Targeted outreach is one of the core building blocks of any successful marketing strategy. To do it successfully, you need to follow a five step process. We’ll discuss what that five-step process is in this article. But before we get into the nitty-gritty tactile approach to targeted outreach, we first need to define just what this marketing strategy is all about.
So let’s get started.
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What is targeted LinkedIn outreach?
Targeted LinkedIn outreach is using targeted marketing to reach out to a specific group of people that would be interested in your product or service. This targeted outreach is used over traditional mass marketing because this kind of outreach allows you to be much more specific and targeted about who your message goes out to. Hence the name targeted outreach.
So, rather than sending messages out at random hoping that someone will care, targeted outreach lets you pick and choose very specifically which individuals are most likely to engage with your company. This group of specific individuals are your target audience.
To compare we can look at this example. A business who sells accounting software might normally target any business owner/founder in the USA and talk about how their software is great for saving businesses money.
But with a targeted outreach approach we might choose to break up that very broad group into smaller niches with more relevant messaging. One target group might be founder/owners in the USA with company size of 20-50, in their first 3 years of business life, and specifically in the marketing industry. In this case since we’ve targeted them much more specifically, we can speak to their unique challenges of a new and growing marketing agency and the specific problems we solve.
This approach also helps save time because you’re not spending hours trying to sell something to thousands of people who aren’t interested in anything like what you’re selling. Instead, targeted outreach provides customized messages based on the specific needs and wants of your target audience. And targeted outreach is on the rise for this very reason.
The ultimate goal of targeted outreach is to cultivate a culture amongst those who use your brand’s products and services. Nail this and your brand will soon have a persona and life of its own.
5 steps to execute targeted LinkedIn outreach
Now that you have a sense of what targeted outreach is, let’s discuss the five-step process to executing your targeted outreach marketing strategy.
Step 1 – Define Your Target Audience
The first step of targeted outreach is defining your target audience. This includes knowing what type of people you want to sell to, (what positions they hold, what industries they work in, what they or their company cares about, etc) and where they are on the map (as in their physical location).
This will allow you to narrow down your target audience successfully so that it includes only those that you are confident will see value in your brand’s offerings. This could be only CEOs within a specific industry. Or better yet, CEOs in a niche of a specific industry who lead companies of a specific personnel size and gross annual revenue. The more targeted your audience is, the stronger and more pointed you can make your messaging.
LinkedIn is one the best platforms (arguably, the best platform) to find your target audience, especially if you use tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator. If you have a general idea of who you want to target – you can find them on LinkedIn.
There are even additional filters and filter combos that can isolate founder/companies in their first 3 years of life who have already pushed past 50+ staff size. This would give you a great list of either companies that have secured funding or just experiencing massive growth.
It may also be helpful to compile the contact list of your target audience in a spreadsheet or in your CRM.
Step 2 – Research, Research, Research
After you’ve defined who you’re outreaching to, it’s time to do some research on that group of people. You need to know everything about them right down to demographics including gender and ethnicity. This information will help you tailor your messaging specifically around this group of individuals.
You also need to know what problems your target audience faces on a daily basis. If your target audience is CEOs leading a certain type of company in a certain industry or niche within an industry, then you need to know what problems they face in their day-to-day roles. Knowing this information allows you to craft messaging that positions your brand as a solution to those problems, thus making a CEO’s life easier.
Once you have your list of individuals in your target audience – LinkedIn is the perfect online campus to do your research. Find out what those CEOs are already talking about, what they want, what they need, what they find interesting, and what they value. This list could go on and on, but you can find all that info on LinkedIn.
Step 3 – Specific And Engaging Messaging
After you’ve defined who you’re outreaching to and you have done some research on your target audience, it’s time to craft your targeted messaging.
You’ll want to make sure that these messages are clear, concise, and targeted directly for your target audience based on all of the information that you’ve collected about them in step two.
Your messaging needs to be relevant, straightforward, and engaging so that the people receiving it feel like they matter enough for you to take the time to send them a personal message. Your targeted messaging should feel like talking to your best friend – only now that targeted best friend will hopefully buy your product or service.
Step 4 – Execute Your Campaign
Now that you’ve defined your target audience, researched them as much as possible, and you have crafted targeted and relevant messages, it’s time to execute your campaign.
To do this, you will need to choose whether you want to execute your campaign through social networking, email, by contacting your target audience directly via phone, or a combination of these outreach methods.
This best avenue to go down will depend on your prospect’s company size and business model. For example, if you’re targeting CEOs of small companies, then email or a phone call may be your best bet since most small business executives aren’t active on LinkedIn. But, if you’re targeting large companies, it is likely faster to connect with them through LinkedIn since many CEOs of large companies either check their LinkedIn daily or have an assistant who does.
The right execution strategy for your campaign really comes down to the way that works best for the vast majority of your target audience. If they are active on LinkedIn, then that’s the way you want to go, regardless of company size. If they aren’t active on LinkedIn (or other social networking channels) then it will come down to whether you can find viable emails or if you feel your cold calling skills are best for the job.
Step 5 – Foster Key Relationships
The whole point of targeted outreach marketing is to establish relevant key relationships with your target audience. You want these relations to be sustainable and productive over time, not just one-off transactional deals where you don’t really get anything out of the deal except a sale.
This final step includes turning targeted prospects into targeted leads, which means nurturing the relationship so that eventually there’s mutual interest for both parties on some level. This can lead to doing repeat business with individuals who are using your products or services on an ongoing basis.
Need Help With Your Targeted Linkedin Outreach?
We’d be happy to show you the ropes of targeted outreach, especially LinkedIn outreach! We do it everyday for sales teams who regularly book meets with Fortune 300 companies like Nike, PayPal, and Google. Book a call with us today to learn more.
