If you’re a marketer or a business owner, you know that building successful outreach campaigns is the key to success when it comes to digital marketing.
Outreach campaigns are essential for link building, but they also help you build brand awareness, get in front of new audiences, and much more.
The problem with outreach campaigns is that they can be a little tricky to get right. There are a lot of nuances to consider, and if you make a mistake, you could ruin your entire campaign.
Luckily, we’re here to help. In this post, we’re going to cover 10 common outreach mistakes that can ruin your campaigns, so you know what to avoid.
1. Not having a goal in mind
If you don’t know what you want to gain from your outreach campaign, you’re likely not going to gain anything.
There are many different reasons to start an outreach campaign. You could be looking for backlinks, social shares, brand mentions, to find new leads, or to build relationships with other people in your industry.
If you’re not sure what your goal should be, you can use a tool like BuzzSumo to see what people are sharing most in your industry. This can help you determine what type of content you should be creating and what you should be aiming for with your outreach efforts.
2. Not researching your target audience
This is a big one.
If you don’t understand who your target audience is and what they want, how do you expect to create a successful outreach campaign?
The best way to do this is to create a customer persona. This is a fictional representation of your ideal customer that includes demographics, interests, and pain points.
Once you have a clear understanding of who your target audience is, you can use that information to create a highly targeted outreach campaign.
3. Not using the right tools
There are a lot of tools on the market that can help you find and connect with the right people. If you’re not using them, you’re making your job a lot harder than it needs to be.
Tools like Hunter, Voila Norbert, and Find That Email can help you find email addresses. Then, you can use an email outreach tool like Mailshake to help you send personalized emails at scale.
If you want to get a little more advanced, you can use a tool like BuzzStream to help you manage your outreach campaigns, or a tool like Pitchbox to help you find new opportunities. You can even go beyond outreach by layering in referral marketing platforms like ReferralCandy, which help you build trust-based relationships at scale by turning satisfied customers and influencers into advocates. This way, your outreach isn’t just about cold connections but also about activating warm, referral-driven leads.
If you’re not using the right tools, it’s going to be a lot harder to find and connect with the right people.
4. Not personalizing your outreach
The days of sending generic emails to your outreach list are over. This is a surefire way to have your email deleted or marked as spam.
You should take the time to personalize your emails to each recipient. This can be as simple as using their first name in the salutation and mentioning something specific about their website or content.
Even better, look for ways to build a relationship with the person you’re reaching out to before you ask for anything. You can do this by engaging with their content on social media, leaving comments on their website, or even sending them a quick note to say hello.
5. Not following up
If a journalist doesn’t respond to your pitch, it’s not necessarily because they’re not interested in your story. They’re busy people and their inboxes are likely to be flooded with pitches. It’s easy for your email to get lost in the mix.
If you don’t get a response, don’t be afraid to follow up. A follow-up email is a great way to get your pitch back to the top of a journalist’s inbox. It’s also a good way to show that you’re serious about your story.
If you do follow up, make sure to give the journalist a few days to respond. And if you still don’t hear back, don’t be afraid to follow up again. Just be sure to give the journalist plenty of time to respond after each follow-up.
6. Not being transparent
This is the most important thing you can do in any type of business but especially when you are reaching out to people you don’t know.
You must be transparent about who you are and why you are reaching out to them.
If you are asking for a link, tell them.
If you want them to share your content, tell them.
If you want to collaborate on something, tell them.
If you are asking for their time, tell them.
If you are asking them to write something for you, tell them.
Being transparent about your intentions is the best way to build trust with someone.
It will also help you avoid any awkward situations if they think you are reaching out for one reason when you are actually reaching out for another.
7. Not being relevant
If you’re not sending your pitch to the right person, or you’re not including any information in your email that is relevant to the recipient, you’re effectively just wasting your time and theirs.
The more specific and relevant you can be in your outreach, the better. This includes who you’re contacting, what you’re asking for, and why you’re contacting them.
8. Not educating your audience
It’s not uncommon for content creators to come up with a great idea, write a great article, and then expect everyone to get it.
The problem is, the average person is not going to get it. The average person is not going to understand the full context of your article, and they’re not going to understand why it’s important to them.
It’s your job to educate your audience on why your article is important, and how it can help them. You can do this by writing a great headline, and then writing a great intro that explains the context of the article.
If you don’t do this, then you’re going to get a lot of people who read the headline and then move on. You’re going to get a lot of people who read the headline and then don’t understand the context of the article. And you’re going to get a lot of people who don’t understand why your article is important.
9. Not having a call to action
The last thing you want to do is leave the person you’re contacting wondering what to do next.
If you want them to write about your content, tell them. If you want them to share it on social media, say so. If you want to write a guest post, tell them you want to write a guest post.
Be clear and direct with your ask.
10. Not being patient
The final mistake is not being patient.
It can take time to get a response from the right people or to see success from a campaign.
It can also take time to build up contacts and relationships to help you get the results you want.
If you’re not patient, you’re likely to give up too soon and miss out on the results you’re after.
Conclusion
If you want to create a successful email outreach campaign, you need to avoid these common mistakes. While it may be time-consuming to personalize emails, find the right contacts, and deliver valuable information, it’s worth it to ensure you can build a long-term relationship with influencers and attract more qualified leads.
