From our experience the phenomenon of asking bloggers to trial products or services is increasing markedly. It makes sense from a number of perspectives.

1. If the blogger talks about the user experience, it can help sales as often bloggers have strong network, it may “kick start” a word-of-mouth campaign. (+ or – impact is possible)
2. The blog post plus accompanying comments provide an online live focus group where companies will find out things they didn’t know before. (+ or – feedback is likely)
3. If a number of well connected bloggers post then there may be positive SEO impact as often they are picked up quickly by Google, MSN and Yahoo and when you and I search there we see the results potentially on coveted page 1 or 2. (+ or – impact is possible)

If targeting bloggers is common sense when part of a well thought through marketing and communications plan, the question is how to approach the bloggers in a common sense way when they have been selected? If you know the person already, calling is a good option, this may not be possible in all cases but the rules below are good for whatever medium is chosen. By the way I took part of this content from worldcadaccess blog.

1. Avoid the Intimacy Trap: “The marketing person may know a lot about the blogger but the blogger may not know you. So it’s easy to become over-personal, colloquial or even slack in your pitch. This can come across as being forward, lazy or careless, even though that’s not your intent.” (Source: http://worldcadaccess.typepad.com)

2. Personalise the message: “You have selected the blogger because it is believed they have talent and passion for the target area. It is important not to insult the person or undermine their time by writing to them via a mailer. A simple message well constructed explaining the purpose of the seeding is required.” (Source: http://worldcadaccess.typepad.com)

3. Openness: Attentio advocates openness at all levels of this process. Explain to the blogger why they have been selected i.e. they are an authority on the topic area and will be able to give insights into use of the product. Their feedback would be gratefully received. If they blog about the experience they should mention how they received the product. Of course bloggers should not be forced to write anything, although they should indicate that if they receive the product they will endeavour to at least to trial it. I believe in the future that companies will want to know that the blogger will post about it, accepting good or bad feedback; this is not the norm now. Bloggers should not be paid to trial; it creates too many potential problems for bloggers and company.

4. Incremental approach where possible: It may not be advisable to give products to everyone at the same time. Start first pass of seeding with a small sample set, this is will give insights into the process and take initial feedback in order to shape rest of campaign. Initial phase might be to place 25% of allotted products; however a decision will have to be made on how this fits into the overall marketing plan.

As always, it is crucial to monitor the impact of the campaign. There will be positive and negative feedback. There should also be take-up from other bloggers. Monitoring and subsequently measuring enables the acquisition of vital consumer feedback and return on investment information. (Disc: Attentio offers this service)

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