I have the pleasure of introducing Sarah Fazendin of A Week At The Beach today where you’ll be hearing us chat about PR secrets that she gained working with the Tourism Board of Kenya and later running her own PR marketing firm in Africa. As bloggers we work with folks in PR and marketing all the time but very rarely do we get to hear from someone that’s seen and experienced things on the other side.
With Sarah, you’ll get some great perspective from a blogger just a little over one year old. Despite the blog’s age though, Sarah’s been able to build up her blog incredibly quickly and leveraging her PR background, is doing things with her blog I could only dream of when I was one year in.
You’re in for quite a treat. I think you’ll particularly like some of the pitching strategies Sarah shares. Time to get your listen on!
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Summary
Today I have the opportunity to share with you a great chat I had with Sarah of A Week At The Beach!
Having only started blogging January 4, 2014, it’s incredible to hear a story of success from a blogger. In just over a year, she’s had the chance to work with several brands and go on press trips. If anything, there’s just a lot that other bloggers can learn from her experience and approach.
A lot of that wisdom really comes from her background in PR. The “other side” is usually a bit of a mystery for us as bloggers so I took this opportunity to ask her about what knowledge she’s been able to leverage as someone with the inside edge.
In this particular episode, you will learn
- About A Week At The Beach
- About Sarah’s PR background and her foray into blogging
- Leveraging of Google and Facebook Groups to get information about blogging
- TBEX Cancun experience in 2014
- Balancing blogging, family, and everything else
- TIP: Wake up between 4-5AM to do uninterrupted writing
- PR and marketing insights
- The need to get into the mindset of PR/marketing and realize what they care about at the end of the day is to sell and put “heads in beds”
- Mindset switch – travel bloggers ARE marketers
- Smart pitching strategies
- Think about how do we bring value to them
- Elements of a pitch
- Introduction (2 lines at most)
- Specific Ask
- What you will provide in exchange (be very specific)
- dedicated article
- live social media coverage
- coverage in a roundup (guide)
- provide content for them
- photos
- Food for thought: How do we as bloggers better track ROI for brands when we work with them on campaigns
- Handling negative experiences
- Perception of bloggers by PR
- Long-term viability of the travel industry
- Bonus
- Content writing strategies – focus on action/information packed posts for travel planners
- Sarah’s success with re-categorization and creation of guides resulting in increased traffic
- Making income by working with brands like hotels to create content for them
- Sarah’s breakthrough moment
Links mentioned in this episode
Thanks for listening
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[…] January was a great month with my podcasts with Chris of One Weird Globe and Sarah of A Week At The Beach. […]
Hi Will,
I really like your podcasts they are great, so many good tips and tricks for new bloggers. I love the recommendations on how to work with advertisers, start getting promotions etc. It would be nice to hear about the different tactics on gaining followers as well =)
What were those FB groups you have joined?
Hey Jessica! Thanks for dropping a line. Those Facebook groups can be found here: http://travelblogbreakthrough.com/facebook-groups-travel-bloggers-should-know-about/