Last week, I shared a few blogger pitches I’d received in the last few weeks. I wanted to follow-up that post with a few random tips for doing great blogger outreach.
1. Make it personal, make it clear you’re a fan.
The pitches I received from people who clearly followed my blog (or did a great job of pre-research) made me feel like not blogging about them was letting down a fan. Who wants to disappoint a fan
2. Make it easy to copy/paste a site/concept description.
I’m busy, but I’m never too busy to check out a cool new site that someone has passed along to me. (Especially if they’ve done a good job of making me feel like I’ll be letting a fan down)
3. Tell me specifically what I can do to help.
If you’ve done a good job connecting to me on a personal level (rather than blasting me with a bulk email), I’m mentally tied to helping you out. I’m willing to do some work, but make it clear what I can do to actually help you. If you need me to forward the outreach email, tell me. If you need me to just sign up, tell me. If you’re hoping to get out in front of my readers, tell me. But think long and hard about what you really need, not just that you need “people to write about us”. Don’t be lazy here, consider your goals and consider what everyone asks a blogger to do that may or may not actually help you.
4. Don’t forget the link
This may seem obvious, but sadly it’s not: include the link to the Web site/app you’re referring to. This is especially bad with bigger brands who use a PR team who sends over a press release. The press release may include any number of links to the brand’s corporate site(s), but often forget to tell you about the actual site they’re pitching. Even if the pitch site hasn’t launched yet, give me the URL… things slip in my inbox and by the time I might be able to blog your pitch, the site could have already launched. (If you don’t have a final URL yet, you’re pitching me far too early)
What about you? What are you tips for great blogger outreach?
