These days, everyone’s using email outreach. While social media platforms come and go, email remains a constant and leading communication method. However, this widespread use leads to a lot of clutter. Everyone’s reaching out via email, making it overwhelming for recipients. A study by Harris Interactive revealed that most people struggle to handle over 50 emails daily. This post will show you how to overcome this challenge.

The following outreach marketing strategies are designed to lay the groundwork even before you send an email. Whether you’re starting your career or a seasoned professional seeking new opportunities, these tips will amplify your message.

1. Establish a Strong Community Presence

Recognition is key to successful outreach. If someone recognizes your name, they are more likely to reply to your email. So, how do you build this familiarity? Online communities are teeming with influencers, leaders, and other influential figures you might want to connect with. These platforms offer immense potential due to their specialized nature. Here are some examples of communities with highly active users:

• Growth Hackers: A hub for growth marketers, primarily from SaaS and e-commerce companies.
• Inbound.org: A gathering place for B2B marketers focused on content and inbound marketing. These online communities boast highly engaged audiences. However, many fail to capitalize on this by focusing solely on short-term gains. Community marketing is a long-term strategy that requires consistent nurturing. Here’s how to maximize your efforts:

Participate in AMAs

“Ask Me Anything” (AMA) sessions feature industry experts answering questions from the community. These are popular because they offer a chance to gain insights from successful and renowned individuals. For example, a recent Inbound.org AMA featured Sujan Patel, a well-known agency leader, Voila Norbert co-founder, and content marketer, addressing questions from the community:

This discussion garnered nearly 100 comments. Despite the volume of questions, Sujan provided comprehensive and insightful answers. This presented a perfect opportunity for anyone wanting to connect with and build a relationship with him. Seek out communities in your niche that host regular AMAs. Subscribe to their newsletters to stay updated on upcoming sessions. Conduct thorough research and prepare thoughtful, relevant questions to capture their attention.

Engage in Conversations

Remember, community marketing is like cultivating a garden. You need to nurture connections and establish your presence. This allows you to build familiarity with fellow community members over time. Consistent, valuable contributions to discussions are crucial. Provide insightful and detailed responses and comments. Avoid generic comments like “Great article!” as they add little value and are often overlooked.

Dedicate time daily to explore discussions relevant to your expertise. Add value by sharing comments, posing questions, and enriching the conversation. From here, reach out to influential figures within the community. Reference past discussions and connections to provide context to your outreach. Tailor your approach to your goals. For building influencer relationships, this is the first of many steps. However, for distribution purposes, a more direct and straightforward method might be suitable.

2. Offer Genuine and Specific Value

Even influencers are focused on growing their businesses. They value audience engagement, product impact, and more. This presents an opportunity to stand out. Instead of asking for something, offer something valuable.

Provide Testimonials

Co-marketing and business development opportunities might be closer than you think. Your suppliers and the tools you use likely share a similar target audience. Capture the attention of key individuals within target companies by offering testimonials. It’s a simple yet effective way to provide value and get noticed. It’s common to see testimonials from leading sales and marketing experts, and it’s a strategic move.

Besides the obvious SEO benefits (a well-placed testimonial can provide a powerful backlink), it’s a great way to initiate relationships from an outreach perspective.

Feature Influencers in Your Content

This approach encourages influencers and thought leaders to talk about you. It takes the concept of a testimonial and expands it into a comprehensive content piece. It’s a mutually beneficial strategy. You gain exposure to your target influencer’s audience, and they get content showcasing their product or service’s effectiveness. Bryan Harris of VideoFruit used this strategy to gain his first 10,000 readers. His approach was:

1. Identify your target audience’s interests, needs, and characteristics.
2. Create an incentive – in Bryan’s case, it was a free course on video creation for small businesses.
3. List individuals with access to your desired audience.
4. Filter them based on specific criteria.
5. Choose one person you can build a strong case study around.
6. Reach out and highlight the results achieved using their product, service, or advice. This resulted in Bryan being featured in an email sent to 600,000 people and mentioned on Lifehacker. He became a success story for his target audience. The goal is to provide genuine upfront value to those you want to connect with. Go beyond simple blog comments and social shares expecting immediate results. Instead, help your audience achieve their goals and solve their problems. This fosters long-term relationships.

3. Utilize Guest Blogging as an Entry Point

We’ve discussed providing value as a means to initiate contact. Now, let’s talk about something all business leaders love: exposure. Guest blogging, a content strategy used by many marketers for generating leads, backlinks, and referral traffic, often has an overlooked benefit – influencer engagement. Expert roundups were once an effective way to engage thought leaders. However, both influencers and readers now see through this tactic. Instead, involve influencers in your guest blogging endeavors. This not only diversifies your content with third-party perspectives but also helps your target influencers reach a wider audience. Here’s a breakdown of this approach:

Step 1: Identify a Common Thread

When investing time in creating valuable content, maximize its impact by engaging multiple influencers. Identify a theme that connects several influencers within your content piece. This is what Tom Whatley did for a piece on side project marketing for Crazy Egg:

Step 2: Request Relevant Insights

The goal isn’t to create another generic “expert roundup.” The insights from influencers should support and strengthen your content’s key arguments. Find the balance between your content’s topic and your target influencers’ expertise. In the example above, the article highlighted seven side projects that fueled growth. Tom researched each company’s approach and asked targeted questions:

Step 3: Content Distribution

Once you’ve established and nurtured these relationships, collaborate on content distribution. Assisting the publication with promotion strengthens these connections further. This approach proves effective for business development and co-marketing opportunities. You’ve already established shared interests and demonstrated your ability to deliver.

Best Practices for Outreach Emails

Preparation is just the first step in successful outreach. Your email’s content can determine whether your target hits “reply” or “delete.” Let’s wrap up by covering best practices for crafting outreach emails. These aren’t shortcuts or tricks but essential principles to incorporate throughout your approach.

Personalization Beyond Basic Fields

Personalization is crucial, but many limit it to using the recipient’s first name and company name.

While this might suffice for some outreach campaigns (effective segmentation and copy can yield successful mass outreach results), you need to delve deeper when targeting high-demand individuals. Here are some ways to personalize your outreach:

• Mention their work, highlighting what resonated with you and posing a relevant question.
• Reference shared experiences in online community discussions.
• Mention a mutual connection (without expecting an introduction; take the initiative to establish the connection). The key is to spark conversation and demonstrate genuine familiarity. Influencers and decision-makers can easily spot generic, impersonal outreach.

Follow-Up Consistently

According to Marketing Donut, 44% of salespeople give up after just one follow-up, despite 80% of sales requiring at least five. This explains why many outreach efforts yield subpar results. Develop a structured follow-up process. Set regular reminders to reach out to influencers and leaders you’re targeting. This highlights the importance of maintaining an updated CRM. If your efforts aren’t getting responses, revisit your approach. Utilize the techniques discussed earlier and, most importantly, remain persistent!

Showcase Your Credibility

When reaching out to influential figures, give them a reason to care. They seek collaboration with individuals who have a proven track record. Don’t shy away from highlighting your accomplishments. Even if they aren’t familiar with your name, they might recognize your work. However, approach them as equals and express genuine interest in their work. This ties back to personalization. Drawing parallels between your work and theirs increases the likelihood of a response. How are you currently approaching outreach? What tools and techniques have yielded the best results for you?