Email Outreach involves contacting other people through email. The goal is either to promote specific content, request the formation of a partnership, or acquire a link. While many businesses and entrepreneurs utilize it, their methods are often not very effective. Email outreach can work, but only when you distribute the right message.
What are the Benefits of Email Outreach?
The emails you send out must be messages that people will want to get. Anything that resembles spam will be ignored and thrown in the trash. When done correctly, email outreach is the perfect method for building backlinks, and it will also aid you in creating and building relationships with people in the same industry. This in turn can lead to guest blogging opportunities, interviews, and collaborations. There have also been cases where email outreach has resulted in press coverage, particularly when targeted emails are delivered to journalists who cover your industry or area of expertise.
The Most Effective Email Outreach Practices
- List Compilation: One key component for email outreach is ensuring that your messages are being delivered to the proper recipients. To compile your list, you’ll first want to establish distinct goals for specific outreach targets. For example, if you desire press coverage, you’ll need to search for journalists that cover specific topics which are related to your industry or area of expertise. Those that want to develop backlinks will need to look for people who in the past have linked to pages that are similar. As you can see, before transmitting your emails you need to know specifically who you will be contacting and why. Emails should never be sent out to random parties; your recipients must be divided into specific groups and then contacted accordingly.
- List Creation: Construct a spreadsheet that displays the name of each target, the reason you’re contacting them, and URLs for relevant pages. For instance, those seeking links might need to input the page from which they want the link or an article they recently wrote which covers your sector. Some people include a status column that shows whether you’ve already reached out and if they responded.
- Collecting Email Addresses: The next step is to gather email addresses and place them into your spreadsheet. There are several tools that can be used to find and extract emails, the most popular of which is Hunter.io, since it incorporates email verification. It also enables users to identify emails while using their browser.
Use Customized Templates
A lot of marketers are under the misconception that email templates are bad; they aren’t. Templates can actually be highly effective when you personalize them. When designing your template, place heavy emphasis on your subject line, as this is the first thing people will see.
If possible, use the actual names of the recipients in the greeting. This personalizes the message, which will greatly increase your response rate. Another technique is to reference something on their websites, such as a photo they took or information they posted. This demonstrates that you’ve actually taken the time to read their information, which will go a long way.
