Forming relationships with bloggers can be a powerful strategy for connecting your brand with customers and driving traffic to your website. Here are 5 reasons why:
People trust their opinions and view them as authorities in their industry.
Bloggers can wield a tremendous amount of social influence and have become ambassadors of thought, style, and taste. Bloggers can make or break a brand; finding the right blogger to be your company’s advocate can be invaluable. Potential customers are much more likely to try a new product if it is endorsed by someone they trust. A positive review from a real person will always be trusted more than a paid advertisement.
Choosing the right bloggers can introduce you to a concentrated demographic.
Try to form relationships with bloggers that embody the style and ethos of your brand; for the most part, their followers will have similar taste. If your industry is small or your product is specific, connecting to a blogger’s audience can provide you with a goldmine of potential customers that are likely to appreciate your brand.
Blog posts can provide a huge, immediate return on a small investment.
Offering a blogger a sample of your product and asking them to review it if they like it could be the best investment you’ll ever make. Bloggers have the ability to put your business in front of a large, captive audience with a lot of spending power. It’s a low-risk strategy that can yield fantastic results if you target your advocate and your audience carefully.
Blog posts from popular sites can become a longstanding source of traffic.
When users search for a specific type of product or service, they are more likely to find it when it’s mentioned on a high-ranking website. While posts that feature your business front and center will generate immediate traffic, inclusion in lists and “best of” posts are more likely to be shared and indexed over time and show up in reoccurring search results.
Guest blogging is a powerful way to improve your credibility and SEO ranking.
Another beneficial way to connect with bloggers without directly asking for them to endorse your brand is to ask them to write a guest post for your own blog. Aligning yourself with experts in your industry builds credibility. Guest blogging will also help your SEO ranking. When an influential blogger shares a link to your page on their site, Google will rank your site higher. In addition, they are likely to share your post with their followers and direct them to your site.
