As a blogger I often have some fantastic opportunities and collaborations where I get to work with some of the top brands and PR companies in the country. Lots of bloggers, myself included, have written about how bloggers can secure these kind of deals, how they can create such awesome collaborations and where to find them but there is little written about how brands who are new to blogger collaborations can get involved. So this article is aimed more at brands, specifically those that want to know how to work with fitness bloggers or influencers in the fitness niche.
Put a call out on your social media channels
If you are a sports brand with a relatively good social media following and you believe that the type of influencers and sports bloggers you want to work with already follow you then create a catchy status or social media campaign asking them to get in touch.
Message bloggers direct
If you have a specific blogger in mind then follow their social media channels and read their blog. Most bloggers will have a work with me page where they will talk you through what collaborations they are willing to do and how to go about getting in touch with them to discuss. It is better to follow this outline then to send them a random message on instagram as if you do it is likely you will 1) look unprofessional and 2) run the risk of them thinking you are a fake account and ignoring your message.
Use a blogger outreach service
If you are new to the blogger collaboration game then using a blogger outreach service is the perfect way to get started. One of my favourites is the Getblogged market place as it clearly outlines what the brand wants from the blogger and what they are offering in return. The benefit to brands using companies that offer this service is that they already have some of the best bloggers on their books. They know which ones are sports bloggers and which are beauty etc. They will also have a list of all these bloggers statistics and know which ones will be a good fit for your brand and how much you should be paying them. Another bonus of using a blogger outreach service is that they will act as the middle man, arrange the work, match it with a blogger, organise contracts and chase up any work that is not completed on time, freeing you up to concentrate on your sports business.
Run a competition
If you do have some time on your hands and want to be involved with the whole collaboration from start to finish then one way you could do this is my launching a competition. You could ask for sports bloggers that would like to work with you to enter a competition to compete for the contract. This could be a written blog posts, some insta pics, whatever you like really. However, do make sure if you are going down this route that the prize or contract on offer is a good one otherwise you are unlikely to get many sports bloggers taking the time to create content for the chance to “win” a job. That being said these do work well in the travel industry so might be worth a shot if you have the time.
Sponsor an athlete or an event
And finally one way a brand can work with a sports blogger is by sponsoring them or their team as they compete. This could be a sponsorship whereby they agree to wear your brands clothing or use your products and share pictures of them doing so across social media or it could be a sponsorship financially where you have your brand logo on their clothing/kit and ask them to also blog about it for a set amount of time.
For more ideas on how you as a brand can work with bloggers then make sure you are reading their blogs and getting inspired by what brands are already doing that works well. My favourite sports bloggers include The 5k runner, Fat girl to Ironman, Alice Living and Emily Williams fitness. All of who work successfully with brands in natural ways that always appear genuine and not forced or shoe horned in to their content.