Clients often ask us when paying a blogger for placement is appropriate, and my answer is — it depends. The landscape has changed dramatically over the past 2-3 years with more and more bloggers demanding fees or free merchandise in exchange for writing about your product or service. Bloggers can be a powerful tool in your media outreach arsenal if you have clear objectives and know what you want to accomplish.
Here are 3 quick questions to ask yourself before whipping out your credit card to pay for a sponsored post:
- Do you have a blogger outreach strategy, or is this a one-off opportunity?
Working with bloggers on an inconsistent basis rarely yields results. Companies that execute blogger campaigns with complementary products, consistent messaging, and simple calls to action can achieve significant ROI in the form of increased sales, social media interaction, and word-of-mouth.
- Is it a quality blog?
Look over the blog closely. Observe how often the blogger posts and how much interaction they are getting on their site. Make sure they have an engaged social media following on the channels that resonate best with your consumers. Pay attention to whether other major brands have a presence on the blog. If so, that’s a good sign. And lastly, make sure the blogger can validate traffic data. Serious bloggers have downloadable media kits and should be able to provide proof via Google Analytics or a similar measurement tool to verify site traffic.
- How much should I pay?
Although there is no formal rule for how much to pay for a sponsored post, fees can range anywhere from $25 to $500. Bloggers generally set their rates based on site traffic. Keep in mind most blogs are small and receive less than 25,000 unique monthly visitors (UV). If social reach is more important, you may look at those numbers in conjunction with UVs. Bloggers are negotiable, so if you’re planning a long-term outreach strategy, you may want to negotiate discounts for multiple posts upfront.
It’s also important to note that reputable bloggers will disclose that your post is sponsored.
Blogger campaigns can be labor intensive, but a qualified agency should be able to help you navigate the tricky blogosphere and garner good results.