reaching out to people that your target market trusts?
Start looking by doing a simple Google search. Use a keyword phrase that is relevant to your business offerings and see which blogger sites show up on page one.
If a blogger is ranking well in Google for a specific phrase, you will know they are considered to be authoritative by Google.
You can also use social media sites like Twitter and LinkedIn. Choose relevant hashtags to identify potential sites.
Build and Nurture Relationships
Before you can get a blogger to link to your site, you will need to develop a relationship with them. Focus on offering them value, not just on them doing you a favor.
You might be wondering what you can offer to another blogger, especially an influential one. That will depend upon what they see as valuable.
While building your relationships, you will soon learn what is important to them, be it social sharing or sponsorships.
Keep it Simple
Each outreach email needs to be personalized. Do your research. Look for their contributor guidelines and send what they expect. Make it obvious that you have actually looked at their site.
When reaching out to bloggers via email, don't write too much. Remember that everyone is busy and if you are lucky enough to get your email opened and read, if it is too long, you will lose the recipient. Get right to the point quickly and precisely.
Content Matters
Before you even start trying to find bloggers to link to your site, make sure your own house is in order. The content on your blog should be relevant, valuable, and helpful to your readers.
If you are asking a blogger to link back to your site, they will want to see quality content on yours that matches their brand strategy, personality, and audience.
Will their audience receive helpful information or solve a problem if they follow a link back to your site? Remember, if you are asking a favor, both parties need to see a benefit to their readers.
Use Brand Ambassadors
Your best clients and top followers can be an excellent resource for getting links to your site and more social shares.
Loyal customers and followers are already talking about your brand because they value your business offerings or the content you share.
Establish, build, and nurture your relationships with them and offer them brand ambassadorship status. Let them know that they are appreciated by sharing their content and providing them with discounts.
Develop a Strategy
Reaching out to a blogger or influencer out of the blue is about as successful as cold calling when it comes to sales.
Chances are if they have no idea who you are, you are wasting your time because you will not get a response.
Don't forget the importance of relationships. If a blogger receives an email from a name they recognize, they are more likely to read it and hopefully respond.
Here are a few ways you can ensure bloggers in your niche will recognize your brand:
- Read their content fully. Don't just read the headlines. If you can make contact with them, you want to be sure they know you are not reaching out blindly, know who they are, what they write about, and what they do.
- Share their content on social media and leave meaningful comments on their blogs. You can even ask relevant questions to start up a conversation.
- Try using the phone. While most people don't answer calls from people they don't know to avoid spam, if they recognize your name from caller ID from your other efforts, there is a higher likelihood that they will answer than if they don't.
It is not easy to get the attention of relevant bloggers in your niche to send links back to your site. People are busy. They are bombarded daily with emails, phone calls, and advertisements. Many have developed a blind eye due to information overload.
This doesn't mean you shouldn't try. Focus your energy on developing meaningful relationships so that you will stand out from the crowd. Do your research, be creative, and persistent.
Building quality organic links to your site is time-consuming. If you haven’t already built relationships, take advantage of ours.
