The Definite Guide to Using Email Outreach For Content Promotion
So, you’ve made the most incredible piece of content and everyone’s going to start flocking to your blog, right? Not so fast. Your content might be amazing, but it can’t sit idle or it won’t be seen. That’s why promotion is the key to successful content marketing.
Promoting content to the right audience allows you to instantly increase your company’s reach and the ROI of content you produce. While social media and newsletters are most marketers go to, they often forget about good old outreach.
Why not leverage other people’s audiences instead of growing your own? That’s the power of email outreach. Keep reading if you’d like to learn how to do it yourself.
Create a Hit List of Websites
The first step is to create a list of websites you want to contact for your outreach campaign. There are many ways you can do this with the first being via free databases like Angel List.
These websites compile startups, and there are other factors which makes email outreach a breeze. Begin by filtering the results to narrow down a specific market.
You can then either copy and paste website URLs or click the export button to download them as a CSV file. The goal is to organize the websites into a spreadsheet for the next step.
Find the Decision-Makers Within These Businesses
With URLs in hand, you can use a free tool like Hunter to extract all of the email addresses from these domains. This is an important step because you want to avoid emailing generic customer service emails or using contact forms.
Begin by navigating to the homepage, signing up for an account, and then entering the URL of a site.
This will then display the following page where emails, names, and positions are listed. Similar to Angel List, you can either copy the results one by one or export them as a CSV.
Since we’re pitching a piece of content to be shared, you want to look for content managers and similar marketing executives. Once you have organized a small list of prospects to email, move onto the next step.
Send a Customized Outreach Email
The third step is where all of the magic happens. Here you need to research into every lead before pitching them to create a customized message. The key to successful outreach is avoiding copy and pasted emails. Everyone can see right through these.
Instead, taking the time to create an email tailored to each website will help you cut through the static and increase reply rates. Here’s a template you can customize for each pitch you make:
Hey {First name},
I enjoyed one of your latest blog posts on {Topic}.
Our blog {Blog name} recently published an article on a similar topic about {Topic}. I’d love to hear your feedback if you have a few seconds to spare and you can read it at {URL}.
P.S I just followed you on Twitter and Instagram.
Sincerely,
{Your name}
The strategy with this template is that you’re simply providing your piece of content without being pushy. Once you get a reply, you can ask if they’d be kind enough to share it with their audience. In the case they say yes, you could very well get a backlink or social traffic, but if they say no you leave with constructive feedback. Win, win!
Don’t Underestimate the Power of Following Up
It’s been found that it takes up to eight touchpoints to reach a lead. Yes, eight! This means that if you don’t follow up, you’re going to miss out on a lot of opportunities for content promotion.
Once you’ve sent out your original message, you will want to follow up every couple of days to stay on their radar. Remember that executives and webmasters are busy people. They might not have the time to read your article and share it right now, but they may at a later time.
The best times to send emails are 6:00am, 10:00am, 2:00pm, and 8:00pm.
6:00 am is effective because you end up near the top of a prospect’s inbox by the time they get into the office around 9:00 am. Similarly, 10:00 am works because they’ve had time to clear their inbox and settle into the workday.
By 2:00 pm, a lot of people have had lunch and are getting back into work mode so they’ll be susceptible to answering your message. This is also why 6:00 pm works because most individuals tasks are done for the day.
The first follow-up can be as simple as the following template:
Hey {First name},
I wasn’t sure if you received my last email or not so I just wanted to follow up and see if you had a chance to give me any feed of my article at {URL}.
Thanks again,
{Your name}
Follow-up messages after the first can involve strategies such as:
- Asking if you have the correct person to contact.
- Proposing a time to have a quick phone call to discuss the content.
- Extending other resources you believe they will find useful.
Scaling Email Outreach Campaigns
You’re one person. You can only do so much. This is why if you want to see big performance increases from email outreach you will need to scale your campaigns.
And scaling begins with automation. We recommend using a free CRM like HubSpot because it features tens of thousands of contacts, mass emails, and tracking tools.
Sign up for a free account from the homepage to begin.
Once your account is set up, click the “Contacts” dropdown and select the import button on the top right. Upload your CSV file and complete the wizard steps afterwards.
You will now have your list of leads successfully imported into HubSpot! Users can send out bulk customized emails via the “Marketing” and “Email” tabs. Begin creating your first email by clicking the “Create an email” button and selecting a template.
Customize the design and content of the email as you wish, and take advantage of personalization tokens via the small user icon. This will automatically import data like first names, company names, and messages as you set up in the original spreadsheet.
The settings tab is where you can set the name and email address you’re sending the campaign from along with the subject line and preview text. Keep in mind that 47% of recipients open emails based on the subject line alone. If you don’t create a good subject line, they’ll click the delete button faster than you sent it. Good subject lines to test out are:
- To {First name}
- Quick question about {Company name}
- Do you have a moment {First name}?
Once again, it’s crucial to personalize. This shows that you’re not a bot or spammer. You can also do mass follow-ups by replicating the same steps you took to send out the initial emails.
Wrapping Up Email Outreach
Content marketing is amazing. It helps build your brand into an authority, drives organic traffic, and brings customers to you. However, you can’t let content sit around and collect dust. You need to promote them.
The best way to do this is via email outreach campaigns because it’s scalable and measurable. You also don’t need to spend a dime if you don’t want to, either. It all begins with finding the right kind of blogs or companies to contact. Use free databases like Angel List or Crunchbase to find businesses related to yours.
Then, use an email hunter tool to find all of the decision-makers like content managers to begin the outreach process. Email these individuals asking if they can give you feedback on your content and ask for them to share it once you have a conversation rolling.
Doing this will result in backlinks and social traffic while building meaningful relationships in your industry. Marketers should also consider scaling outreach campaigns via automation, CRMs, and hiring freelancers to do the heavy lifting. So, what are you waiting for? Start promoting your content today and see the results for yourself.
Carmine Mastropierro
Latest posts by Carmine Mastropierro (see all)
- The Definite Guide to Using Email Outreach For Content Promotion - September 23, 2019
