 Outreach programs always start with enthusiasm and the best intentions. Vibes are high, the campaign manager has pictures of fantastic results in his/her mind, company wide accolades, failing that a pat on the back from their manager and potentially even a nice little bonus or promotion if it goes really, really well. This stage is really important because anything new has to start with enthusiasm or it would never actually happen. No-one is going to start something they feel is doomed to fail! Without enthusiasm the campaign doesn’t get the investment / resource it needs. The next stage is equally important, the strategy document. The strategy document is where the plan is laid out, the framework for the campaign which makes sure everyone is on the same page and knows where to get access to templates, naming conventions and so on. Again, super important. Then the campaign kicks off, and that’s what we are going to talk about today. This is the bit I think I’m best placed to talk about. I might be odd in that doing the actual work bit, the actual outreach and getting the real results is the bit I enjoy (many people don’t!) I enjoy it because there is a gap. There is a gap between the enthusiasm combined with the strategy document, and the real results. The campaign will always need to be adjusted potentially several times as it progresses if it is to get results and that’s the bit I’m there for (and the reason you shouldn’t hire a junior person or assistant to run your outreach campaign). What happens when the campaign actually starts and how to avoid some pitfalls that are common when an outreach program progresses. For the sake of this article we are going to take a 6 week campaign as an example. So, let’s get started! It’s very, very likely that the person who is running the outreach campaign will run into one or several of these issues. Read on to find out what you can do about it. 1. Running out of leads too quickly Throughout the campaign it’s important to keep an eye on how many prospects you have. The ideal situation is one where you have perfectly grouped prospects in your pipeline ready to be bucketed and sent your templates for A/B testing. However, more often than not you’ll probably have less leads than you thought you would. As long as you stick to this one rule you should be able to keep the momentum going. Make sure that you have a bunch of leads ready and waiting to be emailed out the following morning. Even if it’s just 20 leads, that is better than non. Then, first thing, log onto your pitching software, or email if you are doing it manually, and email those leads straight away.  2. Leads are not targeted Successful outreach campaigns must be targeted. The person reading your email needs to see that the offer you are suggesting fits their blog. It’s not a case of just emailing 2,000 people and hoping that some of them respond. Yes, some of them probably will respond, but not the bloggers you want. And you’ll also get many more angry and annoyed responses too which is not the way to promote yours or your clients business. 3. Low response rate on a template The average response rate after 3 email attempts, i.e. an initial email and 2 follow up emails is 30 - 40%. If a third of people come back to you then you know that you have set up a healthy, targeted campaign, that the people you are contacting are at least interested in discussing with you. If your response rate is less than 10% after 3 email attempts that is a warning sign that something is going wrong and you need to work out why. If you have access to open rates then you can see how many people open your email. If you have a high open rate but a low response then you know that it is probably your offer that is the issue. If you have a low open rate then you know it could be your targeting. Try to identify the problem and set up a new campaign based on your findings and see if the response rate improves. It can take some time, but once you have a converting campaign you can keep adding the leads to it and using it so it is worth the effort. The longest part of the process is finding good leads, so, it is worth making sure you are getting the highest conversion possible. 4. Forgetting to close in on leads (time poor) I have to check myself on this as well. It’s easy to get into the habit of emailing new people and not going back to follow up and check the people you are already speaking with. The people you have started a conversation with are the most likely to want to partner with you so make sure you check in on them. I usually go back to my last client update report and look at the leads I have reported on, then go through one by one and follow up with them every 3 or 4 days.  5. Spending too much time editing each lead There are lots of outreach gurus which say you must include the bloggers name and the website in your pitch. I don’t actually believe that is always needed. In my opinion the targeting and the offer are the most important things to get right. If you have the bloggers name readily available then yes, definitely include it. But editing the details on each lead takes quite a lot of time so be wary at this stage of spending too much time getting everything just perfect. Outreach tools really help with this because you can import a bunch of urls and they will find the details for you. 6. Spending more time on the copy than the offer There is a certain structure you should follow when it comes to writing outreach emails. And I’ll write another post on that. But in terms of the copy i.e. the phrasing, I believe it is not as important as the offer. Of course, if no-one can understand what your offer is then that’s an issue. But you don’t have to worry too much. In fact, worrying about your copy leads to it being overly formal and not connecting with the reader. Try to sound out what you are saying in your mind as you write it. The most important part is to connect with the person you are emailing, you need them to see you as a person, not a robot. 7. Not getting the resource you were promised As I mentioned right at the beginning of this article. Outreach campaigns rarely go exactly to plan. And one of the issues can be that you do not get the resource you thought you were going to get. I.e. you were promised someone to help with prospecting and editing the leads but then find out that this person had to be let go early on in the campaign. When this happens you just need to adapt and find another way. Make it clear that you still require this resource & discuss how you can move forward with the client. For example, you might agree on more hours so that you can do the prospecting until a replacement has been found. I hope this has drilled down into some specific areas that can go wrong during an outreach campaign. Being aware of them now and knowing what to do will help you when you are in the midst of a campaign! Outreach is a challenging role (the reason I enjoy it!), but stay strong and stay focused on building partnerships and you’ll get the results you are looking for! Did you enjoy this post? If so stick around for more! I cover plenty of tips about how to do better outreach , and also tips on how to grow a blog. These are both services I offer my content marketing clients within my freelancing business. I also write about my freelancing lifestyle & business over at The Happy Freelancer, so if you are thinking about starting your own freelance business then check it out. And if you are a blogger interested in collaborating with brands + other bloggers I run a community of UK based lifestyle & parent bloggers over at Guest Bloggers Wanted.
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 Whether you are managing a link building, content marketing, PR or even a sales campaign you’ll need to write outreach emails. I’ve lost count with how many outreach emails I have written during my marketing career. Over the years I have started to hone my technique & get an understanding of what works and what doesn’t. This article will provide 9 actionable tips you can use when writing your own outreach emails. My hope is that you will apply these techniques and see your conversion increase and also start to build beneficial relationships with other businesses instead of annoy other businesses. More on that in the first tip! Tip 1: Address your mindset The first tip is to make sure you are in the right mindset during the outreach process. This has to be constantly checked, I need to check myself all the time. When dealing with a lot of data it is very easy to slip into an analytics mindset. It is easy to only think about the numbers and lose the human approach. You must remember that you are reaching out to another business to build a relationship with them, it cannot just be about the numbers. The point is to grab the readers attention & interest long enough for them to enter into a conversation with you about how you can help each other out. A robot does not grab attention. Nor does language which sounds to rushed, abrupt or angry. (passive aggressive emails never go down well!) The mindset you are when writing the email influences how you put together the outreach email and the tone of voice & pace of your writing. An analytical mindset leads to copy which does not resonate and may in fact just piss people off. Tip 2: You do the work! The person you are speaking to doesn’t want to have to work out how they can work with you in a mutually beneficial partnership. You must do the work since you are emailing them and interrupting their time. So, work out what it is that you are suggesting. This means work out which specific tactic you think could work & also the specific content. I.e. X post shared on X channel because X. The worst emails are those that just say I want to guest post, can I? Or, I want to partner can we? Um no, is my immediate response when I get those emails and I can imagine that’s what other people think when they receive them too. So, when I email someone I tell them exactly how I think we can work together and take the time to map it out so they don’t have to spend time working it out themselves. Tip 3: Get to the point quickly Mystery does not increase conversion. Most of the emails based on mystery are doing so because Tip 2 hasn’t been implemented. The person doing the outreach hasn’t figured out how or why they are emailing x person. The outreach manager just wants to work with somebody …. NOW! And the reason is, they are too much in the analytical mindset and not the relationship building mindset, Tip 1. See how these points build on each other? You must get to the point really quickly, ideally in the first 2 sentences. You are a new person taking up someone elses time which is already annoying. So, you must eliminate the annoying factor as much as possible by helping the other person make a decision as quickly as possible. No-one wants to work with someone they don’t like. So, get to the point and help the other person decide yes, no or maybe.  Tip 4: Prove you’re worth their time The other person is just like you. They have their own targets to hit and want to grow their company so they can make the impact that they want to make. Whether it’s increasing their salary so they can look after their family, or making the impact they want to see in their community or the world. Every person you speak to has their own motivations. So, they are only going to speak to you if they believe you are worth their time and can help them reach their own goals. Perhaps that sounds really selfish, but it’s just how we are wired. I believe everyone has good intentions and are good people, but when it comes down to it, we are all under a lot of pressure, and under pressure we make selfish decisions based on own deep routed motivations. In the first sentence you should say who you are, the company you are writing from + include trust metrics / social proof. I.e. we just won X award, we have 1 million hits per month, we planted 500, 000 trees last year, we have the largest selection of X online, we are established in x countries, we have a 95% score on trustpilot... If you are a blogger or solo entrepreneur you can talk about your experience, I’ve worked for X,X + X company or, I’ve analysed over 5,000 websites, I gave a ted x talk… Whatever you say has to be TRUE. Don’t make something up, it has to sound good but it has to be true, very important. Also, with this point you can go overboard. No-one wants to speak to an arrogant person. The person you are speaking with wants to feel good during this interaction. They want to feel that they are speaking with someone who is trustworthy and can help them to their goals, but they also want to feel good about themselves at the same time. A single sentence is a good length. Tip 5: Include links to back up points You also have to appreciate that you are interrupting this person’s time and they don’t know you, at all. It is also unlikely they know the company you are emailing from either, even if you think your company is well known. Which means, just because you say you are trustworthy, doesn’t mean they will believe you. So, make sure you link through to your website at the very least. And ideally also a review site which shows your positive customer feedback. It is also important to link through to the specific content you are talking about promoting. As well as any channels you want to promote it on. Finally, if you can link through to the blog you emailing about that is also great, ideally you should add it as an anchor text link instead of a straight URL since this looks more natural. I don’t know of an email system which adds anchor texts in automatically, so, if you are scaling your campaign it may not be possible. However, if you are outreaching to some high value businesses and websites you might want to just write a personal email and include the anchor text links.  Tip 6: Include name If you or your outreach software can find the bloggers name then include it at the beginning of the email. Keep the intro quite informal i.e. Hi Sally, When the name is not found you can use “there” this works with “Hi” so it would read “Hi there”. This is a point we don’t really need to labour on, it’s quite simple, I just have one thing to say. Adding the name does increase conversion and it does get the relationship off to the right start since it’s just common courtesy to find out the person’s name that you are emailing. I do appreciate though that in large campaigns with limited resource finding the bloggers name is not always possible, just expect less reply's if that is the case. Tip 7: Keep the email short Your email shouldn’t be longer than 150 words unless the partnership opportunity you have is quite complicated and needs more explanation. For most outreach emails, 150 words is enough space to introduce yourself, your pitch and close the email. The average reading speed is 200 - 250 words per minute. So, it's going to take the person you are emailing just less than a minute to read your email. Most people will then file the email, leave it in the inbox or delete it. This could be because of a few factors. a) The person needs to think about it, but they also have a lot to do so they file your email and move on to something else with the intention to come back to your email. b) The person doesn't want to work with you but they don’t want to be rude by saying so. c) They are pissed off at you for interrupting their time. d) They want to work with you but pioritise other activities on their list for the time being. Very rarely do you get instant responses from an outreach campaign. A few people will reply back several hours later, some, several days later. The majority will forget the email leading us to tip 8. Tip 8: Follow up The big advantage of email software is the automatic follow up. Following up can double your response rate (or more) study. The reasons are what were described in Tip 7. The follow up email just needs to be a couple of lines repeating the ask. It should go out around 3 days after your first email. Studies show that the longer a decision is not made the less likely the person is to follow through, so it’s important to get the conversation going and the decision made quickly. Study. Tip 9: Format -- create space & flow The final tip is about formatting your outreach email. This is quite important because the position of the words, the flow of the sentences and the size of the paragraphs all give off a certain feel. I can write a short sentence. Or I can write a beautifully long sentence which weaves words in a way which makes you feel calmer. Or, I can break it up, and make a point. Ideally you want a mix of all three of these sentence structures in your email. And you should use all three to pace the email and bring the reader along to the end. This is the most important aspect, you need your reader to get to the end of your email so they can at least be in a position to make a decision. Along the way, you need to a) not piss them off and b) warm to you at least a little bit. If you have followed all the tips previous to this, hopefully you should be able to accomplish b). When it comes to writing emails, being a good writer is a definite advantage. Writing good emails is more than passing over information. As you can see from these tips, writing good emails is about passing over information & the right emotions which lead to a positive outcome. You could have the best intentions in the world, but if you can’t convey those best intentions through your writing, then your reader will never know about it. That's the end of my outreach tips for now. I'd love to know in the comments if you have any more to add or if you agree or disagree on any of these points, lets have a conversation!  Working with bloggers on collaborations is a great way to drive traffic back to your company or service. No matter what you sell, it is very likely that there are a group of bloggers out there who can help you reach your audience. Here are 7 primary benefits of working with bloggers to promote your business. 1. Use The Power Of Leverage For Fast Results The reason it is so powerful collaborating with other bloggers is because you have access to their audience of followers. It is very important that the audience listens & trusts the blogger you are working with. The volume of followers doesn’t matter as much as the quality of engagement that happens on the blog. Whenever you work with a blogger with an engaged following who recommended your company you are reaching a wider audience of people who are then introduced to your product or service. 2. Cost Effective Marketing Tactic Working with bloggers is a fairly low cost marketing activity. If you are doing it yourself the only cost will be providing whatever it is you want to provide to the blogger. And if you are DIYing it I suggest you sign up to our Guest Bloggers Wanted tool and connect with bloggers for free! It is a really easy way to collaborate with bloggers in multiple different niches at a very low cost. If you want someone to run your blogger outreach for you then you will need to pay for this service, and the more you can afford to pay for a high quality guest posting service the better your results will be long into the future.  3. Open To Every Business No matter what your business is blogger outreach is a useful tactic. You might adjust it differently depending on the type of business you are… for example a mostly offline business might choose to only appear in well trusted and high authority online magazines and newspapers in order to build their brand trust. Whereas a mostly online business might decide to heavily focus on working with bloggers to drive online traffic to their site and make more online sales through increased search engine traffic. 4. More Search Engine Traffic Collaborating with bloggers can help drive more search engine traffic back to your site. This is of course assuming you have the correct strategy in place first. Make sure you know what keywords you are targeting and what you want to be ranking for! Assuming you have this keyword plan in place the additional links that you pick up from collaborations will help your blog content & product pages to rank. 5. Grow Your Brand Trust Research by BlogHer found that 81% of respondents to their 2012 survey said that they trust the information and advice that blogs give them and that 61% have made a purchase based on a recommendation from a blogger. Working with bloggers grows trust.  6. Grow Your Network Everytime you collaborate with a blogger you have also introduced your company to them as well. Don’t always just think about the audience you are reaching but the person you are in direct contact with! Guest blogging and collaborations is a great way to grow your network and will start to snowball once you hit a certain number of them. 7. The Process Is Fun Working with bloggers is fun! You are speaking with a person who has spent a lot of time and effort on their blog, growing & nurturing their audience. It is a pretty special thing when they are accepting to work with you and help promote your product or service to their audience. Enjoy the process of creating content, promoting it and seeing the results! If you want to work with bloggers check out Guest Bloggers Wanted, our new outreach tool which helps you connect with the bloggers & influencers SUPER easily. You don't need to build long outreach lists & get lost in email. Just post your guest post title in the tool and you'll find bloggers who want to collaborate with you!
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AuthorWritten by Cheryl A Clarke Chief Happiness Officer & Content Marketing Freelancer @ Ginger Marketing (unless stated otherwise) Blog CategoriesMost Popular ContentTotal Social Media Share Count
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