Promoting Your Small Business via Blogs
I have quite an interest in small businesses, especially when they are run by parents, you can read about businesses like this in my mumpreneur series.
I’ve made my points about PR people contacting me with various promotions, and it isn’t the PR people themselves but their approach that has been the issue. On a more positive note I’ve had some great direct communications with small businesses with which I’ve done interviews and promotions with, like my recent relationship with Frugi. We’ve done an interview which helps them tell their story but the reason I like doing them is to inspire and educate budding mumpreneurs, Frugi also sent me some samples of their product for Erin which I’ll get around to photographing soon. What I’m getting at is that this is the kind of organic relationship I like to encourage, something for everyone and I’m sure that Frugi and Littlemummy.com will work together again sometime in the future, the door has been left open.
If you’re a small business owner and want to promote your business via parent blogs I’d recommend you start by reading my post on the three things that need to be present to make a blogger want to work with you.
Here are some further points to consider when approaching blogs;
1. Quality not Quantity
Don’t just go after every blog you can find, consider your product or offering and do some research to find a good fit. Approach blogs that have children the correct age for your product or try and get a feel for the bloggers hobbies, tastes and interests. Given the size of the parent blogosphere I don’t think you want to work with any more than around ten blogs, and I would say that is an absolute maximum, if I were in your shoes I’d go after five that were an excellent fit and make your offer to them and their readers more special. If you have a very exclusive offer choose one blog and let them know they are the only blog that you have approached, this is a particularly good option depending on the kind of promotion you’re thinking of.
2. Do Your Homework
Email your ‘chosen ones’, keep your first contact brief. Introduce yourself and your business. Demonstrate your knowledge of their blog, don’t say ‘I really like your blog’, we don’t believe that crap anymore, instead describe what you have to offer and refer to the information you have gleaned from your research. Say something like; I noticed you live just outside of Edinburgh and you have a preschooler, I have a four year old myself and know how difficult it is to keep children occupied over the summer and wondered if I could send you my product X to try. I would appreciate any feedback. You should avoid asking for a review where possible, bloggers blog, and if they can find something remarkable to say regarding your product they will, and if they can’t, well…sometimes it’s best they don’t blog about it, if you know what I mean 
3. Promotional Strategies
Have a specific promotional idea in mind but be open to suggestions, the blogger knows their audience the best and will know what will and will not go down well. Most promotional activities to date have revolved around unpaid reviews, usually for free samples. Here are some other strategies you may consider, what bloggers are open to will vary wildly so proceed with caution and try and figure out what sort of promotions they have done before.
Unpaid Review – This is the most common and involves you providing a complementary product that may be reviewed by the blogger, a positive review can never be guaranteed.
Paid Review – You provide a product and pay the blogger a fee, which may range from ?20 – ?50 to write a review, a positive review cannot be guaranteed, however most bloggers carry out honest and balanced reviews.
Competition/Giveaway – You provide a ‘prize’, the blogger carries out the competition on your behalf. This model has been predominantly unpaid, however, I think we may begin to see a move away from that shortly due to the effort involved. A fee of around ?25 – ?75 may be considered an acceptable range. These giveaways can be promoted on the blog, in a newsletter, via twitter and facebook.
Banner – A more traditional form of advertising involving displaying a hyperlinked graphic in the sidebar. These are usually sold by the month/quarterly/yearly for fees start from around ?20
Advertorial – You provide an article or feature and pay to have this placed as a post on the blog, usually with linkbacks. This isn’t something that has happened much yet but I’d estimate that a fee in the region of ?25-?50.
Newsletter Marketing – Only a small amount of parent bloggers currently have newsletters. Newsletter adverts could be placed for a fee of perhaps ?25 and upwards.
Blog Sponsor – This would involve being the sole sponsor of a whole blog, this may include your logo in the header, a banner advert as well as ongoing joint promotions. I’ve only heard this model being used in America. I’d hazard a guess that a fee in the region of ?500 – ?2000 per year would be sufficient for this to happen.
Promotion via parent blogs in Britain is still fairly new but if you want to grab some serious attention do something different, something groundbreaking. Disney did it with their bloggers trip but it doesn’t take a huge budget, build the relationship and be creative. Good Luck
I think the prices you have quoted are pretty low. Is it a little unfair to suggest a pricing structure for everyone? Or have I misunderstood and this is your own pricing list?
There has been a lot of discussion around this subject although you’re the first I’ve read to quote rates. What I am curious about is what type of blog are you referring to based on these rates? Is it like a personal mummy blog? Is it based on page impressions or what are the metrics for determining the rates? Also what size of ad are the ad rates based on. At first glance, these rates are very low but it’s dependent on context, hence the questions. Also, are you suggesting this is what everyone should charge?
Hi Kat, The rates I’ve given are neither for this blog or any other just an estimate of what I think it *may* cost to do some promotional activities on a blog.
Prices vary wildly depending on metrics such as pageviews, subscribers etc.. The rates I’ve given are based on my own experiences and those around me, as well as what some of the established brokers will charge.
Hi Natalie, the rates I’ve given are only to give small businesses a very rough idea of what some promotional activities *may* cost.
When I made these suggestions I was predominantly considering UK parent blogs, of which the majority are quite small (relatively)in terms of pageviews and subscribers.
I’m in no way suggesting that this is what every blog should charge, that decision can only be made by the blogger. However, these fees are in keeping with what a broker may charge and what other small blogs charge.
Thanks for explaining. It’s good to get an idea of what the is going on out there in terms of rates. My two things I would suggest and I do intend to write some articles on the subject are:
Niche audiences command higher rates than less targeted audiences where there is a broad spectrum of readers. In these instances, it is not solely down to traffic – it’s influence and impact as many brands find it better to be in front of a smaller number of targetted eyeballs instead of losing impact across many. This is where this ‘mummy blogging’ trend must strike a balance and avoid selling itself short.
If comps are coming from PR agencies, unless they hold residual budget, you may find it difficult to charge a fee as their job is to achieve coverage for free and their budget is product.