Photo credit: Jay Peroni
Blogs have grown to become a major marketing and PR channel. Some blogs are highly influential, with readerships that rival those of major media outlets. Many bloggers have attracted enormous social media followings and their posts can hold substantial sway.
PR and marketing are now reaching out to bloggers as a new channel for publicity and advertising. To many brands, the rules of engagement with bloggers, the expectations of bloggers, and the roles of paid and unpaid media placements in blogs are unclear.
A new study by Yomego, a full-service digital agency reveals some helpful insights into bloggers and their relationships with brands and their agencies.
Out of 250 bloggers and publishers in 86 categories who were polled, 46% enjoy being approached by brands, 21% don’t mind and 26% don’t mind it “from time to time.” Only 7% don’t like or hate it.
Show Them the Money?
That data doesn’t answer the key questions of brands about media placements in blog.
Do bloggers accept advertising?
Answer: Yes, an increasing number of bloggers do take paid advertising placements. Those that do accept advertising usually follow established formats for online advertising and often provide information on their websites about rates and terms. Some bloggers accept barter in the form of free product or services instead of cash payment for advertising.
The more difficult question is: Do bloggers expect payment for editorial placements by PR – known as earned media?
Answer: Here the rules blur. The generally applied rules are similar to the rules of traditional media in the past. Many brands, for instance, provide bloggers with sample products for review. While journalists at traditional media are now usually required to return testing samples, that’s not usually true in the blogging community. (The brand should require the blogger to acknowledge donation of the sample product.)
Paying Bloggers for Sponsored Content
It’s also generally acceptable for brands to pay for placement of sponsored editorial content (including guest posts) on blogs, provided that the blog labels the content as a paid placement – much in the same way that traditional publications now label native advertising.
Bloggers rarely require or request brands to pay for mentions of products in articles conceived and written by the blogger – and most brands forbid such payments (which some feel are a kin to the old radio disk jockey payola scandals).
If, however, the brand approaches the blogger about a writing a product-oriented post or otherwise promoting the product, many bloggers expect payment and will specify the amount of their fee during the placement discussions. Fees vary between $25 and $250 depending on the type of placement and the reach/influence of the blogger. Most bloggers view the payment as a fee for writing services and do not publicly acknowledge the payment if the blogger retains editorial control of the post.
About a quarter of the bloggers polled in the Yomego study say they always expect to be paid for their services. Younger bloggers tend to be more amendable to editorial changes in return for payment; older bloggers are more likely to prefer their editorial freedom.
Lines in the Sand
What’s a reasonable line in the sand for payment for editorial content? How about this?
• Payment to the blogger is appropriate if the editorial content is product focused – more a benefit to the brand than to the blogger’s audience — and the brand, not the blogger, has final editorial control of content. In this situation, the blog should acknowledge payment for the placement and editorial control by the sponsor.
• Payment to the blogger is not appropriate if the requested placement serves the interests of the blogger and the blogger’s followers more than it does the brand. Education or entertainment, not product promotion, is the core purpose of the piece. The blogger functioning as an independent journalist has full editorial control of the content. The blog post, therefore, is a traditional earned media placement.
Obviously, there’s still a grey area subject to interpretation, but most bloggers will recognize and publish without charge stories that reflect well on them and benefit their followers.
How to Please Bloggers
The Yomego poll also reveals what brands do to annoy bloggers and what PR and marketing can do to cultivate relationships with bloggers.
Get to know them. Getting to know bloggers and personalizing the relationship are essential for successful blogger outreach. Over 65% of bloggers say they are contacted by brands or agencies several times a week. Marketers who “go the extra mile” to develop a personal relationship stand out and are better remembered.
Find each blogger’s preferred contact method. Over half the bloggers prefer email communications, with Twitter direct messages a distant second. Unlike journalists, most bloggers do not publish a phone contact.
Be relevant. Irrelevant guest post pitches, scattergun PR distribution and a lack of understanding of a blogger’s core audience are common annoyances to bloggers.
Be clear upfront. Bloggers appreciate knowing what brands expect from them upfront. They like to learn in the brand’s initial outreach exactly what type of placement the brand expectsand what they’ll receive in return.
Bottom Line: Many blogs are extremely popular and influential in their niche. Blogs will probably become more important as traditional media outlets struggle and consumers increasingly ignore advertising. Brands that embrace blogger outreach as a main element of their earned media strategy will gain a competitive advantage. Brands should be willing to pay bloggers for advertising and for advertising-like editorial content. Brands should not pay bloggers for traditional earned media placements.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
This article must be really, really old because the info (and pricing) is outdated.
A thought: if bloggers do reviews for free, then it’s kind of screwing over all bloggers because it makes advertisers perceive that there’s less value in blog posts in general, it also makes them less likely to pay for sponsored posts since they can keep hassling bloggers to do it for free, and it deprives the blogging community of value and much needed income.
You’ve heard that most people value things based on what they paid for them? I think that’s true in general and especially in the case of brands and advertising. If bloggers give sponsorships away for free, then it ruins the brand’s perception of the value sponsored blog posts have.
BTW – I would consider any mention of a brand as a form of advertising… from the brand’s perspective, anyway. They pay $10,000/month or more to PR agencies to get this form of advertising. It’s clearly valuable, so why should bloggers give that kind of value (…and writing skill …and time …and photography) away for free, when brands clearly have the $$ to pay for it (heck, they’re paying other people for it)? Not to mention, it’s most bloggers only chance at income!
Every blogger should have a page listing their sponsored post options and prices, and should direct brands who want coverage to that page. The key is to always be honest in your reviews, no matter what. If you can’t say something nice, then give a refund. Only write about products, hotels, etc. that you’ve actually experienced/tried for long enough to get a good feel for them.
It may sound harsh, but I really think that the bloggers who write articles about brands for free, or just for product, do a disservice to themselves (that brand will never pay you in the future) and to all bloggers, since it devalues the service and makes it harder for bloggers (in general, as an industry) to make a living.
If you want to write articles without payment, write about brands who are vegan, ethical, eco, third-world artisan, and doing good in the world. They actually need the support and likely can’t afford to pay anyhow. But when L’Oreal comes knocking — make sure your time is well-rewarded.
I find it so frustrating when brands / PR ask for coverage with zero compensation. They ARE asking you to not only work for free, but provide free advertising. They pay everyone else they work with, so it’s insulting that they would think that they shouldn’t pay bloggers…
Further, bloggers who work for free ruin the industry for everyone else. If bloggers can’t make money because others will work for free, then the quality of blogs overall will decrease, since most will have to give it up in favor of a better paying job.
IMHO – A sponsored article on a professional-looking blog should cost an absolute minimum of $10k+, and a sponsored social media post should cost $15 to $30+ CPM (per thousand followers), depending on what the brand wants and what is involved. For perspective, many social media stars make $50k to $100k per Instagram post alone. And an ad in a print magazine can easily cost a few hundred thousand dollars. These brands are paying for ads elsewhere, so why not in your blog? Don’t you give them value too?
Good luck, bloggers! And remember: this is BUSINESS. Blogging is an industry, and your livelihood. You are providing a SERVICE for these brands, when you write about them. Never forget that!