Don’t Forget… Like This: Bunch How to Kick Butt with Your Email Outreach

Rand Fishkin | Founder & CEO How to Kick Butt with Your Email Outreach Get Everything You’ve Ever Wanted (professionally) by Sending the Right Message to the Right People

Bit.ly/artofoutreach

Analysis of Rand’s Strengths & Weaknesses BloggingSEOSales WritingCodePublicSpeaking Email Top1% Solid Mediocre Dismal GAH!Run! DamnGood BeingGeraldine’s Husband So how come you never talk about your top skills!?

Rand Fishkin | Founder & CEO How to Be Married to Geraldine! A comprehensive guide on how to be an excellent partner to my favorite person in the world.

What We’ll Cover in Today’s Talk: How to plan for inevitable hangriness Shopping Tips for TJ Maxx and Nordstrom Rack Baking ingredient emergencies Protecting your legs from frozen feet Emotional support during writer’s block The subtle art of not bringing up JFK “conspiracy” theories

Analysis of Rand’s Strengths & Weaknesses BloggingSEOSales WritingCodePublicSpeaking Email Top1% Solid Mediocre Dismal GAH!Run! DamnGood BeingGeraldine’s Husband OK… Fine… We’ll talk about this one.

First: How Not to Use Marketing Tactics Awesome new tactic I learned at Searchlove Go back to the office and re- shuffle marketing efforts to prioritize it Think up a way to use it for your organization/goals

Instead, Do This: Awesome new tactic I learned at Searchlove If it doesn’t fit cleanly right now, don’t force it! Align it to current business & marketing goals Experiment on side projects; have tactics ready when they’re useful

E.g. Podcasts… SO HOT RIGHT NOW! ViaChartable

E.g. Influencer Marketing… Everyone else is doing it; shouldn’t we? ViaGoogleTrends

E.g. SEO Keyword+Date Hack ViaMoz

Tactics First Leads to Poor, Long-Term Results Business Goals Marketing Channels Marketing Goals Individual Tactics Learning about these at conferences leads tofeedback of “this wasn’t actionable,” or “advanced enough.” So… events & speakers bias totactical topics (including this talk!)

Promise to use these tactics only when it fits with your business and marketing goals? Let’s talk about how to kick butt with email outreach. Cool.

As Part of My Research for SparkToro… I Spoke to Lots of Outreach-Focused Marketers

The Sobering Reality: Content, social, &link agencies have told metheir outreach response rates are even lower… ~1 in 200

The 1-minute outreach email: Found an EmailAddress Sent a Crappy, Low-Value, Programatically-Customized Bulk Email Google Search Probably has a <0.1% success rate

The 5-minute outreach email: Dug around my site to find my email Slightly customized a mildly clever message Tried toID reasonable customer targets Probably has a <1% success rate

100 messages at 1% 5 messages at 20% vs. Spend 20X as long on these and get the same results? Yes, please!

Just a few links or atiny bit of amplification, and your work’s in the top 1-5% of all web content ViaBacklinko

Focus on 1:1 Outreach?Why

Broadcast is HARD (until you have a loyal, engagement-heavy audience) ViaRivalIQ2019

ViaRivalIQ2019 Engagement w/ Brands Is Dismal…

But Individuals Can Do Far Better! ~30X the avg onTwitter; ~100X the avg on Facebook

Many of the Most Powerful Marketing Tactics Are Impossible without Individual, Human Supporters ViaSEERInteractive

E.G.

Most Outreach Fails.Why

The Outreach Spectrum AltruisticTransactional Helpsonlythe outreacher Helpsthetarget and/ora3rd party Offersvaluetoboth parties Self-Seeking

Transactional Usually Yields Evaluation I want X in exchange for Y. to meet you to get your input to raise money from you to get a link/share to get an endorsement to use your work money reciprocation credit (link or other) exposure connections

Altruistic Usually Does, Too I want X in order to help Y . to meet you to get your input to raise money to get a link/share to get an endorsement to use your work social cause political issue friends/people charitable org thing we believe in

Purely Self-Serving… Not So Much I want X .

This is Why Most Self-Serving Outreach Pretends to Be Transactional or Altruistic Of course, these make us all more suspicious of outreach.

Successful Outreach Needs to Avoid Certain Characteristics that Correlate with: Low quality Messages Spam Scams Harassment Irrelevant Junk Self-Serving Outreach in Disguise

Unclear, difficult-to-evaluate request Multiple asks in a single message Historical Reputation from Gmail/Hotmail/etc (i.e. recipients have marked your email as spam in the past) Poor targeting (i.e. request has low relevance to the target) Source characteristics (name, email address, photo/image, writing style, etc) align with common spam features To Break Through, Avoid These Characteristics

Clear Request Unclear Request

Two Requests at the Same Time?!

One Ask per Email. In the Subject Line.

If you’re relevant, well-targeted, and well-timed, the odds of getting read improve. Who? What? Why? How?

Even a Few Spam Characteristics, & Your Targets Will Never See Your Message

Modern Spam Filters Are VERY Aggressive

Email Spam Reputation Can Linger for Years Ifyou’re an actual spammer, you probably don’t care. But, if you’re trying tobuild areal business…

Brand Memory & Associations Also Suffer Forbes has trained me (through bad outreach, sketchy authors, & their annoying interface) not to visit their site

Unclear, difficult-to-evaluate request Multiple asks in a single message Historical Reputation from Gmail/Hotmail/etc (i.e. recipients have marked your email as spam in the past) Poor targeting (i.e. the request is irrelevant to the target) Source characteristics (name, email address, photo/image, writing style, etc) align with common spam features To Break Through, Avoid These Characteristics Nailed These? You’re already better than 95% of outreach

Can Outreach Do For My Marketing?What

Amazing Things Professional, Personal Messages Can Do For Your Marketing13

Social Amplification ViaLinkedIn

Inclusion in Curated Newsletters/Resources ViaTheEvergrey

Press Coverage ViaNYTimes

Crowdfunding Support ViaKickStarter

Un-Advertised Sponsorships ViaTwitter

Speaking Gigs ViaINBOUND

Guest Spots on Podcasts ViaIndieHackers

Turn Unlinked Mentions → Links Grrr…No link 

Interviews & People-Focused Content ViaGoodLifeProject

Recruiting for Research ViaSparkToro

Project/Product Advice & Input (which often turns into amplification support too) ViaCone&Steiner

Reviews & Testimonials ViaTypeform

Brand Partnerships ViaGeekwire

But, Rand… When I ask directly for this stuff, I get nowhere 

Direct Works Great Once a RelationshipAlready Exists… Request for something comes into my inbox… Do I KnowThis Person? Yes!And I like them. Never heard of them. No, but I know of them or their company/organization High Likelihood of a Yes High Likelihood of a No Depends on the ask, their brand, my history, the relevance, timing, etc.

In Some Cases, Indirect is the Way to Go: I want these things Get more people to know, like, and trust me (and my brand) Links to my site Create unique value that stands out to your audience Press coverage SocialAmplification What can I do that will deliver those? Focus outreach on these goals first

Tactical Hacks to Improve Your Odds of Getting a “Yes” from Someone Who Doesn’t Know You6

#1: Reach Out First When You Have an Interest, Not an Agenda ViaTwitter

#2: Grow Your Potential Connections Through Networking (But Most People Get This Wrong) I want a bigger, better network. I should go to “networking events” and… “network.”

I want a bigger, better network. I should go to “networking events” and… “network.” #2: Grow Your Potential Connections Through Networking (But Most People Get This Wrong)

Instead… Create Catalysts for Organic Network Growth You Good Connection Bubble of ComfortThat _______ You’ve Been Thinking About Good Connection Good Connection class conference club adventure activity podcast video series Good Connection

The Networking Spectrum Worse Opportunities Smaller Events Larger Events Better Opportunities In-Person Remote Relatively Specific inAppeal Appeals to aWide Group Shared Personal &Professional Values Dissimilar Values NotActually Focused on “Networking” Specifically Focused on “Networking” More Unusual More Common

#3: Align Your Outreach with Your Target’s Personal Beliefs, Causes, and/or Values

#4: Get High Quality Introductions

Opt-In-First Yields the Best Results

#5: Create Your Own Amplification Email Group

#6: Find Authentic Affinities that Intersect

If You’re Struggling for Ideas…

Should I Reach Out? To Whom

Meh. The Most Followed Influencers The Most- Trafficked Publications Those Who’ve Amplified Similar Work People & Publications YourAudience Engages With Most OK. Better. Suh-weet.

The “Most Followed” Influencers in Target Field?

The Big Publications?

Those Who’ve Amplified Similar Stories? ViaBuzzsumo

People & Publications My Audience Engages With Most Sneak peek atSparkToro’sAlpha Version (still a few months from launch)

People & Publications Your Audience Engages With… That Already Know & Like You! Huzzah!

Ready to Rock?!

Don’t Forget… Like This: Bunch of outreach tactics I learned at Searchlove If it doesn’t fit cleanly right now, don’t force it! Align them to current business & marketing goals Experiment w outreach for small/side projects so you’re ready when your biz needs it!

Rand Fishkin | Founder & CEO Thank You! Bit.ly/artofoutreach