A presentation on the importance of blogs, how to find the best ones and outreach tips. Also in webinar format here: http://www.logmycalls.com/webinar-series/how-to-get-bloggers-write-about-your-business

1. LogMyCalls webinar May 2014
!
How to get Bloggers to Write
About Your Business
Hugh Anderson
Co-founder, Inkybee
www.inkybee.com

2. What We’ll Cover Today
• Why blogs are so important for marketers
• The benefits of blogger outreach
• How you can get your business talked about by
bloggers and reporters
• How to find the best and most relevant blogs
• 5 ways to reach out to bloggers/reporters

3. CONTEXT:
!
The changing
world of
consumer
consumption

4. Why blogs matter: stats
• 78% of internet users conduct product research online.
• Greater than 70% of consumers state that blogs affected their
purchasing decisions.
• Trust in online customer opinions of 70%, vastly outstrips
traditional media.
• The average budget spent on company blogs & social media
has nearly tripled in three years.
• There are more than 180 million blogs globally
Sources: Hubspot, Econsultancy, eMarketer, Nielsen

5. Why blogs matter
• Earned media = Trust
• Consumer point of research
• Engine that drives ideas on the Internet
• The realm of experts
• Panda/Penguin updates

6. Benefits of blogger outreach
• Precise: rifle-shot target audience
• Create loyal communities & brand
advocates
• SEO performance
• Measurable: campaign & business

8. Working with Bloggers: Key Points
• It's about developing relationships
• You need to be creating compelling content
• It's a two way process
• You have to have a lead capture strategy
• It requires an investment of time & energy

9. Step 1: Set Objectives
• Know your business objectives (how much
money do you want in the bank by what date)
• e.g. generate £4K of sales for ‘Our Debut
Album’ by the end of July 2013.
• How many physical conversions does this
translate into (total money needed / unit cost
price = conversions required)
• e.g. get 571 people to download ‘Our
Debut Album’ by the end of July 2013.

10. Target Audience
• Know your target customers
• Who are the people who are going to deliver
the business objectives by actually spending
their cash?
• Where do these people ‘hang out’ on the
Internet?
• Why is this audience going to care about your
offer?

11. Reaching out
• Be sane and be normal
• Follow on Twitter
• Read their blog
• Retweet occasionally
• Get to understand them
• Comment sensibly once in a while
• Behave like a friend

12. The content offer
• Devise and create a compelling content
offering that will appeal to your audience
(customers and influencers)
• Teach, don’t sell
• Educate, entertain, and be relevant
• Think about the expertise you have and how it
will help your target audience.
• Prepare a content strategy
• No spammy emails or press releases!

13. Types of content
• Videos
• Infographics
• Ebooks
• Interviews
• Surveys
• Event invitations
• Samples
• Etc.
But, make it really genuinely useful.
And make it compelling.

14. Measurement
• Weekly meeting
• Visibility achieved?
• Engagement achieved with the offer?
• Conversions to leads?
• Are the numbers going up?
• Discuss ideas to increase conversion
• Assign actions to improve now before next
week

15. Finding the bloggers: What
criteria?
• Big does not equal best
• A small highly engaged audience is likely to be
better than a large disengaged audience
• Find the sweet spot: the “magic middle”
• 3 Principles: relevance, visibility and engagement
• And then look deeper: activity, social media
presence, SEO indicators

16. Finding the bloggers: How?
Google
blog
search

17. Finding the bloggers: How?
• Blog Directories
• Up-to-date? Ability to filter or drill-down?

18. Finding the bloggers: How?
• Other tools
• Not just blogs. Depth of insight?

19. Finding the bloggers: How?
• The Inkybee blog search engine
• Fast. Powerful. Insightful.

20. Finding the bloggers: Filtering
• Also drill-down by language and location;
• Then filter by activity and SEO factors.

21. Finding the bloggers: Review

22. Case Study
• ‘The Best Practice
Guide for Effective
Blogger Outreach’
eBook
• Released July 2012
• 12 main influencers

24. Landing Page

28. 5 Ideas for Reaching out
1. Offer a “Giveaway” to their audience;
2. Product reviews
3. Shared content, e.g. an ebook
4. Competitions or event invites
5. Sponsored posts

29. In Conclusion
• Embrace influencer outreach - it’s here to stay
• Blogs are central to it
• Think strategic goals, not tactical gains
• Compelling content/story is key
• Be human - it’s about relationships
• Demonstrate value

30. Hugh Anderson
hugh@forthmetrics.com
@hughforth
@TheInkybee
Thank You!
www.inkybee.com