Blogger Outreach Strategy: A 6-Step Approach That Works 

Whether you want traffic to your blog posts, traffic to your offers, or simply want to network and build relationships with experts and influential people, blogger outreach can help you with that.

How? By tapping into your targets' audiences.

If you're interested in learning more, you're in the right place. Here's what I'm about to show you:

Let's get started.

What is Blogger Outreach?

Blogger outreach is when companies partner up with bloggers and influencers to bring awareness to the company's brand by leveraging the influencer's audience.

From a business standpoint, companies use blogger outreach to attract new leads and to ultimately sell a product. There's usually a big budget involved.

For bloggers (like me), we use blogger outreach to grow our sites by asking influencers for help.

Let me give you a quick example:

Let's say you have a blog about building muscle and you want to build backlinks to an epic article you just published. You can run a blogger outreach campaign where you target blogs like NerdFitness and Muscle and Fitness. Find their email addresses, send a beautiful outreach email, and boom.

What Blogger Outreach Can Do For You

A good blogger outreach strategy can have multiple benefits for you. Especially if you do it correctly. You can:

All you have to do is choose what you want achieve and go out and get your outreach on.

Why Most Blogger Outreach Campaigns FAIL

There are many mistakes you could make that can cost you your whole blogger outreach campaign. These blogger outreach mistakes include:

These are all the most common reasons why most bloggers fail outreach.

While outreach templates are still effective, if you do them right, they can still be looked at as spam.

Today, influencers will spot an email template from a mile away. They'll hit the trash button and your email will be gone forever. Leaving you with a bad first impression and almost no chance of ever becoming tight with the people you reach out to.

The same goes for not personalizing your email.

"Hey man...." "Dear Sir/Madam..." "To whomever it may concern..."

Um, no.

9 times out of 10, your email will go straight to the trash bin if you don't use their first name. I'm serious.

Bloggers and influencers are busy people. They're not going to waste their precious time on someone who hasn't taken the time to learn their first name.

I mean, would you?

If you're too pushy, you can expect zero replies from your outreach campaign.

Nobody likes pushy people.

And certainly, no influencer is going to hook you up without knowing who you are. Or, if you haven't helped them with something.

The Blogger Outreach Strategy That Works

Our 6-step blogger outreach strategy at a glance:

Ready to get sh*t done? Then let's do this!

Disclaimer: Not everyone you reach out to will reply to you. Even if you follow up a dozen times. If this happens, simply move on from them. There are plenty of bloggers and influencers out there.

Step #1: Determine the GOAL

The first step is simple. You'll need to figure out what you want from your outreach efforts. Your goal.

Is it a social media share to your article? Do you want to gain some exposure? A backlink to improve your search rankings? Do you want to write a guest post on their site (or perhaps them on yours)?

Or maybe, you just want to network and become friends with the pros in your niche? (This would have extreme value!)

Another good reason you'd get into blogger outreach is if you have a product, both digital or physical, and you want to get it out there. You could ask influencers to review it and/or promote it to their audiences.

But whatever it is you want out of your outreach campaign, write it down.

A share from an influencer with a large social media following can get you a lot of traffic.

A backlink from an authoritative site can get you better search rankings.

A guest post can get you targeted traffic, email subscribers, a quality backlink, and even some authority.

But you know what?

You could even get it all.

How? By building relationships with these influential bloggers and marketers. People are much more likely to say yes when a friend asks them for favours. It's natural.

You: Hi, friend. Can I write a guest post on your site?

Influencer: Sure, my friend!

Step #2: Find Bloggers and Influencers

Now that you know what you want, it's time to make a list of influential people.

To do this, you will first need to open up a word doc. Preferably an Excel sheet or Google spreadsheet.

You can copy the one in the screenshot above. It will only take you 2 minutes to make.

Now, depending on your goal, you'll have to carefully choose the people you want on your outreach list.

If your goal is to get shares for your epic post, you'll want influencers who have large numbers of social media followers.

If your goal is to build links or get a guest post, you'll want websites with some authority. A good metric to look at is Ahrefs' DR or Domain Rating.

If your goal is to get participants for an expert roundup, then you'll want people who really are experts on your roundup's topic. For instance, for roundup on how to get more Twitter followers, you'll want people with thousands of followers.

But if you want to just build relationships, you'll simply want people who are either on the rise, or people who are already considered pros and have great audiences.

Now...

How do you find these type of people?

It's actually not that hard. They're practically everywhere.

You can start with searching for blogger roundups, like this one: 101 Top Blogs That Will Help You Become a Better Blogging

You can find these types of posts with a Google search. Here are few search terms you can use:

Here's an example. I Googled "top marketing blogs" and came up with these:

Another way to find influencers is with Buzzsumo.

Simply head over to their homepage and enter a topic or keyword. You don't have to be specific here. Just make sure it's relevant to the people you are trying to find.

Next, click on the Influencers link on the top menu and hit search again.

When you're done, the tool will give you a list of influencers on Twitter.

Now, let me show you how to choose people for your list based on your goal.

> Goal = Shares

If your goal is to get shares, you'll want influencers who have a good-sized and engaged following. A couple thousand is alright. But like with everything, the bigger the better.

To find out if their social media posts get some engagement (likes and comments), simply go to their recent posts and look.

If they do get a lot of engagement, great. You can have a good chance at getting re-shares and click-throughs from them.

> Goal = Links

If your goal is to get links, you'll have to target blogs with a good Domain Rating (DR).

Domain Rating is a metric by Ahrefs that measures the likelihood of a website obtaining high search rankings. It is scored from 1 to 100. The higher the score, the more likely it is for the website to rank high in the SERPs.

A good DR is usually anything above 30-40. But of course, the higher the DR, the better the quality of the backlink. Obtaining the backlink can also be quite harder from websites with high authority.

To find a website's DR you can use Ahrefs' Website Authority Checker.

> Goal = Guest Post

If your goal is to land a guest post, then you'll want blogs that have accepted guests in the past.

You can find this out by looking through their blog page to see if there are different authors for different blog posts.

Some blogs, however, don't create author accounts for their guest bloggers. So you might have to manually check your target blog's content to see if it's been written by a guest.

You can do this with a special Google search: site:domainname.com "guest post".

Here's an example using our site:

You can also find guest posting opportunities by searching for "keyword + write for us" OR "[niche] sites that accept guest posts".

Remember to also check your guest post target's DR using the Website Authority Checker.

> Goal = Expert Roundup

If your goal is to get participants for an expert roundup, you'll have to choose the experts that are actual experts in your roundup topic.

For example, if you're topic is "coming up with the best guest post pitch", then you'll want bloggers who have a nice guest posting track record.

You can find these guys by visiting some of blogs you found in the "top industry blogs" posts and check if they've featured contributors.

Like this:

I found Basic Blog Tips in one of those "top blogs" posts.

So, I checked it out. Browsed around. And I saw that they do feature guest bloggers. A lot, actually.

You can also find blogs that accept guest posts through Google search with the "write for us" search strings.

Then check them out to see if they've had expert guest bloggers.

> Goal = Relationship Building

If your goal is to simply build relationships, you can choose to reach out to almost anyone. Well, particularly, bloggers on the rise and established experts.

You can find these guys everywhere...

And remember, the 2 major things you need are their names and email addresses.

When you have your hit list put together, it'll look something like this:

Step #3: Research Your List of Influencers

At least a little bit.

People are more likely to hook you up if they see you've taken your time and got to know them and their business/blogs.

How exactly are you supposed to get to know them without looking like a stalker?

I'll tell you...

#1: Read Their About Page

Some bloggers will tell their story on their about page. Or even a small section where they share random facts about themselves.

This is gold for you and your outreach strategy.

You can mention one of these in your outreach email. And if you can relate to it, it'll be that more meaningful.

You can also pretend, you know. If you have a good imagination.

#2: Read Their Social Media Profiles

Like in the about pages, some bloggers share personal facts on their social profiles.

Again, if you can relate to them, you have a better chance at making the connection.

#3: Read Their Content...Everywhere

Some people like short and sweet blog posts. They don't write more than a few hundred words.

While others, perhaps most, love long content that goes into insane detail. I'm talking 2000+ words.

Also, take note of the type of content they frequently publish. Are they case studies, infographics, ultimate guides, list posts, etc.

But whatever they're into, you can write something like, "I know you're into long, detailed case studies, so here's one I know you'll love..."

Step #4: Pre-Outreach: Get on Their Radars

As soon as you have your list of bloggers and influencers, you'll need to get on their radar.

They will more likely open and read your emails if they know or at least recognize you.

You can call this the pre-outreach stage.

So how do you get on people's radars?

I'll show you 4 easy methods...

Method #1 - Share Their Content

Head over to their blog, pick a post that interests you and then share it on Twitter. But make sure you include the "via @user" so that they'll see it in their notifications.

The only way to share it on other social networks is if you're friends or a follower.

So, if you don't use Twitter, go to the one you do use, find their accounts, follow them or befriend them, and then share + tag.

Method #2 - Connect With Them on Social Media

Follow them. Like their posts. Re-share.

The best way to connect with them is by asking them for help and advice through chat.

Method #3 - Comment on Their Posts

Blog commenting is one of the best ways to getting an influencer's attention.

But it can't just be any old "hey guy, great post. It really helped me a lot. Cheers!"

No...

You won't stand out that way.

You'll have to leave a comment that gives them a compliment, adds value to the post or discussion, and gives the blogger some sort of help (like a tweet).

Kevin Duncan explains this perfectly on his guest post at Smart Blogger.

Method #4 - Subscribe and Reply

Subscribe to their email list. Everybody likes new subscribers.

And when you receive their welcome email, hit reply and send them something. This can be a compliment, a question, or a friendly greeting and introduction.

Method #5. Link Out to Their Content

This is one the best tactics to getting on an influencer's good-side. So...

Browse around their site and look for a post that is relevant to one of your posts, upcoming or published.

When you find it, add it to your post.

And, this is crucial, let them know about it.

You can do this via email...

Or even Twitter...

Method #6. Use Their Advice

Another awesome way to get on their good-side is to take action on what they teach.

For example, let's say an influencer wrote a guide on how to score your first guest post.

You read it. Take action. And eventually, land a guest post on a blog with a medium/large following.

You would then let him know about it via email or social media.

BAM. Now he likes you. Relationship started.

Other Ways to Help Them Out...

Now just keep doing this for a little bit.

And after about 3 or 4 times you help him and he notices or thanks you, you can move onto the next step.

Step #5: Craft the Perfect Outreach Email

Let's take a quick look at what you've achieved so far:

Now it's time to ask them for help. Reach out.

A good outreach email will follow these best practices:

i. No BULK

Do NOT send email in bulk. In other words, email each of your bloggers and influencers one at a time.

ii. DO NOT Use BASIC Email Templates

These bloggers and influencers get a ton of emails everyday. They can spot a template from a mile away.

Sure, templates were great in 2014/15. But we've just overused them, you know.

Yeah, you can look at them for inspiration. Just don't use them, ok?

iii. Personalize Every Email

No one likes a "Dear Sir/Madam" or a stupid "To whomever it may concern" at the top of their email. 9 times out of 10, they go straight to the trash bin.

Good thing for you, you learned all your influencers' first names in step 1. 

You also found out what they're really into in step 4. That's good. Mention it in your emails.

And they'll see that you've taken the time to learn about him. This can make him feel like an ass if he doesn't reply. *wink*

Another personalization tactic is using their first name in the subject line. Try it.

iv. DO NOT Send Them a LONG Email

Keeping your emails short is a good way to get them read. No more than a hundred words.

v. Always Add Value

If your goal is something other than feedback or a relationship, then adding value is a must. If you don't, you won't achieve your goal.

For example...

If your goal is to get a backlink, then your post will have to have something better than the rest. This can be a certain tool that hasn't been mentioned, an extra step that no one knows, or even a better formatted/designed post.

vi. ASK!

You've helped them out a lot. They know who you are.

So now it's time you get some of their help.

Ask them.

And make sure you're not telling them, either. It's got to be a question.

If your goal is to get a share... "Can you share my latest blog post?..."

If your goal is to get links... "Would you include my guide as a resource on your post?..."

If your goal is to get expert roundup participants... "Would you like to participate in a roundup?..."

But, if your goal is to build relationships, you can either skip this step until you're ready OR ask him for feedback on your site/content.

Pro Tip: If your promoting your content, use the 2-step email outreach technique for greater results.

Here's how:

i. Ask them if they want to see your content.

Look at the line above my name.

Notice I did not add the link to my content straight up?

ii. Deliver.

(If and) when they give you the OK, send them the link and you're done.

Simple, right? Try it.

Step #6. Scale Up Your Blogger Outreach Strategy

Now that you've learned about how to do blogger outreach effectively, it's time to scale up your efforts.

Implement steps 1-5 and go hard. Find more influencers for your list, get to work on the pre-outreach, create your own custom email templates, and send emails every week.

I'd recommend using a blogger outreach tool to help you get through some of the steps faster.

A tool like Hunter.io will help you manage your list of influencers, find their email addresses, and send outreach campaigns.

Conclusion

Blogger outreach is one of, if not the best growth tactic you could ever use.

Doing it right, however, can be quite difficult. There are many mistakes you can make that can cost your whole outreach campaign.

But with the step-by-step guide I showed you above, you'll be a blogger outreach master in no time.

So let's wrap things up with a quick overview...

My last piece of advice:

Stay consistent and stay connected.

One of the most common mistakes is letting all your momentum die out. Don't let that happen. If you achieve your goal, keep building that relationship. When you start being friends with influencers in your niche, you too will become influential.

If you have any questions, leave it in the comments below. And don't forget to share this with your friends and followers. Maybe they need help too.