Search Engine Optimization
Building backlinks can be a tedious job. Directory submissions provide little link juice, and exchanging reciprocal links will get you no where fast these days. So what’s the solution? How about a blogger outreach program? The opinions of bloggers are heard and respected by thousands, yet many companies still refuse to see the value in these resources. By targeting and building relationships with bloggers that address your market, you can garner natural backlinks, unbiased reviews, and effective PR for your brand.
Why Blogger Outreach is a Good Marketing Option
There are lots of reasons why small businesses should pay attention to the growing blogger tread. Firstly, people trust bloggers. A recent statistic from the 2010 Nielsen Global Online Survey shows that 70% of people trust the opinions they read online, which is the same percentage of people who have some degree of trust for brand websites. Compare that the the 33% of people who trust online banner ads, and the 61% who trust television commercials, and you’ve got a pretty good argument for the effectiveness of blogger reviews. Secondly, blogger reviews have the potential to go viral. People tend to share good online content, and blog reviews are a great way for consumers to spread information about a product they love.
How to Start a Blogger Outreach Program
Getting started is easy. The following are a few simple steps to use when building a pool of potential bloggers:
1. Start researching
Spend some time on Google, Alltop, and browsing popular blogger directories, like Technorati. Your mission is to find blogs that discuss the industry you’re working in. For example, if you’re trying to market an all-natural puppy chow, animal blogs (but only the ones that pay close attention to dogs) should be your target.
Keep track of all of the blogs that you find in a spreadsheet. It doesn’t hurt to come up with a ranking system for your potential blogs as well (Page Rank is an easy metric to go by). It’s important that you check to make sure that the blogger has posted something lately – if they haven’t posted in the last four to six months, ditch them. And of course, always remember to read the blogs you’re attempting to pitch to.
2. Make a Connection
Sending an unsolicited pitch to a potential reviewer is the quickest way to get your request rejected. It’s important to make an initial connection with the blogger on their own turf. The more you interact with a blogger on their own blog, via Twitter, or on their Facebook page, the better your chances are for landing the pitch.
3. Land the Pitch
Writing a pitch email is an art – one wrong word could land you in the rejection bin. So take your time and create a custom appeal for each potential blogger. You want to show that you’re familiar with their blog, interested in their industry, and value their opinion. It’s also important that you explain why your product will be of interest to the readers of their blog. If you can offer something in return for a review, lik
e a free sample or membership, do it. Giving bloggers access to something they wouldn’t normally be privy to is a great way to encourage a review.
Always remember to follow-up about a week after you send out the initial email. Bloggers are busy too, so you may find that it takes more than one attempt at contact to solicit a response. If they’re not interested, thank them for their time and make a note in your spreadsheet. Even though they aren’t interested in this particular product, that doesn’t mean you should expunge them from your list of contacts completely. They could be perfect for a future product review!
Have you written a review as part of a blogger outreach program? How did the business convince you to write about their product? Share your experience below.
Let’s face it – everyone loves cookies. From double chocolate chunk to plain old oatmeal, cookies just make you feel good. It’s kind of similar to how good SEO can breathe life back into a boring website. This weekend I spent hours slaving away baking some Christmas cookies, and between the mixing and eating I came across a weird discovery. Baking cookies is an awful lot like optimizing a website for better rankings in search engines (albeit not nearly as tasty). The following are five fun similarities:
1) You Need to Prep Properly
Have you ever tried to cream a rock solid block of butter together with sugar? Trust me, you don’t want. All you get is a mound of butter that looks like it’s been dropped into a snowbank. Recipes include detailed preparation instructions in order to help you avoid these sorts of lumpy situations, and so too should your SEO strategy. Preparation is key in the early stages of an SEO campaign, so don’t go jumping the gun. Make sure you take your time and perform plenty of research on your industry. Do you know which keywords to target? Should you be focusing on building more directory backlinks or will citation site submission be of more use? Taking the time to prep your optimization ingredients will help save you time and disappointment down the road.
2) You Need to Have the Right Ingredients
You can’t make a great cookie with just one cup of flour. You need to combine a number of different ingredients in order to create a batter that’s worth bragging about. The same goes for SEO. You can’t just insert keywords into your content and assume that search engines will immediately love your website. A strong SEO campaign requires equal helpings of content development, link building, and code-level optimization. One ingredient isn’t more important than the other – they all work together to create a finished product that’s capable of attracting plenty of attention.
3) You Have to Keep the Oven at a Steady Temperature
Cranking your oven up to 500 degrees won’t help bake your cookies faster, it will just cause them to burn. Trying to cut corners by speeding up the process doesn’t work – you need to bake your cookies slowly, and consistently in order to ensure they’re properly prepared. Similar instructions are necessary for an SEO campaign. Trying to speed through the optimization process will only cause you more harm than good. SEO is all about constant and continuous optimization. Cranking up your keyword optimized content production for one month may help boost your rankings today, but the effects will quickly wear off once you stop. Constant optimization is what will benefit your website in the long run.
4) You May Burn the First Batch When You’re Starting From Scratch
Testing out a new recipe requires patience and practice. The same can be said for working on a new SEO strategy. Somethings might work, others might crash and burn. But you’ll never know until you try. Mix up your optimization strategy and try something different – you could come out with a winning recipe!
5) You Can Never Have Enough!
Whether it’s cookies or content, one thing is for certain – there’s always room for more! Your small business website can never be over optimized. Just remember: there’s always another company out there looking to take your spot in search engine results. Keep them at bay with a clearly defined optimization strategy.
Want to make your next SEO strategy a delicious success? Then don’t forget to add CIK Marketing as one of your main ingredients! Contact us today to learn more about our SEO services.
