Interestingly, we live in an age where even emails seem vintage!
Not too long ago, email was considered the new dynamic invention that disrupted digital communication. From personal to professional uses, email quickly gained momentum. In fact, it is one of the few communication channels that have stayed strong and evolved with time.
However, the professional and corporate use of emails has surpassed casual communication. In 2024, every business has one or more corporate email IDs they use to communicate with multiple stakeholders. Working professionals also created dedicated IDs to interact within and outside the organizations they work in.
Out of several professional uses of emails, email outreach is arguably the most fruitful. Also known as email marketing, this process allows companies to reach their target audience, generate leads, and convert them into loyal customers.
If you are one such entrepreneur or marketer wanting to give your clients the leads they deserve, here is a detailed guide to help you navigate email marketing in the best way possible.
You will also learn our email outreach process in detail to chart out an impactful campaign.
Let us start with the basics.
In the simplest words, email outreach refers to the process of approaching your target audience (or prospects) through email. It is also commonly known as email marketing. It involves sending one or more emails to specific prospects which may be individuals or organizations to build healthy relationships with them. Email outreach also includes sending promotional messages to your target audience or staying in touch with them to fulfill specific goals.
Email outreach is an important tool for SEO. It ensures seamless link building, allowing you and your business to approach authors, webmasters, journalists, and other relevant entities to share the link of your website. Along with natural link building, email marketing also helps you drive more traffic to your website (provided its content is optimized and relevant). When you send multiple emails and receive responses, you know your audience better. Ultimately, this helps your SEO experts to build a targeted campaign to get the desired rankings.
Here are some of the most important goals email outreach helps you achieve:
Email marketing is a great link-building tool for your SEO campaign. If you reach out to the right content creators and/or publishers at the right time, you can get quality backlinks for your website. With a plethora of websites floating around on the internet, quality backlinks can skyrocket your website up the search engine results pages (SERPs). However, you need to ensure that your website and its content are optimized for search engines.
Sending more emails and covering more digital ground helps you spread awareness about your brand. An effective email outreach campaign created with the right email automation tool can make a big section of your target audience familiar with your business.
Quality lead generation is one of the biggest benefits of email marketing. Email outreach connects you with your prospects who may be interested in engaging with your business. If they are, this process can be a tool to convert them into your loyal customers.
Healthy relationships are immensely rewarding in the world of marketing. A good email marketing campaign will also focus on building relationships with different stakeholders, influencers, media houses, and other entities capable of giving your business a boost.
This is another reason why email outreach is important for your SEO campaign. Quality emails (and follow-ups) help you grab the best guest posting opportunities for your organization.
If you want to distribute your press release, you can send emails to relevant media houses and/or journalists for press coverage. This can help you get enough media traction and boost your PR campaign.
Simply writing emails and sending them to random prospects in bulk will not give you traction. Email outreach is a systematic process that requires your team members to follow dedicated steps.
While the precise route may differ for different organizations, here are the most essential steps involved in planning your email outreach:
Outreach planning is incomplete without identifying your targets. Work with your team to narrow down your audience according to your niche, relevance, objectives, and quality considerations.
Robust email automation tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, Buzzsumo, and more can help you with quick and efficient prospecting.
Personalization is the key to a successful email outreach campaign. People and organizations are no longer interested in receiving generic-sounding emails. Ensure that you personalize every email you send according to the receiver. You can take the help of modern email automation tools to personalize your messages even if you send them in bulk. A personalized subject line and an engaging opening paragraph can work wonders!
Before you hit “send,” ensure that your goals and expectations are realistic. Do not expect to receive an overwhelming response to all your emails. This is far from reality. Usually, only a fraction of the emails you send result in fruitful lead generation or engagement.
Once you are done with all the planning, it is time to write emails that convert. If you have a team of skilled email marketers and writers, you can ask them to create messages that are best suited for your organization.
If you need a sense of direction, here are a few email marketing templates to get you started:
Hi there, [first name]
I am [position], [your name]. I would like to know if guest writers are welcome to submit posts.
I write about [the subject] frequently and believe your readership would find writing about this topic useful. Certain posts of mine have been highlighted on reputed websites, such as [website names].
I have thought of the following subjects for your blog:
[Subject 1], [Subject 2], [Subject 3].
If these items work for you, please let me know. I would love to begin providing your audience with excellent content education.
Regards, [your name]
Hi there, [first name]
I hope all is okay with you. As the founder of [your company name], the name is [your full name]. I create material that facilitates [what your content does] for business owners. [Name] is one of the most well-known websites that have showcased my work.
Your [link to the post] post was fantastic! To be more precise, this post [how you profited from the post] helped me. That section on [mention specific content] struck me as being spot on.
I intend to provide your audience with an alternative viewpoint on [related issue] and share some views. Please share ideas with me on the same.
Looking forward to speaking with you.
[Your signature]
Hello [first name],
I understand that you are busy. I just wanted to do a quick follow-up on my previous email in case you missed it.
Thanks,
[Your signature]
Now that you know how to write outreach emails, here are a few important things you should keep in mind while writing them:
Never make the mistake of spamming the receivers with your emails. Keep your messages precise, relevant, and direct. Spamming your contacts with a plethora of emails is likely to backfire.
If you do not receive favorable responses from your contacts, do not be too pushy with your approach. Send a couple of follow-up emails while hoping for the best. Pestering your contacts by being too pushy will not only prevent lead conversion but also hamper your future prospects of connecting with them.
It is advisable to enrich your emails with additional resources and recommended tools wherever needed. Make your messages as clear and understandable as possible.
All your contacts can't have the same email preferences. While one kind of email structure works with a set of audiences, the other does not. To be clear about this, it is advisable to go for A/B testing. This involves creating and sending two separate emails to your audience and gauging their responses. Such an approach will prove helpful especially if you are working with email templates. Try out different templates and see how your audience reacts to them.
Now that you are familiar with the concept and benefits of email marketing, here is the step-wise email outreach process proven and executed by our professionals:
Let us say you are running a campaign for a technology project. The email outreach process that follows deals with a campaign created for reputed personalities and companies in the web development space to give us a backlink. It can also be used to seek content collaboration opportunities.
The process goes as follows:
The next step is creating your campaign with Smartlead which we feel is the best tool for this. Here is how you can create a campaign using Smartlead:
And voila!! You are all set to have wonderful responses landing in your inbox! All you need to do now is focus on follow-ups and bring your collaborations to fruition.
Email outreach is no rocket science but it requires sufficient effort and dedication from your team. From segmenting your audience and identifying relevant prospects to writing and sending emails, it is a systematic process. For best results, keep your expectations low and do your best to stay relevant. Also, keep track of the responses you receive and your campaign’s progress over time. Generate periodic reports for extensive assessment. If you have to offer something the receiver is genuinely interested in, only a few words will be enough to make your email marketing campaign a success!
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