When looking to gain media coverage for your business, many people often don’t look past the major media publications, such as newspapers, magazines and online news sites. However, did you know there is another avenue to gain media coverage and communicate your message by pitching your story ideas to a blogger?
Gaining media coverage on a blog is a great way to reach a niche target audience and take advantage of the influence many bloggers have.
Pitching to a blogger is different to pitching to a journalist because bloggers operate in a different way. Often bloggers are not professional journalists and are writing the blog in their spare time while holding a full time job as well.
When communicating with bloggers, take a more personalised approach and don’t mass email them with irrelevant information. Bloggers are looking for value for their readers, such as exclusive content, images or experiences, so provide them with something interesting for their readers.
Here are some tips to help you pitch to a blogger.
- Make a list.
Researching bloggers online can be time consuming. But making a list of popular bloggers that relate to your industry is worthwhile.
Try using Google to search for blogs in a particular industry — for example, ‘design blogs’. You can also search for a list of the top bloggers in a certain field or look at recommended blogs on other people’s websites.
- Do your research.
Before pitching to a specific blogger, do some research into what they write about, the style and tone of the blog, what they are interested in and how often they blog. By getting to know the blogger, you will be able to tailor your pitches to appeal to their interests and hopefully be more successful.
The best way to get to know a blogger’s writing style and topics of interest is by reading their blog. In your pitch, you can let the blogger know you are reading their blog by mentioning particular posts which you enjoyed. However, only do this if you have actually read their blog otherwise you could be seen as fake.
Reading their blog will also give you ideas for story angles to pitch which they might be interested in.
- Build a relationship.
You can build a relationship with particular bloggers by posting comments on their blog and engaging with them. Your comments should contribute to the discussions on the blog and add value for other readers.
This is a great way to initiate contact with the blogger, as well as show them you are reading their blog. When a relationship has been built, a blogger will generally be more receptive to your ideas.
- What to pitch.
When pitching to a blogger, there are a number of things you can offer them, such as a product giveaway, product review, sponsored post, Q&A or an interview with your key spokesperson. It’s important to keep in mind anything you offer a blogger must be relevant to their blog and interesting to the readers.
If you want to send them a product for review or a giveaway, it’s best to ask them first if they would like to receive it. You may waste time and money if you send products that the blogger is not interested in using.
- Introduce yourself.
When pitching to a blogger, introduce yourself and your business and explain why your story idea would be a great fit for their blog. This is where your previous research comes in, to help you explain why the blogger would be interested in your story idea.
- Send the pitch.
Your pitch should be an email which is clear and straight to the point. Try to make the length of the email fairly short, only a few paragraphs long, otherwise they may not read it. The email should also be personalised and not a generic mass media send out.
- The follow-up.
Most bloggers do not publish their phone number on their blog, which means you can’t call them to follow-up your pitch. It’s then best to send them a follow-up email asking if they were interested in your pitch. Bloggers won’t always check their emails everyday so don’t follow-up with them until a few days after you sent the first pitch.
By thinking outside the usual media publications and pitching to bloggers, you can communicate with your target audience in a whole new way.
This is beneficial to your business because blogs encourage more engagement with their readers than media publications, which can allow your business to connect on a more personal level with its audience.
