Blogger Outreach: 4 Questions Marketers Need To Ask Their PR Firm

Stories about bad PR pitches—especially pitches to bloggers—are ubiquitous.

A PR agency approaches a leading marketing blogger with a story about Klout—without realizing the blogger has serious ethical concerns about the service.

Ketchum, a multinational public relations firm, invites bloggers to enjoy a four-course meal prepared by a celebrity chef at a New York City restaurant. The event turns out to be a bait-and-switch as the meal is actually supplied by ConAgra’s Marie Callender division.

Ragu creates a video featuring 3 mom bloggers talking about what happens when dad makes dinner. They tweet the link to dad bloggers. One of them, C.C. Chapman, responds, “Hey @ragusauce your campaign SUCKS making fun of dads. Never buying your crap sauce again.”

I’m not a high-profile blogger by any stretch of the imagination. Yet even I’m bombarded with irrelevant pitches addressed to “Undisclosed Recipients.”

The PR industry needs to do a better job of approaching independent bloggers.

But clients should also take some responsibility. After all, if your agency sends a poorly planned pitch, your brand looks bad, too.

Here are 4 questions every marketer needs to ask their public relations firm to avoid a blogger outreach snafu:

1: Do You Have A Blogger Outreach Policy?

The best way to ensure you hire a PR agency that understands bloggers is to ask to see their blogger outreach policy.

A written policy helps ensure every consultant at the agency understands best practices. The policy should include the suggested steps for researching, evaluating and reaching out to independent bloggers:

• The least number of blog posts every consultant must read before reaching out to a blogger


• The importance of personalizing every pitch (and avoiding “Dear Blogger” as a salutation)


• The questions that should be asked about bloggers before they’re included in a client program

Above all, PR consultants need to fully understand the topics a blogger blogs about. I know it sounds obvious, but PR consultants fail in this area far too often – and it’s a huge error to make.

They also need to know whether a blogger is already talking about a client’s (or a competitor’s) product. Only bloggers who follow best practices and are open to working with brands should be included in a client program. If a blog doesn’t disclose relationships with the brands they review, your firm should avoid it.

2: How Do You Find the Bloggers That Matter?

PR agencies already have existing relationships with bloggers in certain niches. Yet there is a steady stream of new blogs, and this means PR pros must continuously build new relationships.

There are many ways to identify appropriate online influencers for any given client.

Paid tools include InkyBee, GroupHigh and BuzzStream. For a detailed overview of what they offer, read Ian Cleary’s useful post on blogger outreach. If your PR agency’s core competencies include blogger outreach, then they should seriously consider subscribing to one of these tools.

Most agencies supplement a paid tool with free resources, such as blog rolls (for those bloggers who have them), Twitter search, Twitter lists, Technorati, Alltop, Blog Catalog, and Chime.in.

3: What Quantitative Criteria Do You Use to Evaluate Each Blogger?

To assess independent bloggers, PR agencies use a variety of quantitative criteria, including:

• Estimated audience

• Engagement (comments and social shares on their blog)

• Engagement in social media channels, not just the number of “likes” or “followers”

• Posting frequency

• Inbound links

• Moz Rank or PageRank

• Page Authority

• Domain Authority

Every PR firm will have a different approach to evaluating independent bloggers. It’s important they have a process that includes a combination of engagement and SEO metrics. The former gives a sense of how much their audience likes them. The latter shows how much Google likes them.

4: How Are Blogger Outreach Programs Evaluated?

A sound approach to program measurement won’t necessarily prevent a blogger outreach disaster. But it does show a PR firm understands its clients’ goals—and how positive blogger coverage can help achieve those goals.

At Polaris, we use the “kick-butt index” or KBI, which employs metrics representing the ideal communications program.

We start by working with our clients to determine the attributes of an ideal communications program for their specific needs. Once we agree on the attributes, a value is assigned to each with a total possible value of 10 for the perfect program.

Instead of guessing at a program’s success, we’re able to measure it based on the criteria our clients deem meaningful. In other words, we use criteria that reflect how our clients create value and drive business.

Take time to avoid a viral disaster

As a busy marketer, you don’t need to understand the minutiae of effective blogger outreach.

But if you want your brand to avoid a viral disaster, take a minute to ask your PR firm a few pointed questions. Does it have a written blogger outreach policy? How does it identify relevant bloggers? Once it finds appropriate bloggers, how does it rank them? And, finally, how will your outreach program be scored?

It’s a small investment of your time to ensure your brand gets the exposure it deserves.

Blogger Outreach: 4 Questions Marketers Need To Ask Their PR Firm