The best way to know how a successful blogger likes to be contacted is by listening to what he explains with his own words. In this article, I will share how two successful bloggers, whom PR agencies are constantly pitching, like to be contacted.
Learning how to contact other people online is important for any agency or person working online. Being successful requires one to have a high reach, so your message can go as far as possible. Communicating effectively depends to a great extent on the relationships you have with others who are communicating with your potential customers. Any agency who wants to amplify a message to an audience, will benefit greatly if they have the support of those bloggers who are already in contact with that particular audience. If you feel overwhelmed when you read this article, I will share how you can be much more efficient in building a relationship with the bloggers of a particular industry.
The first case I would like to share is Jay Baer’s, a blogger who writes about social media and content marketing. In his blog Convince & Convert, Jay explains how he likes to be contacted.
Jay says that we should never forget that a blogger is first and foremost a person, not an instrument or a tool. When someone contacts him, he wants to feel that such person has taken the trouble to know who he is and has sent something personalized, not exactly the same email that was sent to everyone else in a list.
Jay recommends building relationships before you need them, because if you contact the blogger just when you need him, it will be very obvious that the relationship is not honest. Nobody likes to feel used. The problem with building relationships with bloggers is that an agency will find it difficult to justify the time required to build a relationship with each one of the people you want to invite to cover that event. Therefore, for Jay, it makes perfect sense that these agencies focus on a particular industry and know and have a relationships with all the media and bloggers covering that sector.
Always keep in mind that any blogger who has a significant audience, constantly receives requests to write on various topics or participate in such and such an event. In these cases, Jay pays attention to those invitations that come from a person he recognizes and respects.
The second case I wanted to share with you is that of Ms. Ochman, a woman who has extensive experience as a public relations executive, and who led a successful PR agency in New York. Ms. Ochman is now a successful blogger with a large international following. She has been on both sides.
Ochman ‘s blog receives about 120,000 visitors each week. Her audience consists of CEOs and CMOs from Forbes500 companies, journalists, advertising agencies and public relations professionals.
In this article, MsOchman shares how she likes and how she does not like to be contacted.
How she likes to be contacted
If you contact her, for example, because you want her to publish a story that is important to you, the story should be a contribution that is especially interesting and very relevant for her audience. That means that first you should know very well what she writes about and adjust the content accordingly. Those who regularly follow her, know the kind of news she likes.
The subject of the email should be very enlightening and get her attention. Ms. Ochman receives every day over 600 emails, so she does not have the time to read every one of them. Those emails that use spam words, exclamation marks and other similar signs in the subject line go immediately to the trash (without even being opened). But if the subject line calls her attention, then she will open the mail and if she likes what she reads, she will contact that person to get more information.
If you want to tell her about a broad topic, do not explain everything in the first email. The first one should be very short, a summary, and if Ms. Ochman expresses interest, then you can send her 2-3 sentences that can give her more information. Emails should include plenty of white space so they are easy to read, have a proper title and be well written.
Ms. Ochman, also explains how she does not like to be contacted:
- # 1. Do not be presumptuous and say that something will interest her in the first email.
- # 2. Do not attach documents.
- # 3. Do not tell her the same things others have said before, say something different. Give her news she is interested in, before you give it to anyone else, or do not bother her at all.
- # 4. Do not send information about a subject that she does not cover.
- # 5. Do not disguise a query as a comment on her blog.
- # 6. Do not expect her to talk about a product she has not tried.
- # 7. Do not submit information that is outdated.
- # 8. Do not call her “Dear Blogger” or “Mr. Ochman”. Be clear that you know who she is, for example. “Ms. Ochman and B. L.
At the end, bloggers are human and want to be treated as such. They are much like journalists or any of us who want special attention and want to feel recognized. Nobody likes to be contacted and feel the other person is trying to take advantage of her. A blogger who has an audience has it for a reason, and has had to work hard to get it.
Summarizing, to get the attention from “famous” bloggers, you should:
• Customize the message to make her feel that you’re talking to her. Show her that you know what she writes about and values.
• Be relevant. This is a consequence of the previous point. If you know what the blogger writes about and what she is interested in, give her such content.
• Build a relationship with her.
• Be transparent from the beginning and do not deceive her.
• Give her value, so she feels that she will also be getting some value from the relationship. For example, make comments on her articles, promote her content, follow her on Twitter and show genuine interest. Give her content and news that she will like and will be able to use.
• Pay attention to the smaller blogs, especially if they are focused on your industry. Smaller bloggers receive much less attention and are more receptive. Many of these smaller bloggers have a very loyal follower base and fans.
If you feel that you cannot develop a relationship of this type with bloggers, I will share with you tomorrow how you can be much more efficient and still achieve very good results.
I would like to end this article with a quote from Jay Bauer:
“The ones (emails) I read demonstrate some awareness of what I actually write, and treat me as a distinct individual, not Row 13 on the “social media bloggers” Excel spreadsheet.”
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