You have been listening to what people are saying and noting who is saying it and where they live. How do you breach that divide and get in touch with people about your product or service without being blown off, called out, or worse labeled as a spammer?
Here are some tips to remember when reaching out:
- Give people (after all, bloggers are people too) enough lead time. They too have lives, schedules. Don’t send an invite a week before the event, please.
- Personalize and individualize the invitation. Do your research about that person and tie in his/her blogging and coverage with why you want him/her at the event and why it will make all difference.
- Give them some added-value, something fun, unusual or novel to experience over and above the event itself.
- Give an enticing, interesting, passionate presentation or demo. Nobody, but nobody, wants to sit through another boring PowerPoint.
- Be creative, think and do something out of the box. Bloggers love this.
- Make sure the information in the press pack is easily accessible. USB flash drive is a great idea.
And last, but definitely not least, maybe the most important, treat each person like gold. Don’t rate or “value” the blogger by the amount of traffic on his blog, or how many followers he has on Twitter. Each person is important. Any contribution they make is valuable. Pamper or spoil them – not necessarily with gifts, although that’s nice – but with attention and the right attitude. Make them feel super special. But be genuine.
Here is a sample letter to use when contacting bloggers for the first time. Remember it is important to know a little something about the blogger and try to make your pitch a little personalized.
Greetings Blogger,
I was going over your blog / I saw your pictures / I like your post about / and I wondered if you would be interested in participating in the Search for the Ultimate Athlete. We are pleased to be able to invite you to join our team as a snowboard contributor/ambassador. By joining the SFUA blogger network you become part of a focused group trying to determine who the ultimate athlete is and report on everything that goes into that process. We ask for contributions from you in the form of blog posts, pictures, videos, whatever! The theme:
- What does it mean to be the ultimate athlete?
- Is there really an ultimate athlete?
- Have you seen a snowboarder who could be that great?
- As someone who writes about snowboarding where does your sport fall on the ultimate list?
Your contributions will be featured on our website, searchfortheultimateathlete.com which will be heavily promoted as part of a thorough and ongoing online public relations campaign. Utilizing tools like twitter, Facebook, flickr we will make sure your content is quickly and efficiently distributed. We already have a number of very influential people involved, including professional mountain bikers and internationally recognized athletes and sports figures. As the program matures we will be able to offer incentives such as gifts from our sponsors and other items.
Please take a second to check out our website and think about being a part of our quickly growing community of people searching for the ultimate athlete. Feel free to contact us directly to discuss this opportunity further, our email is, phone #.
Best Regards,
Your Name
This information should help you broadcast your message to the people you have found through delicious, Technorati, Digg, Google Blogsearch and other sites. As one last bit of reading make sure to check out this post that talks about what NOT to do when pitching a blogger… and if you still want to read more there is always a google search!
