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12 Reasons Bloggers Don’t Want To Work With Brands

on April 2, 2012
by Greg Goodson

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It’s been said over and over: blog outreach can be an awesome way to get your brand to become ‘known’. But guess what? Bloggers don’t want to work with you!

Ok – maybe that’s a little misleading. But hey! As a brand, you should know that bloggers turn away brands just as often as you might turn away bloggers. Brands are shocked when they’re rejected. But guess what…

Sometimes, bloggers don’t want to work with you!

Why? Well… it depends.

Over the last month, we surveyed 500+ bloggers asking them questions regarding the relationships they’ve formed with brands in the past — from the good, the bad, and the ugly. Reading through the feedback, twelve distinct characteristics stood out that bloggers look for when partnering with a brand.

The objective of this article is to share some insights on what it’s like from a blogger’s perspective when they choose to partner with a brand. Through this two-part series, we’re going to break down twelves reasons why a blogger might turn down a brand for a campaign they might be doing. In the first post, we’re going to share with you six reasons why a blogger might turn you down in no particular order:

1. Your Products Don’t Fit The Blogger’s Niche

Almost seems obvious, doesn’t it? But it’s highly recommended to be aware and respectful of the niche that the blogger is in.

Bloggers build an audience around topics that they’re passionate about: travelling, baking cakes, running marathons, etc. If your product doesn’t fit the blog’s niche, their audience won’t be interested in what you have to offer, and neither will the blogger.

Put yourself in their shoes: if you were a fashion blogger approached by a company who sells organic coffee, wouldn’t you be hesitant to move forward? I might put that email right in the trash.

Michael from Art of Backpacking, an international travel blog, tells us his perspective:

“The brand must be targeting the same niche. In my case, it needs to be travel related. The product or service also needs to be of good value.” (check out his review/giveaway for dog-friendly travel items)

2. You Are Not ‘Personable, Yet Professional’

Loosen up your tie a bit and feel free to kick off your shoes! Working with bloggers should be fun :-) A bit of laughter accompanied by a smile goes a long way. So be personable!

Here’s a good tip: talk to a blogger as if they were a neighbor who invited you to their home for a summer cookout. Get to know who they are on a first name basis and be respectful of their space. And please, save yourself the embarrassment: don’t show up to the party in formal wear – you’ll be laughed at.

On that note, you’ll also have to know when to be serious: at the end of the day, business is still business. Bloggers understand this just as much as you do, but that doesn’t mean you have to be formal 100% of the time.

Nicole of Pretty Opinionated writes:

“Do the brands address me by name, or at least get my blog title correct? Is their email personable yet professional? Do they seem easy to work with? These are all important to me.”

3. You Are Not Open Minded & Never Listen To What The Bloggers Has To Say

Bloggers partner with and are sponsored by different brands all the time. While you might be used to the same routine at your company when it comes to blog outreach, keep in mind that many bloggers have been exposed to many different marketing campaigns and approaches from a myriad of companies.

In this regard, bloggers are pretty darned experienced and can be privy to a wealth of knowledge. Take our advice: be open-minded and listen to ideas and suggestions that they might have. You might know what works for your brand, but they know what works for their blog.

When asked about the best experience working with a brand, Angie of Luv Saving Money writes:

“They send me the newest products they offer.  They also offer great giveaway periodically to my readers.  They offer web conferences to talk to people that help create the AVEENO products and listen to our feedback and answer questions.  They also do nice incentives for us like gift cards at Christmas this past year or opportunities to represent the brand at events.”

4. You Aren’t Trustworthy

Nothing makes us more upset than seeing a brand that doesn’t follow through on a commitment that they’ve made to bloggers, whether that is inclusion in a campaign they’re running or mailing out prizes to winners of a giveaway. We’ve worked with a few brands that haven’t been trustworthy in the past. It’s the worst

Just as you’d hope bloggers would be trustworthy working with you, bloggers have seen their fair share of brands that over-promise and under-deliver. You can appear more trustworthy and honest to a blogger by providing references of bloggers that they might have worked with in the past, maybe a well connected social media campaign, or a good presence on LinkedIn.

On the subject, Mandee of Raising My 5 Sons exclaims:

“A brand I work with must be dependable and trustworthy. Someone that has a product that really speaks for itself. I look for products that we can use in my household, and also ones that might spark the interest of our readers.”

5. You Don’t Have A Relevant Mission Statement

Certainly this isn’t mandatory, but it’s definitely a plus. Consider it icing on the cake. If your brand’s mission statement is in line with the blogger’s philosophy, you’ve definitely got an edge.

One brand we’ve worked with in the past is ‘Pur Minerals’ who sells mineral-based makeup products. Their company is very passionate about giving back to the community. It resonated really well with the bloggers they worked with and their communities: “As a nature-based brand for women, we feel it’s our responsibility to give back to those who make life beautiful and to the world we all share.” You can read more about Pur Minerals philosophy here.

Everyone appreciates a good social responsibility campaign. If your company not only has one but lives and breathes it, by all means let everyone know!

Andrea, who talks finances at her blog So Over Debt, tells us she looks for brands that have:

“A Relationship to my niche, relevance to the needs of my audience, and a mission and values in line with mine.”

6. You Don’t Stand Behind Your Product

If you’re offering a product to bloggers that gets 2 out of 5 star reviews on Amazon, consider it a no-go. Bloggers have their own branding to deal with. Bloggers standing behind a *cough* crappy *cough* product on their blog makes them look bad to their readers among other things.

So you ask ‘in what situation would a brand offer to partner with bloggers and give them products they don’t stand behind?’ It depends. But we’ve seen it happen when brands want to say… get rid of inventory in their warehouse or gather inbound links to their site.

If the brand is passionate about what they make and stand behind their products, it’ll show!  So be passionate about what your company does… it goes a long way.

Want To Read Reasons 7 through 12?!

Next week, we’ll bring you part II of this post. We’ve got six more reasons why bloggers don’t want to work with you, and they have just as much relevance as the first six listed above. Check out part II here:

http://blog.rafflecopter.com/2012/04/brands-brands-part-two/

If you’re a brand interested in hearing more how Rafflecopter hopes to help brands work with bloggers in a more effective way, sign up to hear more at brands.rafflecopter.com. We’d love to hear from you!

Filed Under: Marketing

About the author

Greg Goodson

Greg Goodson is the cofounder of Rafflecopter. 25x ultramarathoner, bluegrass guitarist, & weather enthusiast. Owner of one doge.

Follow @@greggoodson
  • Adriennevh

    Very well said!

  • Liza

    “No means no.” If we say no, please do not continue to pester us – especially whilst trying to be professional. It makes us feel like money signs and nothing else – like you don’t care at all what we have to say or how we feel. There is some writing company that continuously emails me asking me to have someone guest write a blog post on my blog to advertise something that [really] has nothing to do with what I typically blog about for anywhere from $50 to $200. She kept raising the price and begging, and it was like even though I told her I don’t do that, she didn’t care. Like it didn’t matter. Caring goes a long way.

    Besides, it was on my PERSONAL BLOG, and she didn’t understand that, either. ‘Twas quite frustrating, and I finally ended up blocking her email address from emailing me and her IP Address from visiting my website. I didn’t know what else to do.

    Caring goes a long way, and taking what we say into consideration is awesome.

  • Jenny

    i don’t really work with brands, i just offer them ad space ’cause a lot of the stuff i get emailed about is that cheap crap that breaks the second you open it or use it.

  • Angela

    I was supposed to be working with this author to review a book. When they said they’ll send the book, I thought that they would send the book the next day or so. This was over a month ago and I still haven’t received the book and they are not answering my messages. If you have no intention of delivering on your side of the bargain, don’t bother working with bloggers.

  • Cool Moms Cool Tips

    Well said! Have worked with brands to support them and after received. Nothing in return for my readers or for blog by way of future opportunities or the chance to keep supporting after I have voiced how interested our readers were of them

  • Bret @ Green Global Travel

    Good post! We at Green Global Travel have turned down quite a few (as in about 95%) of the offers we’ve gotten for partnerships, sponsorships and advertising for these very reasons. Our brand identity is easily our most valuable asset, and we want to ensure  that any company we crawl into bed with is going to reflect well on us, just as we know our hard work will reflect well on them. When it’s a good fit, we know immediately.

    • Greg Goodson

      Couldn’t have said it better myself :) thanks for sharing Bret!

  • Raymond @ Man On The Lam

    I hope “You make crappy offers” makes it the rest of your list.
    No, I do not want to test a $20 phone card and write a review about it. No, I do not want to give you a permanent link on my sidebar for 30 bucks. And no, I do not want your “free content” with appalling writing and links back to your website.

    • Cheryl Free

       Crappy products is reason number 6.

      • Raymond @ Man On The Lam

        I was aiming more for companies that make low-ball offers to get free or cheap backlinks to their site. A little different than crappy products. Although it is usually the same companies that are offering the crappy products who do this. :)

        • Cheryl Free

          I see what you mean ;)  I’ve received a few of those myself.

    • Rafflecopter

      Boo to that! #liked

  • ModaMama

    I completely agree.  I’ve turned away about 12 companies, but have accepted three.  The rejected parties are all surprised!  If they read my blog they would know exactly why they were turned away, so clearly they’ve never read my blog.  And I agree with Liza below – stop constantly pestering and writing.  At some point it’s harassment. 

    Oh and the “You Make Crappy Offers’ is also totally true!  This is my time and energy.

  • Kristy Anstett

    Great post. #1 is my own biggest pet peeve as I get a lot of these. On the bright side, they don’t take much time to deal with – 5-10 second cursory glance, delete. (Or a quick note back confirming that the partnership isn’t a good fit, if the note seems earnest and there’s been some attempt to reference my name, blog title and/or a specific post.) Can’t wait to read 7-12!

    • Rafflecopter

      Thanks Kristy! #1 was the characteristic that seemed to pop up most in the surveys that we read. We’re looking forward to publishing part two :)

  • Mimi

    Great post! can’t wait for the next one! 

  • Marie Denee

    One of my biggest frustrations is when the brand does not or tries to wiggle around your disclosure/review/giveaway policy. I have them there for a reason and when you ask me to bend the rules or change something that jeopardizes my relationship with my readers, its a done deal. 

    • Tree a.k.a Mother of Pearl

      Agreed!! That really irks me too!

    • Vegan Yack Attack

      Not only that, not mentioning that it’s a sponsored post or the product was given to you to review is against FCC regulations.

  • Sadie Lankford

    LOVE this article. And I love when brands are personal yet professional. I hate spamminess. :)

  • Ladonna Dennis

    Dear Brands, please do not expect the blogger nor the winner to pay the shipping or taxes. Can you be any more insulting?

    • Cheryl Free

       A definite turn-off and a prize I quickly walk away from.

    • Terri’s Little Haven

      Amen to that! :)

    • Angie Newton

       Absolutely!  I won a prize and couldn’t believe they wanted me to pay shipping. Needless to say, I told them how things normally work and the person who had the giveaway also called them out on it. They took care of it, thankfully!

      • Mark

        I’d pay all expenses for those wanting to do a DadScrubs giveaway –

        I’d be willing to do a review/giveaway if your interested. http://www.DadScrubs.com

    • Liza

      Exactly!

  • Shereen Rayle

    I get a lot of requests from companies that have nothing to do with travel, or don’t even read my blog well enough to know that I don’t promote camping, hostels or couchsurfing (I’m not against those things, but there a million other blogs out there for that sort of thing). I am also irked by those that spell my name wrong, especially since it’s in the name of my blog. Those go straight into the trash, as I feel like they don’t even care about me, just getting a link back.

    • Jamie Martin

      I will give someone who spells my very simple five letter name wrong one chance. After that, I start losing respect for them, especially on FB; it’s right there, ya know?

  • Kathy Cakebread

    I don’t get any offfers :( kind of disappointed really how do you guys get so many? my blogs been around 2 yrs and has a good amount of visitors

    • Christine Tolhurst

       I am a new blogger and have found that reaching out to companies I already like has helped. Twitter is a great way to reach out.

      One thing that really has bothered me has been reaching out to a company that at first seems really interested, then makes me jump through a ton of hoops and contact several different people with my pitch and then they suddenly change their mind. That is so aggravating!

      Another one is when I contact a company and don’t hear back at all (and I have given them weeks or more to respond) . At least let me know you are not interested. Don’t make me sit and wait. That in my mind, is very unprofessional.

      Above all, don’t give up, though. You have to market yourself at first, then it gets easier. Good luck!

    • Christine Mack

       I never waited for pitches. I always went to the companies that I wanted to work with. Passion takes you really far when and companies love enthusiasm. Know your stats. Know the history of their company. Be super super picky…that helps when someone looks at your blog. They see that you are mostly content. First build your content unless you just want to be a review blog. In that case my opinion is useless lol.

  • Cheryl Free

    Great article!  I enjoyed reading it and look forward to the next six reasons :)

    • Rafflecopter

      Thanks Cheryl! :)

      • Cheryl Free

         You’re welcome!  Thanks for keeping us updated — and sharing your wealth of information :)

  • Kelly @ City Mom

    Fantastic post! Finally someone is setting this straight! Can’t wait to read the next 6 reasons! I hope one is ‘we won’t work for free so don’t ask us to’!

  • Dominiquegoh

    I too just deleted the e-mails when they offer crappy products or can’t be bothered to pitch to me properly. Paying shipping and taxes out of my pocket when you are not even paying me to promote your stuff is certainly a no-no. 

  • Christine Mack

    First, I LOVE THAT CAT PICTURE. Second, great article and spot on. I have one to add. My name isn’t Dear Blogger. Yeah, into the circular file that one goes. Or my favorite are the ones that try to act like they read my blog but then I find out my friend got the same exact email… It’s also really funny when I get products just sent to me. What’s really really bad about that is the fact that most aren’t in my niche…or high quality but not really my thing. I hate when it when I get something that I have zero use for but I know another blogger would die for it. Also could you at least send a press release with the product so I know who to talk to?

    • Rafflecopter

      Are you reading our minds!? :P You nailed one that’ll be in next week’s blog post :) 

      And hey… what’s a blog post that without a lolcat or two ;-)

  • Mk

    Excellent article. I hope brands and their ad agenices/pr reps will take these to heart!

  • @MimiBakerMN

    I think you hit the nail on the head with this post! It’s good when brands “get” us as bloggers. It’s a partnership. Treat us like we matter. We’re not doing you a favor, we’re doing a job!

  • Amy

    Excellent post and I can’t wait for the next installment!  Thanks for all the time you put into this!

    • Rafflecopter

      Thanks Amy! :)

  • multitestingmommy

    Thanks for writing and sharing this information!

  • Amy

    Agreed!  I sometimes wonder how certain brands decided my blog was where they needed to advertise because we have nothing in common.  And no, I do not want to put a FREE guest post on my blog full of your links.  Delete.

  • Recupefashion

    don’t expect the blogger to giveaway the review items either that is so rude, ewwwew

  • Keri Houchin

    These are all very true! I would also add sending me a pitch for something today. I plan most of my posts a week or so in advance, often more for a product review. If you give me an hour’s notice, you have no chance.

  • Joe Colburn

    I’ve run into #4 a few times and I hit up against #1 just last night.  On one occasion, I ran a contest and gave away a PS3 sponsored by a website.  The sponsor vanished after the contest and I wound up buying the winner a PS3 out of my limited budget.  Always be careful will unknown sponsors.

  • Alicia A

    I’ve heard of companies telling the blogger that if their review is glowing, and doesn’t represent what the company thinks about their product, then they aren’t allowed to post it.  So I don’t like this product you sent, but you don’t like that I don’t like it, and now I can’t post about it?  Really?  You want me to be dishonest and lose the respect of my readers?  No thanks.

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  • Karissa @WithOurBest

    Well said Rafflecopter team! Thanks for being the voice of us bloggers!!

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  • Kathy K

    I guess I was on a little role there for a while actually got offers for products I actually would and do still use with my dogs.. then out of no where I started getting bombed with emails about things I’ve never once mentioned in a post! I was kind enough to pass the info on to a blogger I know who would enjoy them, but when I kept saying no thank you not a good fit the lady was like a bee buzzing around my head that just wouldn’t go away no matter how much you swat at it! Great post and great replies too!! 

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  • The Nail Files

    So true! Can’t wait for part 2 :)

  • Swanky Moms Club

    Interesting…

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