4 Top Tips for Mastering Journalist and Blogger Outreach

Guest post by Cognism

Gaining attention online isn’t easy! Some companies work hard at SEO; others invest in social channels while spending more on traditional advertising.

There is another option, though, and that’s building relationships with influential bloggers and journalists. They already have a prime position in the media ecosystem and often work for high-authority publications.

Gaining access to these figures requires a top-notch outreach process, and this blog post will explain how to master it! In particular, it’ll cover three key aspects of a blogger outreach strategy:

1. Making a list of bloggers (long and short).
2. Crafting your pitch.
3. Building beneficial relationships.

But before we go there…

Why do you need journalists and bloggers in your content marketing strategy?

It’s simple:

Building solid relationships with bloggers or journalists helps you leverage their reach and the domain authority of their sites.

With their reach, you can build a strong backlink profile and receive a boost to your search engine rankings, website traffic and brand awareness. Working with bloggers is a type of influencer marketing strategy.

Journalists and bloggers: how are they different?

Journalist and blogger shouldn’t be used interchangeably. They’re different jobs and occupy different spaces in the media. That means bloggers and journalists require smart outreach and forming strong relationships with them produces different results.

Journalists tend to be more interested in unique and public interest stories that they can break themselves. This results in higher authority and, generally, more overall attention and views. Their audience might be more general, though, than bloggers.

Blogging’s strength is in more niche interest areas, and as such your blogger outreach process will be focused on a smaller target audience. A blogger relationship might be more transactional in nature, too.

Now, let’s get into our guide to journalist outreach. Follow these steps to find and engage with your target bloggers.

1. Build your list of prospects

To get results out of a relationship with a journalist or blogger, you must forge one that’s mutually beneficial. That means:

• Your product or service should suit their blogging platform or journalistic field.
• Your product or service should be of interest to their audience.

Let’s look at a few outreach tricks to produce the ideal longlist…

Look at industry publications and blogs

It makes sense that your first port of call is where journalists and bloggers publish their work – publications and blogs.

Search engines and publication directories are reliable ways to discover top industry magazines, websites and popular blogs.

Pay attention to bylines on articles you would like your brand to appear in. A good fit will make your initial pitch more likely to land.

Search social media (X, LinkedIn).

Social media serves two purposes here. Firstly, finding more information about the writers you identified when searching industry publications. And secondly, doing additional research.

Nearly everyone in the media has a profile on X and LinkedIn, and many journalists and bloggers will include in their bio how to contact them. This is a reliable outreach method because bloggers and journalists very often want to be contacted.

Finding prospects from X can be a bit fiddly. Input keywords into the search box and go to “People” results. There you should find key influencers related to your field of interest. Unfortunately, the ordering of the search results is semi-random and there is no way to verify an account at a glance.

Another approach is to find an influential blogger or journalist and browse their “Following” tab. There, you might find other writers of interest. Also, check which accounts they are re-tweeting.

You can also search for writers on LinkedIn. Plug in your keyword(s) into the search bar + “journalist” or “blogger” to find relevant prospects. If you find someone promising, check out the “similar profiles” sidebar.

You can also use outreach tools like Cognism’s Chrome Extension to find email addresses on LinkedIn and corporate sites!

Use online influencer marketing tools

Blogger and journalist outreach is similar to influencer marketing. That means you can use influencer marketing tools to aid your search.

Platforms like BuzzSumo and Mention identify prospective influencers based on their content, reach and engagement.

Analyse your competitors’ backlinks

One quick and dirty method to get ahead is to crib from your competitors.

Backlink analysis tools like Ahrefs, Moz and SEMrush let you see where your competitors are getting content links from. You can target these websites, or use the tools we’ve mentioned to find similar publications and target those instead.

2. Select relevant bloggers and journalists

Now that you’ve compiled a long list of journalists and bloggers, it’s time to narrow it down to the most relevant prospects.

Here’s how:

Study audience demographics and niche

Platforms like Traackr and Followerwonk help companies analyse influencers’ audiences. They provide insights into how influential someone is, their engagement and reach and any brand affinity they might have.

They can help you find journalists and bloggers who are a close fit for your audience in terms of demographics, interests, language, and even location, down to the city level.

Review content style and tone

Besides their audience, you must assess your journalist or blogger’s content marketing style.

Look at the different types of content they’ve produced. Is their style broadly in line with your brand’s? If not, does it differ in a way that might be bad for your brand?

Asses publication history and reach

Do your due diligence and find out what causes, if any, a journo or blogger is aligned with.

Be mindful of unsavoury political views and how they behave on social media and in public appearances.

3. Craft your pitch

A journalist and blogger outreach campaign is a form of sales. The same rules apply! Let’s look at how to apply sales techniques to cold email outreach.

Create a personalised pitch

Personalisation establishes a connection with your target bloggers. It lets them know that your outreach email is specifically for them, making them feel like individuals.

Personalisation also means getting the basics right. Speak in their language (figuratively), email them at an appropriate time of day and get their personal details correct.

The other key aspect of personalisation is taken care of in the research phase: content suitability. Hopefully, you’ve judged correctly that your brand and their content ideas can be a good match. This gives them confidence that you understand who they are and what they’re about.

Research the journalist/blogger and their audience.

Craft your guest post pitch with a clear understanding of the writer’s past work and how it’s attuned to their readers.

This way, you can show how you think learning about your brand will be beneficial to their audience, too.

Highlight a mutual benefit

As well as making it clear that a partnership will benefit your guest author, you can also point out how it will benefit you.

Explain your aims and how their support will benefit your company. If they believe in the authenticity of your approach, they’ll likely feel motivated to support you.

Write an attention-grabbing introduction

Follow these tips for successful blogger outreach:

Keep the pleasantries short. Get to the point and explain what you want, why it will benefit both parties and contextualise it within their recent work.

Mention something specific they have published. Again, always be personalised!

Briefly introduce yourself and your brand/expertise

Then, with their interest piqued, you can introduce yourself and your brand more thoroughly.

Explain what you do that makes you interesting to your target blogger and their audience.

Present your outreach idea

Next, explore your idea in more depth and explain the piece of content you want to create together. It could be a guest posting, a spot on a relevant article, an interview or podcast appearance, or whatever else you have in mind.

Be quite detailed in this, because they will want to see that you’ve given thought to the content. The more of it you can take care of, the better. Lay out the piece’s key messages, conclusion and tone.

Explain the value proposition

Here, go into the value a partnership will bring for your prospect and their audience in more detail.

Make the case for your value proposition, but don’t overegg it. How in-depth you go will depend on whether your proposal is for a typical brand partnership or a more complex relationship.

If you’re just aiming to get a few guest posts out then the value proposition is well-established and understood. You don’t need to explain why guest posts are conceptually a good idea, but you might need to explain why something about why your business is interesting.

Include a clear call to action

Finish your message with a call to action so they know what you want them to do next.

It could be as simple as considering your proposal, scheduling an interview, or commissioning the blog post.

Share your contact details and offer to answer any questions

Lastly, tell them how best to contact you and offer to answer any questions.

Include some social proof such as media mentions or awards. This could be in your signature, which companies like signature management platform Mailtastic make easier.

4. Follow up and build relationships

A pitch isn’t complete, and a relationship isn’t formed with just one outreach message. Like in sales, there’s a process to follow to maximise success.

The importance of follow-up emails

There are all sorts of reasons someone might not respond to your outreach efforts, and not wanting to work with you is only one of them.

Maybe they’re considering it, maybe they missed the email or maybe they need a few follow-ups to be convinced.

You can’t know which, so press on with a few well-timed reminders.

Respond promptly to any inquiries or requests

If and when you do get a response, it’s vital to respond promptly.

Snappy responses can initiate a conversation, signal your intent and willingness and get the ball moving faster.

Offer additional value beyond the initial outreach

In a follow-up, if you haven’t already, ask the journalist or blogger to follow your company’s social media channel.

An active social media presence reinforces your brand value and presents you as serious about content. Spotlight your existing blogger tie-ups as a form of social proof. Repost their own work as well as insightful third-party content.

Build long-term relationships

One relevant blog or brand listing in an article is good; a long-standing relationship is better.

Information and access are the most valuable currencies in the journalism world. When appropriate, be a ready source for quotes, provide industry experience and allow them access to your network.

Blogger outreach guide: the last word

Hopefully, you’ve learnt a few things to give you confidence to begin journalist and blogger outreach.

If you remember anything from this blog, remember these things:

• Journalists and bloggers are a valuable source of backlinks and attention. Find them through publications, social media and competitor backlink analysis.
• Carefully select your journalist or blogger. Make sure their following, content style and tone are a good fit.
• A strong pitch requires careful crafting. Be upfront about what you want, explain your brand and idea and present your value proposition. End with a call to action.
• Grow the relationship. The first pitch is just a starting point. Take inspiration from a sales cadence to land your target. Build on a successful connection by providing quotes, access and exclusive information.

And lastly, avoid these common mistakes.

• Impersonal messaging and generic pitches.
• Imbalanced value proposition.
• Being slow to respond.

So, why not give these tips a go and start your own outreach campaign?