Some bloggers go about influencer marketing all wrong.
Maybe they read a helpful article, touting the benefits of connecting with and influencing influencers.
Then said bloggers send blind pitches to established, pro bloggers.
From the last time I checked my inbox I nabbed 11 emails a few hours ago. I received over 45 @replies on Twitter from the last time I checked at 4 AM. Yep; insomnia.
The tab grew on Facebook, G Plus and through Blogging From Paradise comments.
On most days I have a high volume of folks reaching out to me. OK on all days I have a high volume of folks reaching out to me.
You need to do something that catches my attention to stand out from a bunch of folks.
But most bloggers go about influencer marketing all wrong. They do the exact thing that guarantees I ignore them.
How Most Bloggers Do Influencer Marketing Wrong
Bloggers tend to do influencer marketing wrong because they ask an established, pro, well-known blogger for help versus helping the pro blogger.
I already helped bloggers via hundreds of blog posts, over 1000 guest posts and via my 170 products on Amazon, plus through my courses and services.
Now it’s time for those bloggers to learn, study and sift through the content I shared, to work, to practice and to help other bloggers so you too can become an established pro blogger.
But I estimate 8 of 10 bloggers reach out to me cold – as a total stranger – and try to manipulate me into appearing on Blogging From Paradise or to share some piece of their content through my Twitter or social media.
This is the wrong way to do influencer marketing. You have a split second to catch my attention by being kind and helping me out. But most bloggers spend the split second thinking only about themselves, and ask for backlink on BFP or for a RT to my 53,000 followers. I deal with this stuff all day long; I trash emails or if bloggers continue to desperately email me with follow ups I junk such emails.
How to Do Influencer Marketing Right
See established bloggers as human beings, not objects to be manipulated.
An influential blogger is a person. If you help a person for a few weeks or months by RTing their blog posts and by commenting genuinely on their blog posts you lay the foundation for a blogging friendship.
Do influencer marketing right by making your first 5 or 10 or 20 contacts with pro bloggers all about helping them without looking for anything in return. This is how to stand out from the hundreds of bloggers who reach out to influencers daily. This is how to form bonds. This is how to pop up on the radar screen of top bloggers.
And yes; this is how to influence a top blogger to mention you or to RT your stuff. Or this is how to get favorable responses to your pitches if you reach out to top bloggers with a request.
Friends tend to help friends. Maybe not every time. But regularly.
If you are a skilled writer – by practicing your writing daily – and if you help pro bloggers for weeks through mentioning them on your blog, through sharing their content on social media and through helping them in as many ways as possible, without asking for anything in return, I guarantee that guest posting opportunities will open up for you.
Make it friendship marketing.
Not influencer marketing.
How do you think I landed a guest posting gig on Ileane Smith’s Basic Blog Tips?
How do you think I landed a guest posting gig on this blog?
How do you think I landed the opportunity to have online success chats with Alonzo Pichardo?
I engaged in friendship marketing. I helped people out without looking for anything in return. Many of these highly successful bloggers helped me out by inviting me to guest post on their blogs or to chat with them via their high profile channels.
Do not try to manipulate names to get what you want. Influencers can smell that a mile away.
Treat these blogging big dawgs and blogging big dawgettes like someone you want to befriend. Help them. Do not look for anything in return. Put your own selfish needs to the side. Serve. Be generous.
In time, and with patience, your friendship marketing campaign will yield astounding returns. Plus you’ll enjoy the journey too.
Video
I discuss how to woo top bloggers: