4 Reasons to Integrate Public Relations and Digital Marketing with Blogger Outreach

Blogger outreach is the practice of pitching bloggers to get coverage, write guest posts, or merely build a relationship. Many public relations practitioners who have been in the industry for a long time are well aware that there was a time when a few key media publications controlled the messages for whole industries. Since the digital space has grown rapidly, the landscape has spread to a wide number of websites, both large and small.

If you’re looking for a way to bring your PR team into the digital age, look no further than blogger outreach! The main tenets of public relations remain the same for bloggers: do your research, provide meaningful and relevant content, and build a mutually beneficial relationship with the media contacts in your vertical. Additionally, building a media kit and providing all the relevant information in pitches and follow-ups are still important skills. These core skills will easily be adapted by your PR practitioners.

Blogger outreach brings together two key pieces of marketing – traditional public relations and digital marketing practices, which encompass website strategy and promotion, SEO, and social media. Bringing your two teams together can pay off dividends internally, and companies can successfully build relationships with bloggers for gains in other areas. Here’s how:

1. Publicity 

   Any marketer will tell you that publicity is hugely important for your brand’s exposure. A review or a story giving your company or product visibility on a highly trafficked website can make a significant difference in the success of your campaign. Being able to spread the word through earned media is critical for many startups and established companies alike, and has always been a key purpose of public relations. Also, having a highly specialized product or service is difficult to get in the traditional mainstream media – don’t forget that if you fall into this category, there is almost certainly a blog out there that will be interested.

    

2. Driving website traffic 

   For many businesses, website traffic is a key metric of success as the website serves as a foundation for all marketing efforts. For blogger outreach, more visibility = more people being exposed to your brand, and many bloggers will provide a link back to your website. If your website is optimized for a good user experience, some of this new traffic should convert to new leads or new customers. It’s easy to use the skills of your PR team and the analytical knowledge of your Website team to see the impact of stories and content pieces that you have earned.

    

3. SEO 

   Achieving a guest post opportunity or even just getting a backlink can be beneficial for SEO – having written a guest post, or securing coverage that is written in line with your keyword strategy, can provide greater visibility to your website. Getting a placement on an influential blog that receives a lot of traffic is likely to rank faster than your site, and this kind of exposure can drive more traffic and improve your backlink profile. Many SEO Practitioners are familiar with doing link outreach, and blogger outreach has become just another strategy in their arsenal.

4. Social Media 

   Social media can assist with blogger outreach in two ways: building the relationship with the blogger, and sharing the content. Bloggers are already active on social media, and sharing their articles or providing helpful information to them on social networks is a great way to help build a rapport with them. You can also mention how much you liked a certain post, comment on posts, follow them and engage them on other social networks, and connect in real life if you have the opportunity. Naturally, once the article is written, the blogger will be likely to promote the article to their followers which will increase the reach of your content, which in turn will drive more website traffic.

There are many overlaps between traditional marketing and digital marketing, and integrating members of both disciplines by applying their skill sets to blogger outreach is one way to bring the two worlds together. Your PR team will appreciate the ability to use their media outreach abilities, and your digital team will be able to correlate any earned media to key performance indicators.