What are the best ways to build relationships with bloggers in B2B marketing?

The best way that works for me is to follow the bloggers that you are interested in. Read their stuff, engage with their stuff on their blog or social posts, and build a relationship. Once you have an established relationship, reach out to collaborate by adding value. People like working with people they know, so start by building a relationship with them first.

To connect with bloggers in B2B marketing, start by discovering those who talk about topics related to your industry. Tools like BuzzSumo, SEMrush, or Ahrefs can help you find keywords and top-performing blogs. Look for blogs open to guest posts or interviews, and rank them based on relevance and authority. For instance, if you're in the software industry, find bloggers who discuss the latest trends or review new tools. Making this list helps you focus on building relationships with bloggers who align with your business. Remember, it's like finding friends who share your interests!

Search for "Write for us" and find sites that have lists. Start contributing to their content development. They will be very interested in your unique content, and they can publish it on their websites. That is a great starting point.

Are you looking for a content creator or aiming to build a larger audience? Depending on your objective, I suggest leveraging Semrush for audience growth. For content creation, evaluate the quality of your options and conduct a targeted audience test. Collect their perspectives to determine if the chosen thought leader aligns with how you want to present yourself.

Don’t just reach out with a request the first time you interact. Build the relationship first. Read their stuff, comment on it, find ways to show gratitude for the content they have already put out. After the relationship is built, reach out with ways to collaborate on future projects that would add value for THEM! People don’t want to work with people they don’t know. So build the relationship first, then offer value when you reach out to collaborate.

Provide exclusive content or access that's so special, it's the kind you wouldn't even share with your colleagues from another department! You can consider offering bloggers who are real influencers exclusive access to your products or services or providing them with insider information or data they can use in their content. This can help establish you as a thought leader and increase your chances of being featured on their blog.

If you have a product that's innovative and truly solves one or more big issues in your category, the bloggers will automatically be drawn towards you. Their biggest job is to keep their audience informed and provide them with value, so if your product can help their audience, they'll be much more open to collaborate. However, if you don't have a strong or competitive product, it will be significantly harder to convince the relevant bloggers to collaborate with you and likely you'll experience they need big incentives to compromise.