Purpose
The purpose of this lesson is to help you send highly targeted, personalized email outreach that get interested responses from dream collaborators, clients and/or partners that can change the entire trajectory of your business.
Process
Instead of spamming out generic emails to thousands of prospects, this approach takes a very highly targeted approach. Instead of a shotgun, we’ll be using a sniper rifle.
While this does require significantly more mental and manual effort, the results from this type of outreach significantly outperforms the alternative resulting in higher reply rates, more appointments and more deals.
Also keep in mind, that after this is done successfully, you can fairly easily outsource the entire process to a VA or team member.
Before you start, here’s a high-level guide of this process end-to-end.
Develop Your Dream 10 Lists
Before we do research, take at least 10 minutes to brainstorm and create a list of your Dream 10 for each of the following buckets: Dream Clients, Dream Collaborators and Dream Partners.
Dream Clients: These are perfect fit clients that you would love to work with AND would significantly alter the trajectory of your business in a positive way.
For example, Nathan Chan of Foundr Magazine was a dream client of mine. Being able to say that I worked with him as an up-and-coming freelancer helped establish my credibility and close a lot more deals.
Dream Collaborators: These are aligned brands (most likely personal but potentially corporate) that you would like to collaborate with in a mutually beneficial way that is a Win-Win for both parties.
For example, Thinkific was a dream collaborator who featured my story about pre-selling my Agency Accelerator on their blog and YouTube channel. This content provides massive credibility and still generates leads for my business today! Best of all, it was a totally free collaboration.
Dream Partners: These are partners who are already in front of your target audience with potential to be one of your biggest lead generation channels for your business.
For example, I worked with David Dreay from Consulting.com. After launching our Done For You growth services offer, it dawned on me that everyday Consulting.com is speaking with dozens of perfect fit prospects who more than likely rather get done for you help instead of done with you help, so I offered to pay him a 10% referral fee in exchange for leads that closed. That referral agreement quickly turned into a $36,000 deal and a $3.6K commission for David (which was more than he made for Consulting.com sales!). No brainer win-win.
Now, time to create 3 x Dream 10 Lists and get ready to rock and roll! Make a copy of this spreadsheet template to help with this.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lCt67dXzPNEz8sGMlqfZYIxARLOHSzr1NFrCu0N6zWg/edit?usp=sharing
Research to Add Contact Details & Write Genuine Compliments for Each Prospect
At first, this step may take a while, but remember the rewards are huge: you could sign up your dream clients! For each prospect, you want to add the following information into the spreadsheet template:
- A verified email address
- A LinkedIn profile (recommended)
- A company website
- A personalized line (ie. value add or genuine compliment)
Finding a company’s website is pretty easy, just google it or look them up on LinkedIn. Finding and verifying emails can take a bit more time. Here’s a guide to find and verify email addresses. Post in the threads if you need more support.
When it comes to writing your personalized line, you really just want to make sure that it’s clear you’re not a robot and you actually took some time to write something thoughtful. This is why these campaigns get such a high response rate!
There’s two proven approaches you can take with your personalization:
Option 1 (recommended): Share a value-add directly related to the solution you’re selling.
For value-adds, this is basically a short version of your NBO that you will deliver via email.
For example, if you’re a website designer, make a few specific suggestions for how they could improve their page. If you’re an SEO agency, make a few specific suggestions for how they could optimize their website or blog.
Option 2: Share a genuine, relevant compliment
For genuine compliments, here’s some guidance:
What NOT to write 👇
My name is "X" and I'm "Y" at company "Z". I'm a big fan of yours and been following you for years. I managed to catch a copy of your book "XYZ" and it blew me away.
What TO DO instead 👇
I'm a big fan of yours man and I've been following your work ever since your "XYZ" adventure in 2016 and all those hilarious videos you were making on YouTube back then. "Video X" is my fav one. Just finished listening to your interview on "XYZ" podcast. Much respect for your stand on "TOPIC". Really enjoyed listening.
This step is completed once the email address, website and personalized lines have been added into the spreadsheet. Once this step is done, you’re almost ready to rock!
Write Your Outreach Copy
Here’s the template that’s been proven for these types of campaigns:
Subject Line: Quick Question {FirstName}
Hi {FirstName},
{1-2 Personalized Lines}
{Primary Qualifying Question & Social Proof Statement}
As always, we’ve got a few copy templates for you to review to help you customize your own copy which you can access here.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/16mWFQBzb2V7Y7Z4Z3Twaeghwi8AVC19UhY-bQVJQ4os/edit?usp=sharing
If you want feedback before you send your emails, feel free to share your copy using the assignment submission below.
Send Your Emails!
It’s time to rock and roll baby! The final step is to go into your inbox and start sending your emails!
To get started fastest, it’s recommended to just go to your inbox, customize your template with the personalization template and send your emails to the first 25-30 people. Or if you’re feeling ambitious, send out all the emails!
At this stage, software isn’t needed but we’ll dive into this later.
That’s it! As always, be sure to monitor your inbox frequently and do your best to respond to leads as quickly as possible!
NBO Outreach
If you want feedback on your copy, share it here!