We source information from blogs – recipes, opinions, news – but did you know you can pitch stories to bloggers just like you to journalists?
The first thing to note when pitching an idea to a blogger is – they aren’t journalists. They have a very personalized medium where they interact with their readers through comments on their blog. So you need to make the contact with them personal.
Sending an irrelevant media release to them is obviously a big no-no but rather than pitching a general release, be sure to make your contact with the blogger a little more personal than you would with a journalist.
Read their blog first, make mention of posts that interested you and if possible make this friendly contact before sending a ‘pitch’ email. You can also start building a relationship with relevant bloggers by posting comments on their blog and engaging with them.
When a relationship has been built, a blogger will generally be more receptive to your ideas.
The pitch should be in the form of an email – which needs to be clear and to the point. Busy people do not read long emails, so in the first paragraph clearly outline your idea. Don’t email a media release. Take the time to detail the story idea and why their readers would be interested.
Bloggers won’t always publish a phone number on their site so a follow up phone call is not always possible which is why building the relationship first will usually deliver more promising results than a one-off email pitch.
Obviously if you are asking them to review a product – send them the product but first ask them if they would like to receive it. Blindly sending products in the hope for a review is a waste of time.
Top Australian blogger, Neerav Bhatt who writes the very popular Rambling Thoughts blog and its sister blog, A Road Less Travelled is often contacted by people pitching services and products they want him to write about. Here is his advice on the best way to pitch to a blogger:
The best thing to do first is watch, listen and read what a particular blogger is doing. See what they’re writing about now and in the past, what they’re tweeting about, who they’re chatting with.Then if you still think your product/service is relevant to the blogger and their readers contact them and arrange for a general chat before going into specifics about your current campaign.It is always more effective to better to build any business relationship over time, whether with bloggers or anyone else, rather than contacting a person with a cold call sales technique.
Sydney Public Relations Agency, CP Communications provides specialist media, traditional and online PR strategies that get amazing results. Contact us today. For more great tips visit our website www.cpcommunications.com.au.