In the past week, I’ve exchanged emails with Joanna Wiebe from Copyhackers, Rand Fishkin from Moz, and Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income.
I cold-call emailed them, and they emailed me back…usually within 20 minutes.
I didn’t do anything particularly special, other than use my simple, proven formula for connecting with influencers.
What if you could easily connect with high-powered influencers in your industry?
I’m talking people with massive email lists, enormous social media followings, and incredible influencing power.
The movers. The shakers.
Think about how that would affect your content marketing strategy.
Derek Halpern has famously said that he spends 20% of his time creating content and 80% of his time promoting it.
One of his primary promotion tools is emailing the high-profile people he quotes in his articles and politely asking them if they would consider sharing the article on social media.
It was this strategy that allowed me to connect with Joanna Wiebe and persuade her to share one of my posts on Twitter.
Connecting with high-profile influencers can also open up tons of guest posting opportunities, which is a great way to build your brand.
I’m going to show you a step-by-step tutorial for exactly HOW to reach out to influencers so that you are GUARANTEED a response.
What You Will Learn
- The incredible power of email outreach, and why it BEATS social media.
- How to find ANY email address.
- The steps for crafting the PERFECT email subject line.
- How to INFUSE your email with personality.
- How to ask for something without being a sleazeball.
The Power Of Email Outreach
It’s hard to believe, but email is considered an outdated form of communication.
Wow, does that make me feel old. Back in the day (a phrase I’m allowed to use since I’m old), having a Hotmail account made you the coolest kid on the digital block. Now text messaging, Snapchat, Facebook, and live video streaming are the preferred methods of communication.
But when it comes to connecting with high-powered influencers, email is still my weapon of choice.
Why?
Because with email, I have their exclusive attention.
I’m not competing with a Facebook newsfeed or 50 Twitter notifications or a random cat video on YouTube.
Email is a one-to-one, mono-y-mono connection between me and the influencer.
But how do you get in touch with an influencer and actually get their attention?
Most people think that that an influencer would never be interested in what they have to say.
Most people are DEAD wrong.
Here is my step-by-step formula for reaching out to and getting a response from important people.
FIND THE EMAIL ADDRESS OF YOUR INFLUENCER
Believe it or not, finding the email address of the person you’re looking for isn’t the hard part.
No need for slimy, blackhat tricks. I use FindAnyEmail to find email addresses. This is a legal, ethical way of finding email addresses.
Simply enter the first name, last name, and domain name of the person you’re searching for. Here’s a quick search for Michael Hyatt.
Here’s another one I did for Chris Drucker:
If FindAnyEmail doesn’t work, you can try one of these ways, but usually I find what I’m looking for on the first try.
CRAFTING THE PERFECT OUTREACH EMAIL
Now that you’ve got the right email address, it’s time to craft the perfect cold call email.
Before we talk about what you should do, let’s talk about what you really shouldn’t do.
After all, as Ash over at The Middle Finger Project says:
…everybody’s trying to pitch everything, yet nobody knows HOW to pitch anything.
Do NOT:
- Blast a generic email to 50 different people at one time.
- Use a boring subject line like, “Thought you might like this.”
- Pretend that you somehow know the person you’re contacting.
- Pretend that the person will immediately understand why you’re contacting them.
- Write an incredibly boring that is totally irrelevant to the reader.
In other words, don’t write an email like this:
Hey %Name%,
I just wrote a post called “How To Write Emails” that I thought you might like.
Here it is: www.heresthelink.com
I’d really like it if you shared it on social media.
Thanks,
Stephen Altrogge
Uhh, no.
I mean, what would you do if you got this email? I would delete it. Immediately. My inbox is full enough as it is, and I don’t need more boring emails cluttering it.
So what should you include in your email?
A super interesting subject line that compels the reader to open.
Most people get hundreds, if not thousands of emails every day. So how do you get your email to stand out?
By crafting a killer subject line.
My subject line to Pat Flynn was: Yes, I am THAT annoying blogger
Not especially compelling, but interesting enough to get Pat to click on the email. My emails to Joanna Wiebe and Rand Fishkin were very similar.
I also like this headline because it contains some amount of self-awareness that, by virtue of sending an unsolicited email, I am one of those annoying people who fills up inboxes.
If you’re going to get a response to your email, spend time working on your subject line. Make it as interesting and compelling as possible. If the reader isn’t interested, they won’t open the email, and you’ll never get a response.
Dave Gerhardt over at Hubspot puts it like this:
So how do you write a good subject line? Figure out what you are ultimately trying to say and then boil down that request to 5-7 words. Once you get to those 5-7 words, make sure those words speak to the interests of your recipient and clearly communicate what you’d like from that email exchange.
Tons of personality that makes for an interesting read.
Here’s what I said to Joanna:
About 20 minutes later, Joanna replied by saying:
Why did my email generate a response? Because it was INTERESTING!
The Internet is full of endless, boring drivel. Of stupid memes and Buzzfeed quizzes.
When something has personality and zest, it majorly stands out from the crowd.
I want the readers of my emails to be entertained, even if they don’t do what I’m requesting. So when crafting a cold-call email, I try to include as much interesting, entertaining material as possible.
My high cold-call response rate is primarily due to the fact that my emails are, at the least, engaging.
Boring emails lead to low response rates. Entertaining, engaging, clear emails lead to more opens and more responses.
When you craft cold-call emails, focus on including:
- Self-deprecating humor.
- An appreciation for something that person has done.
- An awareness that you may be annoying them.
Up front acknowledgement that you’re asking them to do something
When you send someone a cold-call email, be up-front about the fact that you want something from them. Don’t pretend that you’re emailing them out of the goodness of your heart. They can see right through it, and they know you’re just spewing nonsense.
Acknowledge that you want them to share your article or reply to you. Don’t beat around the bush. Be clear about what it is you’re asking them to do.
The worst that can happen is they decline your request.
Wrapping It Up
Being able to connect with high-powered influencers is incredibly valuable, and contrary to most people’s perceptions, not all that difficult.
If you’re willing to spend time crafting the perfect subject line, infusing your email with personality, and being clear about what you’re requesting, you can almost always get a response.
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How To Craft Cold Call Emails That ALWAYS Get Results was originally published on December 15th, 2015 06:55 AM by Matthew Woodward Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved.
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