Tips for Bloggers working with Brands and PR Agencies

Thursday, January 4, 2018

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As a blogger I can attest to the fact that working with brands and PR agencies is CRUCIAL if you want to keep your content exciting, new, and make some sort of income from your traffic and content.   There are many things I've done wrong before and while I've definitely learned from my mistakes, one of the most helpful things was the advice from other bloggers on how to best work with brands and PR agencies. 


If you're relatively new to blogging you may be wondering how you may end up working with a PR agency like Behrman Communications.  By the way, Nancy Behrman has a lot of great articles for bloggers that want to build their brand. PR agencies can really help you when you want to get your name out there and work with different companies.  They act as a middle man that connects you directly with brands that may benefit from collaborating with you.  In exchange, you may get exposure from the brand which helps to boost your traffic and it can even lead to long term paid partnerships.    


So without further ado here are some tips for working with brands and PR agencies.  


||1|| Pitch yourself.  Many bloggers think they can just wait for opportunities to come to them but that's not how it works.  If you reach out to brands or PR agencies you should do by sending a friendly but professional email that explains who you are, why you are interested in working with them, what you can offer them, and some basics on your analytics.   Don't send a generic email pitch to everyone because trust me they will notice just like we notice those lame boring pitches we get from companies that can't even spell our names right.  Make sure the pitch and introduction include personal notes like what products or services you are interested in or admire and get specific with how you could work with them. 


Brands and PR agencies want to know the benefits of even replying to your email so make sure you brainstorm ahead of time.  If you blog about fashion and there's a new line of handbags out from a brand, consider post ideas of how you would feature the handbags and how you would represent the brand/agency through your post. 


||2|| Interact.  As a blogger you NEED to engage your followers and the brands and agencies that YOU follow.  This means interacting on social media and sharing posts that you think would interest your audience.  Trust me, brands and PR agencies notice this stuff.  If you engage with them on social media enough and then end up pitching them, they may even remember you.  Make sure mention your previous interactions with them ("I'm the one that had a Twitter convo with you about rainy day fashion pet peeves"). 


||3|| Be responsive.  After you collaborate with a brand or PR agency make sure you send them the links to any posts or social media touts and then thank them for working with you.   Mark your calendar for a week later and then reach back out and ask them if they saw any increase in traffic or social media engagements from your collaboration.  It's a good idea to collect your stats and analytics so you can include what you saw on YOUR end as well.   This is also a good time to let them know you hope for a future collaboration and make a note in your calendar for a few months down the road to reach out again.


||4|| Re-share often. Just because your collaboration is over doesn't mean you should stop promoting your hard work.  Every month link to your collaboration in a new blog post and make sure to continue sharing on social media. 


These tips aren't that hard to keep in mind so make sure you practice them with every collaboration you have.  The key to boosting traffic on your blog is exposure and the best way to get exposure is by collaborating and having your content exposed to a whole new audience. 


What other tips do you have for working with brands and PR agencies?





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2 comments:

  1. Great tips Ellen! I literally just sent an email to a cool brand I just found on instagram that has really pretty handbags and also is a charity....hoping to hear back. I have definitely felt more confident about reaching out more and I never like to send the same generic email to all the brands...

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