Pitching to bloggers takes preparation, clarity and patience

Follow these guidelines to cultivate and maintain a beneficial relationship

Are you hoping to connect with bloggers and get the word out about your product or service? Are you hoping that you can find someone who’s interested in what your company is offering, and then share the pertinent details so that hopefully the blogger will write a decent story about you, maybe even include a few links?

If you’ve felt frustrated by the varied and less-than-successful experiences you’ve had with your efforts, heed these tips:

Do your homework

All bloggers aren’t the same. Big numbers don’t guarantee a big response. Just because someone writes about X doesn’t mean that your product is actually X to them. Bloggers can be fickle and often work to the beat of their own drum.

I get dozens of pitches a day. I delete almost all of them unread, unless I know the person, and then half the time I delete those, too. The reason is that people aren’t considering what I write about before pitching to me. I rarely cover software, so if you’re showing me a software story, it had damned well better have a human angle.

The same is true for any of the bloggers you need to reach. Not sure where to find the bloggers you need? Use these resources: