Marketing Ninja

There’s a great post on LifeHack today by Dustin Wax about "How To Get a Blogger To Promote Your Product." I originally began this blog entry as a comment on LifeHack in response to Dustin, but it quickly became evident that I’d need to dedicate an entire post to the subject.

As someone who is both a blogger and a marketer by profession I can appreciate both ends of the situation:

• Bloggers don’t want to lose integrity or audience members by appearing to simply shill product that any marketer throws at them and
• Marketers want to move product and use bloggers to inexpensively reach new potential customers.

From A Blogger’s Perspective…

I’ve been asked to review some stuff before on the behalf of marketers and occasionally I’ll review products, like Trackur, because I think it’s a product that my audience might want to know about.

A Good Encounter with a Marketer

I like getting asked to write reviews for products and services that fall within my domain as a blogger; for instance, I was politely approached by a publicist for a major technical books publisher who wanted me to review one of their new works on ASP.NET, a technology that I was blogging about at the time I was approached.

They sent me a free copy of the book and I wrote what I thought was a pretty honest review and in return they offered to send me another book of my choice from their library – I can’t remember if I ever followed up or not.

Either way, I’d classify that encounter as a positive one because:

• I felt like the marketer had done his homework - I felt special because the company had picked me out, of all people, to review one of his company’s new texts that applied directly to my field and my blog; it’s a nice compliment and it’s something that a lot of bloggers would like to experience every now and then.
• The product review was applicable to my audience – When I write a review I can’t just do it because I want to feel acknowledged by a marketer; I have to know that it’s something that my audience might be interested in. The product was applicable to my audience, but I don’t know how well my review went over with them given that I didn’t get many comments.
• The marketer got some recognition for his book – The marketer ultimately got what he wanted – exposure, however minor it may have been.

A Bad Encounter with a Marketer

I’m not going to call any specific companies out on this, but let’s just say that most marketers don’t know what the hell they’re doing when it comes to approaching bloggers. I’ve been asked to review products that have ZERO to do with my blog, interests, or my audience; this is what Wired’s Chris Anderson was complaining about in his directive against PR people.

LifeHack has already produced a great list of the things that marketers can do to reach out to bloggers more effectively, but I’d like go on record and explain some of the things that bad marketers do to irritate bloggers:

• Don’t do their homework up-front – All many marketers see when they look at a blog are traffic figures and opportunities to convert; they don’t stop to consider the preferences and tastes of bloggers and, more importantly, the bloggers’ audiences.
• Are relentless – "Don’t take no for an answer" is an old sales philosophy which has no place in connecting with bloggers. If a blogger tells a marketer "no" on the subject of doing a product review and the marketer keeps pushing then he might end up creating a P.R. disaster for his own company, depending on the blogger’s temperament.
• Don’t let bloggers know that they are appreciated – Many marketers forget their manners and don’t say "please" or "thank you." This is irritating, impersonal, and it often makes some bloggers feel belittled.
• Aren’t willing to take bad news – Too many marketers want to exercise full control over what the bloggers write and what the bloggers say about his company’s products. If a blogger writes an honest review, a review which may include some opinions that are not marketer-approved, the bad marketer’s first response is to perform damage control and sometimes this includes weak attempts to discredit the blogger.

A lot of marketers simply don’t get how to treat bloggers properly. However, as you will see in my post on Monday, there are plenty of bloggers that try to pull some pretty sketchy stuff with marketers like me. Have a good weekend.

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