me last night while studying: uh women of trachis is just not good
me after writing two exam essays about it: women of trachis is iNCREDIBLE actually
14 notes
·
View notes
15 rules for effective chess training
You have decided to become a chess expert, you are motivated and feel that nothing is going to stop you from achieving your dream - Perfect! Motivation is very important to start with, but remember that the path is not always easy and that it is in your perseverance in training that you will be able to make a difference and see the results.
A chess coach or by yourself?
You may think that nowadays everything is on the internet, and that you can try to learn and improve on your own, we do not discuss it. If you are constant and methodical, surely with all the information you find on the net, it is possible that you can become a good player. But if you really want to refine your technique and exploit all your skills, while at the same time reducing your mistakes, perhaps you should consider taking lessons with a chess coach. A chess trainer will know how to get the best out of you and help you to achieve your goals in less time, giving you more satisfaction and optimizing your training.
15 rules of chess training
Anyway, today we are going to talk about the 15 most important rules of chess training. We will deal with how to approach chess training and how to avoid the most common problems in order not to become a mediocre chess player. Then let?s start.
1.There is no perfect chess training program.
Besides, many of the best chess players and trainers often argue with each other about how certain things should be taught or played. They even evaluate certain chess positions differently. This means that a player who wants to improve his game will have to learn and experiment a lot to find the tools that are effective for him.
2. The effort is essential.
The effectiveness of any chess training is directly proportional to the amount of effort invested in it. If your training is not working, you are probably not immersed enough in the work. "Success depends on effort" - Sophocles.
3. You need to constantly learn to "learn" chess.
But constant research of different teaching methods without teaching itself will get you nowhere. Concentrate on your weaknesses, on what you really need to improve, and the results will come.
4. Fatigue does not guarantee results.
You will get tired with any chess preparation method, even if it is not very effective. But the fact that you get tired is no guarantee for a good result. Only proper training will make you the best chess player.
5. There is no such thing as 'divine inspiration'.
At the same time, to become a strong chess player with a rating of 2000 - 2200 ELO, you do not need to hire expensive trainers, have a special talent in chess or an IQ of 165. Of course, a good chess trainer with whom you feel comfortable and who knows how to recognize your needs will help, and if you have talent too, everything will be easier. But the responsibility to improve does not lie with your trainer or your innate talent, but with your ability to train properly.
6. Train what you find difficult.
You especially like some elements of the game of chess and learn them with pleasure, because they are easy for you. But if they are easy, then you already know them and should not waste time on them. It is better to concentrate on something difficult and unpleasant. For most chess players this is usually endgame, positional chess and difficult tactics.
7. When you lose, you should not get angry.
This is just a sign that you need to work harder and learn more. Train hard and then come back and win.
8. Don't be afraid to lose to a stronger opponent.
Playing with a strong opponent is the best catalyst for self-improvement.
9. Don't get burned.
Don't think that to become a strong chess player you have to give up everything else and train 8 hours a day. If you do this, you will most probably get exhausted quickly after the first week and simply give up chess. Unless, of course, your name is Bobby Fischer.
Instead you work for short periods of time, but in a systematic way. As a result, the time devoted to study will add up and you will progress.
10. Write down everything you do.
Keeping a training diary is an important element of the chess training process. This tool is useful for motivation and concentration. Besides you will see what works and what does not.
11. Don’t be a crybaby.
Self-improvement in chess never starts with complaints and excuses. You must accept responsibility for your mistakes. If you fail, do not look for ways to justify yourself. Find the real reason. Do the work necessary to fix it. Win.
12. The game is your motivation.
If you are a real chess player, then you do not need constant motivation to improve the quality of your game. It comes from within.
13. Openings are not everything.
When the average amateur player loses a game, he comes home and starts looking at the opening. Don't be like that. Better work on endgames and positional chess.
14. Rest is important. As much as training.
Before important tournaments it is necessary to rest. Sometimes a day of rest will be much more effective than a wearing-out training before the game.
15. You do not need to proclaim to the world that you are a chess player.
Instead of wearing a T-shirt or cap that says how much you like chess, show your passion with your game and its high efficiency. If you are more concerned with uploading photos from your last game to your social networks than with concentrating on learning and improving, perhaps you should choreograph for Tik Tok, and forget about chess.
How to improve your chess game?
To develop a positional understanding of position, it is necessary that you play the moves in GM games yourself and understand why they are made. Only having been in the "skin" of a strong player, you can understand what problems he had to face in the game. In this way you will strengthen your chess level. And above all, remember that the one you compete against every day is yourself.
1 note
·
View note
I wish Alola wasn't the region where Ash wins because the anime gave the Nebby story to him instead of Lillie, Lusamine wasn't allowed to be the nonredeemable villain she is, Ash didn't even make a full team for the league, and the league itself was handled poorly. The anime ruined Alola from the start.
I’m kind of in a couple different minds about it.
On the one hand, I don’t really have strong feelings about the Alola anime one way or another. I haven’t seen most of it (and have instead just paid attention to it from a distance through fandom osmosis) because I don’t think that slice of life works for me when applied to Pokémon. I want adventures and traveling, and while there was some traveling in the Alola anime, it was a bit too grounded to its home base for my tastes. In addition to which, I think having such a large cast of companions might have hurt some of them, in that from my understanding many of them took a long time to add more members to their teams, if they did at all. (Of course, that’s not to say having fewer companions always allows them growth, because Misty and Brock were sadly not allowed to have their own arcs in the original series. That’s probably my biggest gripe of the OS.) I also can’t say that the anime ruined Alola, in my opinion, because I also don’t have a very good opinion of the Alola games. Most of my complaints stem from the gameplay, sure, but I also take issue with how Lusamine and Gladion were both handled (in that Lusamine was given “redemption” and Gladion wasn’t allowed to participate in the climax of his own family’s story), among other smaller quibbles.
So on that note, any issue I take with Ash winning isn’t really centered with the fact that he’s winning in this series, in the sense that this isn’t a series I necessarily dislike (I’m more indifferent to it), and therefore I’m upset about it. If I have any reason to not want him to win this one, then that reason is either that I prefer Gladion as a character and would prefer him to win (true, sorry, Ash), or that I feel like the Alola League is the least important of the game Leagues, which, from a storytelling perspective, it . . . kind of is. I mean, going based on what we know from the games, this is a brand new League that Kukui just started up because he thought it would seem fun. In the games I took issue with this little subplot because the League system seems to be a system of government in most regions, which means Kukui would need to overthrow Alola’s religious oligarchy in order to institute this new system of government, which should have created a lot of problems but in reality created zero, which in turn made it seem as if he just set up a fun kiddie tournament that would hold no real importance with regards to the rest of the world even though dialogue from Kukui (which may have been USUM only, can’t recall) suggested that he wanted it to. The anime isn’t that serious, in that they never really touch on issues like politics or governance very much (although if they’d been faithful with the stories from Black/White they would have had to given N’s entire goal was to become Champion specifically so he could change the laws in Unova), but from my understanding Kukui’s motivation / what he does is more or less the same. He sets up the Alola League so everyone can have fun. And in that sense, everyone can participate, regardless of whether they’ve met certain qualifications or not. It’s a free-for-all. And while that made for a big League despite not introducing very many new characters to the plot, it also makes it seem much less . . . high risk? Because by and large Ash was competing against trainers who hadn’t exactly trained for this, at least not for the length of a saga, which is what normally happens. (And before anyone starts, sure, Alan decided to enter the League late, but he had been seriously training Lizardon for years, and for far more high-stakes reasons, so he still counts.) Whether you want to talk Indigo, Silver Conference, Ever Grande Conference, or Lumiose Conference, generally speaking all the trainers who entered had been aiming to enter for months. They’d gone through the work of collecting badges, devising strategies, and working hard to make it there. As a result, Ash could lose against any one of them at any time, because all of them were just as serious as he is. And I don’t mean to knock any of the Alola League participants, but let’s be real, Team Rocket spends 50% of their time selling malasadas and the other 50% doing crimes (or maybe it’s more like 70% - 30% at this point? I haven’t been watching consistently). Sophocles is focused on his inventions, Kiawe has his delivery service, Mallow is helping at her family’s restaurant, Lillie has just barely started as a trainer, and so on and so forth. I’m sure they all tried very hard, but they don’t have a dream of being a Pokémon Master like Ash does, so they haven’t been training as hard as he has for this very goal. (Of course, trainers like Gladion and Hau have, but they were not the norm for this tournament, I don’t think.)
On top of which, there’s the fact that since this is a brand new League, it’s also not one that holds any history or, again, large-scale significance in the rest of the world. Even the Orange League, despite being much smaller and not a game League, has been around for a long time. It was a serious League, not one just thrown together by a professor who wanted to let everyone have fun. Saying, “I’m the Kanto Champion!” has a lot more weight than, “I’m the Alola Champion!” because the latter is going to get a, “Alola has a League??” response from most people outside of Alola at this rate. It doesn’t mean it’s not important or cool at all, but it’s just a bit . . . underwhelming. I think that’s the best word to describe how I feel about it. Underwhelmed. It’s not an impressive League win to me, and if Ash were going to win any League to end his time on the show, I kind of wish he’d gone back and won Kanto’s so that he could be the Champion of his own region, and make up for the way he was ripped off way back when.
At the same time, though, I do love Ash as a character and always have, and in light of the fact that we may be experiencing a reboot, if Ash’s time on the show is to end (or if this Ash’s time on the show is to end, although I hope that they go with an entirely new character if they really are ending his time rather than using AU Ash), then I do want him to go out having finally achieved his dream, or at least a version of his dream. The worst thing I can think of is ending this anime after twenty-one years with Ash not having accomplished what he set out to do in the first place. (And yes, I know what Shuudo wanted to do, but his idea was terrible, absolutely terrible.) So in that sense, particularly if this is Ash’s final saga, I’m happy that he’s winning.
So I don’t know. I’m not exactly jumping for joy, but I’m also not exactly upset about it either. I’m mostly underwhelmed, mostly indifferent, mostly curious to see what it is they’re planning for this next leg of the anime. At the end of the day, though, my favorite boy already won his League, so I already got the results I’m most happy about.
The Champion of my heart, always. ♥
4 notes
·
View notes
Antigone is heroic, but Creon is human
In the Greek tragedy ‘Antigone’ two characters take the stage as the most interesting and dynamic of the cast. The first is the titular character Antigone, a young woman who strives to bury her brother’s body against the law. The second character is the enactor of said law. This is Creon, the new King of the city and the uncle of Antigone who has venerated one of her dead brothers, but condemned the other to rot outside for eternity. At first glance, both characters are similarly stubborn and inflexible, but upon closer examination of the text, one can find a great deal more of character and personality, especially of Creon, a man seemingly one dimensional in his hard headedness. While Creon possesses several less than admirable qualities, he also possesses many virtues and a great depth of character which makes him the most interesting and most human character of the play.
A great part of what makes Creon the most interesting character comes from his motivations. The primary motivation is his desire to be a great and unquestioned ruler of his city. We can observe this from his very first appearance in the play when he speaks his opening speech of the play on lines 135 to 176. In these he states that he “has contempt for the kind of Governor that is afraid,” and that he will always speak his mind when he sees the ship of State going in the wrong direction. Creon desires his voice to rule sovereignly and unquestioningly. This desire informs all of his other decisions in all other spheres of his life. Even his personal life takes a toll from this, as evidenced by his interactions with his son Haimon and his niece Antigone, who are actually supposed to wed. Due to her breaking the edict though, he spares little time in sentencing Antigone to death; believing that not sentencing her would make him appear weak.
However, this driving desire does not make Creon beneath reason, and in fact provides him many virtues, that we also see in his opening speech. He refuses to have any sort of dealings with the enemies of the State, showing steadfastness and loyalty (lines 155-156). He refuses to be bought by anyone and constantly lectures throughout the play about the evils of money as evidenced when he berates the sentry on lines 249 to 263, displaying remarkable restraint against this kind of temptation. He spares Ismene from death, saying that “No you are right/ I will not kill the one who’s hands are clean”, displaying a desire for fair and accurate judgments (lines 630-631). Creon is not a man that one would consider flexible by any stretch, but this reconsideration from his initial stance at least suggests that he is not incapable of revoking a bad decision of his once he sees the error in his way, which is further evidenced later in the play. He even goes so far as to lift the punishment of death by stoning from Antigone, though perhaps granting her the crueler fate of eternal solitude in a cave.
His second rationale for his actions though, is fear. This one is subtler, and less boldly stated. Creon is uncertain of his ability to rule competently, and therefore acts rashly to solidify his kingship. This fear is hinted at in his opening line when he states that he understands that a King may not expect his subjects’ full loyalty until he has been tested, allowing him a small disclaimer against his fears of not being listened to initially (lines 146-147). His fear also makes him suspicious and unreasonable at times, for his fear does not make him indecisive, but instead stubborn. He is so concerned with appearing strong and unwavering that he persists with bad decisions and only very reluctantly changes his mind. This is evidenced in the scene where he confronts Haimon, who attempts to counsel him against having Antigone slain, begging him to see reason and to revoke the edict. Creon denies his son’s pleas however, accusing Haimon of “having sold out to a woman” and then refuses to entertain any further notions of changing his mind (line 599). The only thing that budges his stubbornness is a prophecy/warning from the prophet Tiresias, which still takes quite a bit of time and further convincing from the choragus to affect him. By then it is too late though, and the audience sees the tragic fate of both Antigone and Haimon.
Despite his hard headedness and unrelenting nature, Creon is still a character that evokes sympathy from the audience. Though I at first disliked him thoroughly, feeling Antigone to be the more righteous character over all, a second reading changed my feelings regarding Creon. While he may not be the hero exactly, it would be unfair to call him a villain either. He is a new ruler who made very human and understandable mistakes. He banned Polyneices, the man who laid siege to his own city, from being buried in an attempt to set right the State, but went against Antigone and his religion in doing so. He attempted to be bold and failed, as humans are wont to due. Similarly, when Antigone defied the edict, he condemned her to death and then imprisonment, fearing the appearance of favoritism or weakness. Both of these he condemned in his very first speech Insecure in his rule, he bulled ahead and insisted on his poor decision. This is not unlike many people I have known today who will continue in the face of all opposition to execute a bad idea. Though of course, the people I know don’t decide whether or not someone lives.
At the end the audience truly feels the most sympathy for Creon. Finally seeing the error of his judgments, he rushes to reverse them, only to be too late. His dialogue on lines 864 to 866 clearly displays his change in heart when he cries, “That is true…it troubles me/ Oh how hard it is to give in! but it is worse/ To risk everything for stubborn pride.” (lines 864-866). After hearing the prophecy and the choragos, he rebukes his stubborn pride, but all too late. His son has died as well as his niece, both going to consummate their marriage in Hell. Creon’s regret and despair is only too poignant as the audience sees Creon ask for mercy in the form of his own death. Despite my initial feelings of dislike towards him, it would have been nearly impossible for me not to feel sympathy for this broken man. I took no satisfaction in seeing his ruin, a sentiment I believe most share.
Now that we have discussed the personality traits of Creon and his mistakes, what might Sophocles have wanted to show us with this character and his story? In my opinion, the tragedy of Creon is meant to show how truly damaging it can be to persist with a poor idea. Creon falls to ruin because he can neither compromise nor listen until very near the end when everything falls to pieces. Creon is also a warning against not taking advice from anyone, as Creon listens to no one until Tiresias scares him into submission by telling him it is the will of the gods that Antigone should be freed from her prison and her brother should be buried. Sophocles is urging the audience to be open to the advice of others and to be more careful in our decisions. Rashly made choices followed up by stubborn persistence lead Creon to ruin and to desire his death.
An alternative meaning for Creon may lie in the fact that in seeking to make his own order, he destroyed it. Creon serves as a warning to those who might seek to overturn the natural order of things so that they might make their own rules. For Creon sought to leave a corpse unburied on the surface of the earth, and to bury a living woman in a cave. If one seeks to overturn the natural order of things, it will only come to tragedy, warns the character of Creon. Man’s rules are not above the rules of nature or the gods, though no god appeared by name in the play and none were seen to interact directly with the characters in the play.
In all, it can be said that Creon has the most depth of character and vies with Antigone for the best character of the play overall. No character has as much personality or as many lines as Creon, and none strike me as quite so human as Creon. While I like and admire Antigone, I cannot relate to her as I now relate to Creon. I have never faced my death, but I have faced swallowing my pride and admitting I was wrong. I have faced my stubbornness and trying to undo my mistakes. Antigone wavered none and is admirable in that respect and was brave and virtuous all throughout. But while that made her heroic, it also isolated her in some regard. And so, it is fair to say that while Antigone is the heroine and the most righteous character of the play, Creon is the most relatable and sympathetic character of the performance.
22 notes
·
View notes
Why You Should Steal My Daughter's Playbook for Effective Email Outreach
Posted by ronell-smith
During the holidays, my youngest daughter apparently had cabin fever after being in the house for a couple of days. While exiting the bedroom, my wife found the note below on the floor, after the former had slyly slid it under the door.
Though tired and not really feeling like leaving the house, we had to reward the youngster for her industriousness. And her charm.
Her effective "outreach" earned plaudits from my wife.
"At least she did it the right way," she remarked. "She cleaned her room, washed dishes, and read books all day, obviously part of an attempt to make it hard for us to say no. After all she did, though, she earned it."
Hmm...
She earned it.
Can you say as much about your outreach?
We're missing out on a great opportunity
Over the last few months, I've been thinking a lot about outreach, specifically email outreach.
It initially got my attention because I see it so badly handled, even by savvy marketers.
But I didn't fully appreciate the significance of the problem until I started thinking about the resulting impact of bad outreach, particularly since it remains one of the best, most viable means of garnering attention, traffic, and links to our websites.
What I see most commonly is a disregard of the needs of the person on the other end of the email.
Too often, it's all about the "heavy ask" as opposed to the warm touch.
Heavy ask: "Hi Ronell ... We haven't met. ... Could you share my article?"
Warm touch: "Hi Ronell ... I enjoyed your Moz post. ... We're employing similar tactics at my brand."
That's it.
You're likely saying to yourself, "But Ronell, the second person didn't get anything in return."
I beg to differ. The first person likely lost me, or whomever else they reach out to to using similar tactics; the second person will remain on my radar.
Outreach is too important to be left to chance or poor etiquette. A few tweaks here and there can help our teams perform optimally.
#1: Build rapport: Be there in a personal way before you need them
The first no-no of effective outreach comes right out of PR 101: Don't let the first time I learn of you or your brand be when you need me. If the brand you hope to attain a link from is worthwhile, you should be on their radar well in advance of the ask.
Do your research to find out who the relevant parties are at the brand, then make it your business to learn about them, via social media and any shared contacts you might have.
Then reach out to them... to say hello. Nothing more.
This isn't the time to ask for anything. You're simply making yourself known, relevant, and potentially valuable down the road.
Notice how, in the example below, the person emailing me NEVER asks for anything?
The author did three things that played big. She...
Mentioned my work, which means she'd done her homework
Highlighted work she'd done to create a post
Didn't assume I would be interested in her content (we'll discuss in greater detail below)
Hiring managers like to say, "A person should never be surprised at getting fired," meaning they should have some prior warning.
Similarly, for outreach to be most effective, the person you're asking for a link from should know of you/your brand in advance.
Bonuses: Always, always, always use "thank you" instead of "thanks." The former is far more thoughtful and sincere, while the latter can seem too casual and unfeeling.
#2: Be brief, be bold, be gone
One of my favorite lines from the Greek tragedy Antigone, by Sophocles, is "Tell me briefly — not in some lengthy speech."
If your pitch is more than three paragraphs, go back to the drawing board.
You're trying to pique their interest, to give them enough to comfortably go on, not bore them with every detail.
The best outreach messages steal a page from the PR playbook:
They respect the person's time
They show a knowledge of the person's brand, content, and interests with regard to coverage
They make the person's job easier (i.e., something the person would deem useful but not necessarily easily accessible)
We must do the same.
Be brief in highlighting the usefulness of what you offer and how it helps them in some meaningful way
Be bold in declaring your willingness to help their brand as much as your own
Be gone by exiting without spilling every single needless detail
Bonus: Be personal by using the person's name at least once in the text since it fosters a greatest level of personalization and thoughtfulness (most people enjoy hearing their names):
"I read your blog frequently, Jennifer."
#3: Understand that it's not about you
During my time as a newspaper business reporter and book reviewer, nothing irked me more than having people assume that because they valued what their brand offered, I must feel the same way.
They were wrong 99 percent of the time.
Outreach in our industry is rife with this if-it's-good-for-me-it's-good-for-you logic.
Instead of approaching a potential link opportunity from the perspective of "How do I influence this party to grant me a link," a better approach is to consider "What's obviously in it for them?"
(I emphasize "obviously" because we often pretend the benefit is obvious when it's typically anything but.)
Step back and consider all the things that'll be in play as they consider a link from you:
Relationship - Do they they know you/know of you?
Brand - Is your brand reputable?
Content - Does your company create and share quality content?
This content - Is the content you're hoping for a link for high-quality and relevant?
In the best case scenario, you should pass this test with flying colors. But at the very least you should be able tp successfully counter any of these potential objections.
#4: Don't assume anything
Things never go well when an outreach email begins "I knew you'd be interested in this."
Odds suggest you aren't prescient, which can only mean you're wrong.
What's more, if you did know I was interested in it, I should not be learning about the content after it was created. You should involved me from the beginning.
Therefore, instead of assuming I'll find your content valuable, ensure that you're correct by enlisting their help during the content creation process:
Topic - Find out what they're working on or see as the biggest issues that deserve attention
Contribution - Ask if they'd like to be part of the content you create
Ask about others - Enlist their help to find other potential influencers for your content. Doing so gives your content and your outreach legs (we discuss in greater detail below)
#5: Build a network
Michael Michalowicz, via his 2012 book The Pumpkin Plan, shared an outreach tactic I've been using for years in my own work. Instead of asking customers to recommend other customers for a computer service company he formerly owned, he asked his customers to recommend other non-competing vendors.
Genius!
Whereas a customer is likely to recommend another customer or two, a vendor is likely able to recommend many dozens of customers who could use his service.
This is instructive for outreach.
Rather than asking the person you're outreaching to for recommendations of other marketers who could be involved in the project, a better idea might be to ask them "What are some of the other publications or blogs you've worked with?"
You could then conduct a site search, peruse the content the former has been a part of, then use this information as a future guide for the types and quality of content you should be producing to get on the radar for influencers and brands.
After all, for outreach to be sustainable and most effective, it must be scalable in an easy-to-replicate (by the internal team, at least) fashion.
Bonus: Optimally, your outreach should not be scalable — for anyone but you/your team. That is, it's best to have a unique-to-your-brand process that's tough to achieve or acquire, which means it's far less likely others will know about, copy or use it or one like it.
Awaken your inner child, er, PR person
Elements of the five tips shared above have been, singularly, on my mind for the better part of two years. However, they only coalesced after I read the note my daughter shared, primarily because her message delivered on each point so effectively.
She didn't wait until she needed something to get on our radar; never over-sold the message; was selfless in realizing we all likely needed to get out the house; didn't assume we were on the same page; and activated her network by first sharing the note with her sister first, and, through her mom, me.
Now, the question we must all ask ourselves is if the methods we employ as effective?
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!
from Blogger http://ift.tt/2kKU1y0
via IFTTT
0 notes
Why You Should Steal My Daughter's Playbook for Effective Email Outreach
Posted by ronell-smith
During the holidays, my youngest daughter apparently had cabin fever after being in the house for a couple of days. While exiting the bedroom, my wife found the note below on the floor, after the former had slyly slid it under the door.
Though tired and not really feeling like leaving the house, we had to reward the youngster for her industriousness. And her charm.
Her effective "outreach" earned plaudits from my wife.
"At least she did it the right way," she remarked. "She cleaned her room, washed dishes, and read books all day, obviously part of an attempt to make it hard for us to say no. After all she did, though, she earned it."
Hmm...
She earned it.
Can you say as much about your outreach?
We're missing out on a great opportunity
Over the last few months, I've been thinking a lot about outreach, specifically email outreach.
It initially got my attention because I see it so badly handled, even by savvy marketers.
But I didn't fully appreciate the significance of the problem until I started thinking about the resulting impact of bad outreach, particularly since it remains one of the best, most viable means of garnering attention, traffic, and links to our websites.
What I see most commonly is a disregard of the needs of the person on the other end of the email.
Too often, it's all about the "heavy ask" as opposed to the warm touch.
Heavy ask: "Hi Ronell ... We haven't met. ... Could you share my article?"
Warm touch: "Hi Ronell ... I enjoyed your Moz post. ... We're employing similar tactics at my brand."
That's it.
You're likely saying to yourself, "But Ronell, the second person didn't get anything in return."
I beg to differ. The first person likely lost me, or whomever else they reach out to to using similar tactics; the second person will remain on my radar.
Outreach is too important to be left to chance or poor etiquette. A few tweaks here and there can help our teams perform optimally.
#1: Build rapport: Be there in a personal way before you need them
The first no-no of effective outreach comes right out of PR 101: Don't let the first time I learn of you or your brand be when you need me. If the brand you hope to attain a link from is worthwhile, you should be on their radar well in advance of the ask.
Do your research to find out who the relevant parties are at the brand, then make it your business to learn about them, via social media and any shared contacts you might have.
Then reach out to them... to say hello. Nothing more.
This isn't the time to ask for anything. You're simply making yourself known, relevant, and potentially valuable down the road.
Notice how, in the example below, the person emailing me NEVER asks for anything?
The author did three things that played big. She...
Mentioned my work, which means she'd done her homework
Highlighted work she'd done to create a post
Didn't assume I would be interested in her content (we'll discuss in greater detail below)
Hiring managers like to say, "A person should never be surprised at getting fired," meaning they should have some prior warning.
Similarly, for outreach to be most effective, the person you're asking for a link from should know of you/your brand in advance.
Bonuses: Always, always, always use "thank you" instead of "thanks." The former is far more thoughtful and sincere, while the latter can seem too casual and unfeeling.
#2: Be brief, be bold, be gone
One of my favorite lines from the Greek tragedy Antigone, by Sophocles, is "Tell me briefly — not in some lengthy speech."
If your pitch is more than three paragraphs, go back to the drawing board.
You're trying to pique their interest, to give them enough to comfortably go on, not bore them with every detail.
The best outreach messages steal a page from the PR playbook:
They respect the person's time
They show a knowledge of the person's brand, content, and interests with regard to coverage
They make the person's job easier (i.e., something the person would deem useful but not necessarily easily accessible)
We must do the same.
Be brief in highlighting the usefulness of what you offer and how it helps them in some meaningful way
Be bold in declaring your willingness to help their brand as much as your own
Be gone by exiting without spilling every single needless detail
Bonus: Be personal by using the person's name at least once in the text since it fosters a greatest level of personalization and thoughtfulness (most people enjoy hearing their names):
"I read your blog frequently, Jennifer."
#3: Understand that it's not about you
During my time as a newspaper business reporter and book reviewer, nothing irked me more than having people assume that because they valued what their brand offered, I must feel the same way.
They were wrong 99 percent of the time.
Outreach in our industry is rife with this if-it's-good-for-me-it's-good-for-you logic.
Instead of approaching a potential link opportunity from the perspective of "How do I influence this party to grant me a link," a better approach is to consider "What's obviously in it for them?"
(I emphasize "obviously" because we often pretend the benefit is obvious when it's typically anything but.)
Step back and consider all the things that'll be in play as they consider a link from you:
Relationship - Do they they know you/know of you?
Brand - Is your brand reputable?
Content - Does your company create and share quality content?
This content - Is the content you're hoping for a link for high-quality and relevant?
In the best case scenario, you should pass this test with flying colors. But at the very least you should be able tp successfully counter any of these potential objections.
#4: Don't assume anything
Things never go well when an outreach email begins "I knew you'd be interested in this."
Odds suggest you aren't prescient, which can only mean you're wrong.
What's more, if you did know I was interested in it, I should not be learning about the content after it was created. You should involved me from the beginning.
Therefore, instead of assuming I'll find your content valuable, ensure that you're correct by enlisting their help during the content creation process:
Topic - Find out what they're working on or see as the biggest issues that deserve attention
Contribution - Ask if they'd like to be part of the content you create
Ask about others - Enlist their help to find other potential influencers for your content. Doing so gives your content and your outreach legs (we discuss in greater detail below)
#5: Build a network
Michael Michalowicz, via his 2012 book The Pumpkin Plan, shared an outreach tactic I've been using for years in my own work. Instead of asking customers to recommend other customers for a computer service company he formerly owned, he asked his customers to recommend other non-competing vendors.
Genius!
Whereas a customer is likely to recommend another customer or two, a vendor is likely able to recommend many dozens of customers who could use his service.
This is instructive for outreach.
Rather than asking the person you're outreaching to for recommendations of other marketers who could be involved in the project, a better idea might be to ask them "What are some of the other publications or blogs you've worked with?"
You could then conduct a site search, peruse the content the former has been a part of, then use this information as a future guide for the types and quality of content you should be producing to get on the radar for influencers and brands.
After all, for outreach to be sustainable and most effective, it must be scalable in an easy-to-replicate (by the internal team, at least) fashion.
Bonus: Optimally, your outreach should not be scalable — for anyone but you/your team. That is, it's best to have a unique-to-your-brand process that's tough to achieve or acquire, which means it's far less likely others will know about, copy or use it or one like it.
Awaken your inner child, er, PR person
Elements of the five tips shared above have been, singularly, on my mind for the better part of two years. However, they only coalesced after I read the note my daughter shared, primarily because her message delivered on each point so effectively.
She didn't wait until she needed something to get on our radar; never over-sold the message; was selfless in realizing we all likely needed to get out the house; didn't assume we were on the same page; and activated her network by first sharing the note with her sister first, and, through her mom, me.
Now, the question we must all ask ourselves is if the methods we employ as effective?
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!
from Blogger http://ift.tt/2kJkobp
via SW Unlimited
0 notes
Why You Should Steal My Daughter's Playbook for Effective Email Outreach
Posted by ronell-smith
During the holidays, my youngest daughter apparently had cabin fever after being in the house for a couple of days. While exiting the bedroom, my wife found the note below on the floor, after the former had slyly slid it under the door.
Though tired and not really feeling like leaving the house, we had to reward the youngster for her industriousness. And her charm.
Her effective "outreach" earned plaudits from my wife.
"At least she did it the right way," she remarked. "She cleaned her room, washed dishes, and read books all day, obviously part of an attempt to make it hard for us to say no. After all she did, though, she earned it."
Hmm...
She earned it.
Can you say as much about your outreach?
We're missing out on a great opportunity
Over the last few months, I've been thinking a lot about outreach, specifically email outreach.
It initially got my attention because I see it so badly handled, even by savvy marketers.
But I didn't fully appreciate the significance of the problem until I started thinking about the resulting impact of bad outreach, particularly since it remains one of the best, most viable means of garnering attention, traffic, and links to our websites.
What I see most commonly is a disregard of the needs of the person on the other end of the email.
Too often, it's all about the "heavy ask" as opposed to the warm touch.
Heavy ask: "Hi Ronell ... We haven't met. ... Could you share my article?"
Warm touch: "Hi Ronell ... I enjoyed your Moz post. ... We're employing similar tactics at my brand."
That's it.
You're likely saying to yourself, "But Ronell, the second person didn't get anything in return."
I beg to differ. The first person likely lost me, or whomever else they reach out to to using similar tactics; the second person will remain on my radar.
Outreach is too important to be left to chance or poor etiquette. A few tweaks here and there can help our teams perform optimally.
#1: Build rapport: Be there in a personal way before you need them
The first no-no of effective outreach comes right out of PR 101: Don't let the first time I learn of you or your brand be when you need me. If the brand you hope to attain a link from is worthwhile, you should be on their radar well in advance of the ask.
Do your research to find out who the relevant parties are at the brand, then make it your business to learn about them, via social media and any shared contacts you might have.
Then reach out to them... to say hello. Nothing more.
This isn't the time to ask for anything. You're simply making yourself known, relevant, and potentially valuable down the road.
Notice how, in the example below, the person emailing me NEVER asks for anything?
The author did three things that played big. She...
Mentioned my work, which means she'd done her homework
Highlighted work she'd done to create a post
Didn't assume I would be interested in her content (we'll discuss in greater detail below)
Hiring managers like to say, "A person should never be surprised at getting fired," meaning they should have some prior warning.
Similarly, for outreach to be most effective, the person you're asking for a link from should know of you/your brand in advance.
Bonuses: Always, always, always use "thank you" instead of "thanks." The former is far more thoughtful and sincere, while the latter can seem too casual and unfeeling.
#2: Be brief, be bold, be gone
One of my favorite lines from the Greek tragedy Antigone, by Sophocles, is "Tell me briefly — not in some lengthy speech."
If your pitch is more than three paragraphs, go back to the drawing board.
You're trying to pique their interest, to give them enough to comfortably go on, not bore them with every detail.
The best outreach messages steal a page from the PR playbook:
They respect the person's time
They show a knowledge of the person's brand, content, and interests with regard to coverage
They make the person's job easier (i.e., something the person would deem useful but not necessarily easily accessible)
We must do the same.
Be brief in highlighting the usefulness of what you offer and how it helps them in some meaningful way
Be bold in declaring your willingness to help their brand as much as your own
Be gone by exiting without spilling every single needless detail
Bonus: Be personal by using the person's name at least once in the text since it fosters a greatest level of personalization and thoughtfulness (most people enjoy hearing their names):
"I read your blog frequently, Jennifer."
#3: Understand that it's not about you
During my time as a newspaper business reporter and book reviewer, nothing irked me more than having people assume that because they valued what their brand offered, I must feel the same way.
They were wrong 99 percent of the time.
Outreach in our industry is rife with this if-it's-good-for-me-it's-good-for-you logic.
Instead of approaching a potential link opportunity from the perspective of "How do I influence this party to grant me a link," a better approach is to consider "What's obviously in it for them?"
(I emphasize "obviously" because we often pretend the benefit is obvious when it's typically anything but.)
Step back and consider all the things that'll be in play as they consider a link from you:
Relationship - Do they they know you/know of you?
Brand - Is your brand reputable?
Content - Does your company create and share quality content?
This content - Is the content you're hoping for a link for high-quality and relevant?
In the best case scenario, you should pass this test with flying colors. But at the very least you should be able tp successfully counter any of these potential objections.
#4: Don't assume anything
Things never go well when an outreach email begins "I knew you'd be interested in this."
Odds suggest you aren't prescient, which can only mean you're wrong.
What's more, if you did know I was interested in it, I should not be learning about the content after it was created. You should involved me from the beginning.
Therefore, instead of assuming I'll find your content valuable, ensure that you're correct by enlisting their help during the content creation process:
Topic - Find out what they're working on or see as the biggest issues that deserve attention
Contribution - Ask if they'd like to be part of the content you create
Ask about others - Enlist their help to find other potential influencers for your content. Doing so gives your content and your outreach legs (we discuss in greater detail below)
#5: Build a network
Michael Michalowicz, via his 2012 book The Pumpkin Plan, shared an outreach tactic I've been using for years in my own work. Instead of asking customers to recommend other customers for a computer service company he formerly owned, he asked his customers to recommend other non-competing vendors.
Genius!
Whereas a customer is likely to recommend another customer or two, a vendor is likely able to recommend many dozens of customers who could use his service.
This is instructive for outreach.
Rather than asking the person you're outreaching to for recommendations of other marketers who could be involved in the project, a better idea might be to ask them "What are some of the other publications or blogs you've worked with?"
You could then conduct a site search, peruse the content the former has been a part of, then use this information as a future guide for the types and quality of content you should be producing to get on the radar for influencers and brands.
After all, for outreach to be sustainable and most effective, it must be scalable in an easy-to-replicate (by the internal team, at least) fashion.
Bonus: Optimally, your outreach should not be scalable — for anyone but you/your team. That is, it's best to have a unique-to-your-brand process that's tough to achieve or acquire, which means it's far less likely others will know about, copy or use it or one like it.
Awaken your inner child, er, PR person
Elements of the five tips shared above have been, singularly, on my mind for the better part of two years. However, they only coalesced after I read the note my daughter shared, primarily because her message delivered on each point so effectively.
She didn't wait until she needed something to get on our radar; never over-sold the message; was selfless in realizing we all likely needed to get out the house; didn't assume we were on the same page; and activated her network by first sharing the note with her sister first, and, through her mom, me.
Now, the question we must all ask ourselves is if the methods we employ as effective?
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!
0 notes
Why You Should Steal My Daughter's Playbook for Effective Email Outreach
Posted by ronell-smith
During the holidays, my youngest daughter apparently had cabin fever after being in the house for a couple of days. While exiting the bedroom, my wife found the note below on the floor, after the former had slyly slid it under the door.
Though tired and not really feeling like leaving the house, we had to reward the youngster for her industriousness. And her charm.
Her effective "outreach" earned plaudits from my wife.
"At least she did it the right way," she remarked. "She cleaned her room, washed dishes, and read books all day, obviously part of an attempt to make it hard for us to say no. After all she did, though, she earned it."
Hmm...
She earned it.
Can you say as much about your outreach?
We're missing out on a great opportunity
Over the last few months, I've been thinking a lot about outreach, specifically email outreach.
It initially got my attention because I see it so badly handled, even by savvy marketers.
But I didn't fully appreciate the significance of the problem until I started thinking about the resulting impact of bad outreach, particularly since it remains one of the best, most viable means of garnering attention, traffic, and links to our websites.
What I see most commonly is a disregard of the needs of the person on the other end of the email.
Too often, it's all about the "heavy ask" as opposed to the warm touch.
Heavy ask: "Hi Ronell ... We haven't met. ... Could you share my article?"
Warm touch: "Hi Ronell ... I enjoyed your Moz post. ... We're employing similar tactics at my brand."
That's it.
You're likely saying to yourself, "But Ronell, the second person didn't get anything in return."
I beg to differ. The first person likely lost me, or whomever else they reach out to to using similar tactics; the second person will remain on my radar.
Outreach is too important to be left to chance or poor etiquette. A few tweaks here and there can help our teams perform optimally.
#1: Build rapport: Be there in a personal way before you need them
The first no-no of effective outreach comes right out of PR 101: Don't let the first time I learn of you or your brand be when you need me. If the brand you hope to attain a link from is worthwhile, you should be on their radar well in advance of the ask.
Do your research to find out who the relevant parties are at the brand, then make it your business to learn about them, via social media and any shared contacts you might have.
Then reach out to them... to say hello. Nothing more.
This isn't the time to ask for anything. You're simply making yourself known, relevant, and potentially valuable down the road.
Notice how, in the example below, the person emailing me NEVER asks for anything?
The author did three things that played big. She...
Mentioned my work, which means she'd done her homework
Highlighted work she'd done to create a post
Didn't assume I would be interested in her content (we'll discuss in greater detail below)
Hiring managers like to say, "A person should never be surprised at getting fired," meaning they should have some prior warning.
Similarly, for outreach to be most effective, the person you're asking for a link from should know of you/your brand in advance.
Bonuses: Always, always, always use "thank you" instead of "thanks." The former is far more thoughtful and sincere, while the latter can seem too casual and unfeeling.
#2: Be brief, be bold, be gone
One of my favorite lines from the Greek tragedy Antigone, by Sophocles, is "Tell me briefly — not in some lengthy speech."
If your pitch is more than three paragraphs, go back to the drawing board.
You're trying to pique their interest, to give them enough to comfortably go on, not bore them with every detail.
The best outreach messages steal a page from the PR playbook:
They respect the person's time
They show a knowledge of the person's brand, content, and interests with regard to coverage
They make the person's job easier (i.e., something the person would deem useful but not necessarily easily accessible)
We must do the same.
Be brief in highlighting the usefulness of what you offer and how it helps them in some meaningful way
Be bold in declaring your willingness to help their brand as much as your own
Be gone by exiting without spilling every single needless detail
Bonus: Be personal by using the person's name at least once in the text since it fosters a greatest level of personalization and thoughtfulness (most people enjoy hearing their names):
"I read your blog frequently, Jennifer."
#3: Understand that it's not about you
During my time as a newspaper business reporter and book reviewer, nothing irked me more than having people assume that because they valued what their brand offered, I must feel the same way.
They were wrong 99 percent of the time.
Outreach in our industry is rife with this if-it's-good-for-me-it's-good-for-you logic.
Instead of approaching a potential link opportunity from the perspective of "How do I influence this party to grant me a link," a better approach is to consider "What's obviously in it for them?"
(I emphasize "obviously" because we often pretend the benefit is obvious when it's typically anything but.)
Step back and consider all the things that'll be in play as they consider a link from you:
Relationship - Do they they know you/know of you?
Brand - Is your brand reputable?
Content - Does your company create and share quality content?
This content - Is the content you're hoping for a link for high-quality and relevant?
In the best case scenario, you should pass this test with flying colors. But at the very least you should be able tp successfully counter any of these potential objections.
#4: Don't assume anything
Things never go well when an outreach email begins "I knew you'd be interested in this."
Odds suggest you aren't prescient, which can only mean you're wrong.
What's more, if you did know I was interested in it, I should not be learning about the content after it was created. You should involved me from the beginning.
Therefore, instead of assuming I'll find your content valuable, ensure that you're correct by enlisting their help during the content creation process:
Topic - Find out what they're working on or see as the biggest issues that deserve attention
Contribution - Ask if they'd like to be part of the content you create
Ask about others - Enlist their help to find other potential influencers for your content. Doing so gives your content and your outreach legs (we discuss in greater detail below)
#5: Build a network
Michael Michalowicz, via his 2012 book The Pumpkin Plan, shared an outreach tactic I've been using for years in my own work. Instead of asking customers to recommend other customers for a computer service company he formerly owned, he asked his customers to recommend other non-competing vendors.
Genius!
Whereas a customer is likely to recommend another customer or two, a vendor is likely able to recommend many dozens of customers who could use his service.
This is instructive for outreach.
Rather than asking the person you're outreaching to for recommendations of other marketers who could be involved in the project, a better idea might be to ask them "What are some of the other publications or blogs you've worked with?"
You could then conduct a site search, peruse the content the former has been a part of, then use this information as a future guide for the types and quality of content you should be producing to get on the radar for influencers and brands.
After all, for outreach to be sustainable and most effective, it must be scalable in an easy-to-replicate (by the internal team, at least) fashion.
Bonus: Optimally, your outreach should not be scalable — for anyone but you/your team. That is, it's best to have a unique-to-your-brand process that's tough to achieve or acquire, which means it's far less likely others will know about, copy or use it or one like it.
Awaken your inner child, er, PR person
Elements of the five tips shared above have been, singularly, on my mind for the better part of two years. However, they only coalesced after I read the note my daughter shared, primarily because her message delivered on each point so effectively.
She didn't wait until she needed something to get on our radar; never over-sold the message; was selfless in realizing we all likely needed to get out the house; didn't assume we were on the same page; and activated her network by first sharing the note with her sister first, and, through her mom, me.
Now, the question we must all ask ourselves is if the methods we employ as effective?
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!
from DIYS http://ift.tt/2jlkt52
0 notes
Why You Should Steal My Daughter's Playbook for Effective Email Outreach
Posted by ronell-smith
During the holidays, my youngest daughter apparently had cabin fever after being in the house for a couple of days. While exiting the bedroom, my wife found the note below on the floor, after the former had slyly slid it under the door.
Though tired and not really feeling like leaving the house, we had to reward the youngster for her industriousness. And her charm.
Her effective "outreach" earned plaudits from my wife.
"At least she did it the right way," she remarked. "She cleaned her room, washed dishes, and read books all day, obviously part of an attempt to make it hard for us to say no. After all she did, though, she earned it."
Hmm...
She earned it.
Can you say as much about your outreach?
We're missing out on a great opportunity
Over the last few months, I've been thinking a lot about outreach, specifically email outreach.
It initially got my attention because I see it so badly handled, even by savvy marketers.
But I didn't fully appreciate the significance of the problem until I started thinking about the resulting impact of bad outreach, particularly since it remains one of the best, most viable means of garnering attention, traffic, and links to our websites.
What I see most commonly is a disregard of the needs of the person on the other end of the email.
Too often, it's all about the "heavy ask" as opposed to the warm touch.
Heavy ask: "Hi Ronell ... We haven't met. ... Could you share my article?"
Warm touch: "Hi Ronell ... I enjoyed your Moz post. ... We're employing similar tactics at my brand."
That's it.
You're likely saying to yourself, "But Ronell, the second person didn't get anything in return."
I beg to differ. The first person likely lost me, or whomever else they reach out to to using similar tactics; the second person will remain on my radar.
Outreach is too important to be left to chance or poor etiquette. A few tweaks here and there can help our teams perform optimally.
#1: Build rapport: Be there in a personal way before you need them
The first no-no of effective outreach comes right out of PR 101: Don't let the first time I learn of you or your brand be when you need me. If the brand you hope to attain a link from is worthwhile, you should be on their radar well in advance of the ask.
Do your research to find out who the relevant parties are at the brand, then make it your business to learn about them, via social media and any shared contacts you might have.
Then reach out to them... to say hello. Nothing more.
This isn't the time to ask for anything. You're simply making yourself known, relevant, and potentially valuable down the road.
Notice how, in the example below, the person emailing me NEVER asks for anything?
The author did three things that played big. She...
Mentioned my work, which means she'd done her homework
Highlighted work she'd done to create a post
Didn't assume I would be interested in her content (we'll discuss in greater detail below)
Hiring managers like to say, "A person should never be surprised at getting fired," meaning they should have some prior warning.
Similarly, for outreach to be most effective, the person you're asking for a link from should know of you/your brand in advance.
Bonuses: Always, always, always use "thank you" instead of "thanks." The former is far more thoughtful and sincere, while the latter can seem too casual and unfeeling.
#2: Be brief, be bold, be gone
One of my favorite lines from the Greek tragedy Antigone, by Sophocles, is "Tell me briefly — not in some lengthy speech."
If your pitch is more than three paragraphs, go back to the drawing board.
You're trying to pique their interest, to give them enough to comfortably go on, not bore them with every detail.
The best outreach messages steal a page from the PR playbook:
They respect the person's time
They show a knowledge of the person's brand, content, and interests with regard to coverage
They make the person's job easier (i.e., something the person would deem useful but not necessarily easily accessible)
We must do the same.
Be brief in highlighting the usefulness of what you offer and how it helps them in some meaningful way
Be bold in declaring your willingness to help their brand as much as your own
Be gone by exiting without spilling every single needless detail
Bonus: Be personal by using the person's name at least once in the text since it fosters a greatest level of personalization and thoughtfulness (most people enjoy hearing their names):
"I read your blog frequently, Jennifer."
#3: Understand that it's not about you
During my time as a newspaper business reporter and book reviewer, nothing irked me more than having people assume that because they valued what their brand offered, I must feel the same way.
They were wrong 99 percent of the time.
Outreach in our industry is rife with this if-it's-good-for-me-it's-good-for-you logic.
Instead of approaching a potential link opportunity from the perspective of "How do I influence this party to grant me a link," a better approach is to consider "What's obviously in it for them?"
(I emphasize "obviously" because we often pretend the benefit is obvious when it's typically anything but.)
Step back and consider all the things that'll be in play as they consider a link from you:
Relationship - Do they they know you/know of you?
Brand - Is your brand reputable?
Content - Does your company create and share quality content?
This content - Is the content you're hoping for a link for high-quality and relevant?
In the best case scenario, you should pass this test with flying colors. But at the very least you should be able tp successfully counter any of these potential objections.
#4: Don't assume anything
Things never go well when an outreach email begins "I knew you'd be interested in this."
Odds suggest you aren't prescient, which can only mean you're wrong.
What's more, if you did know I was interested in it, I should not be learning about the content after it was created. You should involved me from the beginning.
Therefore, instead of assuming I'll find your content valuable, ensure that you're correct by enlisting their help during the content creation process:
Topic - Find out what they're working on or see as the biggest issues that deserve attention
Contribution - Ask if they'd like to be part of the content you create
Ask about others - Enlist their help to find other potential influencers for your content. Doing so gives your content and your outreach legs (we discuss in greater detail below)
#5: Build a network
Michael Michalowicz, via his 2012 book The Pumpkin Plan, shared an outreach tactic I've been using for years in my own work. Instead of asking customers to recommend other customers for a computer service company he formerly owned, he asked his customers to recommend other non-competing vendors.
Genius!
Whereas a customer is likely to recommend another customer or two, a vendor is likely able to recommend many dozens of customers who could use his service.
This is instructive for outreach.
Rather than asking the person you're outreaching to for recommendations of other marketers who could be involved in the project, a better idea might be to ask them "What are some of the other publications or blogs you've worked with?"
You could then conduct a site search, peruse the content the former has been a part of, then use this information as a future guide for the types and quality of content you should be producing to get on the radar for influencers and brands.
After all, for outreach to be sustainable and most effective, it must be scalable in an easy-to-replicate (by the internal team, at least) fashion.
Bonus: Optimally, your outreach should not be scalable — for anyone but you/your team. That is, it's best to have a unique-to-your-brand process that's tough to achieve or acquire, which means it's far less likely others will know about, copy or use it or one like it.
Awaken your inner child, er, PR person
Elements of the five tips shared above have been, singularly, on my mind for the better part of two years. However, they only coalesced after I read the note my daughter shared, primarily because her message delivered on each point so effectively.
She didn't wait until she needed something to get on our radar; never over-sold the message; was selfless in realizing we all likely needed to get out the house; didn't assume we were on the same page; and activated her network by first sharing the note with her sister first, and, through her mom, me.
Now, the question we must all ask ourselves is if the methods we employ as effective?
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!
from DIYS http://ift.tt/2jlkt52
0 notes
Why You Should Steal My Daughter's Playbook for Effective Email Outreach
Posted by ronell-smith
During the holidays, my youngest daughter apparently had cabin fever after being in the house for a couple of days. While exiting the bedroom, my wife found the note below on the floor, after the former had slyly slid it under the door.
Though tired and not really feeling like leaving the house, we had to reward the youngster for her industriousness. And her charm.
Her effective "outreach" earned plaudits from my wife.
"At least she did it the right way," she remarked. "She cleaned her room, washed dishes, and read books all day, obviously part of an attempt to make it hard for us to say no. After all she did, though, she earned it."
Hmm...
She earned it.
Can you say as much about your outreach?
We're missing out on a great opportunity
Over the last few months, I've been thinking a lot about outreach, specifically email outreach.
It initially got my attention because I see it so badly handled, even by savvy marketers.
But I didn't fully appreciate the significance of the problem until I started thinking about the resulting impact of bad outreach, particularly since it remains one of the best, most viable means of garnering attention, traffic, and links to our websites.
What I see most commonly is a disregard of the needs of the person on the other end of the email.
Too often, it's all about the "heavy ask" as opposed to the warm touch.
Heavy ask: "Hi Ronell ... We haven't met. ... Could you share my article?"
Warm touch: "Hi Ronell ... I enjoyed your Moz post. ... We're employing similar tactics at my brand."
That's it.
You're likely saying to yourself, "But Ronell, the second person didn't get anything in return."
I beg to differ. The first person likely lost me, or whomever else they reach out to to using similar tactics; the second person will remain on my radar.
Outreach is too important to be left to chance or poor etiquette. A few tweaks here and there can help our teams perform optimally.
#1: Build rapport: Be there in a personal way before you need them
The first no-no of effective outreach comes right out of PR 101: Don't let the first time I learn of you or your brand be when you need me. If the brand you hope to attain a link from is worthwhile, you should be on their radar well in advance of the ask.
Do your research to find out who the relevant parties are at the brand, then make it your business to learn about them, via social media and any shared contacts you might have.
Then reach out to them... to say hello. Nothing more.
This isn't the time to ask for anything. You're simply making yourself known, relevant, and potentially valuable down the road.
Notice how, in the example below, the person emailing me NEVER asks for anything?
The author did three things that played big. She...
Mentioned my work, which means she'd done her homework
Highlighted work she'd done to create a post
Didn't assume I would be interested in her content (we'll discuss in greater detail below)
Hiring managers like to say, "A person should never be surprised at getting fired," meaning they should have some prior warning.
Similarly, for outreach to be most effective, the person you're asking for a link from should know of you/your brand in advance.
Bonuses: Always, always, always use "thank you" instead of "thanks." The former is far more thoughtful and sincere, while the latter can seem too casual and unfeeling.
#2: Be brief, be bold, be gone
One of my favorite lines from the Greek tragedy Antigone, by Sophocles, is "Tell me briefly — not in some lengthy speech."
If your pitch is more than three paragraphs, go back to the drawing board.
You're trying to pique their interest, to give them enough to comfortably go on, not bore them with every detail.
The best outreach messages steal a page from the PR playbook:
They respect the person's time
They show a knowledge of the person's brand, content, and interests with regard to coverage
They make the person's job easier (i.e., something the person would deem useful but not necessarily easily accessible)
We must do the same.
Be brief in highlighting the usefulness of what you offer and how it helps them in some meaningful way
Be bold in declaring your willingness to help their brand as much as your own
Be gone by exiting without spilling every single needless detail
Bonus: Be personal by using the person's name at least once in the text since it fosters a greatest level of personalization and thoughtfulness (most people enjoy hearing their names):
"I read your blog frequently, Jennifer."
#3: Understand that it's not about you
During my time as a newspaper business reporter and book reviewer, nothing irked me more than having people assume that because they valued what their brand offered, I must feel the same way.
They were wrong 99 percent of the time.
Outreach in our industry is rife with this if-it's-good-for-me-it's-good-for-you logic.
Instead of approaching a potential link opportunity from the perspective of "How do I influence this party to grant me a link," a better approach is to consider "What's obviously in it for them?"
(I emphasize "obviously" because we often pretend the benefit is obvious when it's typically anything but.)
Step back and consider all the things that'll be in play as they consider a link from you:
Relationship - Do they they know you/know of you?
Brand - Is your brand reputable?
Content - Does your company create and share quality content?
This content - Is the content you're hoping for a link for high-quality and relevant?
In the best case scenario, you should pass this test with flying colors. But at the very least you should be able tp successfully counter any of these potential objections.
#4: Don't assume anything
Things never go well when an outreach email begins "I knew you'd be interested in this."
Odds suggest you aren't prescient, which can only mean you're wrong.
What's more, if you did know I was interested in it, I should not be learning about the content after it was created. You should involved me from the beginning.
Therefore, instead of assuming I'll find your content valuable, ensure that you're correct by enlisting their help during the content creation process:
Topic - Find out what they're working on or see as the biggest issues that deserve attention
Contribution - Ask if they'd like to be part of the content you create
Ask about others - Enlist their help to find other potential influencers for your content. Doing so gives your content and your outreach legs (we discuss in greater detail below)
#5: Build a network
Michael Michalowicz, via his 2012 book The Pumpkin Plan, shared an outreach tactic I've been using for years in my own work. Instead of asking customers to recommend other customers for a computer service company he formerly owned, he asked his customers to recommend other non-competing vendors.
Genius!
Whereas a customer is likely to recommend another customer or two, a vendor is likely able to recommend many dozens of customers who could use his service.
This is instructive for outreach.
Rather than asking the person you're outreaching to for recommendations of other marketers who could be involved in the project, a better idea might be to ask them "What are some of the other publications or blogs you've worked with?"
You could then conduct a site search, peruse the content the former has been a part of, then use this information as a future guide for the types and quality of content you should be producing to get on the radar for influencers and brands.
After all, for outreach to be sustainable and most effective, it must be scalable in an easy-to-replicate (by the internal team, at least) fashion.
Bonus: Optimally, your outreach should not be scalable — for anyone but you/your team. That is, it's best to have a unique-to-your-brand process that's tough to achieve or acquire, which means it's far less likely others will know about, copy or use it or one like it.
Awaken your inner child, er, PR person
Elements of the five tips shared above have been, singularly, on my mind for the better part of two years. However, they only coalesced after I read the note my daughter shared, primarily because her message delivered on each point so effectively.
She didn't wait until she needed something to get on our radar; never over-sold the message; was selfless in realizing we all likely needed to get out the house; didn't assume we were on the same page; and activated her network by first sharing the note with her sister first, and, through her mom, me.
Now, the question we must all ask ourselves is if the methods we employ as effective?
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!
from DIYS http://ift.tt/2jlkt52
0 notes
Why You Should Steal My Daughter's Playbook for Effective Email Outreach
Posted by ronell-smith
During the holidays, my youngest daughter apparently had cabin fever after being in the house for a couple of days. While exiting the bedroom, my wife found the note below on the floor, after the former had slyly slid it under the door.
Though tired and not really feeling like leaving the house, we had to reward the youngster for her industriousness. And her charm.
Her effective "outreach" earned plaudits from my wife.
"At least she did it the right way," she remarked. "She cleaned her room, washed dishes, and read books all day, obviously part of an attempt to make it hard for us to say no. After all she did, though, she earned it."
Hmm...
She earned it.
Can you say as much about your outreach?
We're missing out on a great opportunity
Over the last few months, I've been thinking a lot about outreach, specifically email outreach.
It initially got my attention because I see it so badly handled, even by savvy marketers.
But I didn't fully appreciate the significance of the problem until I started thinking about the resulting impact of bad outreach, particularly since it remains one of the best, most viable means of garnering attention, traffic, and links to our websites.
What I see most commonly is a disregard of the needs of the person on the other end of the email.
Too often, it's all about the "heavy ask" as opposed to the warm touch.
Heavy ask: "Hi Ronell ... We haven't met. ... Could you share my article?"
Warm touch: "Hi Ronell ... I enjoyed your Moz post. ... We're employing similar tactics at my brand."
That's it.
You're likely saying to yourself, "But Ronell, the second person didn't get anything in return."
I beg to differ. The first person likely lost me, or whomever else they reach out to to using similar tactics; the second person will remain on my radar.
Outreach is too important to be left to chance or poor etiquette. A few tweaks here and there can help our teams perform optimally.
#1: Build rapport: Be there in a personal way before you need them
The first no-no of effective outreach comes right out of PR 101: Don't let the first time I learn of you or your brand be when you need me. If the brand you hope to attain a link from is worthwhile, you should be on their radar well in advance of the ask.
Do your research to find out who the relevant parties are at the brand, then make it your business to learn about them, via social media and any shared contacts you might have.
Then reach out to them... to say hello. Nothing more.
This isn't the time to ask for anything. You're simply making yourself known, relevant, and potentially valuable down the road.
Notice how, in the example below, the person emailing me NEVER asks for anything?
The author did three things that played big. She...
Mentioned my work, which means she'd done her homework
Highlighted work she'd done to create a post
Didn't assume I would be interested in her content (we'll discuss in greater detail below)
Hiring managers like to say, "A person should never be surprised at getting fired," meaning they should have some prior warning.
Similarly, for outreach to be most effective, the person you're asking for a link from should know of you/your brand in advance.
Bonuses: Always, always, always use "thank you" instead of "thanks." The former is far more thoughtful and sincere, while the latter can seem too casual and unfeeling.
#2: Be brief, be bold, be gone
One of my favorite lines from the Greek tragedy Antigone, by Sophocles, is "Tell me briefly — not in some lengthy speech."
If your pitch is more than three paragraphs, go back to the drawing board.
You're trying to pique their interest, to give them enough to comfortably go on, not bore them with every detail.
The best outreach messages steal a page from the PR playbook:
They respect the person's time
They show a knowledge of the person's brand, content, and interests with regard to coverage
They make the person's job easier (i.e., something the person would deem useful but not necessarily easily accessible)
We must do the same.
Be brief in highlighting the usefulness of what you offer and how it helps them in some meaningful way
Be bold in declaring your willingness to help their brand as much as your own
Be gone by exiting without spilling every single needless detail
Bonus: Be personal by using the person's name at least once in the text since it fosters a greatest level of personalization and thoughtfulness (most people enjoy hearing their names):
"I read your blog frequently, Jennifer."
#3: Understand that it's not about you
During my time as a newspaper business reporter and book reviewer, nothing irked me more than having people assume that because they valued what their brand offered, I must feel the same way.
They were wrong 99 percent of the time.
Outreach in our industry is rife with this if-it's-good-for-me-it's-good-for-you logic.
Instead of approaching a potential link opportunity from the perspective of "How do I influence this party to grant me a link," a better approach is to consider "What's obviously in it for them?"
(I emphasize "obviously" because we often pretend the benefit is obvious when it's typically anything but.)
Step back and consider all the things that'll be in play as they consider a link from you:
Relationship - Do they they know you/know of you?
Brand - Is your brand reputable?
Content - Does your company create and share quality content?
This content - Is the content you're hoping for a link for high-quality and relevant?
In the best case scenario, you should pass this test with flying colors. But at the very least you should be able tp successfully counter any of these potential objections.
#4: Don't assume anything
Things never go well when an outreach email begins "I knew you'd be interested in this."
Odds suggest you aren't prescient, which can only mean you're wrong.
What's more, if you did know I was interested in it, I should not be learning about the content after it was created. You should involved me from the beginning.
Therefore, instead of assuming I'll find your content valuable, ensure that you're correct by enlisting their help during the content creation process:
Topic - Find out what they're working on or see as the biggest issues that deserve attention
Contribution - Ask if they'd like to be part of the content you create
Ask about others - Enlist their help to find other potential influencers for your content. Doing so gives your content and your outreach legs (we discuss in greater detail below)
#5: Build a network
Michael Michalowicz, via his 2012 book The Pumpkin Plan, shared an outreach tactic I've been using for years in my own work. Instead of asking customers to recommend other customers for a computer service company he formerly owned, he asked his customers to recommend other non-competing vendors.
Genius!
Whereas a customer is likely to recommend another customer or two, a vendor is likely able to recommend many dozens of customers who could use his service.
This is instructive for outreach.
Rather than asking the person you're outreaching to for recommendations of other marketers who could be involved in the project, a better idea might be to ask them "What are some of the other publications or blogs you've worked with?"
You could then conduct a site search, peruse the content the former has been a part of, then use this information as a future guide for the types and quality of content you should be producing to get on the radar for influencers and brands.
After all, for outreach to be sustainable and most effective, it must be scalable in an easy-to-replicate (by the internal team, at least) fashion.
Bonus: Optimally, your outreach should not be scalable — for anyone but you/your team. That is, it's best to have a unique-to-your-brand process that's tough to achieve or acquire, which means it's far less likely others will know about, copy or use it or one like it.
Awaken your inner child, er, PR person
Elements of the five tips shared above have been, singularly, on my mind for the better part of two years. However, they only coalesced after I read the note my daughter shared, primarily because her message delivered on each point so effectively.
She didn't wait until she needed something to get on our radar; never over-sold the message; was selfless in realizing we all likely needed to get out the house; didn't assume we were on the same page; and activated her network by first sharing the note with her sister first, and, through her mom, me.
Now, the question we must all ask ourselves is if the methods we employ as effective?
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!
from DIYS http://ift.tt/2jlkt52
0 notes
Why You Should Steal My Daughter's Playbook for Effective Email Outreach
Posted by ronell-smith
During the holidays, my youngest daughter apparently had cabin fever after being in the house for a couple of days. While exiting the bedroom, my wife found the note below on the floor, after the former had slyly slid it under the door.
Though tired and not really feeling like leaving the house, we had to reward the youngster for her industriousness. And her charm.
Her effective "outreach" earned plaudits from my wife.
"At least she did it the right way," she remarked. "She cleaned her room, washed dishes, and read books all day, obviously part of an attempt to make it hard for us to say no. After all she did, though, she earned it."
Hmm...
She earned it.
Can you say as much about your outreach?
We're missing out on a great opportunity
Over the last few months, I've been thinking a lot about outreach, specifically email outreach.
It initially got my attention because I see it so badly handled, even by savvy marketers.
But I didn't fully appreciate the significance of the problem until I started thinking about the resulting impact of bad outreach, particularly since it remains one of the best, most viable means of garnering attention, traffic, and links to our websites.
What I see most commonly is a disregard of the needs of the person on the other end of the email.
Too often, it's all about the "heavy ask" as opposed to the warm touch.
Heavy ask: "Hi Ronell ... We haven't met. ... Could you share my article?"
Warm touch: "Hi Ronell ... I enjoyed your Moz post. ... We're employing similar tactics at my brand."
That's it.
You're likely saying to yourself, "But Ronell, the second person didn't get anything in return."
I beg to differ. The first person likely lost me, or whomever else they reach out to to using similar tactics; the second person will remain on my radar.
Outreach is too important to be left to chance or poor etiquette. A few tweaks here and there can help our teams perform optimally.
#1: Build rapport: Be there in a personal way before you need them
The first no-no of effective outreach comes right out of PR 101: Don't let the first time I learn of you or your brand be when you need me. If the brand you hope to attain a link from is worthwhile, you should be on their radar well in advance of the ask.
Do your research to find out who the relevant parties are at the brand, then make it your business to learn about them, via social media and any shared contacts you might have.
Then reach out to them... to say hello. Nothing more.
This isn't the time to ask for anything. You're simply making yourself known, relevant, and potentially valuable down the road.
Notice how, in the example below, the person emailing me NEVER asks for anything?
The author did three things that played big. She...
Mentioned my work, which means she'd done her homework
Highlighted work she'd done to create a post
Didn't assume I would be interested in her content (we'll discuss in greater detail below)
Hiring managers like to say, "A person should never be surprised at getting fired," meaning they should have some prior warning.
Similarly, for outreach to be most effective, the person you're asking for a link from should know of you/your brand in advance.
Bonuses: Always, always, always use "thank you" instead of "thanks." The former is far more thoughtful and sincere, while the latter can seem too casual and unfeeling.
#2: Be brief, be bold, be gone
One of my favorite lines from the Greek tragedy Antigone, by Sophocles, is "Tell me briefly — not in some lengthy speech."
If your pitch is more than three paragraphs, go back to the drawing board.
You're trying to pique their interest, to give them enough to comfortably go on, not bore them with every detail.
The best outreach messages steal a page from the PR playbook:
They respect the person's time
They show a knowledge of the person's brand, content, and interests with regard to coverage
They make the person's job easier (i.e., something the person would deem useful but not necessarily easily accessible)
We must do the same.
Be brief in highlighting the usefulness of what you offer and how it helps them in some meaningful way
Be bold in declaring your willingness to help their brand as much as your own
Be gone by exiting without spilling every single needless detail
Bonus: Be personal by using the person's name at least once in the text since it fosters a greatest level of personalization and thoughtfulness (most people enjoy hearing their names):
"I read your blog frequently, Jennifer."
#3: Understand that it's not about you
During my time as a newspaper business reporter and book reviewer, nothing irked me more than having people assume that because they valued what their brand offered, I must feel the same way.
They were wrong 99 percent of the time.
Outreach in our industry is rife with this if-it's-good-for-me-it's-good-for-you logic.
Instead of approaching a potential link opportunity from the perspective of "How do I influence this party to grant me a link," a better approach is to consider "What's obviously in it for them?"
(I emphasize "obviously" because we often pretend the benefit is obvious when it's typically anything but.)
Step back and consider all the things that'll be in play as they consider a link from you:
Relationship - Do they they know you/know of you?
Brand - Is your brand reputable?
Content - Does your company create and share quality content?
This content - Is the content you're hoping for a link for high-quality and relevant?
In the best case scenario, you should pass this test with flying colors. But at the very least you should be able tp successfully counter any of these potential objections.
#4: Don't assume anything
Things never go well when an outreach email begins "I knew you'd be interested in this."
Odds suggest you aren't prescient, which can only mean you're wrong.
What's more, if you did know I was interested in it, I should not be learning about the content after it was created. You should involved me from the beginning.
Therefore, instead of assuming I'll find your content valuable, ensure that you're correct by enlisting their help during the content creation process:
Topic - Find out what they're working on or see as the biggest issues that deserve attention
Contribution - Ask if they'd like to be part of the content you create
Ask about others - Enlist their help to find other potential influencers for your content. Doing so gives your content and your outreach legs (we discuss in greater detail below)
#5: Build a network
Michael Michalowicz, via his 2012 book The Pumpkin Plan, shared an outreach tactic I've been using for years in my own work. Instead of asking customers to recommend other customers for a computer service company he formerly owned, he asked his customers to recommend other non-competing vendors.
Genius!
Whereas a customer is likely to recommend another customer or two, a vendor is likely able to recommend many dozens of customers who could use his service.
This is instructive for outreach.
Rather than asking the person you're outreaching to for recommendations of other marketers who could be involved in the project, a better idea might be to ask them "What are some of the other publications or blogs you've worked with?"
You could then conduct a site search, peruse the content the former has been a part of, then use this information as a future guide for the types and quality of content you should be producing to get on the radar for influencers and brands.
After all, for outreach to be sustainable and most effective, it must be scalable in an easy-to-replicate (by the internal team, at least) fashion.
Bonus: Optimally, your outreach should not be scalable — for anyone but you/your team. That is, it's best to have a unique-to-your-brand process that's tough to achieve or acquire, which means it's far less likely others will know about, copy or use it or one like it.
Awaken your inner child, er, PR person
Elements of the five tips shared above have been, singularly, on my mind for the better part of two years. However, they only coalesced after I read the note my daughter shared, primarily because her message delivered on each point so effectively.
She didn't wait until she needed something to get on our radar; never over-sold the message; was selfless in realizing we all likely needed to get out the house; didn't assume we were on the same page; and activated her network by first sharing the note with her sister first, and, through her mom, me.
Now, the question we must all ask ourselves is if the methods we employ as effective?
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!
from DIYS http://ift.tt/2jlkt52
0 notes
Why You Should Steal My Daughter's Playbook for Effective Email Outreach
Posted by ronell-smith
During the holidays, my youngest daughter apparently had cabin fever after being in the house for a couple of days. While exiting the bedroom, my wife found the note below on the floor, after the former had slyly slid it under the door.
Though tired and not really feeling like leaving the house, we had to reward the youngster for her industriousness. And her charm.
Her effective "outreach" earned plaudits from my wife.
"At least she did it the right way," she remarked. "She cleaned her room, washed dishes, and read books all day, obviously part of an attempt to make it hard for us to say no. After all she did, though, she earned it."
Hmm...
She earned it.
Can you say as much about your outreach?
We're missing out on a great opportunity
Over the last few months, I've been thinking a lot about outreach, specifically email outreach.
It initially got my attention because I see it so badly handled, even by savvy marketers.
But I didn't fully appreciate the significance of the problem until I started thinking about the resulting impact of bad outreach, particularly since it remains one of the best, most viable means of garnering attention, traffic, and links to our websites.
What I see most commonly is a disregard of the needs of the person on the other end of the email.
Too often, it's all about the "heavy ask" as opposed to the warm touch.
Heavy ask: "Hi Ronell ... We haven't met. ... Could you share my article?"
Warm touch: "Hi Ronell ... I enjoyed your Moz post. ... We're employing similar tactics at my brand."
That's it.
You're likely saying to yourself, "But Ronell, the second person didn't get anything in return."
I beg to differ. The first person likely lost me, or whomever else they reach out to to using similar tactics; the second person will remain on my radar.
Outreach is too important to be left to chance or poor etiquette. A few tweaks here and there can help our teams perform optimally.
#1: Build rapport: Be there in a personal way before you need them
The first no-no of effective outreach comes right out of PR 101: Don't let the first time I learn of you or your brand be when you need me. If the brand you hope to attain a link from is worthwhile, you should be on their radar well in advance of the ask.
Do your research to find out who the relevant parties are at the brand, then make it your business to learn about them, via social media and any shared contacts you might have.
Then reach out to them... to say hello. Nothing more.
This isn't the time to ask for anything. You're simply making yourself known, relevant, and potentially valuable down the road.
Notice how, in the example below, the person emailing me NEVER asks for anything?
The author did three things that played big. She...
Mentioned my work, which means she'd done her homework
Highlighted work she'd done to create a post
Didn't assume I would be interested in her content (we'll discuss in greater detail below)
Hiring managers like to say, "A person should never be surprised at getting fired," meaning they should have some prior warning.
Similarly, for outreach to be most effective, the person you're asking for a link from should know of you/your brand in advance.
Bonuses: Always, always, always use "thank you" instead of "thanks." The former is far more thoughtful and sincere, while the latter can seem too casual and unfeeling.
#2: Be brief, be bold, be gone
One of my favorite lines from the Greek tragedy Antigone, by Sophocles, is "Tell me briefly — not in some lengthy speech."
If your pitch is more than three paragraphs, go back to the drawing board.
You're trying to pique their interest, to give them enough to comfortably go on, not bore them with every detail.
The best outreach messages steal a page from the PR playbook:
They respect the person's time
They show a knowledge of the person's brand, content, and interests with regard to coverage
They make the person's job easier (i.e., something the person would deem useful but not necessarily easily accessible)
We must do the same.
Be brief in highlighting the usefulness of what you offer and how it helps them in some meaningful way
Be bold in declaring your willingness to help their brand as much as your own
Be gone by exiting without spilling every single needless detail
Bonus: Be personal by using the person's name at least once in the text since it fosters a greatest level of personalization and thoughtfulness (most people enjoy hearing their names):
"I read your blog frequently, Jennifer."
#3: Understand that it's not about you
During my time as a newspaper business reporter and book reviewer, nothing irked me more than having people assume that because they valued what their brand offered, I must feel the same way.
They were wrong 99 percent of the time.
Outreach in our industry is rife with this if-it's-good-for-me-it's-good-for-you logic.
Instead of approaching a potential link opportunity from the perspective of "How do I influence this party to grant me a link," a better approach is to consider "What's obviously in it for them?"
(I emphasize "obviously" because we often pretend the benefit is obvious when it's typically anything but.)
Step back and consider all the things that'll be in play as they consider a link from you:
Relationship - Do they they know you/know of you?
Brand - Is your brand reputable?
Content - Does your company create and share quality content?
This content - Is the content you're hoping for a link for high-quality and relevant?
In the best case scenario, you should pass this test with flying colors. But at the very least you should be able tp successfully counter any of these potential objections.
#4: Don't assume anything
Things never go well when an outreach email begins "I knew you'd be interested in this."
Odds suggest you aren't prescient, which can only mean you're wrong.
What's more, if you did know I was interested in it, I should not be learning about the content after it was created. You should involved me from the beginning.
Therefore, instead of assuming I'll find your content valuable, ensure that you're correct by enlisting their help during the content creation process:
Topic - Find out what they're working on or see as the biggest issues that deserve attention
Contribution - Ask if they'd like to be part of the content you create
Ask about others - Enlist their help to find other potential influencers for your content. Doing so gives your content and your outreach legs (we discuss in greater detail below)
#5: Build a network
Michael Michalowicz, via his 2012 book The Pumpkin Plan, shared an outreach tactic I've been using for years in my own work. Instead of asking customers to recommend other customers for a computer service company he formerly owned, he asked his customers to recommend other non-competing vendors.
Genius!
Whereas a customer is likely to recommend another customer or two, a vendor is likely able to recommend many dozens of customers who could use his service.
This is instructive for outreach.
Rather than asking the person you're outreaching to for recommendations of other marketers who could be involved in the project, a better idea might be to ask them "What are some of the other publications or blogs you've worked with?"
You could then conduct a site search, peruse the content the former has been a part of, then use this information as a future guide for the types and quality of content you should be producing to get on the radar for influencers and brands.
After all, for outreach to be sustainable and most effective, it must be scalable in an easy-to-replicate (by the internal team, at least) fashion.
Bonus: Optimally, your outreach should not be scalable — for anyone but you/your team. That is, it's best to have a unique-to-your-brand process that's tough to achieve or acquire, which means it's far less likely others will know about, copy or use it or one like it.
Awaken your inner child, er, PR person
Elements of the five tips shared above have been, singularly, on my mind for the better part of two years. However, they only coalesced after I read the note my daughter shared, primarily because her message delivered on each point so effectively.
She didn't wait until she needed something to get on our radar; never over-sold the message; was selfless in realizing we all likely needed to get out the house; didn't assume we were on the same page; and activated her network by first sharing the note with her sister first, and, through her mom, me.
Now, the question we must all ask ourselves is if the methods we employ as effective?
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!
0 notes
Why You Should Steal My Daughter's Playbook for Effective Email Outreach
Posted by ronell-smith
During the holidays, my youngest daughter apparently had cabin fever after being in the house for a couple of days. While exiting the bedroom, my wife found the note below on the floor, after the former had slyly slid it under the door.
Though tired and not really feeling like leaving the house, we had to reward the youngster for her industriousness. And her charm.
Her effective "outreach" earned plaudits from my wife.
"At least she did it the right way," she remarked. "She cleaned her room, washed dishes, and read books all day, obviously part of an attempt to make it hard for us to say no. After all she did, though, she earned it."
Hmm...
She earned it.
Can you say as much about your outreach?
We're missing out on a great opportunity
Over the last few months, I've been thinking a lot about outreach, specifically email outreach.
It initially got my attention because I see it so badly handled, even by savvy marketers.
But I didn't fully appreciate the significance of the problem until I started thinking about the resulting impact of bad outreach, particularly since it remains one of the best, most viable means of garnering attention, traffic, and links to our websites.
What I see most commonly is a disregard of the needs of the person on the other end of the email.
Too often, it's all about the "heavy ask" as opposed to the warm touch.
Heavy ask: "Hi Ronell ... We haven't met. ... Could you share my article?"
Warm touch: "Hi Ronell ... I enjoyed your Moz post. ... We're employing similar tactics at my brand."
That's it.
You're likely saying to yourself, "But Ronell, the second person didn't get anything in return."
I beg to differ. The first person likely lost me, or whomever else they reach out to to using similar tactics; the second person will remain on my radar.
Outreach is too important to be left to chance or poor etiquette. A few tweaks here and there can help our teams perform optimally.
#1: Build rapport: Be there in a personal way before you need them
The first no-no of effective outreach comes right out of PR 101: Don't let the first time I learn of you or your brand be when you need me. If the brand you hope to attain a link from is worthwhile, you should be on their radar well in advance of the ask.
Do your research to find out who the relevant parties are at the brand, then make it your business to learn about them, via social media and any shared contacts you might have.
Then reach out to them... to say hello. Nothing more.
This isn't the time to ask for anything. You're simply making yourself known, relevant, and potentially valuable down the road.
Notice how, in the example below, the person emailing me NEVER asks for anything?
The author did three things that played big. She...
Mentioned my work, which means she'd done her homework
Highlighted work she'd done to create a post
Didn't assume I would be interested in her content (we'll discuss in greater detail below)
Hiring managers like to say, "A person should never be surprised at getting fired," meaning they should have some prior warning.
Similarly, for outreach to be most effective, the person you're asking for a link from should know of you/your brand in advance.
Bonuses: Always, always, always use "thank you" instead of "thanks." The former is far more thoughtful and sincere, while the latter can seem too casual and unfeeling.
#2: Be brief, be bold, be gone
One of my favorite lines from the Greek tragedy Antigone, by Sophocles, is "Tell me briefly — not in some lengthy speech."
If your pitch is more than three paragraphs, go back to the drawing board.
You're trying to pique their interest, to give them enough to comfortably go on, not bore them with every detail.
The best outreach messages steal a page from the PR playbook:
They respect the person's time
They show a knowledge of the person's brand, content, and interests with regard to coverage
They make the person's job easier (i.e., something the person would deem useful but not necessarily easily accessible)
We must do the same.
Be brief in highlighting the usefulness of what you offer and how it helps them in some meaningful way
Be bold in declaring your willingness to help their brand as much as your own
Be gone by exiting without spilling every single needless detail
Bonus: Be personal by using the person's name at least once in the text since it fosters a greatest level of personalization and thoughtfulness (most people enjoy hearing their names):
"I read your blog frequently, Jennifer."
#3: Understand that it's not about you
During my time as a newspaper business reporter and book reviewer, nothing irked me more than having people assume that because they valued what their brand offered, I must feel the same way.
They were wrong 99 percent of the time.
Outreach in our industry is rife with this if-it's-good-for-me-it's-good-for-you logic.
Instead of approaching a potential link opportunity from the perspective of "How do I influence this party to grant me a link," a better approach is to consider "What's obviously in it for them?"
(I emphasize "obviously" because we often pretend the benefit is obvious when it's typically anything but.)
Step back and consider all the things that'll be in play as they consider a link from you:
Relationship - Do they they know you/know of you?
Brand - Is your brand reputable?
Content - Does your company create and share quality content?
This content - Is the content you're hoping for a link for high-quality and relevant?
In the best case scenario, you should pass this test with flying colors. But at the very least you should be able tp successfully counter any of these potential objections.
#4: Don't assume anything
Things never go well when an outreach email begins "I knew you'd be interested in this."
Odds suggest you aren't prescient, which can only mean you're wrong.
What's more, if you did know I was interested in it, I should not be learning about the content after it was created. You should involved me from the beginning.
Therefore, instead of assuming I'll find your content valuable, ensure that you're correct by enlisting their help during the content creation process:
Topic - Find out what they're working on or see as the biggest issues that deserve attention
Contribution - Ask if they'd like to be part of the content you create
Ask about others - Enlist their help to find other potential influencers for your content. Doing so gives your content and your outreach legs (we discuss in greater detail below)
#5: Build a network
Michael Michalowicz, via his 2012 book The Pumpkin Plan, shared an outreach tactic I've been using for years in my own work. Instead of asking customers to recommend other customers for a computer service company he formerly owned, he asked his customers to recommend other non-competing vendors.
Genius!
Whereas a customer is likely to recommend another customer or two, a vendor is likely able to recommend many dozens of customers who could use his service.
This is instructive for outreach.
Rather than asking the person you're outreaching to for recommendations of other marketers who could be involved in the project, a better idea might be to ask them "What are some of the other publications or blogs you've worked with?"
You could then conduct a site search, peruse the content the former has been a part of, then use this information as a future guide for the types and quality of content you should be producing to get on the radar for influencers and brands.
After all, for outreach to be sustainable and most effective, it must be scalable in an easy-to-replicate (by the internal team, at least) fashion.
Bonus: Optimally, your outreach should not be scalable — for anyone but you/your team. That is, it's best to have a unique-to-your-brand process that's tough to achieve or acquire, which means it's far less likely others will know about, copy or use it or one like it.
Awaken your inner child, er, PR person
Elements of the five tips shared above have been, singularly, on my mind for the better part of two years. However, they only coalesced after I read the note my daughter shared, primarily because her message delivered on each point so effectively.
She didn't wait until she needed something to get on our radar; never over-sold the message; was selfless in realizing we all likely needed to get out the house; didn't assume we were on the same page; and activated her network by first sharing the note with her sister first, and, through her mom, me.
Now, the question we must all ask ourselves is if the methods we employ as effective?
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!
from Blogger http://ift.tt/2kKC0zF
via IFTTT
0 notes
Why You Should Steal My Daughter's Playbook for Effective Email Outreach
Posted by ronell-smith
During the holidays, my youngest daughter apparently had cabin fever after being in the house for a couple of days. While exiting the bedroom, my wife found the note below on the floor, after the former had slyly slid it under the door.
Though tired and not really feeling like leaving the house, we had to reward the youngster for her industriousness. And her charm.
Her effective "outreach" earned plaudits from my wife.
"At least she did it the right way," she remarked. "She cleaned her room, washed dishes, and read books all day, obviously part of an attempt to make it hard for us to say no. After all she did, though, she earned it."
Hmm...
She earned it.
Can you say as much about your outreach?
We're missing out on a great opportunity
Over the last few months, I've been thinking a lot about outreach, specifically email outreach.
It initially got my attention because I see it so badly handled, even by savvy marketers.
But I didn't fully appreciate the significance of the problem until I started thinking about the resulting impact of bad outreach, particularly since it remains one of the best, most viable means of garnering attention, traffic, and links to our websites.
What I see most commonly is a disregard of the needs of the person on the other end of the email.
Too often, it's all about the "heavy ask" as opposed to the warm touch.
Heavy ask: "Hi Ronell ... We haven't met. ... Could you share my article?"
Warm touch: "Hi Ronell ... I enjoyed your Moz post. ... We're employing similar tactics at my brand."
That's it.
You're likely saying to yourself, "But Ronell, the second person didn't get anything in return."
I beg to differ. The first person likely lost me, or whomever else they reach out to to using similar tactics; the second person will remain on my radar.
Outreach is too important to be left to chance or poor etiquette. A few tweaks here and there can help our teams perform optimally.
#1: Build rapport: Be there in a personal way before you need them
The first no-no of effective outreach comes right out of PR 101: Don't let the first time I learn of you or your brand be when you need me. If the brand you hope to attain a link from is worthwhile, you should be on their radar well in advance of the ask.
Do your research to find out who the relevant parties are at the brand, then make it your business to learn about them, via social media and any shared contacts you might have.
Then reach out to them... to say hello. Nothing more.
This isn't the time to ask for anything. You're simply making yourself known, relevant, and potentially valuable down the road.
Notice how, in the example below, the person emailing me NEVER asks for anything?
The author did three things that played big. She...
Mentioned my work, which means she'd done her homework
Highlighted work she'd done to create a post
Didn't assume I would be interested in her content (we'll discuss in greater detail below)
Hiring managers like to say, "A person should never be surprised at getting fired," meaning they should have some prior warning.
Similarly, for outreach to be most effective, the person you're asking for a link from should know of you/your brand in advance.
Bonuses: Always, always, always use "thank you" instead of "thanks." The former is far more thoughtful and sincere, while the latter can seem too casual and unfeeling.
#2: Be brief, be bold, be gone
One of my favorite lines from the Greek tragedy Antigone, by Sophocles, is "Tell me briefly — not in some lengthy speech."
If your pitch is more than three paragraphs, go back to the drawing board.
You're trying to pique their interest, to give them enough to comfortably go on, not bore them with every detail.
The best outreach messages steal a page from the PR playbook:
They respect the person's time
They show a knowledge of the person's brand, content, and interests with regard to coverage
They make the person's job easier (i.e., something the person would deem useful but not necessarily easily accessible)
We must do the same.
Be brief in highlighting the usefulness of what you offer and how it helps them in some meaningful way
Be bold in declaring your willingness to help their brand as much as your own
Be gone by exiting without spilling every single needless detail
Bonus: Be personal by using the person's name at least once in the text since it fosters a greatest level of personalization and thoughtfulness (most people enjoy hearing their names):
"I read your blog frequently, Jennifer."
#3: Understand that it's not about you
During my time as a newspaper business reporter and book reviewer, nothing irked me more than having people assume that because they valued what their brand offered, I must feel the same way.
They were wrong 99 percent of the time.
Outreach in our industry is rife with this if-it's-good-for-me-it's-good-for-you logic.
Instead of approaching a potential link opportunity from the perspective of "How do I influence this party to grant me a link," a better approach is to consider "What's obviously in it for them?"
(I emphasize "obviously" because we often pretend the benefit is obvious when it's typically anything but.)
Step back and consider all the things that'll be in play as they consider a link from you:
Relationship - Do they they know you/know of you?
Brand - Is your brand reputable?
Content - Does your company create and share quality content?
This content - Is the content you're hoping for a link for high-quality and relevant?
In the best case scenario, you should pass this test with flying colors. But at the very least you should be able tp successfully counter any of these potential objections.
#4: Don't assume anything
Things never go well when an outreach email begins "I knew you'd be interested in this."
Odds suggest you aren't prescient, which can only mean you're wrong.
What's more, if you did know I was interested in it, I should not be learning about the content after it was created. You should involved me from the beginning.
Therefore, instead of assuming I'll find your content valuable, ensure that you're correct by enlisting their help during the content creation process:
Topic - Find out what they're working on or see as the biggest issues that deserve attention
Contribution - Ask if they'd like to be part of the content you create
Ask about others - Enlist their help to find other potential influencers for your content. Doing so gives your content and your outreach legs (we discuss in greater detail below)
#5: Build a network
Michael Michalowicz, via his 2012 book The Pumpkin Plan, shared an outreach tactic I've been using for years in my own work. Instead of asking customers to recommend other customers for a computer service company he formerly owned, he asked his customers to recommend other non-competing vendors.
Genius!
Whereas a customer is likely to recommend another customer or two, a vendor is likely able to recommend many dozens of customers who could use his service.
This is instructive for outreach.
Rather than asking the person you're outreaching to for recommendations of other marketers who could be involved in the project, a better idea might be to ask them "What are some of the other publications or blogs you've worked with?"
You could then conduct a site search, peruse the content the former has been a part of, then use this information as a future guide for the types and quality of content you should be producing to get on the radar for influencers and brands.
After all, for outreach to be sustainable and most effective, it must be scalable in an easy-to-replicate (by the internal team, at least) fashion.
Bonus: Optimally, your outreach should not be scalable — for anyone but you/your team. That is, it's best to have a unique-to-your-brand process that's tough to achieve or acquire, which means it's far less likely others will know about, copy or use it or one like it.
Awaken your inner child, er, PR person
Elements of the five tips shared above have been, singularly, on my mind for the better part of two years. However, they only coalesced after I read the note my daughter shared, primarily because her message delivered on each point so effectively.
She didn't wait until she needed something to get on our radar; never over-sold the message; was selfless in realizing we all likely needed to get out the house; didn't assume we were on the same page; and activated her network by first sharing the note with her sister first, and, through her mom, me.
Now, the question we must all ask ourselves is if the methods we employ as effective?
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!
Why You Should Steal My Daughter's Playbook for Effective Email Outreach published first on http://elitelimobog.blogspot.com
0 notes
Why You Should Steal My Daughter's Playbook for Effective Email Outreach
Posted by ronell-smith
During the holidays, my youngest daughter apparently had cabin fever after being in the house for a couple of days. While exiting the bedroom, my wife found the note below on the floor, after the former had slyly slid it under the door.
Though tired and not really feeling like leaving the house, we had to reward the youngster for her industriousness. And her charm.
Her effective "outreach" earned plaudits from my wife.
"At least she did it the right way," she remarked. "She cleaned her room, washed dishes, and read books all day, obviously part of an attempt to make it hard for us to say no. After all she did, though, she earned it."
Hmm...
She earned it.
Can you say as much about your outreach?
We're missing out on a great opportunity
Over the last few months, I've been thinking a lot about outreach, specifically email outreach.
It initially got my attention because I see it so badly handled, even by savvy marketers.
But I didn't fully appreciate the significance of the problem until I started thinking about the resulting impact of bad outreach, particularly since it remains one of the best, most viable means of garnering attention, traffic, and links to our websites.
What I see most commonly is a disregard of the needs of the person on the other end of the email.
Too often, it's all about the "heavy ask" as opposed to the warm touch.
Heavy ask: "Hi Ronell ... We haven't met. ... Could you share my article?"
Warm touch: "Hi Ronell ... I enjoyed your Moz post. ... We're employing similar tactics at my brand."
That's it.
You're likely saying to yourself, "But Ronell, the second person didn't get anything in return."
I beg to differ. The first person likely lost me, or whomever else they reach out to to using similar tactics; the second person will remain on my radar.
Outreach is too important to be left to chance or poor etiquette. A few tweaks here and there can help our teams perform optimally.
#1: Build rapport: Be there in a personal way before you need them
The first no-no of effective outreach comes right out of PR 101: Don't let the first time I learn of you or your brand be when you need me. If the brand you hope to attain a link from is worthwhile, you should be on their radar well in advance of the ask.
Do your research to find out who the relevant parties are at the brand, then make it your business to learn about them, via social media and any shared contacts you might have.
Then reach out to them... to say hello. Nothing more.
This isn't the time to ask for anything. You're simply making yourself known, relevant, and potentially valuable down the road.
Notice how, in the example below, the person emailing me NEVER asks for anything?
The author did three things that played big. She...
Mentioned my work, which means she'd done her homework
Highlighted work she'd done to create a post
Didn't assume I would be interested in her content (we'll discuss in greater detail below)
Hiring managers like to say, "A person should never be surprised at getting fired," meaning they should have some prior warning.
Similarly, for outreach to be most effective, the person you're asking for a link from should know of you/your brand in advance.
Bonuses: Always, always, always use "thank you" instead of "thanks." The former is far more thoughtful and sincere, while the latter can seem too casual and unfeeling.
#2: Be brief, be bold, be gone
One of my favorite lines from the Greek tragedy Antigone, by Sophocles, is "Tell me briefly — not in some lengthy speech."
If your pitch is more than three paragraphs, go back to the drawing board.
You're trying to pique their interest, to give them enough to comfortably go on, not bore them with every detail.
The best outreach messages steal a page from the PR playbook:
They respect the person's time
They show a knowledge of the person's brand, content, and interests with regard to coverage
They make the person's job easier (i.e., something the person would deem useful but not necessarily easily accessible)
We must do the same.
Be brief in highlighting the usefulness of what you offer and how it helps them in some meaningful way
Be bold in declaring your willingness to help their brand as much as your own
Be gone by exiting without spilling every single needless detail
Bonus: Be personal by using the person's name at least once in the text since it fosters a greatest level of personalization and thoughtfulness (most people enjoy hearing their names):
"I read your blog frequently, Jennifer."
#3: Understand that it's not about you
During my time as a newspaper business reporter and book reviewer, nothing irked me more than having people assume that because they valued what their brand offered, I must feel the same way.
They were wrong 99 percent of the time.
Outreach in our industry is rife with this if-it's-good-for-me-it's-good-for-you logic.
Instead of approaching a potential link opportunity from the perspective of "How do I influence this party to grant me a link," a better approach is to consider "What's obviously in it for them?"
(I emphasize "obviously" because we often pretend the benefit is obvious when it's typically anything but.)
Step back and consider all the things that'll be in play as they consider a link from you:
Relationship - Do they they know you/know of you?
Brand - Is your brand reputable?
Content - Does your company create and share quality content?
This content - Is the content you're hoping for a link for high-quality and relevant?
In the best case scenario, you should pass this test with flying colors. But at the very least you should be able tp successfully counter any of these potential objections.
#4: Don't assume anything
Things never go well when an outreach email begins "I knew you'd be interested in this."
Odds suggest you aren't prescient, which can only mean you're wrong.
What's more, if you did know I was interested in it, I should not be learning about the content after it was created. You should involved me from the beginning.
Therefore, instead of assuming I'll find your content valuable, ensure that you're correct by enlisting their help during the content creation process:
Topic - Find out what they're working on or see as the biggest issues that deserve attention
Contribution - Ask if they'd like to be part of the content you create
Ask about others - Enlist their help to find other potential influencers for your content. Doing so gives your content and your outreach legs (we discuss in greater detail below)
#5: Build a network
Michael Michalowicz, via his 2012 book The Pumpkin Plan, shared an outreach tactic I've been using for years in my own work. Instead of asking customers to recommend other customers for a computer service company he formerly owned, he asked his customers to recommend other non-competing vendors.
Genius!
Whereas a customer is likely to recommend another customer or two, a vendor is likely able to recommend many dozens of customers who could use his service.
This is instructive for outreach.
Rather than asking the person you're outreaching to for recommendations of other marketers who could be involved in the project, a better idea might be to ask them "What are some of the other publications or blogs you've worked with?"
You could then conduct a site search, peruse the content the former has been a part of, then use this information as a future guide for the types and quality of content you should be producing to get on the radar for influencers and brands.
After all, for outreach to be sustainable and most effective, it must be scalable in an easy-to-replicate (by the internal team, at least) fashion.
Bonus: Optimally, your outreach should not be scalable — for anyone but you/your team. That is, it's best to have a unique-to-your-brand process that's tough to achieve or acquire, which means it's far less likely others will know about, copy or use it or one like it.
Awaken your inner child, er, PR person
Elements of the five tips shared above have been, singularly, on my mind for the better part of two years. However, they only coalesced after I read the note my daughter shared, primarily because her message delivered on each point so effectively.
She didn't wait until she needed something to get on our radar; never over-sold the message; was selfless in realizing we all likely needed to get out the house; didn't assume we were on the same page; and activated her network by first sharing the note with her sister first, and, through her mom, me.
Now, the question we must all ask ourselves is if the methods we employ as effective?
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!
0 notes