Small businesses can reach out to their potential customers using some unconventional methods. One such method is a blogger outreach program. With this, companies hire bloggers and influencers for attaining specific campaign goals. These goals could be as simple as sharing a link on social media, attracting more traffic to the website or filling a form. There are also other forms of audience engagement available to small businesses, which we will go through in this article.
Why should you work with bloggers?
An influencer is a person who has a greater than average reach or impacts through word of mouth in a relevant marketplace. A good blogger program can get you quality backlinks and brand visibility. Small businesses can reach out to these blogger-influencers through companies such as Click Intelligence and spread their brand messages cost-effectively. The scale of influence of a blogger depends upon his subject area.
• Brands can gain consumer trust through these programs
• They also get a narrowly focused audience.
Email marketing
Increasingly, a large number of companies are taking to email marketing to reach out to their existing and potential customers. In this approach, brands send out customized emails to their target audience. The campaign objectives can vary from one campaign to another. Some of the goals can be:
- Mail open rates
- Driving sales by encouraging the customer to fill a form
- Growing customer loyalty, etc.
Marketing on social media
Most of the brands that we see around us are on social media. Marketing on social media has become an essential part of the marketing strategy of any business- big or small. However, the presence of the same brand varies from one platform to another. For example, on Instagram and Pinterest, Brand X might rely more on high-resolution images. On Twitter, X becomes a little opinionated.
Brands come on social media to achieve various objectives. Some of those goals could be:
- Sharing content
- Driving engagement by posting questions and expecting answers
- Generating short-term sales
- Lending a human persona to the brand, etc.
As a brand, you can measure your social media presence through various tools like Google Analytics, Hootsuite. There is little doubt that social media improves the ROI of businesses significantly.
FAQ
How many bloggers does an outreach program have?
There is no clear-cut answer to this question. It could be one, or it could be one hundred. The clients decide the number depending upon their campaign objectives. Some programs need an extremely niche audience in which case just a few bloggers are needed.
Do all bloggers in a program take money for their services?
Bloggers get paid according to the services they provide. For sponsored posts, a blogger is paid according to his reach and popularity. The payment also depends upon the kind of post that a blogger is required to write. For product reviews, bloggers usually take a free sample.
How can businesses engage with their customers more effectively?
Create more educational content for your customers. When you solve your customers’ problems through content, you build strong relationships. Ask questions on how to improve your products and services. If your audience-mix is changing, experiment with a new medium. Finally, treat your customers as if they were friends.