A special guest post by Kherk Roldan to help you learn Blogger outreach.

In the past few years, blogging has just been a way to share your life’s adventures and experiences. But for nonprofits and businesses nowadays, blogging has evolved into something that could help them promote their products or brand and somehow generate an income.

You might wonder how they do it. What’s their secret? How do they achieve a rapid increase in blog subscribers in just a few days?

My answer is: Blogger Outreach.

Business owners and nonprofits have long understood that relying on their social media followers alone will not do the trick. So in order for them to reach their target markets, they need to reach out to someone popular in the industry to “advertise” their brand or product.

What is blogger outreach exactly?

Well, blogger outreach is a powerful strategy used by bloggers and businesses in building an ambassador network, earn mentions, or promote a brand for their business. The idea behind it is that a business or a company connects with influential bloggers with a solid following within their niche. They then ask these bloggers to spread the word about their product or service in order to gain exposure and in exchange, they offer free access to the product or services they are offering.

And it works! In fact, according to Neil Patel, 81% of people online tend to trust information they learn from blogs. 61% of those people end up buying products because it was highly recommended by a blogger.

Getting linked by a famous influencer is one way to boost your blog’s traffic and in order to do that, you need to consider learning the basics of blogger outreach.

To get you started on promoting your content, take these four easy steps:

Step 1. Get your top followers to market your brand for you

Work with what you currently have. This is where your followers come in.

I personally think that this is the best first step to take. Read on.

A percentage of your followers already like what you are promoting so that being said, they most likely have mentioned your product to their network as well.

Although there is a chance that your followers may not do as much as getting influencers to promote your brand but still, they are your best shot at starting your brand promotion.

To do this, make an effort to engage with them. There are things you can do to improve your relationship with them like retweeting or sharing their posts on social media. As much as possible, be a part of their activities and make them appreciate you.

Step 2. Target influential bloggers

If only there was one place you can start looking…

Oh right, there’s Google.

You can be confident that the top results that Google displays are trustworthy and solid. In order to make the best out of your search, you need to be well-versed with Google search operators. There are a lot of tools that can help you with this.

Don’t stop there. Trying out other sites like Buzzsumo and Klout to expand your list of key influencers.

Hashtags and keywords can also work in social media sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+. This can also help you research the social media following of your target influencers.

Step 3. Create a plan of action on approaching bloggers and reach out

Now that you have an idea on who your target influencers are, it’s time to make a plan on how to connect with them. You want to start off on the right foot, so we need to be subtle in our approach.

Since you are basically selling yourself to them, creating a perfectly crafted pitch letter is your number one goal. The best way to do this is to keep your letter simple — make it short and get to the point. Heck, I’d want my emails to be straight to the point.

Chances are your target influencer may be as busy as a bee and if you write your letter like a blog post, you’ll probably lose your chance.

Step 4. Develop your relationship

Once you get the attention of your potential influencers, continue to keep in touch.

If you are a good entrepreneur, you know that building relationships that lasts is one secret to keeping your business successful. With that said, here are some ways to keep your relationships with your influencers as strong as ever:

Show your appreciation by saying thanking them for their help

Continue to monitor and share their content

Invite them for coffee if you happen to be near them and maybe get to know each other a little bit

Do collaboration. Maybe a co-authored blog post?

You have to remember: Like most good things, it will take time. And a lot of planning. And once you’ve established your course of action, I assure you, you’ll definitely achieve the visibility you have always wanted your blog to have.

If you do it right.

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