This is a sponsored post written by Ahrefs. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.
Email outreach remains one of the most powerful ways to promote and grow your online business.
With effective outreach, you can:
- Gain backlinks on sites that did not previously link to you
- Build relationships with influencers in your niche
- Get people to write guest posts for your blog for free
- Land new affiliates for your product or service
- Onboard new customers or make direct sales
- Turn haters into brand ambassadors
- Have people promote your product or content on social networks
The possibilities are endless (unless, of course, your outreach looks like SPAM).
“Timing” is What Will Multiply Your Outreach
When it comes to getting the most of email outreach, timing is everything.
For example, let’s say you received the following email:
“Hello %NAME%,
I just found your article that you wrote 2 years ago about %TOPIC% here: %URL%
And I wanted to reach out to you and offer you %OFFER%.
Let me know if you’re interested
-Random Person”
Would you even remember an article you wrote two years ago?
I’m guessing probably not.
Which means that email is likely to go straight into trash.
How about this email?
“Hello %NAME%,
I saw you published an article about %TOPIC% on your blog yesterday.
So I wanted to reach out immediately and talk to you about %OFFER%.
Let me know if you’re interested..
-Random Person”
Much better.
Why?
Well, in this case, the email references an article that you published yesterday. The post will be fresh in your mind and you will be much more receptive to any opportunity/offer presented to you.
So if timing is key to effective outreach, how can you ensure you identify business opportunities as they arise on the web and act on them quickly?
Ahrefs can help.
Never Miss an Outreach Opportunity by Using Ahrefs
Ahrefs marketing toolset has a great section called Alerts that will monitor the web and notify you about new opportunities for your business in close to real-time:
Here are some alert ideas:
- Your website’s new backlinks: Knowing who links to you in real-time gives you a lot of “warm” prospects to connect with, which can lead to further opportunities.
- Your competitors’ new backlinks: If someone is talking about your competitor, they might as well talk about you – just reach out to them and ask.
- New backlinks to any page on the web: If someone wrote a great article on a topic you’re interested in, you might want to monitor who links to it. The linking sites could be strong prospects to reach out to when you publish similar content.
- Mentions of your brand(name): Whether people are saying good or bad things about you, it’s important to connect with them.
- Mentions of your competitors: The people who mention your competitors could be your customers.
- Mentions of what you do: Many people will talk about their challenges online not knowing that you have a solution for them.
Setup these six alerts in your Ahrefs account and use these opportunities for your outreach. You’ll see with your own eyes that timing can improve your outreach by 10x.
Image Credits
Featured Image: Image provided by Ahrefs. Used with permission.
In-post Image #1: Image provided by Ahrefs. Used with permission.