Exploring blogger outreach campaigns

Today, brand managers are looking at integrated marketing campaigns for their brands and leveraging the power of the blogging community. Increasingly, brands are exploring more intense associations which go beyond the usual Facebook and Twitter. Blogging contests have become an essential tool for brands to grab consumer attention and to drive home the core branding message.

Let’s look at three such blogger outreach campaigns :

Around the world with Expedia!

The contest revolves around writing a blog post on ‘interesting people you’ve met when you’ve traveled’ to various places. This is an innovative consumer engagement activity by Expedia. The campaign delivers the core message of the brand, it connects travelers across the world. Through the contest, they are inviting bloggers to write about their experiences with fellow travelers or people who they meet while travelling and what connected them.

Kissan’s 100% real blogger!

The contest invites bloggers to write about a ‘real’ experience that they had while growing up or while bringing up their kids. This is a part of Kissan’s ‘Welcome to Kissanpur’ campaign. Through this contest, the brand is trying to drive home the message of going back to the roots, closer to the nature, away from the artificiality that surrounds today's generation.

My sunglasses My style!

An online eyewear store GKB Opticals is running this contest on blogadda. The blogger has to pick two pairs of glasses, churn out a funky way of wearing them and paste the code on his/her blog post. It’s a great way to nudge the users to explore the brands collection. Though the prizes aren’t as grand as the above two contests they sure sound exiting to the end user.

Now this brings me to the most interesting part of the post.

Why should brands opt for blogger outreach campaigns?

One blog post-Many readers: Though such a campaigns may get only 50-100 entries, in effect the reach is much higher. Each blogger has his or own loyal readership, his or her social network reach. The cumulative reach of such a contest, even if it is short lived, is much higher than day to day brand interaction through social media.

It creates noise: With as many bloggers blogging, tweeting, updating about it at the same time, it sure does create noise. It is perfect if you are launching a product or introducing a new feature to the product.

Influencer talks: Most bloggers are influencers in their network. I follow a blog because the content always makes sense to me or helps me solve a problem, or I follow a friends blog. Either ways I will pay attention to what is being written and its much better than trying to get my attention on Twitter or Facebook, where in fact I have learnt to ignore a brand’s message.

A few Do's & Don'ts - 

- Look beyond A-list bloggers, not everyone reads top blogs and not everyone relates to a known blogger.

- One more reason to look beyond A-list bloggers is that they might not even be your target audience. Or their readers might not be your target audience.

- Spend a little more time researching about the blogger and learning their niche. Drop in a personalized email inviting them to blog and not a press release.

- Not every blogger would be okay promoting a brand blatantly. Go through the previous post of the blogger, understand the style of writing and make a pitch.

- Encourage the bloggers to engage with the brand on other social media platforms, share content and start a conversation.

- Followup on the comments and entire social sharing activity on the blogpost closely.

- Finding bloggers for a blogger contest might be a daunting task, so don't be afraid to ask for help. Reach out to your social network and ask them to suggest names of bloggers. You can also look up blog directories and try and reach out them by commenting on their blog posts or filling their contact form. Alternatively you can partner with IndiBlogger or Blogadda.

Read also: The Abc's of Blogging or Blogs For Lead Generations

Featured Image Courtesy: Sean MacEntee