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Linda Sellers is moderating this afternoon’s panel with Kari Dilloo, Danica Kombol, and Marcy Massura, who are giving us a little more insight about things from the brand and firm perspective.
Brands plan nine months to a year out. Bloggers try to come to brands with ideas only a month ahead of time, and it’s too late to get involved. Be sure you’re working on the same time scale.
Don’t come to a brand with a “cookie cutter” idea. Let them know how you can tell your authentic story in a way that would benefit them in a partnership with you.
Agencies are trying harder now to educate the brands they work with about how bloggers work. The agencies know we don’t want to just write about a press release, and they know we want to be paid for our work. A lot of brands (and some agencies) are still having a hard time getting the hang of the way we work.
We don’t like form letters from PR firms; they also don’t like getting form letter pitches from us. When pitching a brand, start with the brand first and let them know how they would benefit and why you would be a good fit for them.
We keep hearing that we should be authentic, but then we try to work with brands, and they only care about whether or not our numbers are high enough. When pitching a brand as a smaller blog, lead with the value you can give them. Let them know you’ve done your homework, that you’re into the details…and then you can talk about the numbers if the brand really wants to know about those.
“90% of success if responding to your emails.” Try to figure out how to separate the spammy spray and pray pitches from the good ones. Agencies appreciate when you let them know if something is not a good fit, or if it’s just not a good time, but that you’d like to work with them in the future.
Traffic is good, but so are engagement metrics and customer contact. Agencies report every single number to brands.
Macy’s only does compensated campaigns, except for their pro bono cause campaigns to help in Haiti. But many other brands still don’t want to pay because they don’t want to be seen as buying our opinions. We can help reshape their perspective by presenting your ideas as advertorial. We aren’t paid by media outlets, earning a salary as journalists. Let them know that’s why we need to be handled differently than MSM outlets.
Be brave and follow up with the brands you want to work with. Yes, there are still brands that think of bloggers as a list. They are the ones polluting our inboxes. But if you find the brands and firms that are interested in forming personal relationships, try to cultivate that!
Sometimes, the name of your blog is going to stop you at the door with certain brands. There are some blog names that just can’t be put in their reports.
In an ideal world, brands would utilize focus groups in order to develop influencer campaigns, but it doesn’t usually work that way.
Emailing the press alias at most websites is usually pretty helpful. That is closely monitored.
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That’s me: Christina Gleason. I’m a writer, editor, and disability advocate. I'm a multiply disabled autistic lady doing my best in this world built for abled people. I’m a geek for grammar, fantasy, and casual gaming. I hate vegetables. I cannot reliably speak, so I’ll happily conduct business over email or messaging instead.
