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7 Ways To Build Your Brand In The Blogosphere

Posted By Guest Blogger 18th of May 2015 General 0 Comments

This is a guest contribution from Jeff Foster.

Blogger outreach is one of the most effective ways to build your brand. It’s a great way to connect with potential customers – the blogosphere gives you a ready-made audience who are already interested in your type of product or service. But if you’re going to succeed, you need to build strong relationships with bloggers who want to be your brand ambassadors. This takes work – don’t expect to shoot off a few emails and have bloggers lining up at your door.

The good news is that there are proven ways to make your blogger outreach a success. If you’re wondering how to turbocharge your brand in the blogosphere, here are seven ways to get you started.

1. Use Introduction Sites

Online blogger introduction sites are a very effective way of finding bloggers to talk about your brand. Sites such as Tomoson, Brand Meets Blog, Nuffnang, and Blogger Connect attract high-quality bloggers who want to connect with businesses like yours. You can browse through bloggers by interest area – for example, food enthusiasts – to find the right bloggers for your brand. These sites also have tools you can use to measure blogger influence, which helps you narrow down the list even further. The other advantage of introduction sites is that the bloggers on them are already actively interested, so you’re going to get a better response than if you just send out cold-calling emails to bloggers directly.

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2. Give Bloggers Your Product

Product giveaways are a great tool for getting bloggers on board – in fact, this is one of the most frequent outreach techniques. Bloggers love to get their hands on products they can use and review. They’ll write better reviews if they can see and feel what you have to offer. Of course, blindly giving away hundreds of samples isn’t advisable, particularly if your product isn’t cheap. But if you target key bloggers with your giveaways, you’ll keep the cost down and get better results. A word of caution, however. Don’t try to control what a blogger says about your product. Bloggers value their independence, so this will just annoy them.

3. Ask For Feedback

There’s no better way to get bloggers on your side than to make them part of the process. By asking for feedback on your products or services, you show them that you value their opinions. A blogger is much more likely to become a brand ambassador if they feel that you are listening to them, and that they have influence over what you are doing and saying. You’ll benefit from this as well – bloggers know your target customers and what they want. Not only that, they’ve already proven that they know how to talk to your audience – that’s how they built a following in the first place. By following their lead, you’ll get insights on how to build an authentic relationship with your market.

4. Give Bloggers Exposure

Successful bloggers are always looking for new ways to expand their audience. They’re passionate about their subject and want to engage with as many people as possible – which would also increase their income potential. By promoting bloggers to your existing social media channels, you give them the exposure they’re trying to build. This can be as simple as retweeting their tweets and sharing their blog posts. To take this to the next level, ask trusted bloggers to write guest posts for your corporate blog, but remember not to try to control what they say. Also, be prepared to pay bloggers to write for you – after all, writing is how bloggers make a living.

5. Meet In Person

You can build a great online relationship with a blogger, but there’s no substitute for seeing them face to face. If you travel regularly as part of your business, make a point of letting bloggers know that you’re in their neighborhood and would love to catch up if it suits them. Offer to meet them for a drink or a meal – and make it a social occasion, not a hard sell.

Blogger conventions and conferences are also excellent occasions for meeting with bloggers. They are an opportunity to get together with your existing brand champions, and also with new bloggers who might be interested in talking about your products or services. You may even find conferences that focus on topics that you want to target – for example, the DBC Conference is for bloggers interested in interior design. If you have enough budget, why not sponsor a blogger conference or even host one yourself?

6. Create A Blogger Network

If you bring new products to market regularly, it’s tempting to find exactly the right bloggers for each one. But this means starting over again every time, which is time-consuming and expensive. It’s much more effective to build a “go-to” pool of bloggers who are genuinely enthusiastic about your brand. By getting them to mention your brand on a regular basis, their readers are more likely to trust what they say. You’re likely to get much better reviews as well – when you build a long-term relationship with a blogger, they’re already well disposed towards you.

7. Show Your Appreciation

Bloggers absolutely hate being used. If you only get in contact when you want them to write a post, you’re going to turn them off very quickly. Every time a blogger mentions your brand, show your appreciation by sending them a sincere thank you note. Make sure you keep them in the loop on what’s happening with your brand – a monthly insider newsletter is one great way of doing this. Send them exclusive content they can share – for example, high-quality images, fact sheets, amusing stories and anything else that will appeal to their readers. Finally, don’t forget to send them product samples from time to time – it’s a perfect way of reminding them that you genuinely care.

Jeff Foster is co-founder and CEO at Tomoson, the influencer marketplace. The platform allows bloggers and social media influencers to get paid for posting sponsored content, and lets businesses connect with targeted, niche audiences.

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Comments
  1. Hey great post Jeff. I absolutely love it!

    Being an internet marketer I must highlight that giving away your products to specific people is not just limited to bloggers only. No matter if you’re a blogger, marketer or a techy… product sharing with concerned and important people in your niche always help!

    I myself have made thousands of dollars by just giving away copies of my products before launch to specific people in my circle. This not only gives me a promotional boost, but sends me loyal subscribers round the clock.

    ProBlogger all the way!

  2. Helpful tips!

    Improving your blog network really works as it gives a lot of advantage to bloggers and publishers. Even a little promotion can drive in a lot of quality traffic to a site and make people convert into loyal fans. Using some of these techniques and so far it’s working fab!

  3. Gotta treat bloggers with the respect that they deserve … after all, with newspapers largely dead or dying, they are the new media!

  4. Great post, I want to build my brand, however, I don’t how to build and when can I start to build. And what is my resource given?

    I will try and find the best way to build blogger brand.

  5. Jeff,

    I like that you focused so much on the interpersonal aspects of growing a brand. One of the really tricky things to get across to new bloggers (without seeming like a jerk) is that it’s still all about reaching out to other people–you’re not just drawing people to you like some glowing beacon for internet moths, you’re going out there and communicating with them.

    Enjoyed the list, nice work.

    Connor

  6. Hi Jeff,
    Interesting Post.

    However, regarding tomoson I have this question. Is it only meant for physical products?

    Coz if you guys accept info products then it would be great for budding bloggers and not only for business

    Richie

    • Hi Richie,

      Tomoson is used by brands that sell products & services. In the near future we will also open it up to bloggers who sell “guest posts”

  7. Most of the brands and new companies send bloggers review units to get coverage. But best way is to organize small meetups and discuss about products and then send them the products

  8. Hi Jeff,

    Smart tips and I am HUGE on free giveaways.

    When I launch a new eBook with a blitz I give away free copies left and right to spread the word. This expands my reach, and my brand awareness, and also makes my promoting job easier. Why not let influencers do some heavy lifting for you, through their reviews, their blog posts, their promotions and their referrals? It makes the most sense.

    I like to give away free copies for a few weeks then after that, I run a free promo on Amazon Kindle for 2 days to five days, to get that sucker into as many hands as possible, and the increased buzz, the reviews, and the generosity flows back to me through increased book sales and increased brand awareness.

    Good site too for warm relationship-building/connecting. Cold approaches generally fall on deaf ears because I don’t trust who I don’t know, and I do trust and support bloggers who built a relationship with me. Make tons of blogging buddies by promoting others and by commenting on their blogs and all this good karma will come back to you when you release a product, when you build your brand, one blog post and product at a time.

    Thanks for sharing Jeff!

    Ryan

  9. Hi Jeff,

    Smart tips and I am HUGE on free giveaways.

    When I launch a new eBook with a blitz I give away free copies left and right to spread the word. This expands my reach, and my brand awareness, and also makes my promoting job easier. Why not let influencers do some heavy lifting for you, through their reviews, their blog posts, their promotions and their referrals? It makes the most sense.

    I like to give away free copies for a few weeks then after that, I run a free promo on Amazon Kindle for 2 days to five days, to get that sucker into as many hands as possible, and the increased buzz, the reviews, and the generosity flows back to me through increased book sales and increased brand awareness.

    Good site too for warm relationship-building/connecting. Cold approaches generally fall on deaf ears because I don’t trust who I don’t know, and I do trust and support bloggers who built a relationship with me. Make tons of blogging buddies by promoting others and by commenting on their blogs and all this good karma will come back to you when you release a product, when you build your brand, one blog post and product at a time.

    Thanks for sharing Jeff!

    Ryan

  10. Great point of giving away a product. Now I am gonna make a product on for my blog and will giveaway that.

    Thanks.

  11. When you ask for feedback make sure you listen to them unless you want to endup like The Gap or Airbnb

  12. Hey Jeff,

    Thanks for this great article. I have been struggling to create my blog into a brand. Just read your article and I will try the methods you have mentioned. Hope to see Success soon :)

    Regards,
    Ashwani Kumar Singh

  13. This is an amazing article. I have been chatting up with a lot of different bloggers but no solid result has come out of it.
    However, I am now going to take a look at the Introduction Sites to see if I can build my brand in the blogosphere using it or not.

    Thanks for the info, man! It’s amazing. :)

  14. Really valuable information Jeff. Point #7 really rang true. We recently started a newsletter specifically for clients and partners which is by invite only and the engagement has been great.

    Along with building better relationships it allows us to establish and solidify ourselves as thought leaders in our partners mind.

  15. There is a new blogger outreach tool on the market. It’s called Ninja Outreach. Have you heard of it? If so, what do you think of it? I’d love to know!

  16. This is a great article, Every Blogger will definitely like you to show some appreciation by sending him a sincere thank you note after helping you out. No blogger likes to feel used by someone else.

  17. We have never had any luck giving things away. The things we have given away fit in with our readers and were higher dollar items….. We promoted it everywhere and pushed it and it just never takes off. Maybe we are doing something wrong on the giveaways?

  18. cameron price says: 05/26/2015 at 8:53 am

    I’m a total newb at blogging. Just started my site a week or so ago. If you or anyone else reading would share some wisdom directly, it would be greatly appreciated. http://www.cameron86.com. Looks like I’m going to be slending some time on problogger :) great article Jeff, this is my outreach.

  19. Ask for feedback is most importsnt task for every blogger. Meet in person tip will make a good relationship with others.

  20. Ask for feedback is most important task for every blogger. Meet in person tip will make a good relationship with others.

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