What Is Outreach In Digital Marketing? 10 Benefits Of Blogger Outreach
Digital and affiliate marketing writer, Coral Ouellette from OptinMonster describes blogging as “still totally relevant in 2020 and is steadily rising for 2021” A blogger is a valuable member of your team, providing tons of benefits for your business. Don’t have a blogger yet? There’s no better time than the present to start exploring. Here are the top 10 must-know benefits of blogger outreach so grow your brand:
1. OFFERS BRAND VISIBILITY
Having a business page establishes presence, but a blogger who understands your brand tells the stories, turning formal communication into conversational ones. Blogger outreach efforts give your brand added exposure. Reaching out to multiple bloggers helps with aligning strategy, business goals and, boosting engagement with your audience.
There are many factors to determine the success of a blog. From measuring visitors, leads, and subscribers, bloggers who have built an authentic audience through consistent quality content, are the ones that have real influence and deliver results for brands.
Matthew Kepnes is more popularly known for his blog name as Nomadic Matt is one of the world’s most famous budget travel bloggers. He shares his real travel experiences and teaches his followers how to stretch each dollar. In 2013, the blogger published How to Travel the World on $50 a Day, which became a New York Times bestseller. After two years, he founded a nonprofit organization that helps empower students in underserved communities through travel experiences. Nomadic Matt’s work has also been published on CNN, National Geographic, The Wallstreet Journal, and BBC.
2. CREATES QUALITY BACKLINKS
Quality backlinks give you an edge with web traffic and ranking well. Outreach, in general, takes some effort, but you can skip the process and let professionals handle that for you. They will do the nitty-gritty part of matching a blogger that writes, sounds, and speaks on behalf of your brand.
Having a blogger who does research well will produce trustworthy content with quality backlinks. More information from reliable sources adds depth to an article; it may even inspire and spark a conversation. Brands will benefit from writers who have such expertise in the long run.
A 2016 study by Backlinko revealed the average word count for first-page search engine results pages (SERPs) is 1890 words, hence writing long-form, high-quality content drives more social media shares and inbound links from other websites.
Source: Unsplash
The results from quality backlinks are undeniable. Digital marketing agency Junto used a link-building technique incorporating tools like SEMRush and Ahrefs for sourcing good content related to Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks. They found 1000 high-quality link building opportunities and shared an article with 1000 authoritative bloggers who write similar content; encouraging positive respondents to link back to the article. It results in increased traffic by 55.9% from 2831 visitors to 4413 visitors per month. That’s the power of backlinking.
3. CONNECTS WITH TARGET CUSTOMERS
The goal of blogger outreach is to win the trust of your target audience. On a grander scale, businesses invest in targeting because it works. Blogs are not traditional publishers because they are niche-based and therefore are valuable to brands like yours. So, getting the right blogger for your brand is imperative. Try using these tips to narrow down your search:
- Find a contextual fit, ask yourself: “why should I trust this blogger to sell my brand?”
- Research for a blogger with good reach to know their posts are reliable
- Measure their influence. Check if people are leaving genuine comments or using their discount code. Determine if their blogging efforts inspire actionability.
Customer service keynote speaker Jay Baer once mentioned, “True influence drives action, not just awareness.” Your prospects trust bloggers because they solve a problem (directly or indirectly), plus it’s through a storytelling approach, which appeals to their fans. There is a science to selling with storytelling. Inbound sales and marketing platform, HubSpot explains the neuroscience of storytelling and how that relates to sales. When brands tell a story, it activates seven regions of the brain, triggering an emotional response and inspiring people to make purchase decisions.
4. COST-EFFECTIVE
Engaging platforms that offer blogger outreach and guest posting services is a smart move considering how much time it takes to go about it on your own. If you’re serious about having better SEO ranking and driving traffic, it’s an investment worth making, especially considering the variety of packages available. An outreach agency gives you direct access to bloggers within your niche and style, so if you think about it, it is a valuable asset to your marketing strategy.
Bloggers are keen on forming long-term business relationships, which is a win-win situation for your brand, an additional form of endorsement. Whether you are engaging a personal blogger or a blogger outreach agency, if you compare post rates to a monthly fee, you are reaping the benefits with the agency. TMCnet.com goes further to say that “it can do wonders for your business.”
In 2015, National Geographic was looking to increase the use of influencers and show their value and worth for other programs. They engaged outreach agency GroupHigh to help them identify the right bloggers and influencers to support the plight of big cats together with footwear brand TOMS. The results? Influencer and blogger enthusiasm on social media and blogs supporting a great cause, increasing overall branding for the television network.
5. A TRUSTED SOURCE
According to HubSpot’s 2020 State of Marketing report, blogs are the third most used platform of content marketing, just behind infographics and video. When trying a new product or service, the human tendency is to find the negative. We want to be right about calling out an ineffective product. Socialmediatoday.com states that 30% of consumers trust brands whose reviews are solely positive, whereas 68% of consumers trust businesses with mixed reviews.
Sure, blogs are not as popular as social media, but they still hold their ground because it is part of your SEO strategy for your website and an additional channel for lead generation.
6. HELPS WITH BRAND BUILDING
Every big brand was once a small brand that went through a journey of growth. Branding is a process that establishes authority and promise to consumers. Bloggers help humanize your brand to prospects, making your product and content less intimidating. They understand that building an audience means caring and offering help, not trying to sell.
Source: Pexels
Still skeptical about blogger outreach? Blogs are popular starting points for companies. Here are a few famous companies that had humble beginnings as a blog:
- Huffington Post
Ariana Huffington started a blog in 2005. People recognize HuffPost for its coverage of American politics from a liberal viewpoint reported by talented writers, bloggers, and journalists. HuffPost won a Pulitzer Prize in 2012.
- 99designs
Created by a few designers, the largest graphic design marketplace online in the world was once a blog called SitePoint in 2006. They challenged each other to “Photoshop Tennis” games, the best design wins. Soon, people started offering money for actual jobs turning it into a platform where over a million designers work.
- Kissmetrics
If you have heard of SEO, you probably heard of Neil Patel. He started his blogging project QuickSprout in 2007, where he established his expertise in marketing. Then, Kissmetrics came along that offers customer engagement automation and behavioral analytics.
7. YIELDS BRAND VALUE
Not all valuable results connect to ROI; sometimes, it is establishing a meaningful digital presence that leads to sales. Bloggers play an active role in helping prospects resonate with your brand. They help crystalize your message, making it even more appealing to your customers.
Global fashion stroller brand, Bugaboo engaged digital marketing firm Buzzsmith to help with boosting its brand value. The firm used blogger outreach and an influencer ambassador program getting 30 bloggers to participate in their 3-month campaign. They were able to gain 17.9 million impressions, a 33% increase in referral traffic, and ranked in the top 10 for some of their targeted keywords.
8. GROWS SOCIAL FOLLOWING
Back to point #3, a blogger’s fanbase on their blog often translates to their social media channels too. Blog owners can see great success on social media because they are supplementary channels for more immediate content and communication with their followers. For instance, bloggers might announce sneak peeks and giveaways via Instagram stories driving traffic to their blog, in return, to your backlink.
Blog owners Jasmine and Chris, who run the blog Sweet Simple Vegan aimed at making vegan recipes fun and simple. They have their own Facebook page, YouTube channel, and Instagram profile as well, each ranging from 147k – 254k followers and followers. If blogs can turn into businesses, they can be a gamechanger for your brand’s engagement on social media.
9. OPENS POSSIBILITIES FOR COLLABORATION
The goal for bloggers and brands is to create a mutually beneficial collaboration based on creativity and ROI. Being genuine and being clear about both parties’ roles and expectations is essential. A great way to start collaborations is starting small, with a 3-6-month commitment. Bloggers can build trust in the brand and help generate awareness for your future customer set here.
If your business is looking for multiple bloggers, having a strong collaboration with one blogger is a good start. Work on nurturing the relationship and offering support before taking more on. Managing one blogger will help you with your learning curve and best practices before taking on a team of bloggers for your brand.
10. GET NEW AUDIENCES
Blogger outreach helps you leverage multiple bloggers’ followers (audiences you did not have before). New audiences give you an opportunity to build new relationships and cultivate trust in your brand. New audiences also challenge brands to get creative in their offers to appeal accordingly.
In an ever-evolving world, putting all your eggs in one basket may not guarantee long-term success. Having blogger outreach as another strategy alongside your paid search, free search, and affiliate marketing initiatives will keep you abreast in times of market changes.
The opportunities that come with blogger outreach will be a meaningful process for any business to go through. From ranking to credibility, and traffic, blogger outreach creates streams of growth for both parties. Your dedication to having influential reach lies in the balance of attracting human readers just as much as algorithmic search engines.