Why Airsoft Companies Need Bloggers To Reach The Airsoft World

This post will be of interest to those of you that sell airsoft products, run an airsoft website, or would like to know what airsoft blogs have to offer to airsoft companies!

 

One of the biggest resources that airsoft companies underestimate is the airsoft blogging community.  If a company provides an excellent product and understands the blogging community, it can get its product in front of airsofters with minimal effort and maximum results! Here are some of the benefits of working with airsoft bloggers:

 

Better Product Placement:

One of the goals every airsoft company strives for is to make their products more visible to airsofters, whether that be through web searches, pictures, videos, or social media.  Bloggers enable companies to have a powerful tool for enhancing SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and expanding a customer base.  Even if the blogger has a small platform at the time, as the blog expands, so will the number of readers who see the product!

 

Make More Money With Less Effort:

Product reviews are a a great way for a company to spend a small amount of money and get big results.  For example,  let’s say a company sends a product that would cost $50 retail, but only costs $25 for the company to produce the item and ship it to the reviewer.  Even if just ONE product is sold because of the review, the company has already made money! It’s like having a massive marketing team, without paying all the salaries!

(Tip For Airsoft Companies: Bloggers like to review good products.  They like it even more when they can review them and make a reoccurring income on the side.  By creating an easy-to-use affiliate program, companies can encourage bloggers to remind their readers about the product and link to the company site more often!)

 

Build Trust:

All bloggers who are worth their stuff are honest and trustworthy.  They provide good information to their readers, who frequent their site because of this information.  Airsofters like to search websites, YouTube, and forums to glean information before buying a new piece of gear because they want multiple opinions and information.

So, imagine, while you search the web, you find your favorite airsofters talking about a product you want to buy, showing you how to use it, and giving you reasons to buy it from a certain company.  You’d be much more likely to buy the product and trust the site they recommend!

 

Reach A New Audience:

Every airsoft blogger understands and knows how to reach a unique audience.  By working with bloggers, companies are given unique access into the bloggers’ community and are able to reach people who would have never heard about them otherwise. Companies can also use blogs to focus on a specific group of airsofters who are more likely to purchase their product.

 

Build A Marketing Army:

Bloggers tend to be loyal to the companies that reach out to them and understand the unique benefits they offer.  I often recommended Action Fan’s products because they provided me with an excellent product for my first review.  I used it, it worked great, and I now recommend it to my readers and airsofters I play with.  My team alone bought enough Action Fan products to easily make the company a profit.  By having just a few bloggers on its airsoft marketing team, a company will be reaching airsofters at dozens of fields, interacting with an internet community in the tens of thousands, and will have its website and products prominently featured!

 

Advertising Options

 

Now that you understand why companies need bloggers, here are some of the ways companies can get their products promoted on blogs:

(Note:  These options are based upon the most common ways of advertising on blogs.  A company can often work with a blogger to customize advertising to best fit their needs!)

Ad Space:  This is one of the easiest ways to get a product promoted on a blog.  Simply pay for a certain number of months, send an email file with a correctly sized ad, and the blogger posts it in a prominent place on the site.  Readers can click on the ad to head to the company’s website and start browsing products right away!

Sponsored Posts/Videos:  This option allows a company to get its product in front of the entire blogger’s audience in a way that makes it more personal and easier to access.  The company sends the blogger the product they wants reviewed or mentioned, and the blogger will write about the product and/or produce a video about it, as well as mention it in a post with direct links to the product and website.  Giving away products in the sponsored post is a great way to increase the reach of a promotion and let the airsoft community have some fun too!

Social Media Sponsorships:  Social media is king in marketing.  The company that selects this option gets a series of mentions on the blogger’s popular social media platforms (like Facebook and Google Plus) with links and pictures of a product.

Event Sponsorships:  If the blogger attends airsoft events and games (and most do), a company can sponsor the blogger for the event!  The company will have an advertisement in every one of the blogger’s gameplay videos from the event and links to the blogger’s site in the videos and posts about the event.

(Tip For Airsoft Companies: Be sure to send the blogger some products and advertising materials to use at the event if allowed by the game hosts!)

Full Sponsorships:  With this high level of sponsorship, the company can expect to spend more but get bigger results.  With a full sponsorship, companies will give the blogger access to information on upcoming products to pass on to readers, send some of their best products to use and review, and send advertising materials for events.  In return, the blogger will be a full time advertiser of that company and will recommend products from the company on their website, social media, in ad space, and at events.

(Tip For Airsoft Companies: Remember to take care of bloggers when they encounter a problem and keep them up to date on company happenings for the best promotion results!)

 

I hope this post has given you insight into how the blogging community can help airsoft companies and their readers through sponsorship and advertising.  By having sponsored gear, bloggers are able to find the best products to show their readers and expand their readers’ knowledge while helping airsoft companies thrive!

To advertise on AirsoftWarrior.net, visit the advertising page.  You can also contact me directly at blake@airsoftwarrior.net.