I received an email the other day from someone I know in the blogosphere.
He is a popular and successful blogger, earning well into five figures per month. I’ve featured him on Leaving Work Behind more than once and he has done the same in reverse. A quick Gmail search shows that we have exchanged well over a 100 emails since February 2013. So it’s fair to say that we have a bit of history.
Here’s the email in full, with identifying words obfuscated to protect the blogger’s anonymity:
Not exactly what I was expecting from someone I know quite well in the blogosphere.
Actually, this email didn’t come as a total surprise, because I had received something similar back in December from him:
I sent a playfully sarcastic response to this email “Hi [name], nice to meet you ;-)” but received no response.
This blogger is not alone in his automated outreach efforts though. Far from it.
For example, I’ve received so many emails recently from another blogger who interviewed me last year that it’s practically tantamount to harassment (four unsolicited emails this month without me actually replying to any of them). Each of these emails is a template with personalized touches added. More thoughtful than our above blogger’s emails, for sure, but it’s still clear that the purpose of each email (and the correspondence as a whole) is to get something from me. He wants me to promote his book, he wants to get a guest post published on my site (with a link, natch) and so on.
It’s gotten pretty tedious.
I used to feel bad about ignoring emails, but time and experience have led me to having no problem with it all these days. Don’t get me wrong – I still reply to all my readers and people who seem genuine – but I have no issue in hitting Delete whenever I see a form email, tweaked or not.
As someone who approaches blogging (and business) from a genuine “how can I help people” angle, I’ve gotten really sick of automated emails. It’s something I dabbled with in the past but backed out of pretty quickly. It’s just not something I feel comfortable with.
I’m sure that leveraging automation in the way that the above bloggers have done has led to some (perhaps a lot) of success, but it’s just not something I would ever want to put my name to. If you feel the same way, keep reading, because I want to show you that there is another way.
The Foundation of an Organic Blog Outreach Strategy
There are basically three approaches to blog outreach:
- Automated outreach. Where you get either someone or something to do all the work on your behalf. Otherwise known as spam.
- Pseudo outreach. Where you make an effort to seem genuine, but in reality you’re after just one thing: exposure for your site. A very prevalent form of outreach at the moment.
- Genuine outreach. Where you seek to make real connections with people that motivate, inspire and inform you with a view to building a genuine and mutually beneficial relationship. Rare.
I dislike the first approach, but it’s easy to ignore. I’m really starting to hate the second, because it enables people to masquerade as having genuine and positive intentions, while in reality they are singleminded in their desire for exposure and have no real concern for the people they email.
The third approach is the one that I advocate. Through this approach – which I have followed naturally rather than deliberately – I have built genuine relationships with a number of bloggers who I consider friends (and have mostly met in person); most notably Steve Scott and Alexis Grant. I speak to Scott every week in our mastermind session, and Alexis and I speak whenever we both find the time!
Beyond that there are a huge list of bloggers – big and small – that I would consider my friends. From Travis Sherry to Justin Cooke to Corbett Barr to Onibalusi Bamidele to Nathan Weller and many more, these are all guys that I chat with occasionally and would meet up with if I was ever in their hometown. More importantly, they are all people that I expect nothing from. But you know what? Sometimes they do things for me. And I in turn do things for them.
I helped Steve with the design for his new site (which is in my humble opinion, the best resource for Kindle publishing on the web) and he thanked me with a link at the bottom of every page. Alexis and her team at The Write Life featured LWB in her 100 Best Websites for Writers list and I thanked her by sharing it and mentioning it here. I promote Corbett’s Fizzle membership site and he gives me a share of the proceeds.
The list goes on, but these are all exchanges formed on a simple frame of mind: that you act as you would in building a friendship in your personal life. That frame of mind forms the foundation of an effective organic blog outreach strategy.
Putting an Organic Blog Outreach Strategy into Practice
Effective blog outreach is essentially about being a good human being.
It’s about wanting to know people because they interest you – not because you think you could profit from knowing them.
It’s about wanting to offer them something because you want to help – not because you hope to get something in return.
It’s about keeping in touch because you like talking to them – not because you know that you need to keep relationships alive to profit from them.
It’s about blurring the lines between your personal and business life – because you should have friends in business too.
With that in mind, I want to take you through a hypothetical situation in which you’re in search of blogging friends. There’s no need to overcomplicate the process and we may each have our own ways of doing things, so just take the following as an indicative guide rather than a blueprint to follow.
I’m aware of the irony of offering a step-by-step guide to what should be an entirely organic process, but if in doubt as to what you should do, always refer back to the foundation of an effective organic blog outreach strategy: act as you would in building a friendship in your personal life.
Step One: The Search
Future friends aren’t likely to come flocking to you – especially if you’re brand new to the world of blogging. And those that do will more likely than not be following either strategy one (automated outreach) or strategy two (pseudo outreach).
So let’s be proactive about this. You need to go out into the blogosphere and find likeminded bloggers. And I use the word “likeminded” deliberately.
This process is not about finding the most popular blogger in your niche and attempting to manufacture a relationship. It’s about finding people who you think you’ll actually like. I cannot understate the importance of this. If you try to establish relationships with bloggers who are leagues above you, you will almost certainly fail (unless you happen to really hit it off). They get tens (or hundreds) of emails every day, and I’m afraid to say that you will almost certainly just be another number. Give yourself more of a chance than that, and remember that today’s startup bloggers are tomorrow’s big-time bloggers.
That said, there are many ways to find new blogs in your niche.
- Do a simple Google search: “top [your niche] blogs”
- Search popular blog directories such as Best of the Web Blogs.
- Keep an eye out for links to other blogs in blog posts you read.
This should yield you a good amount of blogs, from which you can take the time to discover which ones you like.
Step Two: Initial Outreach
Your initial outreach efforts should be subtle and unobtrusive. In other words, they should be actions that do not imply a required response from the blogger, the most obvious of which is social sharing.
But don’t just send out a headline tweet like everyone else does. First of all, only tweet out articles that you actually like. Secondly, only tweet out articles that you have something to say about. Don’t just tweet out the article’s headline – tweet out your opinion. Add value and demonstrate that you care about or are interested in what the blogger has written.
Here’s an example:
I'm a sucker for fancy packaging. I think Nike fruit was my favorite. How about you? http://t.co/O2ctQdJasv thanks @digimatized!
— WordCandy (@wordcandy_co) January 29, 2015
Don’t worry about whether or not the blogger will actually see your tweet – you’re sharing the post because you like it and you think that your followers will enjoy it – not because you’re hoping to gain something from doing so.
If you’re already an active Twitter user and you start to follow this strategy, you may find yourself sending out fewer tweets as you more carefully consider the value of each one. That is a good thing. Quality over quantity.
You can follow this same strategy for sharing via other social media networks. Go crazy on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram – whatever takes your fancy.
Finally, feel free to get involved in the comments section on your chosen blogs at this point too, but the same rules as above apply: only comment if you actually have something of value to add. That means something more inspiring than “Great post!” Do your very best to add value to the post, and as with social sharing, do not write a comment with the expectation of receiving a response.
Step Three: Contact
By the time step three rolls around, hopefully the blogger will recognize your name. They will have seen you in the comments section on their blog and perhaps on social media. You’ll be a known entity – not just a stranger – and perhaps the blogger will even have appreciated what you’ve done for them.
So this when you try to take the relationship to the next step: via email.
Most importantly, you must recognize that this step comes when it’s good and ready. You must not force it. I do not want you to send an email because you want to complete step three – I want you to send an email because there’s something interesting you want to say to that blogger. You should have a genuine reason to reach out to them.
Beyond that, it doesn’t really matter what you say so long as you’re not actually asking for anything. The point is that you should have something interesting enough to say that the blogger will be compelled to respond.
And what if they don’t? I’d say feel free to write a single follow-up email and call it quits on the email front for a period if you don’t receive a response. You may choose to continue sharing that blogger’s content (remember – you’re not doing it to benefit from it), and at some point in the future you might choose to email them again. It’s up to you.
Step Four: Taking it to the Next Level
You’re on your own from here.
You may continue an email exchange or you might take things onto Skype if possible, or even a face-to-face meet if you’re local to each other.
I also strongly advocate conferences for building genuine relationships. Nothing beats meeting someone in person, and conferences can help you sow the seeds of numerous friendships (as I can testify to following my attendance at Alive in Berlin and the World Domination Summit last year).
You will find that beneficial exchanges will arise from these relationships organically. I can’t tell you when or how, but these things will happen. You may find yourself getting into a position where you actually feel comfortable asking for something, and that’s fine, as long as it’s a friend asking a friend for a favor, not a strange looking for a leg-up.
Ultimately it’s down to you. You’re likely to follow this strategy if you don’t feel comfortable with the more ‘forced’ approaches to blog outreach, in which case I advise you to rely upon your intuition. Just go with what feels right.
Conclusion
Is the above strategy the most ‘effective’ in growing your blog? Almost certainly not. But I’ve laid it out here for those of you who are keen to conduct themselves in a genuine manner; people who feel horribly uncomfortable following the less organic and more systematic forms of marketing that so many bloggers tout.
Now I’d love to hear what you think about it in the comments section below. Share away!
Image Credit: Alderaban Robotics
Laura Ginn says
Hi Tom
I get quite a few of the automated ‘guest posting’ emails on a couple of my websites, and I now paste an automated email reply back to them saying I’m happy to publish/advertise/promote whatever they want, but the charge is £100 to do so. Usually this gets rid of almost everyone who is not interested in working with me to promote both of our websites.
Of course, if I actually get emails from people who are clearly interested in my sites, and have made a point to be active on them, that’s a different matter.
Laura
Tom Ewer says
That’s one way to do it Laura, if you’re willing to publish sponsored posts on your site!
Kaya Ismail says
Hi Leaving Work Behind Admin!
Great post! I like the way you used words in sentences like that.
Check out my blog too, as I also use words and sentences.
😉
Tom Ewer says
Haha, awesome Kaya 😉
Dottie says
OMG, I’m so guilty of #2.
I’ve been sending personalized firm templates.
I didn’t know any better. Your post clearly illustrates that it’s not OK to blindly follow the advice of blogging/SEO gurus. Sometimes you gotta use a little common sense.
I’ll revamp my outreach strategy. To start I won’t be using templates.
When you know better, you do better!
Thanks Tom for letting me know.
Tom Ewer says
My pleasure Dottie 🙂
Beth says
I’m so new to blogging that I didn’t even know numbers 1 & 2 existed. Thankfully, I’ve been doing number 3! I appreciate the Twitter advice & example, too. I feel so hopeless when it comes to tweets. 🙂
Tom Ewer says
Some people are just naturally genuine and honest Beth 🙂
Mayur Mistry says
Hi Tom!
I really liked your post. I’ve read a lot on digital marketing, and I can’t stress enough about how important it is for businesses, whether you are freelance blogger or not, to establish strong customer and business relations.
I whole heartily agree about developing connections organically. It is sad to see so many businesses who would do anything to make that quick buck but fail to gain in the long term.
Mayur
Tom Ewer says
Thanks for contributing Mayur 🙂
Akosua says
Crazy me! I hadn’t thought to find colleagues through my blogging. Here you have been an example of a blogger friend to all of us.
Thanks for explaining.
Akosua
Tom Ewer says
You’re welcome Akosua 🙂
Scott Gese says
Tom
It amazes me how timely some things can be.
I’m in the process of totally revamping my website. It should be finished by the end of February. The new site will contain a blog. I’ve dabbled with blogging in the past, but was never serious enough to make a go of it.
I’ve been following you for several months now, and this post, in fact your blog in general has given me much to think about. I’m committed to making an impact in the genre I represent with my website. I agree with your approach to growing more organically with personal contact with others.
Thanks again for the great post. I also plan to check out the links you inserted.
Scott
Tom Ewer says
You’re welcome Scott!
Nicholas Godwin says
Well… Taking this in the light of ‘blackhat’ and ‘whitehat’ — something more commonly used for SEO and amongst Webmasters… One can begin to draw the line. Maybe Tom was trying to be fair by giving Automated outreach an identity of its own. In the real sense, both Auto and Pseudo outreaches can be seen as blackhat relationship building. Interestingly, people who do autos and pseudos would, consciously or unconsciously, not like to be treated that way. But then, some of these people may have taken lessons from those who succeeded inorganically.
I have to admit though, I have behaved that way in the past myself — inorganic approach. I’m about starting out a new website, have taken a really nice course to help guide me and sure enough one of the lessons was to be as organic as possible… Tom seems to be reinforcing that lesson now. Thanks for this.
Tom Ewer says
You’re welcome Nicholas 🙂
Sydney Scrogham says
“Being a good blogger is about being a good human being.”
Life transforming words right there! Truly illustrates that what you give out eventually comes back to you. I find that so encouraging. Thanks!
Tom Ewer says
My pleasure Sydney!
Corina says
Hey Tom,
Good post! Apparently, we, the humans, forget that social media is that: Social! And the fun in it is building genuine relationships with people you´re in contact.
Otherwise you can get the first tool at hand and buy as many followers/likes/fill in the blanks as you want. Will you feel better? I doubt it. More traffic? Maybe.
I believe in common sense and in surrounding yourself with people you care about (and of course, they care about you). If not, what´s the point?
Would you approach someone on the street with: “Do this for me!” I didn´t think so. Virtual world is no different, just bigger.
Tom Ewer says
Spot on Corina!
Debra says
Hi Tom,
I’m just a newbie, but you hit the nail on the head!! It so reverberates some emails I have received just this week. I mistakenly signed up for an email list on a popular blog/website. I can’t tell you how many emails I have gotten since that do nothing than make you feel like you will be a complete failure if I don’t fork over $12,000 for their upcoming Master Class of “Guaranteed Income in 60 Days”. Needless to say I am very disappointed in this approach. I certainly understand the business side of this niche, but it insults me to think I am just another dollar sign.
I am not trying to “get rich quick”. I may not make any money at all and that’s just fine. I would rather do it with some integrity.
Tom Ewer says
Ugh, that sounds awful Debra. I hate stuff like that and sorry you had to experience it. Unsubscribe and move on…
Mahesh Mohan says
Hey Tom,
I know who it is.. because I got the exact same email. It’s such a shame and actually worse than spammy link exchange requests or paid posts because basically this is also spamming. That is, sending the same email template to all the bloggers out there and that’s why I decided I WILL never link to him… ever and won’t even reply.
Btw, great job! 🙂
Tom Ewer says
Thanks Mahesh 🙂
Dave says
Hey Tom
Nice article here. I run a blogger outreach software so this is definitely right up my ally.
Of course when you throw software into the mix you have to be concerned about automation and basically people not putting in the effort to get to know you, your blog, and really engage with you.
At the same time, I don’t feel that a tool means it has to be impersonal, it depends on how the user leverages it.
Instead of sending you a boring form email, I’ll just make the offer here. If you are interested in giving away some free licenses to our software to your audience (as well as one for yourself of course), hit me up!
I’ll be reading your blog regardless!
Tom Ewer says
Hi Dave,
I’m afraid that using automation software is just an approach I take myself (or advocate) for bloggers, so offering free licenses would be rather hypocritical!
Cheers,
Tom
Bree says
You’re kinder than I am – I tend to hit the “spam” button instead of delete on blatant promotional emails I get.
Tom Ewer says
Funny you should say that: the second guy I mentioned in the introduction of this post got spammed this morning, when I received yet another email from him!
Patrick says
Good advice, Tom. The organic approach is a longer term strategy, but is well worth it.
A while back I adopted the philosophy that if you keep doing favors for others – sharing posts, answering questions, etc., and being helpful (while expecting nothing in return), there are a couple of great benefits that arise from it..
First, if and when you ever need help in the future, you can be sure someone will be happy to help you.
And second, some of those brief interactions will likely lead to genuine relationships.
Tom Ewer says
Bang on Patrick, you’re absolutely right. And doesn’t it feel good too? 🙂
Aurelie Chazal says
Thank you so much for this article.
I’ve been reading so many posts lately going the other way and advocating for Method number 2. In the startup world I sometimes feel like it’s all about reaching high numbers (10K visitors for one posts, 5K newsletter sign-ups in 2 days…). If you use a “spammy” method to achieve that, it doesn’t matter, you’re still a rock star.
I don’t feel comfortable with using either method 1 or 2, though I have in the past following some web marketing gurus advice. The thing is I got nothing from it. Simply because I don’t feel good about it and it doesn’t feel natural. So I suck at it.
From now on, I’ll stick to building genuine relationships with bloggers I actually like. After reading your post I actually realized I met some awesome people online by having a genuine approach. I just never did for my work (which is stupid).
I have one thing though that I know drives me crazy when I am being genuine. It happened few times that people I reached out to just tried selling me their own products right off the bat. I sometimes feel like people got so used of fake relationships that they’ll value a like from you more than an actual conversation *facepalm*.
Tom Ewer says
Talking of high numbers Aurelie, that’s another falsity promoted by bloggers that simply doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Leaving Work Behind doesn’t attract huge numbers of people (in fact, traffic’s been stagnant since early 2013), but I have enough loyal visitors and subscribers for it to serve as the foundation for my entire business.
Leandro Thomas says
Again, easily actionable advice here Tom. Quite timely, as I am was wondering how to approach other bloggers, influencers and the like.
Thanks for this post!
Tom Ewer says
You’re welcome Leandro!
Terri Cruce says
I so agree with this. There’s way too much of what I have come to refer to as the “social media method of telemarketing.” And it’s hard to understand why anyone would use these methods when people have become so savvy to the underlying message.
Tom Ewer says
It has to be said, unfortunately, that it works enough of the time to be worthwhile…
Tom Southern says
Where’s the likelihood of his responding to and interacting with your readers if you did let him near them via a guest post?
You nail my problem with automation in general and psuedo outreach is exactly what it is. It’s the IM equivalent of “my friend … ” which was also so prevalent in the pre-internet days of “Business Opportunity” where most of what was being peddled was crap.
Automation equals poor/no quality to me. It highlights a lack of understanding about what creating and nurturing relationships online or off are all about: Trust, likeability and human.
The irksome part is that behind it might be a human who’s intentions are good but hasn’t learnt how things really work online. I balk at the time it might take them to realise. What I keep needing to do is check my own sincerity as I reach out.
The truth is people support, promote and help out people they know. This includes knowing them personally. I’m coming to the rapid conclusion that I need to overcome my fear of flying, get a passport and go to some conferences. My urge to actually make a difference and learn from others and just to have that supportive network around me is spurring on my actually doing it.
Perhaps it’s this fear or lack of self conviction that leads people to hide behind automation.
Excellent message Tom! About time someone
said it. Cheers!
Tom Ewer says
“The irksome part is that behind it might be a human who’s intentions are good but hasn’t learnt how things really work online.” To be honest, I think the sad thing is that pseudo outreach is how things work online. If your persistent enough with it, it can be effective. Not that that makes it something you should do…
Irina Johnson says
Thank you so much for this article.
Tom Ewer says
You’re welcome Irina 🙂
Charlotte Hyatt says
Hello Tom Ewer,
I really appreciated this column because I want to blog but did not really know how to get noticed. Methods 1 and 2 just do not appeal to me but are recommended by so many I was beginning to think I should try it.
I don’t think I was doing my blog correctly but I didn’t do it long enough either. Now so much time has passed I need to start again and persist/persevere?
Sam Anthony says
This article is spot on. You can just about always tell when an email is “templated” out and we put them straight in the trash. It is definitely more work to reach out and build a relationship before asking for something, but more work, in this case, also means more effective. Go the extra mile that other bloggers are not going and it will pay off. Thanks for the great write-up Tom. Not sure how I have not seen this article until now.
Tom Ewer says
You’re welcome Sam. The internet is a big place 😉
suvichar hindi says
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Top hindi Thoughts life thank you for share
Alicia Sawyer says
Great Article.
Albert Tan says
Hi Tom,
I didn’t know how I ended up reading your blog. I must have been clicking through many blogs while searching for topics relating to link building and blogger outreach.
The other day I read a similar blog post by Tim Soulo of Ahrefs, advising NOT to use templated email. I did the same mistake of using email templates which appeared on the web (mostly advocated by some gurus).
From my own experience, it is clear that using templates (without any changes) will not give good results.
My takeaways are below:
1. Never use a template word by word. Use the theme or idea but rewrite everything from scratch. This is especially true if we were to outreach to tier one or tier two influencers.
2. Create your own templates and make sure it is really unique. Only use an own-created template for tier 3 outreach targets. It doesn’t hurt if there is no reply.
Your method is good but it will take much more time and effort. I would adopt your method for selected bloggers which I genuinely want to connect with, without expecting anything in return.
Tiffany says
YOU. ARE. AWESOME.
I’ve seriously been researching the blogging topic, reading countless posts, and you are one of the very select few people that I feel are truly genuine. I could not help but smile as I read this post.
I’ve been toying with the idea of starting a blog for quite sometime and didn’t even realize it could be lucrative until I started picking apart the Internet. My point being, I just love journaling and wanted to put myself out there for the world to see in hopes that someone might hold me accountable for my writing as I tend to procrastinate when I am in charge. My instinct rarely fails me so I knew I would be genuine in my writings. This post assures me that I’m headed in the right direction. I am also passionate about helping others and introducing friends to new and exciting opportunities that I find to be genuinely awesome.
It’s funny how life works and the universe aligns us with things or points us in the right direction when we had no intention of finding it. Last night I purchased my domain name, purchased hosting, and oddly I had technical issues and did not get to work on building my site. This evening, more technical issues ensued and by the time I had the kinks worked out, it was time to bathe my two year old and put her to bed. I then found myself browsing the Internet and stumbled upon this post.
This further proves my 35 year old motto (although adopted) that “everything happens for a reason.” Had their not been technical issues, I would not have accidentally landed on your blog and would’ve published my first post being a skeptic of myself.
So, thank you, SINCERELY!
P.S. I will not accept any offers to promote any of your products or writings, nor will I allow you to promote mine as I want you to know that I am genuinely thankful for your post and not exercising the “pseudo outreach” approach that you speak of. Hahahahaha. ????
Sorry for such a drawn out reply, but I felt compelled and this is actually the first blog that I have been brave enough to comment on. ????