IRCE Session Recruiting Bloggers as Affiliates: Why—and How

This is IRCE session Recruiting Bloggers as Affiliates: Why—and How, presented by Carolyn Kmet, Chief Marketing Officer - All Inclusive Marketing and Carrie Rocha, Blogger - Pocketyourdollars.com. Bloggers have an established, third-party credibility with loyal, engaged audiences with creative positioning extending brand reach.

Keep in mind FTC rules that bloggers must disclose if you've paid them or provided them with a giveaway, etc. Make sure you realize you will lose some brand control.

Bloggers need to have a personal connection with your brand. Bloggers are seen as a subject matter expert, so they don't want to do anything to risk that, so they focus on their mission first, money second.

Find bloggers by searching on your target keywords, and then look at their level of engagement with their audience.

Bloggers are looking for reliable brands to work for - quality products, accurate information, high-quality customer service.

Every blogger has a unique audience - don't send an email blast to all potential bloggers, connect with them with an email/offer tailored to them and their audience.

Bloggers share contact, connections and experiences with each other.  If you provide a great experience, the bloggers will talk and other bloggers will want to work with your brand.

Measuring blogger ROI: traffic, gross revenue, new/existing customer ratio and long-term-customer-value. Also look at brand engagement - tweets/RTs, comments, shares, etc. Share metrics with your blogger affiliates.

Bloggers measure success by looking at what their readers say - readers response and engagement via comments, shares and sales. Opened communication channel with brand for future projects.

As a personal aside - retailers, please remember that bloggers are a business - don't expect them to work for free, and treat them professionally.