Blogger outreach: How to win bloggers over [without getting on their nerves]

Shortly after 8 a.m.

I open my laptop and start reading my emails.

The following email greets me:

“Hello dear team at Farbentour.de,

while researching the topic XYZ, I came across your blog.

I think your blog is totally great and I've already learned quite a bit.

We just launched a new SEO tool XY. The tool offers this and that benefit for its users. Currently the tool costs sum XXX per month.

And maybe one of you would like to write a post about it for us?”

Wow, how lucky I am to have received such a wonderful email… I really want to report on this amazing tool right away…

Joking aside! Let me now write down the thoughts of what the sender was probably really thinking while writing this email…

“Hello dear team at Farbentour.de (I don't have time to search the imprint for the name, so I address all webmasters simply as team…*smiley*),

while researching the topic XYZ, I came across your blog (…well, Google spat you out and I accidentally clicked on your blog!).

I think your blog is totally great (even though I haven't read a single post so far, nyah nyah!) and I've already learned quite a bit (the topics don't actually interest me at all, but my boss told me to write it this way).

We just launched a new SEO tool XY (which is supposed to make my boss super rich, yeah!). The tool offers this and that benefit for its users (yawn…). Currently the tool costs sum XXX per month ($$$).

And maybe, would one of you like to write a post about it for us? (Because: 1. We have no money for advertising, since the boss has once again gotten himself into debt, 2. We have no time to write a guest article and 3. We otherwise don't know how to get backlinks…)“

I close my laptop and lie back down in bed.

5 minutes later I get up again and start writing the following post:

How to win bloggers over …

Contents

• How to win bloggers over …
• But what's the point of it?
• What is a blogger?
• And what exactly is blogger outreach?
• How do you find suitable bloggers?
• How do you reach other bloggers and get them to cooperate?
• Conclusion: 7 important points for blogger outreach!

Today I want to show you how you can contact bloggers without completely stepping all over them! Because for most bloggers, nothing is worse than receiving an impersonal mass email. These are simply deleted 99% of the time. The blogger is annoyed and the sender wonders why they don't get a reply to this magnificent mass email.

In technical jargon, this type of outreach is also called blogger outreach.

But what's the point of it?

To achieve truly great rankings on Google, you need (put simply):

• good content(!)
• attention and
• popularity.

If you win over your target audience with great content, this will usually sooner or later have a positive effect on your site's ranking.

If you manage to get a lot of attention from your target audience while also offering good and, above all, plenty of content, your readers and Google will love you for it!

Good content in the form of interviews, infographics, podcasts, etc. is often created faster than you think. But you should also make this content known, because no one will find your site on its own. And that would be a shame. ;-)

Many therefore rely on cooperations with other bloggers from the same or a similar niche. Such bloggers can – given a certain number of visitors – ensure that your own content becomes known extremely quickly and improves your own site's Google rankings through a backlink. That's why such cooperations are very popular! But what exactly is a blogger?

What is a blogger?

According to Wikipedia, a blogger is:

“[…] publisher or author of blog posts. This can be done using your own website or a portal such as Blogger.com.”

And what exactly is blogger outreach?

Blogger outreach means using bloggers' reach for your own purposes. Well-known bloggers in a niche often reach a large mass of people with their blogs, while a company website, niche website (www.buy-this-product-now-through-my-amazon.de-affiliate-link.de), small online portals and shops especially in the beginning have little reach and accordingly few visitors to show for it.

“Blogger outreach means making your content known through bloggers and thereby generating as many new visitors, leads/sales, attention, etc. as possible.”

How do you find suitable bloggers?

Through the Google search, of course. Enter e.g. “blog + your keyword” or “inurl:blog + your keyword” into Google and you'll get (depending on the niche) a large selection of blogs. Here you should of course make sure not to contact blogs run by companies, since they are usually not very cooperative. Blogs run by individual people are more willing to cooperate with others.

But Google is (luckily) not everything. Because via X (formerly Twitter) you can likewise quickly find blogs on various topics. Depending on the topic, it can be a bit difficult to find an active blogger, but it's definitely possible!

Sign up for X and search using a hashtag (“hash + yourKeyword”) for tweets from suitable bloggers. If, for example, you're looking for bloggers for your website that covers the topic of finance, just enter “#financeblog”, “#finance”, “#investing”, etc. into the search field. X will then show you all the matching tweets for that hashtag. Now the search begins: for the people who used these hashtags, you now have to find out whether they are bloggers or simply private individuals. Most bloggers put a link to their blog in their profile. There's probably no better indication that this person is a blogger…

What X can do, Facebook can do too.

Just enter your desired hashtag on Facebook, e.g. #financeblog, into the search to have suitable blogs shown to you

Besides Google and social networks, there are specialized tools that make searching for bloggers considerably easier. With BuzzSumo you find out which bloggers in your niche actively share – you enter a keyword and immediately see who has the most reach and whose content goes viral. Hunter.io then helps you find the blogger's email address without spending hours searching the imprint. Anyone who wants to contact many bloggers at once often turns to BuzzStream – a tool that combines contact management and email sending in one.

How do you reach other bloggers and get them to cooperate?

There are many different ways to get in touch with bloggers in order to win them over for your own project.

1. The short route – high risk of being rejected!

Let's assume you don't have time but still want to get in touch with as many bloggers from your niche as possible. If you don't want to pick up the phone and pester strangers like a salesperson, you can try to reach the bloggers via a very appealing email. There are some dangers here that you should keep in mind:

Bear in mind that bloggers are people and, with very high probability, will feel demeaned by a standard mass email. Therefore, avoid making your email look like a mass email or spam. Nothing is more terrible than an impersonal email, like the one I presented in the introduction.

Let's assume you have just published a very large, elaborate infographic on your still-small website. You now want to present it to as many bloggers as possible, in the hope that they will embed your infographic on their site or at least share it via Facebook and Twitter.

Variant 1: “Please share my infographic with your readers” – Part 1

“Hello [name of the blogger],

I regularly read your posts on the topic XYZ on your blog [name of the blog] and I have to pay you a compliment for it. Your posts are always a very big help for me and inspired me to write about it too. Thank you for that!

At “www.the-URL-to-your-infographic.de” I created a detailed infographic on the same/similar topic XYZ.

If you might like to share this graphic with your readers, I would be very happy.

I wish you a successful day.

Best regards to [blogger's place of residence],
[Your name & the URL to your site]”

It's important that the email doesn't sound like a mass email. Therefore always use a personal salutation and include person-specific information in the email to make it as authentic as possible.

Many write in their message “I think your blog is good” – that's not enough! Give honest feedback, such as “since the start of my self-employment, your blog has repeatedly inspired me immensely. You manage to create truly awesome added value.” (Important: You have to stay authentic here, otherwise the praise won't seem genuine!)

Variant 1 can of course be modified considerably. Keep in mind that there is never the perfect approach, since every person ticks differently.

In the email of Variant 1, try leaving out the second-to-last sentence “If you'd like to share this graphic with your readers, I'd be very happy.”

Most larger bloggers receive loads of such emails and recognize your intentions immediately. If you demand something from them unsolicited, some may feel pressured and ignore your email out of spite.

For larger, more well-known blogs with a large readership, I would therefore leave out the request. If your content is “worthy,” it will also be shared unsolicited.

For smaller bloggers who haven't been in the business that long, a friendly request often helps to achieve the actual goal (the distribution of your content).

So here testing and a lot of tact are called for.

Variant 2: “Please share my infographic with your readers” – Part 2

“Hello [name of the blogger],

I'm writing to you today because I've published a detailed infographic on the topic XYZ. The graphic is surely very interesting for your readers.

If you're interested, I'd be very happy to send you the link.

I look forward to your reply.

Best regards,
[Your name & the URL to your site]”

The probability of getting a reply here is higher, since humans are by nature very curious. Once you've received a reply and your infographic is really good, you have a good chance that your graphic will be accepted by the blogger.

Variant 3: Telling other bloggers about interesting articles

Now let's assume you have published a great list post (a listicle, articles that enumerate many different points in the form of a list – see my list post on this: 250 free tools for your online business) and want to make it more known through blogger outreach. Then you should try this variant from Brian Klanten:

“Hello [name of the blogger],

I created a big list post on my blog on the topic XYZ. While creating this article, I came across your great site.

I also included and linked your article [mention only the name here and not the URL, since it could otherwise look like a mass email] in my list.

Maybe you feel like sharing the list with your readers: [URL to the article]

Best regards,
[Your name & the URL to your site]”

This email approach is very brilliant (and a tiny bit mean ;-)). It suggests that the blogger somehow “owes” you. You linked to them without any return favor and are now asking them for a very small favor, namely to share your great list post with their readers.

Such an email is debatable.

Some people won't like such an email. But I think the message is really clever! ;-)

Variant 4: Asking about a guest article

Backlinks are still immensely important for climbing up in the Google rankings. For this reason, guest articles on well-visited blogs are very popular. They bring traffic, at best boost your popularity and improve your Google ranking.

That's why many big blogs are also pestered almost daily with guest-article requests, mostly from one SEO agency or another. To get a chance at a guest article with your desired blogger with a single email, that email must be short and meaningful.

The benefits for the blogger of letting you publish a guest article on their blog must be clearly highlighted. Therefore convince them in your message that you deliver good content in your guest posts. You best achieve this by pointing to your previous (good) guest posts in the message.

“Hello [name of the blogger],

I regularly read your posts on the topic XYZ on your blog [name of the blog] and I have to pay you a compliment for it. Your posts are always a really big help for me and inspired me to write about it too. Thank you for that!

I wanted to ask you whether it's possible to publish a guest post on your blog?

I've come up with the following topics for a post:

Topic 1

Topic 2

Topic 3 [explain each topic very briefly]

[If you've already written guest posts on other blogs, you should mention them too] I've already published a few guest posts on other blogs and the response was very positive.

Your guest post 1 [URL 1]

Your guest post 2 [URL 2]

I would be very happy about feedback from you.

Many thanks and best regards,
[Your name & the URL to your site]”

2. The lengthy, but safe route

The better way to really get in touch with other bloggers successfully is to start out cautiously first! Once you've found your desired bloggers, you should first follow them on all social media channels.

As soon as you're shown that one of the bloggers has published a new article, you should comment on it sensibly right away. A “thanks for the article” isn't enough here. After all, you want to stay memorable to the blogger. Therefore try to start a kind of discussion, ask questions or give suggestions about the article.

This way you manage to leave a first impression with the blogger.

Now it continues: The personal email. Write an email to the blogger of your choice. Ask them something about a particular topic or give your feedback on one of their articles. Some creativity is called for here, but you don't have to break your back. Most bloggers are happy to help or reply to their readers.

Before you contact the first blogger, it's worth creating a simple overview. Enter for each candidate: name, URL, followers on the channel most relevant for your niche, a rough domain authority (Semrush or Moz) and the average number of comments per article. The latter is often more meaningful than the sheer follower count: a blog with 5,000 highly engaged readers who comment and share brings you more than a blog with 50,000 dead accounts. Based on this data, you can divide your bloggers into priority levels and decide where you first have to warm up and whom you can contact directly.

The request. The blogger knows you and you've already made first contact. Then it's now especially easy for you to ask the blogger for feedback on your site, to ask them what they think of your article XY and whether they want to share it with their readers. Or you ask them directly about the possibility of publishing a guest post on their blog. The possibilities here are incredibly varied…

Always be sure to say “thank you.” After the first successful cooperation, the work isn't done yet. Always thank them explicitly when a blogger has shared or linked your content – a short, personal thank-you stays in the memory. In return, regularly share the blogger's content too, without expecting a direct favor in return. The strongest cooperations arise when the one-time contact turns into a real relationship: joint projects, mutual interviews or even appearances at blogger meetups and conferences are the next step on this path.

The lengthy route is, in my opinion, definitely better for being successful with blogger outreach. Because the blogger gets to know you a little better (even if it's only superficial) and doesn't feel pestered by an impersonal request.

Conclusion: 7 important points for blogger outreach!

For successful blogger outreach, you should definitely observe the following 7 points:

• Only distribute high-quality content
• The email to the blogger must be personal (from person to person)
• Avoid making the email look like mass processing
• Try to spark the blogger's interest
• Include at most one link or none at all in your email and first wait for the reaction
• Be friendly!
• Keep it short and get to the point (time is precious)

Blogger outreach is truly a science in itself. There are many different ways to get in touch with bloggers. If emails are too silly for you, I recommend establishing personal contact through conferences, blogger meetups, networking events or the like. When you're face to face with someone, the chances of hitting it off are usually greater.

Do you do blogger outreach? What are your lessons from it? Where do you see the dangers and hurdles?

Or are you regularly contacted by others because they “came across” your blog (see the email from the introduction)? If so, what do you reply to that?

-Fabian