We have all heard that old sales adage that the “Customer doesn’t buy the product, they buy you.”

And nowhere is this truer than in the world of online business.

The simple truth is, that people are more focused now than they have ever been before not on the what of business but the who.

With the power of the internet, anyone can make bold claims and false assertions about their products.

However, whenever entrepreneurs put themselves under the limelight and subject themselves to the public magnifying glass like an ant in a laboratory, things are different.

Think of all the current big names in online business.

Ramit Sethi, Tim Ferriss, Lewis Howes, Grant Cardone, Gary Vaynerchuk.

All of these people developed their businesses by sharing their unique personalities and developing  a strong personal brand.

And if you want to succeed as an online entrepreneur, you need to learn to do the same.

Luckily for you, that’s exactly what I am going to show you how to do today.

1. Create a brand that oozes professionalism

Everyone always says to just “Be yourself” and you will succeed in online business.

I’m sorry but I call b.s. On this.

I say that you need to “Be your best and most professional self.”

It might be tempting to use those ridiculous selfies that you took with Micky Mouse when you took your kids to Disneyland, but don’t do it.

If people are going to invest thousands of dollars (or potentially more) on and in your company, then you need to show them you are a serious person capable of getting sh!t done.

Be willing to pull out your wallet and have a professional profile picture taken and it will be invaluable to your business.

Who would you buy from?

2. Create and market epic content regularly

There are almost 2.75 million blog posts published per day.

This means that unless you are staying extremely relevant through high quality content creation and marketing, you and your brand will be left coughing in the dust.

Whether you are creating awesome HD YouTube videos, 3,000+ word guides, or even awesome podcast interviews, you have to be creating some kind of content.

Content is the defining element of a personal brand.

From the books and audio programs of Tony Robbins to the epic blog posts of Neil Patel to the crazy vlogs of Casey Neistat.

Content really is the key to building a memorable and successful personal brand.

3. Keep your content authentic

So just because you are creating and marketing loads of epic content does not mean that your business will be successful.

Even with the best content marketing strategy and an impressive business acumen, your personal brand will still fail if your content lacks one key ingredient…

Authenticity.

Whether you are writing a new article for your blog, recording a vlog for YouTube, or even interviewing a new guest for your podcast, do so authentically.

Don’t copy other entrepreneurs and don’t try to be someone you are not.

If you are soft spoken and relaxed, then don’t try and be as hyped up and energetic as Tony Robbins.

If you are clean cut and don’t use profanity, then don’t drop F-bombs like Joe Rogan.

If you believe in something, share that belief and forget everyone else.

People love authenticity, and even if they don’t agree with your message and your style, they will still appreciate your transparency and truthfulness.

4. Have a consistent social media presence

The average American spends about 40 minutes a day on Facebook alone.

When you add Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn to the figure, you begin to realize just how big of a deal social media really is.

If you are not building a powerful profile across multiple social media platforms, then your brand will not have any lasting relevance.

Period.

You need to learn how to master social media marketing and position yourself as an authority through whichever platforms you choose.

5. Become a masterful storyteller

You know what I love so much about most of the thought leaders in the 21st century?

They know how to tell amazing and captivating stories.

They can grab an audience and hold them captive for hours by telling them about their own lives and experiences or the experiences of others.

One of the best ways to quickly grow your personal brand is to incorporate the power of storytelling (specifically about your own story) into every aspect of your business.

For some of you, this is going to require that you face some fears and take some leaps to ensure that you are living a story worth telling.

While it may seem scary or challenging, creating an interesting story to tell could be the reason between success and failure.

6. Position yourself intentionally

Who do you want to be known as in your business?

How do you want to be perceived and talked about?

The fearless adventurer? The no b.s. Mentor? The friendly expert?

Whatever you want to be known as, build your brand around that archetype.

Think about some of the most recognizable personal brands today.

Richard Branson (the fearless adventurer), Tony Robbins (no b.s. mentor) and Tim Ferriss (friendly expert) have all selected archetypes and positioned themselves accordingly.

They decided how they wanted to be perceived and then took the actions necessary to ensure that people saw them that way.

If you want to grow your brand and double your loyal fan base, then you will do the same thing.

7. Create recognizable brand imaging

Trivia time.

Do you know how long it takes you to blink?

Do you know how quickly the human brain processes visual stimuli (images)?

Well, let me tell you.

It takes the average person around 350 milliseconds to blink and (get this) only 13 milliseconds to process an image.

That means we literally process images in less than the blink of an eye.

This makes visual marketing and creating a visually recognizable brand key to success in the 21st century.

Think about brands like Facebook, Coca Cola, Paypal, and Geico.

All of them have instantly recognizable and visually optimized logos, color schemes, and brand imaging.

Copying what these companies have done and investing time and energy into creating a visually recognizable brand might be one of the most important things you can do for your brand.

8. Leverage speaking events

I know of several entrepreneurs whose entire careers were “made” because of one single speaking event that skyrocketed them into the public eye.

Public speaking at events related to your niche is one of the quickest ways to establish authority and grow your personal brand.

It might take a little while (read: it’s going to take a long freaking time) before you are able to speak at TEDx or The World Domination Summit.

However, with enough work and learning how to leverage your message for the public eye, you will be able to quickly grow your brand through your speaking engagements.

You have no way to edit your mistakes, you have no way to take back what you have said, and no way to pretend you are someone you are not.

This makes speaking events a powerful way to build an authentic and honest brand.

Conclusion

By taking full advantage of the above 8 tips, you will be able to quickly grow your brand to heights that you had never thought before.

You will become recognizable, you will build massive authority, and you will earn hundreds upon thousands of new loyal fans.

It will take hard work and it will not be a quick process, but if you are willing to stick it out, the success you achieve will make it all worth it.

Do you actively promote your website on social media?

Let me guess… You probably have profiles on Twitter and Facebook and assume that your bases are covered.

If you own a B2B business, I have some news for you: They’re not.

When it comes to lead generation for B2Bs, no social media platform can hold a candle to LinkedIn. With more than 450 million users worldwide, including more than 128 million in the U.S. alone, and more than 106 million unique visitors per month, the business networking site is a veritable hive of activity.

I can already hear your groans of protest, and I get it. Who wants to create and maintain yet another social media profile? I’ll tell you who: Savvy B2B owners who want to generate leads with ease.

That’s right: You don’t have to devote a lot of time or money to generate promising leads through LinkedIn. Find out how by reading on below.

The last thing I want to do is send you barking up the wrong tree, so the first order of business is to determine whether or not it makes sense for your business to try generating leads on LinkedIn.

Unlike places like Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn is not the place to blatantly promote your business. If it looks like you’re clearly just there to generate leads, your efforts will fall flat.

For all intents and purposes, generating leads on LinkedIn only makes sense for B2B companies. After all, it’s a social network for networking with other professionals and other companies.

Numerous case studies have revealed that LinkedIn drives more leads to B2B companies than any other social network. Considering how easy it is to do, I firmly believe that all B2B owners should embrace it. Below, I will show you how it’s done.

The majority of the following steps can be completed in just a few hours. Depending on your content situation, you might even be able to get all of your ducks in a row in just a few days.

#1 Complete Your Profile

Like many folks, you may already have a LinkedIn profile that is essentially dormant. Shake out those cobwebs and optimize your profile to lay the groundwork for lead-generation success.

Use your real legal name, and always include a profile picture. LinkedIn profiles with photos are 14 times more likely to be found and 36 times more likely to receive messages.

If you have a professional headshot, use it. If you don’t, seriously consider having one made. Otherwise, have someone photograph you dressed in business clothes in front of a white or plain backdrop.

For your “professional headline,” include your job title. What title, you ask? Your title should be similar to the job titles of those with whom you would like to connect. If you mostly want to meet CMOs, then, your job title should be something similar. Be specific… CEO, Marketing Manager, Director of SEO, and so forth. Make sure that your job title states your exact position in your company or shows what your profession is.

Fill out your profile completely to show that you are legit. Include a line stating that you are eager to connect with others. Encourage people to contact you.

LinkedIn allows you to add samples of your work to your profile, so upload some videos, images, presentations, certificates or other documents that demonstrate your authority in your field.

Before you finish, edit the URL for your profile for SEO. It should relate to the nature of your business in some way.

#2 Set Up Your Own LinkedIn Group

When it comes to generating leads on LinkedIn, many will tell you to join and be active in as many groups as possible. You definitely should, but setting up your own group is even better.

Hover your mouse cursor over “Interests” in the top menu, and select “groups.” Click on the “My Groups” button at the top, and then select “Create Group.”

What type of group should you create? It should relate to your business, niche or industry in some way.

One of the most important things here is naming your group. It should sound official and authoritative. If your interests are local, include geographical indicators too.

Complete the rest of the form, which has about five fields. Upload a custom logo. If you don’t have one, you can have one made on Fiverr or a similar site.

An empty group is unlikely to draw people when you send invitations, so upload at least a few pieces of content to get it going.

With your group completed, go back to your “professional headline” and add “founder of” whatever the name of the group is. This will pay off handsomely later.

#3 Find Potential Customers

Be very careful when completing this step. You don’t want to be labeled as a spammer.

Use the search feature at the top of the page to find viable prospects. Click “Advanced” for more in-depth search tools. Narrow down your search by industry, location and title. For the latter, choose a title that most closely matches those with whom you would like to communicate.

Create a simple spreadsheet, and store each promising contact in it.

#4 Content

Remember how you added the name of your group to your professional headline? With any luck, this is when it will come in handy.

When attempting to connect on LinkedIn, you only have 300 characters to state your case. You will be asked how you know the person. Since you obviously don’t know them, select “friend.” You won’t have to provide an email address that way.

Quickly peruse the prospect’s profile, and mention something from it in your message. Otherwise, simply state that you believe that you may benefit from connecting with one another and see what happens.

#5 Build Relationships

This is the part that requires a little patience. Over the course of a few weeks or months, slowly develop relationships with the connections that you have made.

Use your new group as an excuse for initiating a conversation. Invite each prospect to check it out, and explain why you believe that they would benefit from doing so.

Other ideas for messages include following up with something that you talked about previously, suggesting useful resources or stories that you have found and recommending specific discussions within your group.

Now that you have the basics down, I’ll go ahead and give you some additional pointers for making the most out of your lead-generation efforts on LinkedIn.

Promote your group – Get into the habit of posting statuses about your group. Find relevant groups and inquire about cross-promoting each other’s groups. If you are willing to spend a little though, consider promoting your group with LinkedIn ads.

Keep connecting – Always be on the lookout for new LinkedIn connections. When someone gives you their business card, find them and connect with them on the site. Check the “People You May Know” section often. Browse your current connections for new potential prospects and ask for introductions.

Cheer others’ accomplishments – As you get to know your connections, you will be in the loop whenever someone announces a major accomplishment. Get your name out there more by congratulating the person and tagging them with an @ mention whenever this happens.

Write recommendations – When it makes sense to do so, write recommendations for connections on LinkedIn. People often reciprocate, and that lends more legitimacy to your profile.

Connect your other social media accounts – If you are already on Facebook and Twitter, connect those profiles to your LinkedIn profile to cast an even wider net. Whenever you post a new status on LinkedIn, updates about it will automatically be posted on Facebook and Twitter.

Join industry groups – Flesh out your presence on LinkedIn by joining and being an active member of groups that are relevant to your business, niche or industry. Finding relevant groups is easy, and you don’t have to devote much time to them to see results.

Establish expertise with stellar content

The last tip deserves a little more space. People are more likely to click through to your website and landing pages when you come across as a true expert or authority. One of the best ways to do this is by producing and sharing top-notch content via LinkedIn Pulse.

Don’t republish content that you’ve posted elsewhere on Pulse. Instead, create and share brand-new content that you have specifically developed for LinkedIn.

If you have relevant content that you have never published elsewhere, now’s the time to put it out there. If you lack the time or bandwidth to produce a slew of new content, find relevant stories and share them instead. Just include your opinion about the piece, and find a way to tie it back to your niche or industry.

Conclusion

Right now you’re probably thinking, “Wait–that’s it?”

Incredibly, there’s not much more to it than that. As with any other type of marketing effort, remember that results won’t be instantaneous. Patience, persistence and diligence are essential. Over time, though, your activities on LinkedIn should generate all kinds of promising leads for your business.

If you’re already on LinkedIn, do you actively use it to generate leads?

Have you tried contacting influencers online but struggled to connect? Well you’re in luck because today I’m going to show you exactly why most marketers fail at influencer marketing.

Influencer marketing has been a popular PR strategy ever since Michael Jordan helped Nike sell billions of dollars worth of Air Jordan’s.

It’s actually a simple concept… pitch an authority (usually a blogger, celebrity or athlete) and ask them to endorse your product or service. This encourages word of mouth referrals all stemming from a trusted source, i.e. the influencer.

These days, influencer marketing on the web involves identifying the biggest influencers in your niche, then connecting with them to access their audience. It’s not just another trendy buzzword you can use to “sound” like an expert on marketing — quite the opposite.

Influencer marketing is a real, effective marketing strategy that has been shown to influence buying decisions.

A recent study by Deloitte revealed that both “digital influence and mobile influence on in-store retail purchases growing by double digits, with mobile growing faster than overall digital”. As online media continues to drive customer purchase decisions, companies are resorting to new marketing channels to acquire customers.

One of the best ways you can convert potential customers that are researching your product is to have an influencer post a product review or endorsement. This 3rd party validation allows you to piggyback their authority and acquire customers from an engaged and receptive audience.

Sounds like a win-win…

It is, and it’s actually quite simple to do. Yet despite its simplicity, influencer marketing is not easy (there’s a big difference). And that’s why most marketers fall flat on their face.

Why?

Most people approach influencers the wrong way, leaving nothing more than a backlog of unopened emails to show for their efforts. The typical approach is very “me” focused and doesn’t take into account the influencers frustrations, needs and desires.

The good news is that most people are making the same seven mistakes, so if you avoid these you’ll drastically increase the effectiveness of your influencer outreach and start to immediately see results.

Here they are…

Mistake #1 – Lack of clarity

As with any marketing strategy, the first step should always be getting crystal clear on the exact outcome you want to achieve. Without clarity, your influencer marketing campaign will feel like being on wild goose chase.

Again, that may sound simple… But most people get stuck at this first step. Here’s what I suggest: start by setting

Mistake #2 – Not aligning your goals with the goals of the influencer

Once you’ve gotten super specific on your own goals, it’s time to think about the goals of the influencer and how you can add value to their audience.

Some recent studies presented in Psychology Today show that self-centeredness and narcissism are on the rise. This probably explains why so many marketers make the mistake of only thinking about what they are trying to achieve and disregarding the frustrations, needs and desires of the influencer.

Most people miss this last piece, not realizing that influencers are extremely busy and don’t have the time to help you unless you can help them get what they want. By aligning your goals with those of the influencer and their audience, you’ll be able to build a compelling pitch, and increase the effectiveness of your outreach.

Once you are clear on the outcomes for yourself, the influencer and their audience, you must now plan out your influencer marketing strategy.

Mistake #3 – Failure to plan ahead

“Failing to plan is planning to fail.” – Alan Lakein

Knowing that it probably won’t workout exactly as you planned, it’s still important to recognize the power of intention, and that not having a plan is going to be a huge mistake. First thing that most people forget with their plan is to estimate the value of each opt-in or lead.

Knowing the value of a lead you can then map out your customer acquisition funnel and have a clear plan for how to generate revenue from the newly acquired opt-in or leads. This is the only way to objectively measure whether your influencer marketing efforts have been effective.

Mistake #4 – Not pitching enough of the right people

Once you’ve finalized a plan to connect with influencers, there are three crucial things you need to get right:

1. You need to choose the right platform
2. You need to reach out to the right influencers
3. And you need to reach out to enough people to ensure that the campaign is successful.

When it comes to choosing the right platform, this depends largely on where your target prospects spend their time and what kind of product you are promoting. For example, you’ll be fighting an uphill battle if you are trying to promote retirement packages through Snapchat or Instagram.

When choosing the right influencers and the right out amount of outreach, most people make one of two mistakes. First, they either do a very large volume of outreach and end up being too broad and not appealing to anyone, or second, they go too narrow and do not reach the sufficient volume of outreach required to achieve their initial goals.

So as you might have guessed it takes a balance of creating a sufficiently large but also highly targeted list of influencers to reach out to. As anyone with any experience in cold outreach will tell you, it’s about building mutually beneficial relationships with influencers but it’s also a numbers game to find people who are open to engaging with you.

Mistake #5 – Going in cold without any prior contact

Another mistake that will drastically reduce your chances of being able to engage with your targeted influencers is sending your pitch on the first contact. No matter how good, compelling or exciting your pitch might be you’ll drastically increase the effectiveness of your outreach by using a multi-touch point approach.

According to the Online Marketing Institute, it can take 7 to 13 touches to generate sales-ready, qualified leads. In my experience the same dynamic applies for influencer outreach. So with this in mind, you’ll want to start by getting on the influencers radar.

As many other guides on influencer outreach will tell you, you can do this by interacting with the influencer on social media, commenting on a blog post and/or engaging with them about their content.  Ideally, you’ll want to do a varied approach on different platforms to spark some sort of engagement with the influencer so they know you exist and that you appreciate their content.

Once you’re on their radar by showing some genuine appreciation for their work, then and only then should you start pitching the idea of a possible partnership to promote your product or service.

Mistake #6 – Not personalizing your pitch

The worst way you can insult anyone is by not acknowledging their existence, and a sure way to insult an influencer is to spam them with a generic pitch. This is one of the most common errors people make when they hear that you must approach lots of influencers to get one to work with you.

Although it is true that you need to complete a sufficient volume of outreach to get influencers on board to promote your product, it is also true that almost no one will respond to something that is clearly copy and paste.

Think: why should they care?

First answer that question, then think about what email subject line would you open if it were someone pitching you. What would the email say? Would it be to the point or long and wordy?

When you take the time to put yourself in their shoes it starts to become pretty clear how you should personalize each message. Spend some time understanding their opinions, preferences, and what their audience responds to.  This can’t be stressed enough: you must understand their goals and explain how you can help them achieve them.

Mistake #7 – Treating influencer marketing like a magic pill

Influencer marketing is only effective when it is used as part of an entire customer acquisition strategy. It should be viewed as tactic for increasing the top of the funnel leads within a holistic marketing strategy.

Not every influencer you partner with will provide the results you were hoping for, so you need to be consistent in approaching new influencers regularly.

Try to have realistic expectations and track your results so that you may remain objective when you say your influencer marketing did or didn’t produce the results you were hoping for.

Conclusion

So as you can see, there are many pitfalls to avoid in order to run a successful influencer marketing campaign. Remember, that if you want to create a wildly successful campaign treat influencers with respect, avoid these 7 mistakes and put in the work.

Don’t have the time to manage an influencer marketing campaign yourself?
Click here to let us do the work for you and connect with the top influencers in your niche.

If your business isn’t marketing online, you could be missing out on a lot of business.

Even brick and mortar stores need an online presence. Why? Because consumers are online. And it’s essential that you get their attention to get ahead.

How can you do this?

By keeping on top of the online marketing methods that will help get you in front of those online consumers. Here are 6 online marketing skills that will get your business ahead online.

#1 Sharing videos that will bring in tons of business

Video has the amazing ability to convince consumers of the value of your business, and increase your conversions. Not convinced that you need video? Consider these stats:

• Businesses that use video increase their revenue almost 50% faster than those who don’t use video.
• 4 out of 5 shoppers claim that actually seeing how a product works is important to them.
• 7 out of 10 millennials watch a company’s video when they are shopping.

But it’s not just about consumers and sales. Video has the power to increase engagement and conversions in marketing. Look at these numbers:

• 87% of businesses marketing online are now using video.
• It’s 50x easier to reach a high page ranking in Google’s search engine results with video.
• An intro video in an email increases click-throughs by 96%.

Start using video in your emails and blog posts, and create videos to announce any new products or services, or show consumers exactly how they work. If you still aren’t sure, watch this video by Kissmetrics: How to Set the Goals that will Accelerate Your Video Marketing Success to get you started.

#2 Using email to acquire more customers

Email marketing is a great way to reach targeted customers, people that are truly interested in your business and your products and services. In fact, 44% of consumers who receive emails make at least one purchase a year based on promotional emails.

While email marketing can be a bit overwhelming, it really doesn’t have to be. Start getting people on your list, and use this list building guide, Acquiring Customers with Email, to really help you increase your subscribers and increase your conversions.

#3 Automating your marketing

One of the best ways to excel in online marketing is to automate your marketing efforts. And investing in tools that will help you automate can help.

Why automate? According to this Salesforce article, “a quarter of all B2B Fortune 500 companies are already using marketing automation, along with 76% of the world’s largest SaaS companies.”

If you need help growing your business with marketing automation, or even understanding how it can help, check out this HubSpot article, What is Marketing Automation? A Beginner’s Guide.

#4 Becoming a better copywriter

There’s so much power in words. Content has the power to reach customers, connect with them and even drive sales. If you really want to make an impact online, you need to consistently publish posts on your business blog. But not just any posts. You need to make sure the posts you publish are useful and valuable to the consumers you are trying to attract.

As more consumers and businesses venture online, it’s going to be extremely important that your content is compelling and convincing. If you aren’t sure how to write great content, start here: QuickSprout’s The Definitive Guide to Copywriting. It will cover just about everything you need to write great content for your website and blog.

#5 Using SEO the right way

Online experts may go back and forth on this, but SEO is still very much an important part of building up your online audience and bringing awareness to your brand. It can help boost your traffic and bring you new customers. However, SEO has changed over the years. In the last few years, Google has recently started penalizing websites that use underhanded, shady techniques to work their way up the ranks of Google.

To compensate, SEO is a little different. Keywords still play a big part, but content has an even bigger part to play. Use this guide on an SEO Driven Approach to Content Marketing to help you determine your own SEO approach.

#6 Developing and implementing a social media strategy

Content marketing and social media strategy go hand in hand. Like content and SEO, social media is constantly evolving, and it pays to stay on top of the current trends and practices.

To help you get more strategic and help you implement your own social media strategy, use MarkinBlog’s guide: 101+ Actionable Ideas to Explode Your Traffic Growth. It can help you pick with social networks to focus on, what times you should be sharing updates, how to track your progress and more.

Online marketing has moved from a small part of business, to a necessity. If your business isn’t utilizing online marketing strategies to their fullest potential, you could be missing out on a lot of customers. Conquer these 6 marketing skills and you will be on your way to mastering online marketing.

Blogger outreach is quickly growing into one of the top ways to help businesses build traffic to their websites.

Why?

Because it works. And it brings so many other benefits than just traffic.

It brings you targeted traffic, and helps your products or services get seen by the right audience. By guest posting on specific niche blogs, you can gain tons of exposure and credibility within your industry. Plus it makes Google happy by giving you some extra SEO-juice from those inbound links.

So why don’t more people guest blog?

It’s a lot of work.

Bloggers are savvy. And maybe even a bit picky. They aren’t going to accept a guest post from just anyone. Getting accepted to guest post often takes a well-crafted email pitch to big-name, prominent bloggers.

Nothing beats an email pitch that shows you’ve taken the time to get to know the blogger, thoroughly read their blog and personalize every aspect of your email, like this one.

But that can take hours upon hours to do. Especially when you’re pitching multiple bloggers each day hoping to land a guest blogging opportunity.

But here’s something that is a cold hard truth. Most of those long hours will be thankless and a majority of people will not get back to you.

And if you’re running a business and juggling 2 dozen other things, it’s easy to stop this tedious process with nothing to show for your initial efforts.

Instead of spending all your time figuring out how to customize your email pitch for each blogger, start off with an email template that you can use to scale.

Template?! Ew, no way, I’m not some spammer!

Now hold on a second

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with combining the right strategy with a customized template that will get your tremendous results.

Let’s look at a typical response we get using this template:

I have to say this is one of the best pitches I have received in a long time! Well done.

I am happy to add your resource to this post!

So stop spending hours on just email, and start spending more time on writing epic guest blog posts that will bring your more business, boost your traffic and increase your credibility.

If you want to get scrappy with scalable pitches that still get results, here is our 6 step pitch template creation process.

Structuring the Initial Outreach Email

Step 1: Introduce yourself 

Something short and sweet. A 5-word introduction that includes your name, role and company works best.

Step 2: Say something about THEIR site

Either mention something specific that their doing OR just say you came across their blog post and paste the URL.

Step 3: Clearly and simple state your ask

In simple terms, be very straightforward with what outcome you’re looking for from a collaboration with them.

Step 4: Mention a few fun facts about your business

Tell them something about your product or service in bullet point format. You can also highlight some key features.

Step 5: Offer something in exchange

What I’ve found works best is if you have access to a different site that has some authority, to offer to include their website and brand in the next blog post you do for that site.

Step 6: Reiterate the request and thank them for their time

Close your email politely and you’re done!

Let’s look at what these steps look like in action.

Hi blogger,

I’m Andrea, owner of ReminderPal. 

I noticed your article here, www.businessblog.com,about productivity tools and was wondering if you’d be interested in a content marketing collaboration with me.

I’d like to submit a well-researched article for your blog about the newest data surrounding the benefits of prescheduling your work day.

I regularly cover topics such as this on my blog for ReminderPal, an app that lets you schedule your calendar and automatically sends you a text message for each calendar item. For anyone who regularly uses their phone, these reminders can be incredibly useful.

Fun facts about ReminderPal

• Founded in 2007, after searching online for a resource to continually remind me what needed to be done that day but couldn’t find what I was looking for
• Mission is to help others keep track of their to-do list and be more productive throughout the day
• The online calendar immediately syncs with the mobile app, and will automatically send the user text message as a reminder

If interested, I could submit an insightful article about prescheduling that will fit your audience and their needs.

Of course, if there’s anything specific you’d like me to focus on instead, I’m very much open to that!

In exchange for your time and opportunity, I’d be happy to reference your website on the next blog post I do for [site] which is an authority site that provides entertaining and informative business and entrepreneurial advice to an active and engaged audience nationwide.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on it!

Best Regards,

Andrea

Template for 5 Follow-up Emails

Beyond the initial email, you should do at least 5-email follow-ups to drastically improve your positive response rate.

Here is the basic outline:

Follow-up 1: Simple follow-up

Follow-up 2: Another simple follow-up which includes reiterating the ask

Follow-up 3: Another offer. Send something like “in case you’re not interested in a guest post, I’m wondering if you’d be interested in …” Suggest another topic, or even another collaboration idea.

Follow-up 4: One more chance follow-up, “Just thought I’d try one more time.”

Follow-up 5: Last chance email. This is your last follow-up for a guest post or collaboration with the blogger. The fact is, people are just busy so even if they are potentially interested, you have to catch them at the right time. There have been so many times where a blogger responds after the 5^th email thanking us for our persistence and would gladly work with us.

Guest posting is a great way to get your business name out there, connect with influential bloggers and also drastically increase your traffic with readers who are really interested in your business and your products and services. But reaching out for guest blogging opportunities can be time consuming.

Well not anymore. By using our 6-step template, you can still easy customize each email and convince bloggers to give you and your guest post a shot, while allowing you more time to work on your business.

More Blogger Outreach Templates for Link Building

Blogger outreach for link building isn’t just limited to guest posts. There are tons of ways to reach out and score backlinks.

Here are blogger outreach templates from outreach experts that are yours to steal.

Have a question? Templates to add? Leave a comment below.

Cheers,

Ajay

P.S. Looking for a blogger outreach service? Check out OutreachMama.