Achieve a near-perfect outbound response rate
Cold outreach feels slimy when done wrong. When you do cold outreach the right way, you'll achieve a high response rate without needing a Unicorn.
As a new business owner, Your Podcast Sidekick, I can appreciate the fear behind outbound sales, cold outreach, and prospecting. Unfortunately, there are many times where you’re on the receiving end of cold outreach (direct message, email, or sometimes phone calls) where that interaction feels selfish, icky, confusing, and down right wrong.
The Chronic Problem Child
She was throwing up, losing weight, and struggling to figure out what was wrong. Rheanna shares that her symptoms were first felt like stomach flu.
Climbing the corporate ladder to realize her dream (working for the world’s latest construction consulting company as Regional Marketing coordinator on America’s west coast) proves that this CEO is no slouch.
The best part? Never did she once let the daily pain stop her from living her best life.
In 2016, she was diagnosed with severe gastroparesis and never looked back.
Ups and downs, multiple procedures, disappointment, uncontrollable downfalls and weight loss, as well as some failed businesses.
Today, this relentless entrepeneur grows her business, while utilizing her strengths and experience from the land of corporate. Finding her groove by focusing on female entrepreneurs to grow their business and look beyond their chronic pain.
Now this superstar on a mission.
The Unicorn in the Room
While spending an unhealthy amount of time on Threads, I stumbled upon a post where Rheanna shared discontent around cold DMs. Her experience was far from great on the receiving end.
As a caring people-pleaser, she fears initiating cold DMs to solicit new business with a possibility of being rejected or perhaps being delisted as a service provider by those individuals receiving Rheanna’s “unwanted” messages.
For those experts that live and breathe sales this is a controversial topic. Examples of the varied views around Cold DMs via Threads for your amusement.
Cold DMs, when done right, don’t have to leave a greasy, icky, nasty memory in your mind.
DM Me Baby One More Time
The big secret? Embrace who you are, be true to yourself, and when you’re sending a cold DM to someone focus on serving the receiving person’s needs.
Let’s un-cringe your DMs and work through a process that’s easy to follow with tools that are not full of hidden fees and time-sucking systems.
Collect Friends; Set Reminders
I’m not even going to wait around for a referral link to monetize my passion for this handy customer tracking tool. I find the Folk App CRM super handy to help me keep friends straight and to ensure I’m following up before someone forgets about me.
Freemium CRM that features a one-click add, scheduled follow ups, categories, and statuses to help you look like a sales genius.
Quick how-to video on Folk app (linked at the correct timestamp)
Great for tracking podcast guests and advertisers, potential clients, or even current clients.
I open up the folkX chrome extension and then hop into LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram. From there, click on “add to folk” beside the profile and start updating info. When I find someone interesting I think that I gel with on Threads, I tap on the instagram button and add them to folk.
I leave a meaningful comment, give them a follow, add that comment into the folk interaction section, and then set a follow up reminder with the profile link of the potential interest just in case they don’t come up in my feed.
Take Your Time
Threads may not be your digital home of choice. Yet, I find that a lot of creators who look for an unpolished, collaborative, and refreshing atmosphere are posting often. Steadily growing to 800 followers, I feel that Threads (as a digital home) serves me well and meets my needs.
Relationship Building Process
Hop on Threads.
Flip between For You (All) and Follow.
Scroll, like, add value with repost / comments
Focus on value, entertainment, and being memorable
Create genuine connections and relationships.
When I find someone of interest I add them to folk under a suited category
Laser Focus on Others
We all want attention, money, success, and to feel good. This mentality creates an automatic default to think about yourself, your needs, and your time.
When you toss societal norms out the window and focus on others you find yourself in a zen, zone, or mood that focuses on the needs of whom you’re serving (whether you’re looking for a new podcast guest or advertiser, coach or service provider, or a new client that you gel with well.
I do my best to seek out people that are positive, interesting, willing to share knowledge, relatively open-minded, and someone that makes my time on a digital networking platform more enjoyable.
In return, I do my best to add value to the conversations that other people have started, while injecting some of my personality without taking things too far (but, I can’t make any promises).
The result of being intentional is often well received:
Understand Them
Commenting on socials is fun for all; however, if you don’t have anything interesting to say you’ll be blocked just like the hundreds of “podcast promoters” that ask me if I need promotion only because I used the word podcast somewhere in my digital life.
NO. Bad promoter! BAD. Ahem.
You’ve been commenting, being interesting, providing value, and building a relationship. Document key take-aways/conversations so you can refer to that later.
Click those bio links: Website, resources, freebies, link-tree thingies and record those items in folk (or your favorite CRM). It’s okay to be nosy - this time at least.
Need an email address? Sign up for founder freebies (leverage the email with respect, please).
Check out related content, document something useful/meaningful, make notes on what vibes with you, how you can relate, and if you feel this person is a good fit.
Review the freebie, listen to a podcast episode (and review/rate it with kindness), and enjoy the content with an open mind. Again, make note of what resonates with you. This is you getting to know others, proving that you’re invested in who they are — AND most importantly, not making this about you. AT ALL.
Repeat this process for a few weeks to a few months (timing will depend on when you have enough information to reach out with consideration, added value, uniqueness, and a way that you can benefit the receiving party).
No money, fees, or paid service should be mentioned. Not even a discovery call link-y thing to your calendar should be mentioned either.
Ready, Aim, and Send!
In my corporate days, I found that sending a “cold email” to a random colleague (in a sea of 100,000 employees) was mostly responsive. Having an obvious similarity and pride being part of the same company made it less scary to send a note for assistance, mentoring, volunteering, informal career chats, or networking.
This, I’m afraid is totally different. But, it doesn’t have to be scary.
Be ready for people who ignore you. This time you’re doing your best and be proud of it. Cold outreach is one of the toughest skills to earn - if I may call it an art - so allow yourself the imperfections, the learning, and the disappointment of not being responded to always.
Example of ease-into-it outreach:
Come in friendly and with high energy.
Hi! I love x on threads and wanted to introduce myself.
I’m Elijah, a quirky Canadian, with big kid energy who loves podcasts.
Share what you learned about them.
I caught your podcast and I liked (three points). I wanted to let you know I left a review (this is an example; if their content is not interesting do not review 5 stars - people will see through this).
I read x blog and wanted to learn more about x. Any chance you’d be willing to trade voice notes or have a coffee chat one day soon?
After this chat check in every couple of weeks and continue commenting.
This will build your relationship and also offer you an opportunity to confirm that this person is indeed a good fit; you’ll continue to explore ways you may be able to help them through the services you offer.
Example of I-have-something-to-offer you outreach.
Come in friendly and with high energy (this shouldn’t change - offers positivity and interest)
Hi! I love x on threads and wanted to introduce myself.
I’m Elijah, a quirky Canadian, with big kid energy who loves podcasts.
I have a blog (website) and would love to feature you. May I?
If yes;
What are a few items I may highlight?
Please provide me with a few links I can highlight
Would you have 15 minutes to chat or may I review your content and follow up if I have questions?
Once completed your something-to-offer
Let them know you’ve completed the work
Share a link and some shareable content
Ask their permission to add as a collaborator or where they may prefer to be tagged (most active socials)
Continue to celebrate them on socials! Reacting to stories also gets bumped on their DMs (so long as you both follow each other).
If you’re engaging, thoughtful, add value, and are memorable someone will be hard pressed not to follow you.
Celebrate All Wins
I reached out to Brittany B after enjoying her free voice chat SEO Q&A day.
Podcast creators, who may create for love, often ask about the mystery behind SEO. I didn’t want to take credit for Brittany’s wisdom, so I requested permission to share her knowledge and feature this Sensational SEO Queen and promote her podcast in the following post (I received two new subscribers too!).
This provided me with content that I repurpose and this provided more visibility (and a new loyal fan) for her.
Now, I ask you. What is stopping you?
To look past the fear of the ick and/or rejection give this exercise a whirl.
Little Help From Your Podcast Sidekick
If you need help with this process, let me know. I’m happy to help! Some ideas I may be able to support you with should you want to bridge the gap between inbound and outbound:
Creating a 5-10 episode private podcast (from ideation to implementing)
Live Event Producer (brainstorming topic, recommending platforms and software, & BTS live event work so you can engage and interact with ease).
Help you find guest opportunities on podcasts (research, list creation, and guest outreach)
Create an outreach plan (my consult rate is $50/hr: recorded video chat with summary/notes/custom outreach template provided after call)
Do you have helpful tips for successful cold outreach? Whether you’re a podcast creator, business owner (or both) I’d love to hear your ideas.
I’m thinking about adding a paid subscription ($5/month) to support my content. Do you find my articles are valuable enough to warrant such a fee? Perhaps at 50 or 100 subscribers I may implement such a thing. I’ll sleep on it.
Hi! I love Threads too and wanted to share my appreciation.
I’m Nadine, a content cat who makes money and enemies through marketing.
I learnt that you love podcasts and Threads. I wanted to let you know that I left a review (did I? If not, please send me the link to where you want that). Any chance you’d be willing to trade voice notes or have another coffee chat one day soon?