In this digital age, blogger outreach is an essential part of marketing – whether you’re raising brand awareness, showcasing a new product, or link building for SEO purposes, it is likely that at some point, your campaign will involve outreaching to bloggers.

Marketing often revolves around results, which can lead to marketers viewing bloggers as simply a tool for achieving these results, however actually treating them as such is a sure fire way to damage your campaign. If you can’t treat bloggers with the respect and integrity they deserve, don’t expect them to run circles to help you out.

As with most things in life, there are certain etiquettes to blogger outreach – the do’s and don’ts, if you will. Blueclaws take every aspect of online marketing seriously and blogger outreach is no exception – it is this attitude that helps us to achieve great results for our clients.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re an agency, brand, individual seller or simply an individual wishing to ask a blogger a question, your outreach tactic will greatly benefit if you follow these rules.

Do use their name

When was the last time you sat down and read a ‘Dear Occupier’ letter? Addressing a blogger by their name is a common courtesy, and also essential if you don’t want to be placed in the ‘spam’ folder. Addressing the email to ‘blogger’ or by their blog name is an easy way to show that you don’t actually think about the blogger as a person, and will ruin any chance of building up a relationship.

Of course, the only thing worse than not addressing the blogger personally, is addressing them by the wrong name. A little proofreading can go a long way when it comes to outreach.

Do check their niche

Lesser experienced marketers might think the best way to get a response is to email every blogger under the sun, but unless you’re targeting the right niche, it is unlikely that any responses you do get will be positive. There are so many niches out there that it’s important to do your research – got a new phone launch? Target tech bloggers. New fashion brand launching? Target fashion bloggers. It’s almost too obvious to say, yet we see mistakes like this being made all the time.

Don’t send press releases

Bloggers aren’t journalists – the likelihood of them seeing a press release and actually reading it is extremely rare. If you want to get a response, email them the same why you’d email a friend. Ask about their day, explain a bit about the brand you’re representing, and say why you think they’ll be interested in what you have to say. If they want more information, they can ask – better to build up that relationship so they’re happy to hear from you than to send unsolicited releases which will only annoy them.

Don’t ask for something for nothing

Most bloggers spend time and money on their blog, so asking them to promote your product or brand in return for nothing is likely to be taken as an insult, and may even see you blacklisted by bloggers. There should always be something the blogger will receive from the collaboration, whether that’s products, exclusive information, discount codes or sponsorship.

Do ask for feedback

So you’ve played by the rules and the blogger still doesn’t want to work with you – that’s okay, so long as you learn from it. Why don’t they want to work with you? Perhaps they’re just too busy at the moment? Or maybe the brand or content doesn’t reflect their blog values. Finding out why they’re not interested helps you to improve your future outreach, and also gives you the opportunity to engage with the blogger in the future, should a more appropriate opportunity arise.

Don’t be unrealistic

Many bloggers work full time jobs, with their blog coming second as a hobby. It’s unrealistic to expect a spontaneous reply and action from a blogger, especially if they have children or studies. When contacting them, let them know your ideal deadline and ask if they’ll be able to make it – if they can’t, negotiate something that is reasonable for both parties, and don’t forget to keep in touch while waiting for their post to go live.

Do build the relationship

One benefit of working with bloggers is the opportunity you have to build up a relationship. Reading the blog and getting to know the blogger first always helps, but so does little touches like asking how their day went, commenting on their latest post and perhaps favouriting their latest tweet. Don’t see this as a waste of time – building a relationship will mean more opportunities for both you and the blogger in the future, which benefits everyone.

Although these steps can seem time consuming, it actually increases the effectiveness of your outreach, meaning less time wasted on outreach that will lead to nowhere, and more time getting the results you want.