By Sari Holtz Sometimes it can feel as though you’re in a little cave, typing on a typewriter, and nobody can hear you. This can be a disconcerting thing, but with a little strategic direction, you can find that shining light at the end of the tunnel. Many bloggers are talented writers but lack the marketing skills to get noticed – great content isn’t the only thing you need to get it done. Undoubtedly, great blogs have both sides of the “Popularity” equation going – that equation being Great Content X Marketing. Great content can carry you if the marketing side is greater than zero, but the further away from zero it moves, the easier it is for you to attract an audience. Now that we’ve got the speech out of the way, let’s get to the marketing part. The biggest way to up this variable is by bringing your content to the arms of influencers – those people whose word on the internet is widely respected and frequently adored. Undoubtedly, there is someone in your niche who can tweet out a piece of content and get their little world to listen – and you need to get them to listen to you.
So, how to do it? It’s easier than you think.
Finding the Right Influencer The first thing to make sure you execute appropriately is determining the right influencer. If you try and attract the wrong kind of person, there’s a good chance they won’t care or simply won’t share your content. Even if someone influential likes your blog, if they don’t tell anyone, the effort is for naught.
Don’t try and appeal to TOO big an influencer – unless you have an incredible pitch. However, you have to strike a balance. King gets this kind of praise all the time – you need to find that middle person who is big enough to be influential but small enough to love the ego appeals you’re making to them. Because King gets praise all the time, he may offer nothing more than a “Thanks a lot!” or maybe not even that.
Find an influencer willing to share. Find someone with a decent sized blog and/or the ability to spread the information you want, and make an honest evaluation of how much this person spreads the wealth. Do they post lots of links? Look at their Twitter stream – is it a first person narrative or do you see them tweeting out lots of stuff? The gold mine is looking for OTHER stuff that’s been retweeted that talks about them. Getting the Influencers Attention Start engaging the influencer before you need them. If you follow this person’s blog or on Twitter, make sure that you’re commenting or tweeting at them deliberately to get on their radar, even if they don’t follow you back. Your contributions to them will make you less of a salesman and more of a friend as your blog appeal draws nearer.
Create a piece of content that appeals to their ego. This has to be laser focused. The best way to do it is to create a content piece that somehow relates to your blog but also talks about them. If you dedicate an entire post to it, the chances up dramatically. In example, if this blog wrote an entire piece about Stephen King and then contacted him, there’s a chance he would spread the word about it.
The problem most people have is they talk too much about themselves. When you stop talking about yourself and create content that makes other people’s lives better, they will promote it and latch on to it in kind. This is the appeal of an influencer-focused post.
Create a piece of content that appeals to their audience. The caveat to this is that their audience must be laser focused – in example, if it’s a blog about horror movies from the 70s and you write about a horror movie from the 70s, there’s a decent chance they’ll latch on. However, if it’s about web copy, Susan is unlikely to latch on to it unless it’s incredibly remarkable.
Make a Personalized E-mail Pitch. An @ message on Twitter doesn’t cut it. Get their e-mail, and be absolutely personal – but brief. Use a complimentary, unique intro and then get straight to the link – the more long winded you are, the more likely you’ll lose their interest.
Retaining the Influencer So the ultimate goal is to get this person on your team, right? Well, then – this is the hard part. You can’t keep bowing down to this person to get attention, it just won’t work. Continue making great content and engaging with them – if after your pitch+specialized content piece, they haven’t yet followed you back on Twitter, there’s a good chance you don’t have a great opportunity to retain them. Be less direct, but be authentic in creating pieces you think them or their audience will enjoy – once you’ve gone that, you’ll notice the hits – and the attention – start to flow in.
Sari Holtz is the head blogger at Billy’s Savings Club, which specializes in low priced moving companies. If you like saving money (and good content), you should follow Billy’s blog. Interested in contributing a guest blog post of your own? Check out the guest blogger guidelines.