When it comes to promoting products or services, few methods are as effective as word-of-mouth marketing. Even though this marketing technique is incredibly effective, it does take a little bit of work to get people talking about your products. You need to connect with well-known product bloggers, introduce them to your products, and get them to discuss them on their blogs.
Product Review Bloggers Can Play A Surprisingly Important Role In Your Success
When it comes to selling products or services online, building and maintaining a good reputation is absolutely essential. When your company is well respected, it is easier to build strong relationships with your customers and to get them to engage with your business. It also improves your ranking in the search engines and increases the trustworthiness of your brand. Bloggers play an important role in helping you develop a strong online reputation.
Successful product bloggers have dedicated audiences of people who consistently read the content that they post. They have a lot of sway over the opinions of their followers. Depending on the size of the blog, they can easily reach thousands of people or hundreds of thousands of people with every post that they make. For example, we recently worked on an Irish CBD campaign where the site got over 200 mentions for it’s sleep gummies product. A huge win for the business and us.
Connecting with a blogger like this who has a lot of influence over their audience is a fantastic way to bring more people to your website. It also can help you get more followers on your social media accounts. If the product blogger shares a review of one of your products with their readers, it can result in a huge spike in sales. Advertising through traditional methods is no longer nearly as effective as it used to be. Instead, more and more companies are turning to influencers to help them market their products, simply because it is such an effective strategy.
How To Find The Right Product Review Bloggers To Work With
The number of blogs that currently exist is staggering. Each day, more than 2.7 million new posts are written for blogs around the world. With so many options, trying to figure out which bloggers to work with can be challenging. To make the search easier, look for someone who has the following characteristics:
– A high number of dedicated readers
– A consistent posting schedule
– An active readership that regularly engages with their content
– A high number of followers on social media
– A website with a high domain authority number.
– Readers who fit within the audience you are targeting
– Content that is related to your niche
– High-quality photographs
– A professional demeanor
Before Finding a Product Blogger Decide What You Hope To Accomplish
The first step that you should take is to figure out exactly what you hope to accomplish with this marketing strategy. If you don’t have a plan in place, bloggers will use their own prerogative when deciding which aspects of your products to review. If you want them to look at specific features or benefits of the product, it is good to identify them ahead of time.
Read this – How to Find Brand Ambassadors
You should always give bloggers leeway to take their own personal approach when reviewing your products or services. If there are certain features that you want them to focus on, however, you can definitely mention that when you approach them. Although there are no guarantees, most product bloggers are open to suggestions.
Focus On Legitimate Relationship Building
Identifying the most influential bloggers in your industry is only the first part of the process. You also have to start building relationships with them. Establishing relationships like these can really benefit your company and the long run. Once you have an existing relationship, it is a lot easier to get a blogger to feature future products or services that you offer.
Trying to convince someone that you don’t already have a relationship with to feature your products takes a lot more work. You need to be extremely persuasive if you want them to showcase your products when they don’t know who you are or what you stand for.
Begin the process of forming relationships by listing out the names of all of the people that you want to connect with. Go through your existing contacts on sites like LinkedIn to see if any of your current contacts are friends with the people on your list. If so, see if they would be willing to introduce you. When a blogger has already heard about you from someone that they know and trust, they are far more likely to listen when you do eventually approach them.
Figure out ways that you can help the influencers that you are trying to reach. With any luck, they will appreciate the help and will find a way to reciprocate in the future. It doesn’t have to be a big thing. Something as simple as giving them a tip about a great story could be enough to put you on their radar.
Most Product Bloggers Appreciate Compliments
Complimenting the blogger is a nice way to form a connection. Spend time getting to know them, looking for things that you like. Are you a fan of their content? Do you love the way that they write? Do they have a beautifully designed site?
Read through some of the most recent blog posts. Do any of them really stand out? If so, let the product blogger know how much you enjoyed reading the content.
The key to success with this strategy is to give compliments without expecting anything in return. If you reach out to the blogger and tell them that you loved their new post, then ask them to do a favor the minute that they reply, it will come across like you are just trying to take advantage of them.
Think of compliments as a long-term investment. They help you establish a friendly relationship with the blogger. Eventually, that relationship will usually pay off.
Additional Relationship-Building Tips to Get Bloggers to Review your Products
Find Ways To Engage Through Social Media
There are plenty of ways that you can engage with bloggers before actually reaching out to them. The more ways you can find to engage, the easier it will be for you to build meaningful relationships.
One easy way to connect is by following them on social media. Starbucks took this approach by following more than 100,000 of their fans on Twitter. From a relationship-building standpoint, this is an excellent strategy.
Leave Comments On Their Posts
Bloggers always appreciate it when people comment on their posts or when they share them with others. Posting an article from your favorite blogger on one of your social media accounts or linking to it from a blog post of your own are both excellent strategies.
You may need to modify your approach, depending on the niche you are in. For instance, it is often easier to approach family bloggers than it is to approach bloggers in highly specific niches. Always choose the best approach, depending on the situation.
Put Your Creativity To Use
If you really want to connect with influencers, a little bit of creativity can go a long way toward helping you catch their attention. Some strategies that you may want to use include
– Offering a discount on a product that they can share with their followers.
– Putting together a large-scale giveaway specifically for their followers.
– Creating eye-catching content that they can include in their posts. This can include everything from videos to infographics.
– Creating high-quality content that they can share on their blog.
Whatever you choose, it should be something really exciting. Try to view your ideas from their perspective. Are they something that they would truly be excited about? Be willing to be flexible, as well. Oftentimes, they will want to tweak your ideas a little bit to make them their own. This can often result in stronger promotions and a good promotion can really help push down negative Google results.
Reward Product Bloggers Generously For Their Help
Successful bloggers have spent a lot of time cultivating a loyal readership. You should treat them with the respect that they deserve. Don’t view their help as a way to save money over traditional advertising methods. Instead, think of them as partners. Influential bloggers can make a huge difference in your ability to connect with consumers online. The more generously you reward them, the more likely they are to help you take your brand to the next level.
Always Think About What The Blogger Will Get Out Of Blogger Product Review Opportunities
Although it does occasionally happen, most bloggers won’t share your content or write about your brand out of the goodness of their heart. Instead, they usually will require some type of incentive. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to pay them money. There may be other rewards that they value. The key is to always think about what the blogger is going to get out of your relationship.
When you approach a blogger, present your idea in a way that shows them that you understand their needs. When you discuss how a particular promotion will benefit their audience, they are far more likely to listen.
Don’t demand positive reviews. Instead, let them know that they have total freedom in terms of how they choose to review your product. Don’t expect bloggers to lie on your behalf. If you ask them to, it can wind up backfiring since they may tell their readers that you tried to convince them to write a false review. The key is to create high-quality products and to trust that the blogger will see their value.
In some cases, however, that may not work out. Most bloggers are extremely honest when they review products. Although there is always a risk that you will get a negative review, it is a risk worth taking. The odds are equally as high that you will get a positive review instead and improve your reputation.
If you are having trouble figuring out what type of compensation to offer, ask the blogger what they want in exchange for posting.
If you have a large following of your own, you can offer to promote the blogger through your online channels. Exchanging promotions like this is often an affordable, effective way for each of you to help the other person out.
Find ways to make the job easier for them. Bloggers are more likely to follow through if they don’t have to put in a lot of effort. Providing them with detailed information upfront is a great way to make the review process easier.
Touch base after they post. Once the product blogger posts about your products, reach out to them and let them know how much you appreciate their effort. If you want, you can also share how effective their post was in terms of increasing your sales. Provide a link back to their blog from your own website. If you send them detailed statistics on how effective their post was at helping your business, they can often use those metrics to help them get new clients in the future.
Be Prepared For Both The Good And The Bad
When you are trusting other people to write reviews of your products, you don’t have a lot of control over the final outcome. That means that you may occasionally get bad reviews or run into a situation that winds up driving customers away. Even when things go wrong, it is still important to thank the product blogger for their time. You can use any negative information in their review to make improvements in your products or services.
If a blogger wants to get paid for their review, you need to decide whether or not you are willing to pay the prices that they charge.
If you need help finding bloggers then contact us and we have an array of strategies to help.
