Every writer has experienced that elated feeling of putting the last edits on a blog post or article they’ve been working on. This sensation is usually accompanied by a strong desire to share your creation with the rest of the world. However, unless you have a blog or column of your own, the challenge of getting your work published has only just begun. In order to guarantee your masterpiece finds a home, follow this Blogger Outreach Complete Guide or you can check out or Blogger outreach 101 if you are a novice.
Pinpoint the blog you’d like to target and find the editor's email addresses
The first thing you should know about blogger outreach is that it won’t work out unless you’re ready to unveil the little stalker that’s deep inside of you.
Have you been following a certain blog for a while? Has that blog been an important source of inspiration for you? If so you should first try to figure out if the site has a specific section dedicated to contributors and thought leadership articles. If the answer is “yes”, congrats! You’re halfway there!!
Go over that section and scroll down to see all the articles that have been published by
contributors just like you. Are the topics similar to what you’ve written? Awesome! Now you know that your article will be a great fit for the site. Since every blog has an editor or a content manager, you should try to contact the ‘contributed content’ editor.
Most of the time, the editor's names appear directly on the site; other times you’ll have to do a little ‘in-depth LinkedIn research’ to find out who the editor is.
Once you have the editor’s name, the next step is to find his/her actual contact details.
There are many different online tools available today that can help you out with that, but here are two of my favorites:
- Rapportive shows you LinkedIn profiles within your Gmail, basically letting you know that you’ve found the correct email address.
- Mixmax is an email tracker. It notifies you when someone’s opened your email and even helps you schedule emails for later, in case, the person you want to reach out to is in a different time zone.
Write a fun, personal and catchy outreach email
You are a writer and writing is what you do best, right? However, writing an outreach email requires a completely different approach. Try to put yourself in the editor's shoes. How many emails do you think he or she receives daily? The answer is easy: a whole lot of them. Sometimes they even receive so many emails that it’s hard to open all of them, with a high chance of them being sent directly to trash without having even been read.
Since we know you don’t want your email to end up in the spam or trash box, you should avoid writing a standardized, boring email. Professional and formal emails could work sometimes, but if you want to play safe go for a fun, personal and catchy email.
Fun
The entire email should be characterized by a very fun, light and semi-formal tone. Jokes often work too. Although editors can be seen as mystic creatures sometimes, they’re human just like us. A fun email could make them smile and, eventually, get them to answer you right away.
Personal
Most of the emails that are sent out every day for blogger outreach are a copy-paste of the same text over and over. Editors feel and know that very well - it’s their bread and butter - and if they don’t reply to your email it’s probably because they feel it meant for them in the first place.
When you create an email that is tailor-made for a specific editor, you're more likely to get a response, and eventually see your work published.
Try to add some references to their past work experiences or important achievements (You can Google their name to find them on LinkedIn or Twitter). And on that note, compliments always work. Be kind and stroke their ego a bit!
Catchy
How can you make sure your email will stand out from all the others even before it’s been opened? Simple: write a catchy subject line! A blogger outreach email’s subject line is as important as an article’s title. Therefore, these three elements need to be a constant in each subject line: the editor’s name, a question, and the name of the publication. The editor’s name will catch the attention right away, the question will make them feel like they owe you an answer, and the name of the publication shows you are targeting that specific site and not just a bunch of random blogs.
Don’t be afraid to follow-up
You’ve followed all the previous steps but haven’t received an answer yet? Don’t panic, it happens all the time. That’s when follow-up emails come into play, to remind editors who you are and what you want. When writing a follow-up email, keep in mind all the tricks you’ve used to write the first blogger outreach email, but make it more concise. Explain who you are, say that you’ve already been in touch and when, and clarify again what is the purpose of your email.
One follow-up might not be enough, and you’ll most likely have to follow up quite a few times before receiving an answer. You shouldn’t be afraid to follow-up; most of the times editors appreciate your perseverance which, at the end of the day, shows that you really want your article to be published on their blog. You can either send or schedule follow-up emails every two or three days. Believe it or not, the editor will eventually thank you for following-up. Try it and see for yourself!
Congrats! The blogger outreach efforts have paid off - Your article is now live!
Have you carefully followed all the above steps? Well done then, your article is probably crushing the internet already!
At the end of the day, it’s true that you need an awesome article to get the ball rolling, but it won’t mean much without creative, funny and persevering blogger outreach. I’m sure you can make it if you follow this complete guide. After all, aren’t these three elements the essence of an authentic writer?
