{"id":2347,"date":"2019-05-22T04:15:19","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T09:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kmbrian.com\/?p=2347"},"modified":"2020-12-04T13:41:32","modified_gmt":"2020-12-04T19:41:32","slug":"promotehour-good-email-outreach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/promotehour-good-email-outreach\/","title":{"rendered":"Value Over Sales: How Promotehour Uses \u2018Good Email Outreach’ for Leads and Sales"},"content":{"rendered":"

The days of \u2018spray and pray<\/a>\u2019 campaigns are well and truly behind us. Sending out to thousands of recipients and hoping a few will respond is counterproductive at best. You\u2019ll end up annoying most of them with irrelevant messages resulting in complaints that\u2019ll hurt your sender reputation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n

Email outreach<\/a> and marketing can be a mighty weapon in your arsenal if used properly<\/em>. I recently spoke to Mona Soundankar<\/a> at Promotehour<\/a> to discuss their value-first approach to selling PR services.<\/p>\n

About Promotehour<\/h2>\n

There are two types of exposure: paid and earned.<\/p>\n

On the paid side, you can go with things like Adwords, Facebook Ads, sponsored posts, or more traditional radio and television spots.<\/p>\n

On the earned side, you essentially have media coverage, and that falls under the purview of public relations<\/a>, or PR.<\/p>\n

A PR firm can take the lead on your earned exposure and get your story in front of more eyes.<\/p>\n

Enter Promotehour.<\/p>\n

They help startups and new businesses get the press they need at or soon after launch. They\u2019ve successfully captured media coverage for their clients in outlets that include TechCrunch, MakeUseOf, Entrepreneur, BuzzFeed, and more, at a startup-friendly price that most of the bigger PR firms can\u2019t or won\u2019t offer.<\/p>\n

And they generate more than half of their new business with email outreach<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Good Email Outreach<\/h2>\n

You\u2019ve likely heard this method referred to as cold email outreach<\/a> because the recipients, for the most part, don\u2019t know you.<\/p>\n

Soundankar and the Promotehour team take a different viewpoint:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe internally refer to cold email outreach as ‘<\/em>good email outreach’<\/em><\/strong>. We strive for outreach that doesn\u2019t upset or annoy 98% of the cold email receivers for the sake of converting 1-2%. Good outreach is where we first give something for free and sell later.<\/em>\u201d ~Mona Soundankar<\/a>, Co-founder of Promotehour<\/p>\n

That\u2019s email outreach done right in theory and<\/em> practice: value first, sell second (or third, or fourth).<\/p>\n

Finding Targets\"\"<\/h3>\n

Catering exclusively to startups, Promotehour has no shortage of potential targets. In fact, there are about 100 million startups opening each year worldwide<\/a>. That\u2019s about three every second.<\/p>\n

The only requirement is a desire to generate media coverage, and virtually every startup in every industry falls into that category. Any recently-launched startup is a qualified<\/em> lead. You just need to find them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe use Palash.io, a service of our sister startup,\u201d says Soundankar. \u201cIt\u2019s currently invite-only and in private beta, but it provides us with 100 leads of newly-launched startups every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are other sources like online directories<\/a>, of course. In fact, finding potential targets is the easiest step in the process.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s what you do<\/em> with the names and email addresses that matters.<\/p>\n

First Contact<\/h3>\n

Startups just about to launch or recently launched are looking for a lot of different services and tools. They\u2019re open to receiving messages from providers. They need help.<\/p>\n

That said, you don\u2019t just want to hit them up with a big ask or commitment with your initial email. \u201cAs an entrepreneur myself, I never appreciated those unsolicited emails asking me to schedule a meeting or sign up for a service,\u201d says Soundankar. \u201cThere was very little value to me and my daily workflow.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Promotehour, the approach has always been value first<\/strong>. Give them something high-quality, valuable, relevant, and useful. No ask. No sell \u2013 hard, soft, or otherwise.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the startup likes it, they might go for our paid services later. If not, it was still a free resource which they would find useful.<\/em>\u201d ~Mona Soundankar<\/p>\n

At Mailshake, we know this approach works. Period. And on a couple of levels.<\/p>\n

For starters, everyone likes getting something for free. It creates goodwill and positive sentiment towards you and your brand.<\/p>\n

It also moves a lead from cold to warm<\/a> without any additional effort. Even if they don\u2019t respond, they now know your name. If and when you reach out again, you\u2019re no longer a complete stranger to them.<\/p>\n

Finally, it also leverages the psychological principle of reciprocity. When someone gives us something or does something for us, it creates a sense of \u201cowing them one.\u201d And for the most part, we want to return that favor as quickly as possible. That might mean signing up later, or referring you to a friend, or something else entirely.<\/p>\n

Reciprocity is so powerful, it\u2019s one of Cialdini\u2019s six principles (or weapons) of persuasion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So, a value-first outreach message provides something valuable for free. That\u2019s it. No more. Seems simple, but it\u2019s a compelling approach.<\/p>\n

The Promotehour cold email outreach template is short, straightforward, and value-first:<\/p>\n

Hello!<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m David from Promotehour. I just came across <startup name>, so thought I\u2019d reach out.<\/em><\/p>\n

I wanted to share a couple of free resources we created for startups like yours:<\/em><\/p>\n

Free list of 1100+ Tech media outlets to pitch your startup<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Free list of 100+ Startup directories to submit your startup<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Hope you find it useful!<\/em><\/p>\n

Cheers,
\n<\/em>David Sharmay<\/em><\/p>\n

Need guaranteed press coverage? <\/em>Get it here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The template doesn\u2019t ask for anything and doesn\u2019t waste any time, but it does provide convenient value while getting the name Promotehour in front of them. That\u2019s a huge win.<\/p>\n

The Strategy Behind the Email\"\"<\/h3>\n

This is a great example of keeping things simple and not overthinking it.<\/p>\n

The email is quick. It\u2019s clear what the resources are, so the value to the recipient is immediately apparent. And the name \u2018Promotehour\u2019 is explicitly mentioned, without going into details that they don\u2019t care about anyways.<\/p>\n

Beyond sending the above template, Soundankar says there are three guiding principles for their ‘good outreach’:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. No follow-ups. Follow-ups are great in most scenarios<\/a>, but Soundankar finds follow-ups to unsolicited emails somewhat pushy and annoying.<\/li>\n
  2. No selling. Only value.<\/li>\n
  3. Only those that respond to the initial message receive a personalized pitch.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    As for not following up, it may go against the conventional wisdom, but Soundankar strongly believes the risk of annoying outweighs the potential benefit.<\/p>\n

    In her experience, recipients do one of three things:<\/p>\n