How To Go About Establishing Your Outreach Marketing Strategy – 6 Key Considerations
An outreach marketing strategy is a great way to add a push to your branding and pull marketing tactics. Whether you’re trying to get traffic to a blog, get high-quality backlinks, or sell a product, you need to make an effort to reach your target audience instead of just waiting for them to come to you.
There are various types of outreach marketing—public relations, B2B marketing, content outreach, influencer marketing, public relations, and so on. Still, they all have certain considerations that overlap. There are many opportunities for growth in outreach marketing. In 2021, for instance, influencer marketing grew to $13.8 billion.
In this article, you will learn the important considerations when crafting an outreach strategy for your content, product, or service and what you need to effectively execute one.
What you need for an outreach strategy
An outreach strategy plan starts with putting together foundational pieces to execute an outreach campaign effectively. Here are those basic parts of an outreach strategy.
Quality contacts
Quality contacts are the starting point of any outreach tactic. These contacts can include social media influencers, media personalities, publications, or top-ranking blogs, among many others.
Finding top-quality contacts is key to starting an outreach strategy right. You shouldn’t just reach out to anybody with a large following. That is why you need to research carefully so you put your content where it’s relevant. Among the categories of people you’ll reach out to are:
- High rollers – High-profile individuals and companies in your niche.
- Medium rollers – Experts in their fields but not as well-known as high rollers.
- Tiny rollers – Influencers who are also trying to build an audience.
- Almost rollers – Influencers just getting started and with not as much audience yet.
A solid pitch
When you have contacts, the next thing you need to figure out is how to speak to them. An elevator pitch or a two-minute offer, whatever you want to call it, is your key to retaining a hot lead’s attention and time. Where most businesses and marketing teams fail isn’t in the relevance of their message to media personalities and publications, but in how they craft the message. So make sure to make your pitch clear, concise, and compelling.
There are also many templates available that can serve as a benchmark for what your pitch will be. You can also sign up for other offers from businesses in the same industry and pattern yours with theirs. There’s nothing new under the sun after all. Just make sure to contextualize it to your setting, and run your revised pitches through plagiarism checkers to avoid any trademark issues moving forward.
A follow up process
The last piece to a great outreach strategy is a follow-up process. People rarely get a favorable response on the first try. But that’s okay. You need to start thinking of outreach strategies as a long game rather than a one-off conversation. You want to create a relationship with people, not just an encounter. Also, make sure to build a lasting relationship with influencers and thought leaders who you get to work with. Those networks will prove extremely valuable in the future.
Considerations when crafting an outreach marketing strategy
So now that we know what pieces we have to put together to effectively run outreach marketing, you also need to know some crucial considerations to keep in mind when putting them together. Remember these factors and tips to make more effective outreach campaigns and efforts.
Your outreach contacts
Who are you going to reach out to and how can you come to favorable terms with them? There are many people and organizations you can reach out to, but here are the most notable ones.
- Instagram Influencers — 69% of marketers plan to spend the most money to work with Instagram influencers this year. That makes the social media platform and its influencers some of the most in-demand influencers on digital platforms today.
- YouTubers — Next to Instagram influencers are YouTube influencers, who give brands more visual and interactive reach, given that we can get these thought leaders to vouch for our content, products or services on video.
- Top-ranking Blogs — Getting on a blog with heavy organic traffic to feature your brand or company will provide a lot of awareness and traffic to your channels.
- News Channels — Through the help of journalists or public relations specialists, we can get our brands featured on online new channels, television, radio, and so on.
- Podcasters — Podcast is the new radio. It’s likely that the world will have over 424.2 million podcast listeners by the end of 2022.
Your story
Some of the best outreach marketing examples have one thing in common: they tell a great and compelling story. As human beings, we’re quickly drawn to a great story. It doesn’t matter if we like the ending or not. We just want to hear them.
Likewise, with outreach marketing, or any marketing for that matter, your story is a powerful tool to build trust and gain people’s attention. Tell your story and how your brand or business came to be to thought leaders and they will vouch for you to their audiences as well.
The end viewers story
Arguably even more important than your company or brand’s story is the end viewer’s story, i.e. your influencers’ followers. Do you know who they are and what makes them tick? More than being told stories, people love conversations where the other person gets them.
For example, if you’re reaching out to a fashion influencer to promote your new clothing line, understand who their audience is first. Who are they? What kind of content do their followers want to consume? How can your brand or message add value to them? Use these facts strategically in your pitch or conversation to show the client that you know them.
Brand connection
So your story and your lineup of endorsers, influencers and thought leaders’ story are clear, but how do they intertwine? People seek a level of relevance. So it’s crucial that the influencers we reach out to actually match our brands. If you’re a tech company, for instance, selling subscriptions to your productivity and business software, use a B2B sales strategy and then connect with a productivity coach or tech website.
Your value-add
With every content outreach strategy, you, your team, and your influencers will inevitably face this one question: “what’s in it for me?” It might come in another shape or form, but we exist in transactional spaces where reciprocity is key to growth. So you need to be ready to present where you add value. What are the benefits of your product or service? Be ready to show testimonials and social proof.
The ask
The last consideration is your ask, and this is one people miss a lot. The quality and confidence in your ask is the last blow that will help seal the deal for you. So let’s say you’re offering a cloud-based facility management software and decide to get published on news channels. When a potential client is ready to purchase, will there be a link to your website? What’s the next actionable step to move the needle forward? Be ready to get people started and guide them through the process. Journey with them through the process, and they will likely walk all the way to the end of the line.
Don’t be shy!
Outreach strategies require a lot of confidence, especially when reaching out to influential people. There can always be a sense of self-discounting when implementing these strategies. But know that if your company or product provides real value to people, you have nothing to be ashamed about. People will want to vouch for you and your brand.
Further reading