How to Do Blogger Outreach in 2021 – A Complete Guide

What is Blogger Outreach?

Simply put: Blogger outreach is the practice of reaching out to the bloggers and influencers in your niche to build relationships and get your brand’s name in front of the targeted audience.

Why do blogger outreach, I found you asked.

Influential blogger outreach is anything but a waste of time, unlike the popular perception.

You get eyeballs, a powerful link, and a prominent brand mention – like, everything you can think of – through the blogger outreach best practices.

Yes, there is a right way and a wrong way of reaching out to the bloggers because:

• All blogs are not the same
• Every outreach effort is not made right

A wrong blogger outreach email template can deprive you of a good opportunity and give you some really bad comments (really, really burning ones!) – yes, even if you have written good content.

Nothing is dreadful than hearing such comments about your work.

But it can happen (actually, it happens!) if you don’t learn how to do blogger outreach properly before pitching out to the bloggers.

How Does Blogger Outreach Work?

Hope you aren’t thinking that the bloggers go all-out writing articles on your brand and asking people to buy your products directly.

Well, bloggers do promote your products/services but without sounding like salespersons.

They act more like advocates of your brand, putting your brand as the ultimate problem-solver.

So when you find influential bloggers, reach out to them, and get a prominent mention on their blogs, it means you are going to get:

• Brand awareness and recognition
• Credibility and authority
• SEO boost and higher rankings
• Free promotion
• More traffic and qualified leads
• Enhanced revenue

 

Yes, you can get all this through a blogger outreach campaign.

So stop wondering about whether blogger outreach is right for my business or not.

Because:

The answer is: IT IS!

It shows that people are ready to hear about your business through a blogger, and bloggers are ready to promote your content.

Sounds easy? I wish it was, but it isn’t.

You get all these benefits only if you know how to do effective blogger outreach.

How to Do Blogger Outreach?

So you want to know how to do blogger outreach

I wish blogger outreach could be packed in a few steps, and it was as random as people consider it. But it is not!

It is neither the playground of jaywalker digital marketers…

…nor is it easy-breezy.

So if you are thinking of jumping into this goldmine without an insight guide to blogger outreach, you are more likely to miss out on ‘gold’ from this mine.

The act of blogger outreach is an art as well as science.

You need a particular set of skills as well as a step-by-step blogger outreach process to achieve success.

Besides writing, negotiation, persuasion, and strategizing skills, you need to follow specific steps to get the best results.

When it comes to an effective blogger outreach process, here are the detailed steps of a blogger outreach strategy:

• STEP 1: Set Well-defined Goals
• STEP 2: Find the Prospects
• STEP 3: Select the Best Deal
• STEP 4: Know About Them
• STEP 5: Come in their Good Books
• STEP 6: Reach Out to Them
• STEP 7: Stay connected with them

Alright…let’s dig out each step to find out how each step fits into the equation of the strategy for the blogger outreach.

Just imagine that you are trying to pull a cart up a hill, but you don’t know where you want to take it.

Does it make any sense?

Nope.

Designing a blogger outreach strategy without well-defined objectives and goals is just like building a castle in the air – without any base, aimlessly.

It can’t be done. Right?

Similarly, you can’t run an effective blogger outreach campaign without knowing where you want to end up to.

The endgame of every blogger outreach effort is not to enhance your SEO rankings.

Okay, this can be one of the factors but not the only one.

Remember all those blogger outreach benefits mentioned above? Yes, they can all be your primary goals for blogger outreach.

Here is how to set achievable goals.

Once you set effective goals, you know:

• A clear path to achieve goals
• How to tackle possible obstacles
• How to increase the possibility of success
• What to do to achieve more in less time

After setting goals, it is time to jump on to outreach ideas: finding the prospects.

The answer to the question: how to do blogger outreach at scale, is only one:

By finding as many targeted bloggers as you can.

In other words, prepare a list of potential bloggers who you think are worth outreaching to.

If you don’t have a list of quality bloggers.

Here are simple methods and different approaches to blog outreach to find potential bloggers for outreaching:

METHOD # 1: Take Help from Google

Simply type in related keywords on the Google search bar, and you will find many relevant authority blogs to pitch.

Never underestimate the power of Google.

Seriously, it can be your go-to solution to find really good blogs (well, if you know how to use it properly).

Make a list of target and relevant keywords.

For example, let’s say that you run a fitness blog.

So your related keywords can be:

• Fitness diet chart
• Tips to lose weight
• Fitness food recipes
• Best food for weight loss
• Expert fitness advice

Use them, and bang…

…you can see that using only five keywords can give you a massive list of sites to outreach.

Amazing, right?

METHOD # 2: Use Blogger Outreach Tools

It would be great if there were tools to find relevant bloggers. Your headache will be cut in half.

Oh, wait…there are.

There are various blogger outreach tools that help you find your niche-specific bloggers.

For example, you can use BuzzSumo for this purpose.

Just type in relevant keywords in the search bar.

You can also filter the results based on language, region, and country.

 

Like if you run a beauty blog, you can use these terms:

• Skincare
• Beauty tips
• Skincare advice

And you will get a list of niche-specific bloggers.

The best thing?

This list comes along with meaningful metrics, like page authority, domain authority, number of followers, retweet ratio, reply ratio, etc.

So you don’t have to use other tools to find relevant metrics.

PHEW!

METHOD # 3: See “Top Blogs” List

Have you seen those blogs based on:

• Top ______ blogs
• Best ______ blogs

Yes, I am talking about blogs made specifically to give out a list of top blogs in your niche.

They are a JACKPOT to get your hands on a list of ‘top’ blogs of your industry.

Here is how you can find this jackpot; it is simple.

Use these search terms:

• Top blogs (your keyword)
• Best blogs (your keyword)
• Best (keyword) blogs
• Top (keyword) to follow

See? If you stick to only the first page, you can still get a HUGE list of bloggers.

Once you have a list of relevant bloggers, next, it is time to find the ‘best’ among the best.

Step 2 will give you a list of high quality bloggers.

But are all of them worth pitching to? No.

You can’t pitch all 100-150 bloggers. Not because you can’t, but because all of them might not comply with your goals and standards.

Here are a few things to consider while selecting a blogger:

• Domain authority
• Social dominance
• User engagement
• Targeted audience
• Credibility
• Market influence

This will ensure that you only reach out to the right bloggers.

After this, you will only have a list of around 20-30 of the most important bloggers.

IMPORTANT! You can further take advantage of this step by dividing selected bloggers into categories.

Most people, even hired blogger outreach service providers, ignore this important point.

Categorizing selected bloggers helps you when you sit down to start outreaching bloggers.

(How? It saves you from doing in-pin-safety-pin to select the very first blogger you should pitch)

Another reason?

As not all blogs are the same, you can’t treat all bloggers the same way while pitching.

Here is the simple maths:

Elite Class Bloggers = Hardest to Build Relationship with

Upper-Class Bloggers = A bit Hard Nut to Crack

Middle-Class Bloggers = Relatively Easier to Pitch

Lower-Class Bloggers = Possible to Win with One Email

So:

FIRST, Elite bloggers are the IT people, the cream of your niche.

Obviously, they are hard to reach out to because they don’t need to connect to too many people.

But a link or tweet from them can change your bottom line overnight. Like, seriously!

SECOND, Upper-Class bloggers are influential people with a good following and reputation.

It is not easy to get attention from them. Still, a personalized outreach email can help you.

They can unleash a powerful link and brand awareness.

THIRD, Middle-Class bloggers have spent a bit of time blogging, and they can send fairly better traffic to your site.

They might also be doing guest posts on other blogs and appreciate a good piece of content on their own blog

So they can easily be convinced with good content and a pitch made with a customized blogger outreach email template.

FOURTH, Lower Class bloggers, as you can judge, are bloggers who have just started blogging.

They neither have industry influence nor have authority. And they also lack a good traffic flow.

It is useless to pitch them because they can do more harm than good to your rankings and online reputation.

Now you know what are different types of bloggers and what you need to outreach them.

Once you have a highly vetted list of potential bloggers, it becomes easier to carry out the next step.

Pitching without knowing what you are going to encounter is just like shooting in the dark.

What is your chance of hitting the target? Zero unless it is your lucky day.

And you know there is nothing like a lucky day in the online world.

You have to fuel your luck with directed efforts.

In this case, research is the fuel that can give a potential thrust to your whole blogger outreach campaign.

But the important thing is:

Don’t just limit your research to finding contact information and related stats.

Find as much possible information and important points as you can.

Here is an example to show why this point is important.

Read different blogs on the same topic, and you will see that they have different…

• Tone
• Style
• Delivery
• Mindset
• Handling

…behind the content.

Both these pieces are different, right?

So how can you pitch different bloggers with the same idea? It won’t work.

That’s why you need research.

Research helps you know:

What type of content the blogger publishes

Content consumption patterns of the audience

Most popular content on the blog

Contact information

How other brands get mentioned on the blog

If you are looking for how to do blogger outreach because you want to do guest posting:

• Check out guest posting guidelines
• Read a few blogs to understand the requirements

Like, here is an example of a guest post submission guideline on a blog.

See? Taking out some time for research enhances your chances of success.

Let’s suppose that you get two emails:

• Email # 1: It is from Mr. XYZ, someone you have never heard of before.
• Email # 2: The second email is from a person with whom you once met at a fair.

So you are likely to open which email?

Hopefully, your answer is no. 2.

Why? Because it is human nature that we feel attracted to people who are already in our connection rather than someone who is unknown.

This step helps you take advantage of this human nature:

Connect with bloggers before stepping up your relationship game with them.

Here are a few ways to develop tinkling connections with bloggers of your niche.

TECHNIQUE # 1: Follow Them on Social Media

Social media is a great way to build relationships – even just following someone can do the trick.

Many good bloggers also follow each other on social media.

Without any doubt, it is a legit, simple, and very effective technique to get someone’s attention.

No matter how many followers you have, it always feels good to have a few more followers (after all, social media mania is a thing!).

So deep inside, your target blogger might also want to be a social media star with nth followers.

He/she will also love it if you follow him/her.

So… do it!

TECHNIQUE # 2: Mention Them in Your Blog Post

Believe me when I say that the ego bait technique is one of my favorite techniques to get someone’s attention.

Because it shows that you:

• Are really a big fan of the target blogger.
• Know about them really well.
• Are interested in developing relationships with them.

The trick is simple:

• You mention target bloggers in your blog
• Talk good things about them
• Tell them that you mentioned them in an email
• They are likely to pay attention

Here is an example:

The blog mentioned the work of another influential blogger.

This simple act can become the beginning of a relationship.

Here are some other blogger outreach tips for building connections:

• Sign up for their newsletter and try to reply to them.
• Leave a meaningful comment on their blogs or tweets/posts.
• Share their work through your social media handle.
• Share your own work and tag them and request to share their thoughts.

So once you get into the good books of the bloggers, our next step becomes much easier.

Now it is time to get on board to leverage the benefits of all your hard work:

Time to begin the outreach process.

IMPORTANT! Remember that despite all the hard work, you can still fail on this step if you don’t send a convincing blogger outreach email.

Using a blogger outreach email template is good, but not always the best option – significantly when you are going to pitch big fishes of your industry.

They receive many blogger outreach email templates kind of pitches every day.

You know the kind of emails that begin with hi, end with thank you so much, and in between they just talk about 2 things:

• I am a big fan
• Can you please give me a link or tweet my work

Honestly, such types of emails are so annoying.

They can only please lower class bloggers – yes, that lot, which is useless to pitch to.

So come up with a convincing email that doesn’t sound like a robotic email production, having no life.

Here is a sample of blogger outreach email for guest posting:

Hi [blogger’s name],

I’ve been following your blog [name of blog] for several years. In fact, I have seen it grow from a few visitors per day to hundreds of visitors per day (I must say that your growth is remarkable and exemplary…kudos to you guys).

I also sometimes have fan moments when I mention your work in my blogs as an example. You can check out my blogs [blog # 1] and [blog # 2], where I mentioned you.

Also, I was wondering if I can contribute as a guest blogger on your site? For your information, I have been doing guest blogging for sites, like [site # 1], [site # 2], and [site # 3].

Here are a few samples:

[URL # 1]

[URL # 2]

[URL # 3]

I would be really excited [genuinely!] if I can contribute to your blog and feed your audience with a valuable piece of content.

Let me know if it is possible, and I will share a few guest post ideas (new ideas straight from the oven!).

Hoping to hear soon from you!

Cheers,

[Your name]

So what did I do in this blogger outreach email example?

I…

• Took an informal and friendly tone.
• Personalized the content.
• Provided value.
• Established credibility.
• Told the benefits.
• Triggered curiosity.

An email induced with these points helps your email avoid that moment when the blogger has to think:

Oh… not another food for trash!

Can you keep your bond with friends alive even if you don’t contact them for years?

No, right?

You need to nurture relations to keep them alive and breathing.

Similarly, you need to keep a follow up with the bloggers in the loop to fetch benefits for a long time.

It might be hard, but not impossible.

Even if you get a ‘no’ from the blogger in the beginning, stay connected with them.

You never know when you come up with a banging idea that converts their ‘no’ into a ‘ beaming ‘yes.’

Conclusion

This guide on how to do blogger outreach gives three important lessons:

• Blogger outreach is a lot more than just a link building technique
• Blogger outreach is an art as well as science
• You need an impactful strategy to get real results

So if you ever find a guide to effective blogger outreach that says:

You can do blogger outreach at scale within a day, don’t listen to them.

If you really want to unleash the true potential of this amazing technique, focus on quality and the right techniques.

Once you do this, your heydays are not far then.

Let us know if you have an amazing blogger outreach case study to share with us or if you think that this guide has helped you to write one – your own success story.