How To Do Blogger Outreach: The Scalable Way To Get Backlinks

AT fatjoe we know a thing or two about Blogger Outreach.

We’ve offered Blogger Outreach services for over 10 years, and in that time we’ve really come to understand the ins and outs of a scalable blogger outreach strategy.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to do blogger outreach the right way.

You’ll learn how to find relevant bloggers, write emails that get responses, and scale your strategy.

We’ll cover:

• How to develop a blogger outreach strategy
• How to create content that people want to share and link to
• How to execute an outreach program that gets results
• How to measure the performance of your strategy

What Is Blogger Outreach?

Blogger outreach is the process of reaching out to bloggers to create a post in collaboration with them that includes a link back to you or your client.

It differs from guest posting as you don’t post on their site as yourself, you work in collaboration with them to ensure the post comes from that blogger.

It typically involves creating brand-new content with the blogger. If you’re instead editing an existing post that’s a Niche Edit, which we explain further here.

If you run an agency, blogger outreach will be a key part of your off-page SEO strategy. You can help more people learn about your client, boost their backlink profile, and bring more visitors to their website.

Benefits Of Blogger Outreach

Blog outreach can boost SEO performance. But it’s not just a win for your client’s website. It benefits the blogger, too.

For the Client

Reach More People

Bloggers have an existing audience. Getting a client featured on a third-party blog can introduce their product or service to a wider audience of potential customers.

Backlinks

This is a big benefit. When bloggers link back to a client’s website, it signals to Google that the site is trustworthy and authoritative.

That can boost a website’s position in search results.

In a recent Semrush study, blogger outreach was ranked by SEO experts as the most effective link building strategy:

More Online Traffic

Blogger outreach can increase traffic in two ways.

First, you get more backlinks and boost your search ranking. That leads to more visibility in search results and more organic visitors.

A recent Ahrefs study found a direct correlation between the number of referring domains and organic search traffic:

Second, you get your client’s site featured on popular websites with a link. That can lead to more referral traffic and branded searches.

For the Blogger

Fresh Content

The number one challenge bloggers face is finding the time to create and promote new content.

Image Source

Blogger outreach helps to solve that problem.

Your contribution can help the blogger keep their site updated with fresh, high-quality content.

Earn Money

If you’ve ever run a blogger outreach campaign, you’ll know that a fee is usually involved.

Bloggers can charge a sponsored post fee, an editorial fee, or a publishing fee.

In a recent survey, paid promotion and partnerships/collaborations were both key revenue channels for bloggers earning over $50k per year:

Of course, you need to be careful not to pay for links.

Paying for links is a black hat tactic that is frowned upon by Google and other search engines. Instead, you have to understand that you are paying for a blogger’s time and work in creating a post.

Grow Their Audience

Adding high-quality, SEO-optimized content to their site can help bloggers grow their audience. They can rank for more keywords and attract more organic search traffic.

Developing a Blogger Outreach Strategy

A blogger outreach strategy is about identifying who to contact, what to say, and delivering value.

Here’s how to do it.

Identifying Relevant Bloggers

Google is a free and simple way to find influential bloggers.

Think about topics and keywords related to your client’s business.

For example, key terms for a business selling coffee beans could include:

• Coffee recipes
• Best coffee beans
• Morning coffee routines

Once you’ve gathered your keywords, head to Google and conduct a search.

Your goal is to identify the top blogs in the results.

Visit the sites and see if they discuss topics that align with your client’s business.

Blogs that frequently cover topics related to your niche have ‘topical authority.’ This means they’re seen as experts in that area.

When you find a site that is a good fit, save the URL.

This can be an effective way to find target blogs, but it’s time-consuming. You can speed up the process using a tool like Semrush.

You can use Semrush’s Backlink Gap tool to compare your website’s link profile to your top competitors.

It’s a quick way to see which bloggers link to your competitors but not your client’s website.

Check out our list of 10 outreach hacks to discover more ways to find relevant bloggers to target. You can also grab a free list of 1,000 guest post sites.

Research Target Audiences and Domain Authority

Before reaching out to bloggers, you need to understand two things:

Target Audience

You want to focus on bloggers with an audience that matches your target market.

Who are the readers? What are they interested in?

Similarweb is one of the best tools for finding out this information.

Enter the website URL, and you’ll get a breakdown of the site’s audience demographics.

Scroll down the page to see a breakdown of audience interests.

Similarweb also gives you a list of other websites that the audience often visits. You can check out these sites and see if they could be good additional targets for blogger outreach.

It’s also a good idea to check out how active the audience is.

Explore the site and the blogger’s social media profiles to see how many comments, likes, and shares their posts get.

Domain Authority

Domain Authority (DA), or Domain Rating (DR), is a score that estimates the ability of a website to rank high in search results. It’s based on the strength of the website’s backlink profile and other factors.

Generally, getting a link from a blog with a high DA will provide more SEO value than a website with a low DA score.

You can use a free Chrome extension like Mozbar to get DA metrics directly on search engine results pages (SERPs).

You’ll get much more information if you use a paid tool and conduct a domain analysis.

Getting insights into a blog’s audience and DA can help you find good websites to target.

But there are other factors you need to consider.

🖇️ When vetting link-building prospects, look for:

✅ Organic traffic
✅ Relevant niche
✅ Higher DR than yours
✅ Number of outgoing links
✅ No casino, CBD, or p0rn outgoing links 😃
✅ Doesn’t reply immediately with a price
✅ No “Write for us” page

What else?

— Alek Asaduryan (@Ldnbox) September 6, 2023

Create a List of Influential and Target Bloggers

Organizing target bloggers into a list helps you track and plan your campaign.

You can see who you’ve looked at, who you’ve contacted, and who’s replied.

A list can also help you decide who to contact first. Some bloggers will be more relevant or influential than others.

Finding Contact Information for Bloggers

Many bloggers have a “Contact” page where you’ll find a contact form or an email address.

The issue with using a contact form is that you have no way of knowing if your message has been seen. Generally, your response rate will be much lower with contact forms.

So what else can you do?

Bloggers often link to their social media profiles like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You can send them a message on these platforms.

You can also use a tool like the Hunter Chrome extension.

When visiting a target site, click on the extension to see a list of email addresses associated with the domain.

Hunter even shows you the person’s role on the website.

It’s a super effective way to get the contact details of people you want to speak to.

Preparing Content for Outreach Efforts

You need more than a bunch of email addresses for successful blogger outreach.

Crafting Shareable Content

High-quality content is the foundation for a solid blogger outreach strategy.

Whether you want to contribute a guest post or earn a niche edit, you need some awesome content.

You are doing the company a favor if the guest-post is well written, informative, and thoughtful. It’s a HUGE favor and they appreciate it!!

You are NOT doing that company a favor if you’re argumentative and unpleasant to work with. You’re more of a nuisance really.

— Lauren Pope (She/Her) (@LaurenxPope) July 31, 2019

Approach guest posting like you would publishing content on your own site.

Choose relevant keywords and create compelling blog post titles that will encourage clicks.

The body of your content should be clear and easy to understand. Break up the text with clear subheadings and use images to boost the visual appeal.

Conclude your piece with a summary of the main points you’ve covered.

Before sending it out, check for spelling, grammar, and clarity.

If you need some help writing guest posts, check out our guide on how to write an article.

Deciding on the Type of Content to Send Out

The type of content you share can significantly impact the success of your blogger outreach.

Before you send your pitch, look at the types of content and guest posts that get the most attention on the blogger’s site.

This can give you an idea of what their audience likes.

For B2C marketers, blog posts and the most used content type:

Image Source

But infographics and videos can also work well depending on the website and its audience.

Whichever content type you choose, always aim for quality.

Creating a Table of Contents

Bloggers are busy people.

Including a well-organized table of contents (TOC) makes it easier to understand and evaluate your content quickly. This can increase the chances of bloggers finding value in what you’ve shared.

Executing the Program

It’s time to put your plan into action.

Here’s how to execute your blogger outreach process.

Writing Subject Lines That Get Noticed

The subject line is the first thing bloggers will see when your email lands in their inbox. It can make the difference between your email being opened or ignored.

A recent study found that 64% of people decide whether to open or delete an email based on the subject line:

Here’s how to create subject lines that grab attention:

Keep It Short

Long subject lines can get truncated, especially on mobile devices. Aim for 50 characters or less.

Be Clear

You should be able to understand your offer from just the subject line.

Be Honest

You can inspire curiosity, but a bait-and-switch subject line is not a good start to your email.

Test and Learn

Try out different subject lines to see which ones get the most responses. You can track open rates and engagement to optimize your strategy.

Develop an Email Template for Your Outreach Campaigns

Even with compelling subject lines, you’ll need to send out a lot of emails to get meaningful results.

A Backlinko study found that only 8.5% of outreach emails get a response:

Email templates can save time and help you scale up your outreach efforts.

But you don’t want to send the same “Hi there” email to 100s of people. That’s a surefire way to get your emails sent to the spam folder.

You can template the initial sentence introducing yourself, the purpose of the email, and the call to action.

Use the template as a starting point and personalize the rest for each blogger. This shows you’ve done your research and genuinely care about connecting with them.

I just got an email from a PR person and it was SO lovely. They really took the time to read my blog, discuss some of my recent posts with me and share their opinions. Blogger outreach done RIGHT 🙌🏻

— Jenny in Neverland ✨ (@jennymarston_xo) June 18, 2019

Utilizing a Blogger Outreach Tool or Email List

The right tools can help you scale your blogger outreach efforts.

Here are the top three tools you should consider adding to your stack.

BuzzStream

BuzzStream is designed specifically to make outreach easier and more effective.

While researching target websites, you can use the browser extension to quickly add people to your contact list. You can even connect your email account to the extension to send emails from your browser.

There’s a bunch of ready-to-use email templates and built-in email tracking.

Hunter

Hunter is one of the best tools for finding contact information.

You can use the Chrome extension to find email addresses when browsing websites. There’s also a search feature that shows you all the emails linked to a particular site.

If you use Gmail, you can connect Hunter and track open rates, engagement, and responses.

Semrush

Semrush is an all-in-one marketing tool with lots of features.

You can use the Domain Overview to help you decide if a site is worth reaching out to.

The Backlink Gap tool shows you where your competitors have links, but you don’t. It’s a useful tool for finding blogger outreach opportunities.

There’s also a Link Building Tool that helps you find people to contact, send emails, and measure campaign performance.

Email Lists

It takes time to put together a list of target bloggers.

One way to speed this process up is to buy an email list. You can pay a third-party website to access a database of bloggers.

But you need to be careful.

Many email marketing tools ban the use of paid email lists.

Outsource Your Blogger Outreach

Outsourcing can be a good choice if you don’t have the time or skills to do outreach yourself.

Companies like fatjoe specialize in blogger outreach campaigns. You can access a team of experts to run your campaigns without hiring more staff.

Agencies don’t need desks full of content writers and link builders.

They need a handful of client operators who know how to outsource efficiently.

— Joe Davies (@fatjoedavies) March 15, 2023

These companies also have existing relationships with bloggers, so getting your content featured is much easier.

Make sure you choose a trustworthy provider and keep an eye on the process. It’s your client’s brand they’re representing.

Monitoring and Measuring Results

Clients don’t care about the process. They care about results.

You prove your value by monitoring key SEO metrics.

First, measure organic traffic. You can use Google Analytics to see if traffic has increased since you started the campaign.

You can also look at referral traffic to see if the new backlinks are bringing visitors to the site.

One of the primary goals of blogger outreach is link building. So, you’ll want to track the number of referring domains and monitor backlinks pointing to your client’s site.

And with more high-quality backlinks, you should start to notice an increase in ranking.

You can track keyword metrics to see how the campaign has influenced the ranking of pages for target keywords.

Blogger Outreach That Delivers Results for Your Clients

If you’re offering SEO services, you need to get good at blogger outreach. It’s a key part of off-page SEO.

When done right, it can deliver more traffic, valuable backlinks, and increased exposure.

The key is to stay committed and focus on quality. Start delivering links that move the needle.