Outreach sounds scary, we get it. Especially when outreach is so often associated with old-fashioned methods like cold calling or door-knocking that make you wonder if you’ll need a rejection therapist on speed dial to execute.

However, lots of freelancers – your competitors included – are using outreach strategies to engage and win new clients and keep their calendars full of projects. Plus, while cold methods still have their place, the world has evolved and outreach has become far more diverse and versatile.

So, fear not, we’re here to steer you in the right direction, help you nail your outreach strategy and save you money on rejection therapy bills.

What is an outreach strategy?

Essentially, an outreach strategy is a dedicated plan of action designed to find, engage and hopefully onboard new customers. It’s all about devising a way to reach new prospects and generate leads so you can, in an ideal world, nurture them into becoming a client of yours.

How you approach and build your outreach plan will depend on things like:

• How much time you have to dedicate to it
• The type of industry you’re in
• Your budget
• The capacity you have to take on new clients
• Where your target audience is in terms of the platforms and communication methods they use

There’s no one-size-fits-all template and of course, big companies have dedicated sales or marketing teams to take on the task. However, the principles of outreach strategy remain the same for a freelancer flying solo.

What different methods of outreach can you use?

Below are some tried-and-tested outreach methods you could try out. It’s worth exploring which one is worth the investment in terms of time, effort, and money. For example, if your customers don’t really use a certain social media platform, skip that one!

Email outreach

Email is a great platform for connecting with prospects, whether it’s part of an email marketing flow to your current customers or a cold email campaign to people who aren’t your customers (yet).

When sending your emails, be as personal as you possibly can and tailor your communications as much as you have time for. Recipients are far more likely to take notice if they feel like they’re receiving a message written just for them as opposed to a blanket email, especially in the subject line.

Pro tip: Check out Mailshake and Woodpecker, which are both brilliant tools to help automate your email outreach to make your strategy more streamlined, efficient and trackable.

Social media outreach

Social media is an effective way to engage in digital outreach. Platforms like Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and TikTok are great places to engage with prospects directly with targeted ads, organic content and even cold communications (direct messages).

Expert tip: Before you press go on any LinkedIn outreach, give your own freelancer LinkedIn profile a refresh. First impressions are powerful and you want to make sure that you’re having the right impact on anybody who clicks on your page.

Blog outreach

Blog outreach is in the same family as content marketing and involves reaching out to other business owners with a blog, website owners and/or influencers for mutual gain.

For example, you could swap guest posts on each other’s blogs or give each other backlinks to expand your reach and drive more traffic to your site. Aim to get your content on websites with high domain authority to put you in Google’s good books and help you climb the search results pages.

Top tip: Check out Pitchbox, a great tool for supporting your outreach efforts, especially if you’re looking into link-building or working with influencers.

Cold outreach

Yes, the dreaded cold outreach methods do still have a time and place in modern-day growth marketing – sometimes. If you feel up to the challenge, cold calls, emails, social media messages and even visits to customers you’d like to work with could be fruitful.

Done right, good old-fashioned cold outreach could set you apart from your competitors who shy away from it. Plus, you never know, customers might even enjoy the more direct approach and remember you for it.

Customer outreach

This involves connecting with your existing customer base in strategic ways to:

• Prevent them from churning
• Increase the chances of word-of-mouth recommendations
• Boost loyalty to your business. This could be a giveaway or a special promotion, for instance.

Outreach is also a great way to upsell to existing customers, i.e., get them to spend more money on your products/services.

Don’t forget, you don’t just have to pour all of your efforts into one outreach tactic. In fact, the strongest outreach strategies combine the potential of multiple methods.

Tips for creating a strong outreach strategy

Ready and raring to outreach? Before you get started on your strategy, here are a few pointers to set you up for success.

Set clear goals

Whatever outreach methods you choose, you’re going to need to know if it works. That way, you know which avenues to continue down and which ones aren’t delivering the ROI you really want. The way to do this is by setting yourself clear goals – preferably measurable objectives that you can track.

Great examples of goals or objectives to set for your outreach plan include:

• Lead generation: More interest in what you have to offer
• Boost brand awareness: Make more people aware of your product/service
• Increase sales: More billable work
• Expand reach: Such as tapping into new demographics or locations

Meet your customers where they are

It’s a simple tip, but only deploy your outreach tactics where you know there is potential. It’s a waste of resources if you outreach in places where your customers won’t be found.

Do some research to figure out where your customers are hanging out online and what types of offline communication they’re most responsive to, as well.

It’s also worth building some target audience personas and researching their preferred communication methods. Create a profile of your ideal customer(s), research them extensively and then let that guide your choice of outreach methods.

Always stay on brand

Keep your outreach communications in line with your brand in terms of tone, visual identity and values. If you’re going to pique the interest of a lead and spark trust in your business, they’ll want to see that your brand is strong and consistent.

Customers (new and existing) feel far more at ease with a brand they recognise as familiar wherever they see you, whether that’s on their social media platforms or in their email inbox.

Plus, a solid brand identity will boost brand retention and support your own personal brand as a freelancer.

Have a strong CTA

Make sure you have a strong call-to-action (CTA), i.e. make sure the person reading or listening to the outreach communications knows exactly what you want them to do next.

Whether it’s signing up to your newsletter (to get them on your email list), getting in touch for a free consultation or following your business on social media, the best way to get the outcome you want is to guide clearly.

You can get creative with this too and lead with the benefit to them and not just the hard-sell instruction. For example, you could use ‘Unlock the latest insights’ as your newsletter signup CTA instead of the bog standard ‘Sign up’ copy.

 
Head over to our freelancer information hub for more guides, tips, and advice.