Blogger Outreach 101: How to Make Blogger Smart Outreach in 2020 (+ Free Email Templates)

In this ultimate guide on how to do blogger disclosure that stands out, I'm analyzing how I personally used blogger disclosure to help get over 500,000 monthly readers on my blog, including the exact blogger outreach email templates that helped me land articles on sites like Forbes, Inc, Entrepreneur, Fast Company and others.

But before we get into the strategies, tactics, and models behind smart bloggers' outreach, let's lay the groundwork for why you should consider raising awareness in the first place.

You started a blog.Now, as great as your content is, the reality is that no one will ever know your blog, unless you have the word.

And while your family on Facebook or friends on Twitter might be happy to cheer you up, you'll probably want to expand your audience beyond the people you already know.One of the best ways to grow your audience is through blogger outreach.

What is Blogger promotion?

Blogger disclosure occurs when you "reach" other bloggers, publishers, or website owners who may be able to help get your name (and content) in front of your audience.This will usually happen through actions such as sharing your content on their social channels, accepting your guest blog post, linking to a relevant article of yours, or even more creative points like appearing as a guest on their podcast, co-hosting a webinar, speaking at a conference, or anything else.

The ultimate goal of blogger outreach is to build your audience, your credibility, and your business.

You want the blogger you're doing to have some tangible benefit: it should lead to generating more traffic, generating new leads (email subscribers), or even direct revenue.

More importantly, if done right, blogger outreach should be a win-win relationship.

The blogger or publisher you're looking to get something out of your new partnership as well, such as great free guest content for their blog, an expert quote to include in an upcoming article, or even just a highly relevant resource tip that they can share in a future post for their readers.

Today, however, most of the bloggers' popularization is really bad.And that's why I've compiled my ultimate guide to smart blogger disclosure, so let's get in.

Blogger Outreach 101: How to Do Smart Blogger Outreach (+ Free Email Templates)

1. The 3 biggest problems with (most) spread of bloggers today
2. Things to Avoid in Blogger's Outreach Email Template
3. How to Perform Smart Blogger Disclosure in 10 Easy Steps
4. Good examples: 3 Blogger Outreach Emails to Learn From
5. Bad examples: 7 terrible emails from bloggers to avoid
6. My Top 3 Blogger Outreach Email Templates to Use Today

Be sure to pick up my free outreach email templates at the end of this guide!

Well, now let's move on to my ultimate guide on how to raise awareness about bloggers (which doesn't suck).

The 3 biggest problems with (most) Blogger spread

Unfortunately, the spread of bloggers is usually not done very well.In fact, the vast majority of blogger spread is so bad that it's completely useless (and probably hurts your promotion efforts much more than it ever helps).

Here's a snapshot of some of the worst blogger outreach emails I've received in the last 3 days:

The sad reality is that most of the blogger's reach I get comes in the form of mass, untargeted emails, full of misspellings and showing clear signs of a broken automation tool at work (like mentioning the wrong website, calling me by the wrong name, formatting not working, and so on).

Even the (few) blogger outreach emails that seem to be carefully crafted — usually consist of:

• Low-quality (unresearched) guest blog post submissions are rarely related to my blog niche
• Link requests for addition that fly in front of SEO best practices
• Requests for me to do free product reviews or social media purchases

Most blogger popularizers suck.But it is not necessary.

If you want your blogger to be effective in growing your blog, start here:

Blogger Problem No. 1: Pay attention to quantity (not quality)

Blogger disclosure is not a numbers game.

It's much better to build a solid relationship with a respected and highly relevant website owner who can get you to know others in their network.

If instead you were to send hundreds of emails at once using an outreach automation tool, with the goal of trying to start dozens of conversations or get a higher volume of links from small, spammed websites, you're almost wasting your time.

Read more about the nuances of link building (and why you shouldn't do most of the "link building" in the first place) right here.

Blogger Problem No. 2: Don't Customize Your Approach

As we will see at a time when we touch on some real examples, many outreach emails are not personalized at all.

Even custom ones, tend to include only the most basic details, such as the blogger's name, website name, or mention of a particular article.

You want to be much more personal and engaging than with your range.Prove that you are a real human being by citing something you love about the blog as the recipient's job.

Blogger's No. 3 Problem: Don't Offer Something Valuable First

If you're contacting a blogger for the first time, don't immediately ask for a social share or guest posting opportunity.

Make sure you do something useful (or at least offer them something useful) in your initial outreach email.

To understand how you can be most helpful to the blogger or publisher in question, think about what they want and need.Determine what you can accomplish for them using your skills, experiences, or relationships.

It could be things like:

• Leave thoughtful comments on their blog for a few days or weeks before sending an email
• Regularly share their content on social media channels (and tag them)
• Mentioning or linking to their blog from an article you've written
• Turning one of their articles into a well-designed PDF eBook they can use
• Report a misspelling or broken link in an existing article on their site

The list goes on and on.

Eventually, however, bloggers' success boils down to starting a relationship based on providing value first (before asking anything from them).

At the very least, you need to offer something really useful to your audiences, like a piece of free guest content for their blog, the promise to include a quote from them in an upcoming article on your blog (or in a guest post for a larger site if you're still brand new to the blog).

Now, let's look at some cases of outright bad blogger disclosure examples and I'll show you exactly what to avoid in your outreach efforts.

Things to Avoid in Blogger Outreach Email Templates

What does it look like when the reach of bloggers is very, very bad?

Let's start by taking a look at some real-life examples from my inbox right now:

Email Teardown #1: Mr. Webmaster Fastmoney's Epic Fail

Where do we start with this too?

In case the screenshot (above) is difficult to read, here is the text of blogger's outreach email:Subject: GUEST POSTHey there, I love your site and have read many articles here, it is so well laid out and meticulous.

I couldn't help but wonder why we are a small business and would love to write an article to publish on your website on a topic of your choice for a link to our site.

Provide me with the topic you would like to write about and we will provide you with the content for your approval.This is absolutely FREE and all we ask for is credit in the form of a link to our website.The article can be about anything you like and we will write you a 500-word article completely FREE!!

Ouch.This is pretty hard.

Based on what this email reads, would you want to take that article 500 word "free" for your blog?

Would you feel confident that you would get good content from a reputable blogger?

There are many things wrong with this blogger outreach email, so let's take them one by one:

• The name of the sender. I mean, come on, ah!The name "Webmaster Fastmoney" made me laugh instantly when I saw it.If I hadn't provided horrible examples of blogger emails to highlight for this guide, I would have immediately spammed this one and wouldn't even have thought of opening it.Add the object line in that quick analysis and wow, what a bad start.
• The all-caps subject line is spam at best. Never send an email to a new recipient, especially the one you're hoping to collaborate with, using a subject line with all text capitalized.It's a miracle that my Gmail spam filters didn't put this directly into my spam folder.
• There's not even a hint of personalization. This blogger doesn't even bother to use my name or site name.Not to mention, this email was clearly sent to over 50 recipients on the same exact thread.
• He presents himself as disingenuous. The first sentence says "I love your site", but it's easy to see from the email that it's being sent to dozens of people at once, so there's no indication that this blogger has even read a single post on my blog.In fact, it suggests otherwise since they are clearly sending identical emails to dozens (if not hundreds) of other bloggers.
• There is a grammatical error in the first sentence. We all make mistakes, but you should try to email your bloggers before hitting enter.The word "his" should be "is" (short for "is") in the first sentence of this outreach email.While typos occur, when you're asking for the opportunity to post a guest, you can't afford to give the immediate impression that your writing will be altered badly.
• The writing style is just bad. The second sentence, for example, is long and convoluted and doesn't really make sense: this blogger starts the sentence with "I couldn't help but wonder" but doesn't actually ask a question, which makes the whole email rather confusing experience.
• The emphasis on the word FREE seems very spammy. Capitalizing "FREE" and doing it twice, presents itself as desperate and intrusive.It also seems like a strange selling point, as most bloggers expect guest posts to be offered for free.
• There is no real tone. This aspiring guest poster asks me to do the work for them and "provide me with the topic you want us to write about. "In addition to being rather ungrammatical, this is a red flag because good guest posters will be willing to suggest an idea for which they feel they can do justice.
• There is no indication of where "a link to our website would have gone". Bloggers with large sites have worked hard to build their reputation, often over the years.We don't want to risk damaging that reputation by allowing a link to a spamming website or one that goes against my values.Be transparent about what you hope to achieve in your blogger's outreach emails and you'll have a much better chance of forming an authentic relationship.

This example of blogger outreach email is really one of the worst I've seen in a while.

So, to go back to what actually distinguishes a blogger's outreach email from the crowd, let's go through a bad example that isn't that great.

Email Teardown #2: The Most Common (Bad) Blogger Outreach Email Template

This outreach email is a great example of the "average" level of effort that goes into popularizing bloggers by most people.

While it's not terrible from a pure content standpoint, it fails big time trying to capture my interest.Although to the sender's credit, this outreach email has no spelling or obvious grammatical errors – it's just not tempting enough for me to take action.

In case the screenshot (above) is difficult to read, here is the text of blogger's outreach email:Subject: Guest post on ryrob.com Hello,First of all, I would like to say that I enjoyed browsing on ryrob.com .

The content provided is authentic and engaging to read.

My name is [nome] and I work for a company that employs a number of talented and experienced copywriters who provide content on a wide range of topics.

I was wondering if you would be willing to accept an article that matches the editorial style and arguments of ryrob.com.Since an article would contain a contextually integrated link to our partner's website, we would be willing to reward you for publishing it.

Would you be interested?

Kind regards[Nome] While this isn't at all as bad as in the previous example, it still leaves much to be desired (and, more importantly, it wasn't effective in getting me to act on it).

Believe it or not, this blogger awareness email actually makes many of the same mistakes as our first, including:

• No significant customization. Even though there is a small degree of personalization (with my blog's URL in the subject line and the body of the email), there is no indication that the sender actually looked at my site.Also, I happen to know that there are tons of automation tools that can put a website's name into the body of a large-scale outreach email, so from the very beginning I'm already skeptical here because it doesn't address me by name.
• The first sentence is a very generic pattern. "The content provided is authentic and engaging to read… " It's a very vague compliment that could be used for almost any blog, again suggesting that it's part of a larger, automated awareness campaign.
• It's not clear who would write the post or where I would link. They mention "a link to our partner's website" in the email that could be something totally unrelated to my blog's niche (or worse, a site that is spam and could damage my blog's reputation).
• Instead of promising a "FREE" post, this email makes a payment offer. "We'll be willing to reward you for publishing it."Although it may seem like an interesting offer at first, experienced bloggers will know that guest posters offering money will normally not have high-quality content (which creates more work for me).Also, selling a "contextually integrated link" could get your site into hot water with search engines, unless you nofollow the link or mark it as sponsored, and your would-be guest poster is unlikely to agree to those terms.

On the plus side, however, there is at least one simple request: send me a guest post.

Although going back to our fundamental foundation of smart blogger awareness here, I wouldn't recommend asking these kinds of questions (especially without actually presenting a real idea) before building a relationship with the recipient first.

How to Perform Smart Blogger Disclosure in 10 Easy Steps

It's probably clear from these examples of blogger outreach emails that there are many simple things you can do to get the right outreach.

Now I will guide you through this process step by step, to make creating an amazing awareness campaign as easy as possible for you.I will also share my blogger outreach email templates that you can edit, edit, and use within your blogger reach.

Before we begin, though, here's something important to remember:

If you've tried to hurry up bloggers in the past and produced emails similar to the bad examples above, don't worry.

You're not here to be shameful… You are here to learn how to make a better disclosure of bloggers that actually gets real results for the growth of your blog.

While it's not ideal if you've already sent out a lot of outreach emails that look like our examples above, it's not the end of the world either.

Unless you've emailed the same bloggers repeatedly, they're very unlikely to remember your name or email address.

Successful bloggers are targeted with so many of these misspreading emails that most of us just hit "delete" immediately without internalizing any of the sender information.

So, with that in mind… Let's learn how to blogger correctly.

1. Choose a small number of bloggers to target

The root of the problem with our bad examples above, is that the bloggers who sent these outreach emails are focusing on sending as many emails as possible.

If you're doing this, it's understandable that you'll end up with minimal customization and that you'll show up at some blogs (at best) only slightly related to your topic.

It's best to target a small number of bloggers for your outreach efforts.

When you follow the approach of trying to connect with fewer bloggers, it means you can focus on a very high-quality reach, rather than viewing the entire campaign as a numbers game.The whole outreach approach will be different (in a positive way).

A good starting point with who to reach in the first place, is with the blogs that you already follow and like.

For example, if you run a blog that shares in-depth tutorials about WordPress, you'd probably consider contacting blogs in your space that produce content in related (but not directly competitive) fields.This could include blogs like mine that write about keywords like:

• Best Hosting Plans for Bloggers
• Best Affiliate Programs for Bloggers and Website Owners
• How much does it cost to blog?

Your goal could be something like landing a guest post, submitting a quote, sharing your content on my social channel, or something else.

If you haven't read many blogs in your niche yet, ask around for recommendations, do a keyword research to see who's already a strong hitter in the top search rankings, or see what are the big names in your industry who are retweeting and sharing on social media.

2. Building a relationship in comments or on social media

While it's not impossible to send a cold email to someone for the first time, perhaps with a great guest post, and get them accepted, it's always best to establish some sort of connection with the blogger before your email (with a request from them) arrives at their inbox.

Here are a couple of good ways to build a value-based relationship with bloggers before reaching out:

• Commenting regularly on their blog.Leave helpful and helpful comments over the course of a week or two before sending an email and they'll start noticing you.Just make sure your comments are really adding to the conversation.If you can't think of anything to say for a particular piece other than "big post," skip comments on that.
• Sharing their content on social media channels.Even if you don't have a following of your own, this is still a nice gesture and a really useful thing to do, especially if you're adding an authentic comment, asking a compelling question, and tagging the blogger.Whenever possible, add your own little snippet to the social share (like "I loved tip No. 9 here" or "Great SEO tips for new bloggers"), rather than simply sharing the title and link to the post. The more personalized your share, the more likely you are to make a lasting impression.

If authentic, leaving regular comments on the blog works very well in building a basic relationship.

Here's an example of a couple of comments (on a recent blog income report of mine) from readers who started by regularly leaving comments on my blog posts… And since then they have continued to collaborate with me on a number of projects such as guest posts, quote placements, social shares, and more.

Here are some great ways to go even further and offer your target blogger something more valuable that could include:

• Link to their blog from your .Especially if you're offering a recommendation, using one of their articles as a positive example of something, or including some sort of comment about the blogger you're trying to build a relationship with.
• Rate and review their podcast on iTunes.This is another extremely genuine way to help a blogger, as well as a good way to get noticed by them.It also shows that you're actually listening to their content, which will be helpful in convincing them that you're really invested in them once you send an outreach email to your blogger.
• Review of their book on Amazon or GoodReads.Like reviewing a podcast, this is really useful for the blogger in question and shows that you've read at least a fair amount of their work (and in most cases, paid to do so).
• Proactively offer a testimonial for their product or service.Whether you've purchased one of their blogging courses, purchased a book, come up with a free template, or used their services at some point, it's incredibly helpful to reach out and offer a testimonial that the blogger can use in their marketing activities or directly on their sales page.Very few people offer unwanted testimonials, so this is a great way to stand out from the crowd – I can tell you personally that this is a guaranteed way to get a response from a blogger like me. In addition, it also helps remind the blogger that you are a paying customer.

3. Ask a highly targeted question (throw them something they can't refuse)

Whatever you're asking—a quote with a link, social share, or guest post space—you need your pitch to be highly relevant to the blog and the person you're reaching out.

I hope it's obvious that you shouldn't post about "ten makeup tips" on an SEO blog.But being extremely relevant goes far beyond this simple example.

Your request needs to match the ideas of existing blog posts that tend to cover and the types of content your blog produces regularly.

For example, if you've just written an in-depth guide aimed at bloggers looking to get started with SEO, it might make sense to ask for shoutout or share from a beginner-friendly site for bloggers, like my blog here, or sites like ProBlogger and SmartBlogger.On the other hand, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to ask an in-depth SEO publication like Ahrefs to link to your guide, as it wouldn't be the right solution for their more advanced audience or bloggers.

When publishing a guest post, make sure your idea is tailored to the blog you're reaching.

Don't just outline a blog post and then figure out where you might be able to publish it.It is going backwards (and will not produce the same results).

Choose the right blog on which you would like to publish first… And then you can find a catchy headline that will resonate with their editors, an enticing profile that would perfectly suit them — and the odds will be much higher that they'll give you a thumbs up to dive in and start writing a blog post for them.

4. Make it worth it

Whatever you're asking, make sure it's worth it for the blogger to spend time and resources (1) evaluating and (2) acting on your request.

Sure, it may only take a minute or two to read an article you've sent and write a short tweet to promote it to their audience, but it's an activity they'll do on your behalf, instead of working on something of theirs.Turn your question into child's play that benefits in some way.

Understand that your blogger reach is asking the recipient to devote their time to something else, it is worth doing.

There are many ways to get your blogger hurry to ask for a worthy effort for your potential partner:

• Connect to them first. If you're asking an eminent blogger to share your article on their social media channels, it's great if that post is already linked to them or one of their products somewhere within the article. Note: You should definitely not subordinate the link to them to get a share!
• Eliminates any potential friction. If you're asking to write a post for their blog, do your best to make the process as easy as possible for them.Create a clear idea for a blog post with a simple structure that refers to the content topics they cover regularly, so they can give you a quick "yes, let's do it" or "no, it's not for us" without having to make a lot of criticism thinking (or communicating back and forth with you).
• Use your strengths. If you have a large enough audience, or have a friend who does, make it clear that you'll be helping to promote your guest post or that you'll be happy to share any of their content that could do with a nudge. Note: This won't have much credibility if your audience consists of only a dozen Twitter followers.

As I have already said many times in this guide to raising awareness of smart bloggers …

Blogger's disclosure making an immediate request is much less effective than when you show that you're investing first in the relationship.

5. Don't offer money in your Blogger outreach email

Unless the blog specifically offers sponsorship options (which is normal in some industries) and you don't want to go this route, it seems vulgar and deceptive to offer money in exchange for publishing your guest posts or sharing your content.

Offering money in an initial awareness email is one of the big red flags I look for when assessing legitimacy.

An example of where you should NOT offer money at all is in exchange for a backlink.

Unless you're okay with the link to set up on Nofollow (which means it won't transfer any SEO benefit), this kind of outreach is a big no-go.

Paying for Dofollow links is prohibited by Google's policies and can have a lasting negative impact on both your SEO blog and the SEO of the site linking to you.

6. Make a clear (simple) request

Whatever you're asking in your blogger's outreach email, be clear and direct about it.

With nearly 62% of emails being read on a mobile device today, the blogger busy reading your email might even have dozens (or even hundreds) of emails to get through today, and you don't want them to decide that your work goes through as well.

To make your request clear and simple, it's a good idea:

• Write a subject line that succinctly reflects what you're asking. Some examples of broad lines of blogger outreach email subjects include things like "Sending Guest Posts: Ten Ways to Get Your First Hundred Subscribers" or "Want to Share My Beginner SEO Post?"or "Your function on my blog" which are all very clear.Lines like "QUESTION" or "Hi" or "(no subject)" are typically archived instantly when sorting emails in the morning.
• Ask for what you want at the beginning of the email. For example, if your blogger's reach starts with a subject line that makes it clear that you're hoping to guest to the recipient, then it would be smart to place your tone (and why would it be perfect for your blogger to run with) at the top of the email, so that the recipient doesn't have to read paragraphs of text just to achieve the purpose of the email.
• Keep your blogger's outreach email short and sweet. If you're writing a novel in your outreach email, you're doing something wrong.Remember the purpose of sending an awareness email in the first place… To open a line of communication, start forming a relationship, provide value to the recipient, and finally make a request they won't want to refuse.Go to my blogger's outreach email templates here at the bottom of this guide for examples of my most effective emails you can use today.

To make your request simple and clear, it is also important to be sure that you are only asking for one thing, not to make multiple different requests.This can cause instant overwhelm.

Don't ask the recipient to do something that takes time from the start.

Time-consuming requests like "will you review my blog?"or "Will you meet with me for coffee?"It will seem lacking in adequate awareness, especially if you have not yet established some sort of relationship with the blogger you are reaching with.

7. Offer alternative ideas

You don't want to make your blogger email unclear or overly complicated.This priority comes first.

However, in some cases, it might make sense to offer the recipient a couple of quick alternatives to your original question, especially if you've cultivated the relationship for at least a few email exchanges, in the comments on their blog, and on their social feeds.

For example, you might submit a title for a particular guest post with a quick structure.And at the end of your email, you could quickly add a clarifying sentence like, "If that idea doesn't fit perfectly, a couple of other articles I could write are [titolo] and [titolo]."

With this simple mention of some alternative ideas, you're not only showing your flexibility, but saving them from the back and forth of potential situations like "We already have something in the works on [titolo # 1] – Do you have any other ideas?"

Remember, your goal is to provide value to your recipient, so put yourself in their shoes before hitting send outreach emails on your blogger.

8. Edit and fix your Blogger outreach email

After writing your blogger's awareness email, make sure you allow enough time to edit it and carefully correct it for any errors.

This doesn't just mean checking for typos, although of course it's also important.You should also watch out for missteps such as:

• Ambiguous or unclear sentences. Replace them to make them simpler and easier for your recipient to understand.
• Too much information. You don't need to provide multiple paragraphs of information about your background, blog history, or how that inspired you to launch your blog.Get straight to the point and make sure that everything you've included in your blogger outreach email is extremely relevant to them.
• Grammatical errors. Some easily confusing words and phrases won't be detected by all spell-checking tools ("his" and "is" are easy to confuse, as we saw in one of the bad examples above), so proofread slowly and consult an online dictionary of synonyms if necessary.
• Wrong custom details. If you're using an outreach email template for bloggers, be very careful not to copy and paste it with the wrong name or website name!Be sure to check spelling as well, especially if the blogger has an unusual name or the site has a name with unusual capitalization (for example, "ProBlogger" has capital in the middle, but "Copyblogger" does not).

While a small mistake won't necessarily ruin your chances of forming a relationship with your recipient, you want to make the best first impression possible.

This is especially true if your blogger reach contains any kind of intonation to create content for their audience: they will want to see that you have your transcription pat.

9. Don't push your luck

Remember, successful bloggers are busy people: they run an online business with lots of moving parts, and you're probably jumping into their inbox without an invitation.

If you don't receive a response to your blogger outreach email within a day or two, don't send a follow-up immediately.Be patient and caring.

My advice is to wait at least 5 days before following up, especially if your email is completely cold and you don't have an existing relationship.

If they haven't returned to your first email within a week, then it's very likely that (1) they're just extremely busy or (2) you haven't delivered a tone convincing enough to make them act on.The safest bet is to hire both, which will inform you how to best position your follow-up.We will talk about it soon.

If the recipient responds and the answer is no, accept it (for now).

No matter how big you think your content is and how much you think it's losing, don't try to convince them to take your guest post or link to your content.If the blogger responds and asks you not to send emails again, respect that too.

The chances of them changing their minds are very slim.And more importantly, they'll be much less likely to want to collaborate with you in the future if you get nervous during your first interaction.

Your question probably wasn't suitable for them at this time, so don't take it personally.

10. Follow up on Blogger outreach emails

Right, right… you know that successful bloggers (and marketers, editors, publishers of top brands and websites) are all busy people.

The reality of our digital world today is that we are more distracted than ever.And research shows that long-form content is becoming increasingly important for ranking high in organic search, meaning bloggers also need to spend more time creating content than ever before.

It can be assumed that we are all short on time.This means that you should assume the need to follow up on your outreach emails in most cases, especially if you haven't yet created a personal brand for yourself within your niche.

The success of your blogger awareness campaigns will be measured by your follow-up game.

Steli Efti, co-founder of Close.com has a very simple follow-up philosophy that he used to build a multi-million dollar startup, and also applies to the popularization of bloggers.

He shares: "I follow up as many times as necessary until I receive an answer.I don't care what the answer is until I have one.If someone tells me they need another 14 days to get back to me, I'll put it on my calendar and ping them again in 14 days.If they tell me that they are busy and don't have time right now, I will answer and ask them when they feel like it's a good time for me to ping them.The key here is to actually continue to follow up.If someone tells me that they are not interested, I leave them alone.But here's the kicker: if they don't respond at all, I'll keep pinging until they do.And trust me, they always do. "

Steli goes on to share a story about how it took him 48 follow-up attempts to convince a potential investor to respond.Many months later, its persistence paid off, and that person ended up investing.

Follow along until you receive a definitive response to your blogger's outreach emails.

Now, let's look at a couple of examples to analyze the aspect of successful follow-up in the context of blogger outreach.

Here's an example of a really funny follow-up email I got from Andriana Moskovska on Go Remotoy:

His follow-up email is hilarious and starts by catching my attention with a funny (fake) quote and GIF from a popular TV show I watched and wrote about.His email then closes with a polite sentence reiterating the request from his original email without trying to hit in any way.

Needless to say, Andriana received a response after that fantastic follow-up.

Let's look at another example of blogger follow-up emails.

This person has an admirable hustle of follow-up (2 follow-ups within 14 days), but the content of these follow-ups did not add any value to the conversation:

Where the follow-ups went wrong, is that they never tried to add more (or different) value.

Both of these follow-up emails from this blogger just followed the format of coldly urging me to reply to their email.

They didn't offer an alternative idea, they weren't funny or interesting at all, and they just referred me to their original email without a reminder about the context of their initial request (more work to do for me).

What happens when your blogger's disclosure is successful?

On the other hand, let's assume that your target blogger doesn't do what you're asking about them via outreach emails.

You have to make sure that you follow them even after they have done so.

First, it's important to thank them for taking the time to work with you, which is just politeness.

Cultivate that relationship, especially if the first collaboration goes well.

Depending on the size of their editorial organization, perhaps after a few weeks, you may want to send them another guest presentation or suggest another mutually beneficial collaboration.

Be careful not to ping your content partners too frequently to escalate the relationship, particularly when you ask for something without first providing more value.

If this sounds like a broken record, it's because so few people take the approach of giving value first in their range.

Keep helping them by commenting on their blog posts and sharing their content on your social channels.

Good examples: 3 Blogger Outreach Emails to Learn From

Well, now that we've gone through my step-by-step process to write a successful blogger outreach email, I thought it would be fun to explore some other examples of outreach emails that I've gone through in the last couple of weeks.

Example of Awareness Email No. 1: Jon Dabach

This outreach email from Jon Dabach at Rhino Marketing Group blew me crazy with how much initial value he delivered in his initial presentation:(Click here to open this full-size screenshot in a new tab)His email starts with an excellent subject line that is (1) funny and (2) immediately caught my attention.

Then he dives straight into a real compliment to my content and crazy added value: he took one of my existing items and packed it into a digital eBook for me (including some high-quality images to accompany it).

That's all before you ask me any questions.How can I not respond to this?

We are now working to realize a potential collaboration in the coming months.

Example of Outreach Email No. 2: Dane Maxwell

With a killer topic, Dane Maxwell of The Foundation showed up with a big outreach email to see if I'd be interested in reviewing his upcoming book, Start From Zero, and to consider a podcast interview:

(Click here to open this full-size screenshot in a new tab)

This email is full of great lessons you can apply to your reach:

• Starting with a compliment and showing that you have a real interest in your recipient
• Build your credibility based on your unique experiences
• Ask an ultra clear (clear) question
• Note that Dane's email formatting is also very clean, simple, and doesn't seem stressful.

We'll be doing an interview on the podcast soon, and we've also found a couple of other beneficial collaborations that make a lot of sense.

Example of Outreach Email No. 3: Josh Crist

Another recent example of outreach emails popping me up in a podcast came from Josh Crist of Be My Guest FM, where he launched a truly amazing launch on the CEO of Freshbooks (a brand I've worked with in the past):(Click here to open this full-size screenshot in a new tab) Josh starts by complimenting my podcast and sharing a screenshot of a 5-star review he just left on iTunes, which is light years ahead of any other guest introduction email I've ever received.

From there, it asks a very clear question, establishes why it should be relevant to my audience (including three different angles I might consider to frame an episode), strengthens the guest's credibility, and concludes with a clear sentence reiterating his question.This is an excellent outreach email textbook.

There are so many great things: please analyze my comment on the screenshot above.

Bad examples: 7 terrible emails from bloggers to avoid

Before I get into my personal blogger's outreach email templates, I'd like to highlight some more specific examples of outreach emails… so you know what to avoid while working on your awareness campaign.

Bad Blogger No. 1 Email Example: Formatting the disaster

Check for formatting errors in this email, ranging from the subject line to the entire body of the email with spacing off and content rich in poor grammar:

It seems that this was sent using an automation tool that did something seriously wrong.Also, the email comes from a very suspicious-sounding @ gmail.com account that does nothing to help their cause.

Bad Blogger's No. 2 Email Example: The Worst Formatting Mistakes Ever

The subject line starts terribly using my blog's full URL directly in the subject line (looks spammy).

And from here on it only goes down with formatting errors and it seems that the entire body of the email is pasted a total of 4 times (this screenshot has only the first three), including the names of different websites …

This is quite surprisingly bad.Want to avoid sending an awareness email like this?Do not use an automation tool.

Bad Blogger Outreach Email Example #3: Link Building Mishap

If someone specifically addresses me about link building, I'm a fairly instantaneous no (as this goes against Google's policies):

Bad Blogger Awareness Email Example 4: Paid Offer to Post Client Work

This outreach email is just a more elaborate formulation than "can I get a backlink for my client from your blog?"and he offers to pay me for it.Again, no because it goes against SEO best practices:

There are also some obvious formatting blips, suggesting that this was sent to a large list of people who also use an automated tool of some sort, another sign that I should avoid this person.

Bad Blogger email example 5: Am I experiencing Déjà Vu?

This outreach email (really ugly) is surprisingly similar to about a dozen others currently in my inbox:

Bad Blogger No. 6 Email Example: Ok Now I'm definitely seeing twice as much

Yes, we've now confirmed that there are some terrible email patterns (and link builders using them) floating out there in nature.I took this on the same day as the 5th above.

Again, we have a lot of formatting and grammatical errors besides the fact that email has zero substance.It will be a no for me dawg.

Bad Blogger Email No. 7 Example: Get the point

Ok, ok… This is the last one, I promise.Come on, right?!This is exactly the same as the previous one:

I want to reiterate that the vast majority of blogger outreach I get is so serious.

Really, I'm not kidding.

If you want to send outreach blogger emails that you actually get real results… Then use one of my templates here.

3 Blogger Outreach Email Templates (Free) to Use Today

If you're not sure how to write a successful blogger outreach email, try using one of my free templates to guide you.

While you may want to change some language, verbiage, and tone to suit your voice and style, don't worry about whether or not these blogger outreach emails will be "just another of these common patterns" that pop up dozens of times in bloggers' and publishers' inboxes every day.

These models will forever stand the test of time, I promise.Because?

These outreach email templates for bloggers will never be overused… Because they require real work, strategic reflection and added value for the recipients.

I will continue to use these three outreach email templates for bloggers for years to come, because they require work.

And building real relationships with other bloggers, brands, and publishers requires getting to work.

Those who are not willing to invest in the partnerships they want to build will send emails like some of the bad ones above, which causes these models to increase even more than the noise.

Blogger Email Template No. 1: Feature Notification

The whole premise of this blogger outreach email template is that it forces you to take the (first) step in providing value to the relationship you hope to build here.

In this case, the initial value comes in the form of a mention I gave to the recipient of Copyhackers in a recent post on my blog (about naming a blog ), which I did strategically, knowing that I would soon like to reach out to see how guests write for their blog, where they have an audience very similar to mine.

Here's a template version of that blogger outreach email you can use on your own:Subject: Your feature in my articleHey [FIRSTNAME],I've been a blog [COMPANY] reader for quite some time and I always come across your content in writing I do for other sites like , , [SITO # 3 ][SITO # 2]and the like.[SITO # 1]

I actually just mentioned you in a recent article I published (here) on the blog [DESTINATION].

Would you be ready to receive a post from me?

I would be so excited to make a piece of content for your readers and work hard to promote it on my blog audience, on social and amplify through other channels to which I have access also 🙂Let me know what you think!

[IL TUO NOME]

While you probably don't have the same credentials and audience size to back up your tone as I can (now) do today, don't be put off by using this outreach approach.

The important part of this perspective is that it is very strategic to start the relationship by first doing something valuable for your recipient … And even if you are rejected today, here you will have a potential friendship that can grow over time.

Blogger Outreach Email Template: The Original Guest Mail Request

When I want to submit a blog or publication on hosting my guest post, but I've never mentioned it in my writings before, I'll use this blogger outreach email template that doesn't lean so much on the angle of the initial value—yet it still shows that I'm willing to go bat for making my article a hit for them.

Here is the template version of this email you can use:Subject: Content CollaborationHey [FIRSTNAME] ,I've been a blog [COMPANY] reader for quite some time and I always come across your content in writing I do for other sites like , , [SITO # 2][SITO # 3 ] and the like.[SITO # 1]

Would you be ready to receive a post from me?

I would be so excited to make a piece of content for your readers and work hard to promote it on my blog audience, on social and amplify through other channels to which I have access also 🙂Let me know what you think!

[IL TUO NOME]

Sometimes, I'll take my advice here and include a couple of blog post ideas I could write for them in this initial outreach email, but while I've built my brand and find that most other bloggers in my space already recognize me when I open their inboxes, I like to keep my first emails a little shorter.

If you're not yet at the stage where I'm still with your audience, you may want to use a blogger outreach email template that makes the most of your existing credentials and inserts a specific guest post, like the next one.

Blogger: The Curated Pitch Email Template No. 3

Here's an outreach email template for bloggers that I used in 2017 in the previous days, I really learned how to drive traffic to a blog (and long before I had an audience or figured out how to make money with blogs).

It's an example of how you can succeed with your blogger outreach efforts with a very simple, human, value-based email, while not yet having an existing audience:

Would you be ready to receive a post from me?I would like to write about [TITOLO PROPOSTO] and I would [ELENCO BREVE DI QUELLO CHE AVREBBE COPERTO NEL POSTO]cover .

You can see some of my writings here as well:[Link a due o tre dei tuoi migliori articoli, idealmente i post degli ospiti per aumentare la tua credibilità se ne hai scritto uno] Let me know what you think!

[IL TUO NOME]

And that's a wrap, my 🙏friends. I hope you can put these email templates to good use and remember not to shy away from the (hard) work that is building real, value-based relationships with bloggers in your niche.

The investment will pay off, I promise.

Final thoughts: the spread of the Win-Win blogger is the way of the future

In a world where 99% of awareness emails about bloggers immediately ask the recipient to take unilateral action on behalf of the sender… It's incredibly easy to stand out from the crowd and build real relationships with other bloggers.

By starting your reach with a win-win proposition (and using templates like the ones here), you'll be much more likely to succeed in your efforts.

Remember, effective blogger disclosure isn't about sending dozens (or hundreds) of emails.

It's about finding a small number of bloggers and publishers you can authentically connect to and build a mutually beneficial relationship.

The best blogger outreach emails will make your recipient think, hell the hell!

Smart disclosure offers something really useful, like a piece of free guest content that the blogger's readers will love, and the best disclosure emails are written in an authentic and engaging way.

Start today with the first 3 steps to effective blogger outreach:

• Make a list of the top ten bloggers you'd like to connect with and follow them on social media
• Look for ways to help you by sharing their content, answering their questions, or commenting on their posts
• Plan to reach out to them with one of these outreach email templates within the next week or two

Like it or not, starting a blog and turning it into a profitable business is a long game.

And the relationships you can build with the outreach of win-win bloggers will help immensely in the weeks, months, and years ahead.