5 Hacks for Finding Media Partners to Promote Your Ecommerce Store
Collaborating with the media to get your ecommerce store in the spotlight is a tried-and-true marketing strategy used by merchants to drive more (quality) traffic to their store.
Finding bloggers and reporters to write about your ecommerce store can feel like an extremely daunting and intimidating task, but it’s an important one to ensure your store gets the attention it needs and deserves.
We put together a list of some of the best hacks you can use to find the right content creators to help you tell your story. Some of the tips are no-brainers, while others will encourage you to get creative!
Hack #1 – Google it!
This tip is probably an obvious one, but there are a lot of little hacks within Google to make your search queries return more relevant results, saving you a lot of time!
1. Use Google News to find relevant articles and blogs
Input keywords related to your products and click the “News” tab to find a list of publications and blogs that have already covered similar topics.
2. Refine your search by content type, date published, and relevancy.
Click the “Tools” button in the right corner of the menu to reveal filters.
Use the left filter to only show blogs, the middle filter to select a date range, and the right filter to sort by relevance (recommended).
With these filters selected, Google will return the most relevant blog posts related to your query in your specified date range.
3. Use special characters and words in your search query
Google has its own search language that enables you to automatically filter your search results by including the special characters and words in your query.
Put – in front of words you want to exclude.
Put a word or phrase inside quotation marks to search for an exact match.
Put OR between each search query to combine searches.
Put site: in front of a domain address to search for a specific website.
Put related: in front of a domain address you already know to find related sites.
Hack #2 – Search on YouTube
Merchants that work with vloggers to promote their ecommerce store often see some of the highest rates of success. Many vloggers have a very niche and engaged audience that trust product recommendations and reviews. Getting a sample into the hands of the right vlogger can make a huge difference for your store.
Try searching for YouTube reviews of products that are either similar or complementary to yours. Look at the text just below the video title to see who published it, how many times it has been viewed, and when it was originally posted.
Use the “Filter” button to further refine your search query.
In the example above Pack Hacker appears multiple times in the first page of results for our sample search query. To learn more about a specific vlogger, you can click on their name in the search results page or on the actual video player page to view their personal profile.
Once you’re on their profile, click on the “About” tab to learn more and to access their contact information.
Hack #3 – Hashtags
Searching by hashtag can be an effective strategy to find content creators, especially influencers, that have a social following similar to your target market.
1. Instagram
Enter your keyword or phrase into Instagram’s search bar, and click on the “Tags” tab. Instagram automatically sorts the tagged posts by “Top” or “Recent”, and suggests other hashtags that are related to your query. Posts that make the cut to be featured on the “Top” page are the ones you’re probably going to want to focus your time on, as many of these posts are made by larger accounts and influencers.
2. Twitter
Use Twitter’s search bar to find Tweets containing your keyword or phrase. Click on the “Advanced Search” option to filter your query by the most important words, specific Twitter accounts, Tweet engagement levels, and/or dates.
3. Google
Use # in front of your keyword or phrase in your Google search query to find content connected to your hashtag across all social media channels.
Hack #4 – Podcasts
Getting your project featured on a relevant podcast is a surefire way to reach an engaged and targeted audience. Some niche podcasts are open to receiving requests to be a guest on their show, or may offer sponsorship opportunities.
You can search for podcasts that cover topics related to your industry through popular podcast providers like Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Click on the podcast title to learn more about the show and its producer(s), and make sure you listen to at least a few episodes before you consider reaching out.
If no email address or direct contact information is listed, try searching for the podcast on social media and connecting with the producer through direct message.
Podcasts can provide a fantastic way to get your product in front of prospective backers, so make sure you don’t forget about them when building out your media outreach strategy.
Hack #5 – Blog Host Sites
Independent blog host sites like Medium are gold mines when it comes to finding content creators. Many of the writers on these sites are independent and looking for ways to monetize their content.
Input a keyword or phrase into the search bar to find stories, people, publications, and tags related to it. Click on the author’s name to find contact information on their personal profile page.
Making Contact
Once you’ve compiled a list of media outlets and independent content creators that you think would be a good fit for your products, the next step is to begin reaching out.
Identifying suitable publications and blogs to pitch your store to is the easy part. Actually getting coverage takes a captivating story, a clear ask, and an appealing offer.
Check out this post for tips and resources to help you pitch your store to the press!