ASW11 Session Recap: Dominating Your Niche With Blogger Outreach

I just got over a nasty flu from Las Vegas and so this post is just a teeny bit late…but you should still read it!

On Sunday, the opening day of Affiliate Summit West, I sat front and center in the “Dominating Your Niche with Blogger Outreach” session featuring Jonathan Volk, Eric Schechter, Greg Rollett, John Chow and Chris Brogan as panel chair.

The topic had to do with best practices when outreaching to bloggers to promote your brand, service or product.

Everything Comes Down to Personal Connections

Everyone on the panel agreed on the absolute need for making a personal connection with your prospects. This means taking the extra step, the extra effort, to get to know someone (or at least something special about them) beyond what you’d see on their business card.

Obviously the best way to do this is to get yourself out there and meet people in person. Shake their hand, talk to them, relate with them, learn about who they are and what they do. If you can’t do this, then at least do your research: read their blog, Google them, friend them, follow them…just don’t cross the creepy threshold.

Making a personal connection isn’t obviously a new thing—relationships have been important since humans have been around. As far as I and everyone at Affiliate Summit West are concerned, there is no substitute for real life, in-person networking.

Then It Comes Down to Creative Customization

There’s the established way to send a pitch to someone: send them a generic email briefly introducing yourself, your offer and how they can follow up. That’s the blah way.

Then there’s the cool way: customize every single pitch you send according to the person you’re sending it to. If it’s an email, talk to them about something you know that matters to them…like their kids or their cats or their city. Something off-topic.

How about instead of an email you send them a care package? Or make a 30 second video just for them? If it’s banner ad on their site, why not customize it?

Everyone agreed: skip the boring way to do things.

If You Need to Find the Right Prospects…

You need to look more at authority, audience and context than just numbers. A blogger with a small but hugely devoted group of readers can have more influence over a blogger with a bigger but less passionate reader base.

You should also look at how many comments and retweets they get on their content as well. Sometimes a blogger might have a unique outreach that nobody else does.

And if you don’t know where to start looking, you can always try Alltop.com. Just find your niche and narrow it down until you find your bloggers.

A Quote from Each Panelist

Eric Schechter:

Personal relationships with people make a HUGE difference. It’s people caring about people.

Greg Rollett

Think outside email, think outside twitter. Send them personalized goodies.

Jonathan Volk:

Keep your content score at +4.

[Meaning: for every “non-pitch” message you send out, give yourself +1 point. For every “pitch” (promotional) message you send out, give yourself -1 point. Keep your score at +4.]

John Chow:

It comes down to getting yourself out there and meeting people to create real relationships.

Chris Brogan:

“Be there before the sale.”