Find Out About the Thought Leader
Before you make any kind of pitch that involves cross-promotion to a thought leader, first learn as much as you can about her or him. The more you can show that you are knowledgeable about the thought leader’s views, the better chance you will have at engaging him or her. Every blogger wants to at least know what readers think about the blog’s writing.
Be Passionate About Your Idea
Make sure you show enough passion for your product or whatever you are aiming to promote through other websites. Does your passion connect with the passion of thought leaders? They can only be as excited as you are about your topic if you expect them to interview you, review your product, or allow you to write a guest blog for them.
Use Creativity
Creativity is what helps you stand out in a crowd of emails. Plan a strategy for offering unique information. Don’t be discouraged by all the perceptions that only established bloggers are allowed to be creative. Be a creative blogger, then worry about fame when it happens. You will have an advantage if you can introduce bloggers to a breakthrough product that helps them be on the cutting edge if they write about it.
Build a Relationship
Allow yourself time to build trust with the thought leader. Waiting to make your pitch after engaging with the blogger several times will help develop a history that will still exist even if he or she declines the first time you ask about doing cross-promotion or a guest blog.
It’s possible to destroy a relationship quickly if you either waste someone’s time or come off like a salesperson with just a sales agenda. Give bloggers time to learn some things about you after you’ve shared opinions about them. Make an effort to earn their attention by constantly sharing useful feedback on their blogs.
Make Your Communication Concise
If you want to benefit from influencer marketing campaigns, you must be careful and direct when communicating with influencers. Send an email when you are ready to ask expert bloggers with large followings about cross-promotional opportunities. Don’t assume that they will be thrilled about your ideas just because you share similar interests.
Keep the message brief to show you understand the influencers get plenty of emails. If you send a long email, they might be annoyed that you are wasting their time. It may appear that you are just trying to take advantage of them for having substantial followings. Let them know what’s in it for them, such as free samples or other rewards for taking the time to learn about your brand.
Be sure to guard against what Google might consider a link scheme. In other words, don’t just swap links if there is any type of monetary exchange involved with them reviewing your product. Spending money on excessive link exchanges creates a risk that Google will view the links as an attempt to manipulate search rankings. One of the search engine’s many search rank factors is the number of backlinks from popular, authoritative websites.
Conclusion
Getting to know a thought leader is a great way to expand your online contacts with people in a position to give you more exposure as a blogger. Asking popular bloggers in your field if you can do cross-promotion adds to the buzz of both parties. Remember to nurture the relationship and not rush into any high-pressure pitches that might be perceived as annoying disruptions. Build a relationship of trust through sharing common interests.
