You must remember how emails were the undefeated king when it came to reaching out to people professionally; for both marketing and professional purposes. Undoubtedly, email outreach is still in the game and people still find a sense of trust in emails when generating leads, maximizing engagement, etc.
But over recent years, there is a new contestant in sight for outreaching people professionally- Social Media Outreach. As we all are aware of how reaching out to prospects can be tricky, social media has definitely taken us one step closer to all our prospects.
While email outreaching is one straight road to reaching prospects, social media outreach comes with options such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc. Choosing the right platforms also depends on the type of business and insights derived from previous lead generation techniques.
Ready to dig more into this?
Let’s take you through the benefits of both social media outreach and email outreach.
Benefits of Email Outreach
1. You can always personalize & target
Any email sent to a prospect is a stepping stone towards gaining more leads. While you send out outreach emails, the best thing to do is working on creating segments. These segments will help you create personalized content depending on your prospects.
Let’s not forget that the goal is to give the prospect a feeling of a one-on-one conversation and not of a machine-written mail.
For example, you can begin the email with the prospect’s name and start with a pain point that they must be going through. This approach can easily gain any reader’s attention and put your email outreach strategy on the right road.
Let’s look at this example for an instance.
With the first few lines of this email, the reader would surely be intrigued to read more about what the sender has to say. While the sender was empathetic towards the broken links, the idea of passing on the resource was subtly placed in the email. On the other hand, you can also start with a compliment on one of their blogs and then take it further.
Wondering how to do that with your emails?
Step into your prospect’s shoes and then start pondering about their pain points. Additionally, you can also research the targeted prospects, discover their pain points, and target them accordingly.
2. You can easily hyperlink to pages/websites
What’s better than being able to give more context to your prospect when outreaching them?
A feature as simple as hyperlinking helps a lot when you are outreaching to prospects. For example, when you are talking about your website in the email, you can simply link your website and make it easier for the prospect to just click on it and get a glance at your business.
Similarly, when you are talking about a page from their website, you can simply link that as well and then pitch your proposal to them. To back this up, let’s look at an example of a well-linked outreach email.
You might clearly see how Bryan started with a subtle compliment on one of their designs and showed the effort to hyperlink it and then went further with his pitch. Bryan took an approach that is subtle and minimal by linking the pages he was talking about. This makes the reader see that the sender has put a genuine effort into the email which then has higher chances to lead to a positive response.
But, don’t get too excited!
Strictly avoid adding too many links in your email as it will just serve the purpose of overwhelming the reader and throwing them off your mail.
3. You can send bulk outreach emails!
This may sound as one of the easiest ways to outreach but let me tell you, it’s not that simple. Gaining traction through bulk emails is an approach used by businesses for years but keeping in mind the recent times, people receive emails now more than ever!
While roughly 306.4 billion emails were estimated to have been sent and received each day in 2020, getting a prospect’s attention to any email is becoming difficult day by day.
So, when you decide to take the approach of bulk outreach emails, make sure your content is highly precise and personalized. Wear your smart hat and write emails that are interpreted as if you invested an ample amount of effort in knowing the prospect.
When you develop expertise over your bulk outreach email content, don’t forget to add the cherry on top by leveraging email analytics tools. Email outreach tools such as SalesHandy can help you automate and track your email outreach, schedule follow-up emails, and get detailed information pertaining to each prospect.
Now that you are aware of everything that email outreach can offer your business, let’s jump to the benefits of the next big approach for outreach.
Benefits of Social Media Outreach
1. You can accelerate your reach with personalization
With all the cheers around social media outreach, you must have questioned yourself if social media really delivers or is it just a buzzword?
Let me put it down for you.
With 4.48 billion users recorded in July 2021, social media has successfully shown the potential it holds for business, lead generation, influencer marketing, etc. This spectacular adoption of social media makes it clear that social media outreach can give you an accelerated reach.
Unlike the previous decades, people are more likely to interact and engage on social media platforms. Most of them are using it enough to affect their sleep cycles. At the same time, many influencers and social media marketers are making the best use of it.
But, as every coin has two sides, social media outreach becomes difficult with such a huge user base. If you don’t approach it mindfully, your outreaching can end up becoming just a part of the crowd. To stand out from the crowd, your outreaching technique should be able to make a prospect pay attention to it.
For example, this outreach tactic of sending a personalized message by Ian Naylor on LinkedIn clearly stood out to the prospects. Something like this can easily help you reach your prospects effectively.
2. You can spot niche bloggers/websites
At present, social media is the Newyork Times Square for people; probably better. Users on social media are increasing day by day and hence, businesses are finding it effective to build a presence online. This is clearly an opportunity for you to spot, research and outreach niche prospects.
Moreover, bloggers/businesses love getting contacted through social media channels. Just keep in mind that your interaction with your prospect should be as interactive as possible. This will easily increase your chances of getting noticed and will further help you in building more relationships in the future.
So, what are you waiting for?
Work on a clean strategy to approach business/websites/bloggers that you have been wanting to and surf your way to their inbox with interactive messages. Don’t forget to make your messages look different than the regular spammy messages your prospect might be receiving.
3. You are familiar with the prospect
All social media channels come with a profile of a person/business to view before you approach them. Unlike email outreach, social media tells you a lot about your prospect even before reaching out and this is something you can utilize for good.
Let’s have a look at how you can do it.
When you look at someone’s profile, you can easily choose a tone of voice that would go with them. Additionally, you can easily show them that you cared enough to go through their profile before outreaching by mentioning one of their social media posts.
Look at their profile, research enough to make a judgment about what they will be interested in, and then work on your outreach message. Moreover, you can also add their company name, job title or mention something about their hobby. When you personalize in such a way, that is when you increase your chances of getting noticed.
For example, if you are reaching out on LinkedIn, make the most of the information that is available and this is how a personalized message would look like.
4. You can easily interact and build a network
When you are utilizing social media outreach, it’s crucial to build a profile that can impress!
You can talk about yourself, your business, your hobbies, etc. depending on which social media channel you are using. For LinkedIn, you can build a profile that talks about your education as well as work experience, and for Instagram, you can have the freedom to present yourself as you like.
Once you are content with your social media profile, it’s time to outreach!
Once you have a strong profile and you post quality content, it’s easier to engage in industry conversations and stay updated. For example, you can join multiple Facebook Groups, or interact with people over a Twitter trending hashtag. This can help you build a larger community that is relevant to your business which might consist of an ample amount of leads.
Let’s look at how @WillBluntAU started a conversation with relevant people from the community on Twitter. Something like this can easily help you create a community of your own.
Social Media Outreach vs Email Outreach: Which is the best fit for your business?
You must be aware of the basic differences and benefits of both techniques but giving a clear answer to this question always ends up lying in the grey area!
Although a survey by McKinsey has established that email is 40 times more effective at targeting leads than social media, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc, are excellent for expanding your reach. If you work on a well-planned social media outreach strategy, you can easily connect with your prospects on a personal level which might also help you out in the future.
The thing is that social media is a friendlier and approachable platform than emails and not just that, messages received on social media usually intrigue an individual to reply. While with emails, a prospect might receive thousands of emails in a day and wouldn’t bother to leave most of them halfway.
It can be tricky!
Because, unlike emails, social media also has repercussions when used incorrectly. It can easily create a negative brand image and throw you off track. To back this up, let me tell you that 35% of people are annoyed by promoted tweets.
When it comes to choosing between email outreach and social media outreach, I would say that it totally depends on the kind of business you own, your goals, and expected outputs. If your prospects are more active on social media, then emails might not bring you as great outputs as social media and vice versa. Some businesses usually get more prospects on LinkedIn and if that’s you, go for it!
Whichever approach you choose, one thing remains common that your communication has to be personalized. Without personalization, any approach that you take will be a waste of time and you will end up making efforts in the dark!
Final Thoughts on Social Media Outreach and Email Outreach
Start putting aside some time on a regular basis to come up with a well-planned outreach strategy; email or social media. When you develop this practice, it’s easier to give your prospect exactly what they want, gain their attention and get a response.
When it’s social media, develop a habit of researching your potential leads and listing them down. With a prospect list in hand, you will be able to work on a personalized message for all of them and start outreaching effectively.
Although with email outreach, list down your targets as well as the email addresses of your prospects. Don’t forget to verify those email ids and then move further with creating interactive as well as personalized subject lines. Last but not the least, don’t forget to compliment your lead when you approach them.
You are all set to go!
Social media outreach or email outreach; let us know what worked out best for you in the comments section below.
Good luck with your outreach campaign!