5 EASY WAYS TO MAKE YOUR BLOG PR FRIENDLY
Last week I blogged about how to approach brands & PR companies and the post went down really well, I received lots of great feedback and lovely comments on the post about how the post has given some of you the confidence to reach out to companies when you wouldn't have before. I thought I'd do a follow up post and use my experience of working in PR and do a post on how you can make your blog more PR friendly which makes everyones life much easier and your blog more approachable to new companies!
1.) Make sure your contact page is clear and easy to find
There's been many occasions at work where I've wanted to reach out to bloggers to work with them and I can't for the life of me find a contact page or their email address! It seems silly but it's something that's easily forgotten on blogs, then it results in trawling through Twitter and social media sites trying to find an email. If their isn't a contact on their social pages then I usually tweet the blogger directly, but chances are a lot of PR's will be extremely busy and won't have time to do this - make it easier for them and have your email visible on your home page or a clear link to your contacts page.
2.) Include your name, age, location on your homepage
Again, this seems an obvious one but I can't begin to tell you the amount of times I've gone to contact someone and I can't find their name anywhere on their blog, social channels or signature of a post, it feels really impersonal to send an email without addressing a bloggers name so many companies would stray away from emailing because of this reason. Also, add your location/country so brands don't contact you thinking you're UK based when actually you live in America, it's a simple allowing brands to contact their target audience. Age isn't an essential one and it also doesn't have to be your exact age if you don't want to share it, '20/30 something' would work fine just so brands have a rough idea of what they're working with. If a brand is pushing an Anti-ageing cream that's designed for 30+ skin types, they may not contact you for fear of embarrassment when you reply saying that actually, you're only 25 which could lead to missed opportunities. Make it easier for them by adding any relevant information you feel may help them.
3.) Tweet/email your blog posts
If you're working with a brand and have featured their product on your blog, always try to drop them an email with a link to the post so they're aware of the post and they can include it in their coverage. A lot of PR's won't have time to go through every blogger they've sent to and check for coverage so there's a chance your post might be missed which is not what either of you want.However, being a blogger on the other side I understand that it's extremely hard to keep every brand/PR notified when you've featured their product as we lead busy lives too. If I don't have time to email the PR's then I tend to tweet my posts and tag the brands/PR company, chances are that way they will see the post on their social feed and they can read the post from there.
4.) Make sure you date your blog posts
This one is so important for PR's when they are putting together their coverage reports and evaluations! When I first started I didn't have a date with my blog posts and realised it was harder for companies to know when the post was actually posted, I soon changed that and it makes it easier for everyone involved. That way when companies are doing their 'April report' they can quickly and easily see if your post was actually posted in April rather than contacting you to find out.
5.) Include a link to your PR samples/sponsored post disclaimer pages
On my blog I have a page for PR samples,sponsored postsas well as a general contact page. That way if a brand is wanting to contact you to send out a PR sample or work with you on a sponsored content they will be able to read your disclaimer and check that you work with either or both, this saves time for both parties as if you don't accept sponsored posts then they won't need to email you and you won't need to reply to the email stating that you don't, it just cuts out the too-ing and frowning and makes it easier for them to see if you are suitable for their collaboration.
Did you find this post useful? How do you make your blog PR friendly?
