When you start a new marketing agency, you’ve got to get the word out. We do this through networking and building relationships, but that’s not the only way we build up a positive reputation in our community. We also use strategic marketing tactics like outbound communication.
Instead of scattering a bunch of emails out like a mass mailer, you should use a variety of strategic methods to spread the word about your business and prospect new clients through digital communications. With a good plan in place, you’ll start receiving responses and new clients in no time.
Grow More Quickly with Outbound Marketing
Outbound needs to be part of your marketing game, especially if you have a small agency, or you’re just starting out. Whatever type of remote business you have, a good outbound strategy will throw gasoline on the fire and accelerate your potential for leads.
Too many entrepreneurs focus too much on inbound, like a great website, cool logo, and a thorough blog. You DO eventually need the professional quality items, but they don’t make much difference for a brand-new agency. Nobody actually sees or cares about them because an unknown agency has no reputation. People don’t go looking for websites they don’t know about.
So why do entrepreneurs spend time building these items and neglect cold outbound marketing? One reason: They ultimately fear rejection.
Instead of fearing a certain response, keep in mind that you may not appeal to everyone you reach out to, but you can attract a few quality clients. You need some quality pitches to send to hand-picked potential leads, and I’ve got several tips about how you can accomplish this.
4 Tips to Gain Leads with Cold Outbound Emails
You need a solid volume of quality outbound communication. Try these four methods:
1. Prioritize quality over quantity.
Many business owners think they need to shoot out a bunch of emails as quickly as possible in order to canvas for potential clients. That’s simply not effective marketing. Instead of sending a smattering of poorly written, impersonal emails (which probably get sent straight to junk folders), focus on the quality of your digital communication.
It will serve you better to send ten amazing outbound emails each week instead of a hundred cookie cutter ones. Find out who you’re contacting and make the emails personal. Spend some time on each note, offering service based on a business’s specific needs and market. Some businesses may not even know what they need, and you can point it out to them. You can even follow up several days later by checking to see if they had any questions about your offers.
2. Send potential clients a free audit.
One of the ways we solicit business in our agency is by sending free audits to potential clients. You can do this by writing a short report in an email, including observations about their web presence and offering several immediate solutions.
Another tool we like to use in my agency is sending a video created with the Loom app. It basically lets us create a one-sided video chat with a shared screen. I accompany the video with a friendly note, and the client can open it at leisure.
In the video, we create a personal message explaining our findings, and we give a demo of what we see on their website. We make sure to compliment what they do well, build rapport, show that we did our research on them, and speak specifically about their products and services. It’s effective because we offer a few quick solutions while also offering to go more in-depth if they’d like to set up a consultation or make use of our services.
3. Build your list of leads organically by giving away free materials.
A free offer, with no risk to the receiver, draws people in who might have an interest but wouldn’t jump in head-first. They want to have an assurance that your product or service actually delivers. Your opportunity comes because you get to demonstrate a solution to their problem.
Send an email offering free resources to potential leads. You can have them sign up for email lists with helpful content to boost their marketing skills or send links to download specialized guides about web content or SEO strategies.
I do this by focusing on small, local businesses. This works so well because my competition pursues clients on a broad scale, but I grab people’s attention from outside their front door. As a local influencer, I have a firm grasp of client needs because they’re in my immediate community. Because my services significantly help businesses around me, people organically ask about my services. I work on building a good reputation for quality product and customer service—the two most needed items to really gain momentum with a client base.
4. Start before you feel ready.
If you want to succeed, you have to just do the task. Often, entrepreneurs put off the intimidating work until they have missed prime opportunities. Or they let other time-consuming tasks overtake their schedule to the detriment of actually getting the word out. I don’t want that to happen to you! You need to build the foundation of a client base to actually work your way to success.
Overcome the barrier by blocking out a time during the week when you DO send these emails. You could set aside some time on a specific weekday, or commit a little time every day to work on outbound communication. Make it a priority, so it doesn’t get overlooked.
We want to help you find success as a remote business owner, and we have all kinds of tips and resources for you to use. Come take advantage of our combined experience in entrepreneurship and digital marketing. If you want to learn how to build a recession-proof, automated business, check out our FREE, 15-minute training and start generating at least $8K per month in weeks.