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The Best Emailing Tip Out There

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Email marketing

There are many emailing tips out there. There are ways to write an attractive email that grabs a client’s attention, get someone to say yes, or build a strong connection. However, the life of sending out emails, and life in general, will result in some people disagreeing with what you think. It may have taken a few days to craft the email and even longer to build the conversation. After spending all of that time and effort building the connection, there is nothing worse at that moment than for the person to cut the connection and say they do not like what you provide.

I encountered something like that. I will not go into any of the details, but I will say that it took me several weeks to build the connection. In the end, I got a “no.” I did not anticipate getting rejected since I spent a lot of time building the connection, and I was not sending this person any sales pitches (I almost never send those). The first thing I thought of when I read the email was to respond by telling that person that he/she made a terrible mistake and I do not want this connection to continue in any way, shape, or form. I was not happy that the person cut the connection. In fact, I was angry.

Luckily, I was not able to send that email because it was time for me to eat. When I know my food is ready, I put my business on pause, rush to the kitchen, and eat. By rushing to the kitchen, I was unable to send the email. After eating and working on a full stomach, I looked back at the email I was able to send. I realized that I acted rashly when I was writing the email. Although it took me some time to build that connection, that person would have not been happy to read the email I was thinking of sending. It would have tainted that person’s image of me which is something I certainly did not want to do.

In the end, I revised the email (as in deleting everything I wrote before and writing an entirely new email) and sent it to the person with a more positive outlook on the situation. The person who reads the email feels grateful that I was not angry (luckily I came to my senses), and I feel grateful that I did not have to go as low as to send out the original email. It’s a win-win for everyone.

Believe it or not, you are going to face rejection in the form of emails. There are going to be people who email you and say no to what you proposed. The easier decision is to respond as soon as you get the email and saying how horrible that person is. The harder (but better) decision is to take a break from the keyboard, ignore the email, and then respond to that email with a new mindset.

It is better to wait a little bit to respond to an email than it is to respond to your email while you are angry.

 

The Magnificent Power Of Asking

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Just Ask

One of the most underrated but powerful ways to grow your business and get more sales is asking. There is no harm with asking. If you ask a blogger to promote your book, the worst thing that can happen is that the blogger says no. If the blogger says yes, then one more person is promoting your book. Your book gets a backlink and extra sales.

Asking can lead to better business opportunities. Every time someone sends a pitch to reporter’s query on HARO, they are asking if they fit the story. The worst thing that happens is that the reporter rejects the story. The best thing that can happen is that the reporter takes your story, asks you for more information, and then publishes your story. That’s how I got featured on the US News.

One of the people who I interviewed for Lead The Stampede was Dan Nainan, the world-renowned comedian. I knew I would include Dan in Lead The Stampede whether he followed me on Twitter or not, but I decided to ask him if he could follow me on Twitter. I worded my request in the right way (I was not begging), and he ended up following me. Dan has over 400,000 people and he only follows 40 people. I am one of those 40 people only because I decided to ask Dan if he would like to follow me on Twitter.

What are some of the things you can ask? Ask the questions that you are afraid to ask. By asking these kinds of questions, you are showing an interest in what you do and getting the desired result. If you can ask a question in a way that does not look like begging, you can get the result you want many times.

 

4 Ways To Find More Sources

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Finding sources is an important way to get new content and build connections at the same time. While writing my book Lead The Stampede, I had the privilege of building strong connections with many people who I did not know about before. These sources provided content and stories related to my book, and I added those stories in my book. While the book is still scheduled to be published some time in the summer, I can share with you how I found sources for the book.

  1. Yahoo! and Wiki Answers. These places are where experts gather to answer questions that other people have. Once you find the person who is an expert in your niche, contact that person asking if they would like to be in your book and ask them for more information (this is best done with 3-5 questions).
  2. Help A Reporter Out (HARO). I cannot emphasize enough how important HARO is both for getting sources and being found. I use HARO every day to either read emails or send pitches. Most of my sources were as a result of HARO.
  3. Search on Google. By searching phrases based on your niche, you will be able to find the most popular blogs on the web. Even the bloggers with “celebrity” status will be eager to be in your book or blog post. Every blogger, even the big ones, want more traffic. Getting mentioned in a blog post or book would be a great way to get a backlink and build credibility.
  4. Look through your list of followers on your social networks. This will be harder for some people depending on the number of followers that you have. If you and another person are mutually following each other, that person is more likely to become a source for your story or blog post. In addition, if you are not following a person who you ask to become a source, be sure to follow that person immediately so they are more likely to become a source for your story or blog post.

These are the four ways to get more sources. Whether you are the news anchor for a national TV channel or new blogger, it is important to get sources so you can add different views and more tips for your readers.

 

How To Respond To HARO Pitches Twice As Fast The Right Way

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Imagine having to respond to 50 emails in one week. That’s exactly what I had to do when I submitted my queries on HARO. As the amount of sticky notes on my desk increased, there was a moment when I asked myself why I decided to give myself that much work. The problem was not the workload. The problem at the time was that I did not know how to get rid of the workload fast enough. 

The people who use HARO for journalism know that it often requires a lot of work. Some journalists read hundreds of emails that they get from HARO every day. I knew that would eventually happen to me as I sent out more queries. However, I knew that by sending out more queries, I would also be able to build more connections and provide my readers with more quality content.

After sending out the query and getting all of the pitches, the first thing you need to do is read all of those pitches in 1 day. As you read the pitches, write in a notebook the names of the people who you would like to contact. On the next day, send these people emails telling them they are possible candidates or have already been chosen.

The big thing you need to do is have a rubric set up for the email. When I tell people that they may be included in my book or blog post, I send the same exact message. I am a big fan of personalized messages for the first few customers, but when it comes to responding to pitches, sending personalized messages is too time consuming. Create as many rubrics as you can until you are confronted with writing the content that will be included in your book or your blog post.

In order to send out emails faster, you need to flag all of the emails related to your HARO query. By flagging the emails related to your HARO query, you will be able to easily find those emails instead of searching for them in your inbox time and time again. When people respond to your first email, flagging those emails will allow you to identify the total number of emails that you need to reply to. Seeing the number of emails that you have to write will give you a goal. It is a well-known fact that we get more done faster when we give ourselves goals.

Your goal should be to dedicate an entire week of your time to send out all of the emails. After you send out all of the emails and start to get some responses, dedicate another week to respond to all of the responses. Another thing you want to factor in is how you will ask for more information. Some journalists call the people they want to talk to while others type some questions for the person to answer. I type the questions for people to answer because that saves a lot of times. Only during rare exceptions will I call someone on the phone.

The secret to being a HARO journalist is seeing and responding to as many pitches as possible. It’s not about creating a master piece of an email because the person who sent the pitch already sees you as a possible opportunity to build their preeminence. Saying “I’m interested in hearing more” and leaving the questions would still get a response. However, the ideal way to respond to a pitch is by saying you are interested in learning more (in 4-6 sentences) and then include the questions. In the sentences I use, I thank the person for sending the pitch, say they are likely to be featured on my blog or book, repeat the process of thanking them, and then remind them where they will be featured (some people send out numerous pitches every day).

There’s the secret sauce. This is how I respond to people on HARO quickly and effectively. What are your thoughts on this method, and how do you use HARO?

 

5 Ways To Respond To Emails Quicker

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Responding to emails can be a pain in the neck, especially when they prevent you from getting any of your work done. Avoiding emails is not an effective way to solve the problem because responding to emails will allow you to build connections with your potential customers. However, there are some ways to respond to emails faster so that you have more time to do your own work. Here are 5 ways to do that.

  1. Have a signature that automatically appears at the bottom at the bottom of all of your emails. Are you getting tired of writing sincerely and your name for hundreds of emails? I was getting tired of doing the same thing. I decided to find a way to automate that part of my email. I did some searching on Google and found out how to have an automated signature on the Mac. Now, this automated signature saves me more time.
  2. Choose the right emails to respond to. Some emails are more important than others. As you get more emails, you will not be able to respond to them all. On some days, I read over 100 emails, but I do not respond to all 100 of those emails. That is because some of them have the no-reply, but if I responded to 100 emails every day, I would not be able to write any of these blog posts. When responding to emails, respond to the most important emails first and work your way down.
  3. Give yourself a daily rate. For the most part, I respond to 3-5 emails every day and send out 2-4 emails every day (not including the blog posts). When I go above the daily rate, I know that I am losing valuable time to write blog posts, write my book, or work on a training course. For the most part, I avoid going above this daily rate, but as the amount of time I have increases (summer), and I am getting more emails, I will increase these rates. Instead of guessing how many emails you will send and respond to in a given day, you have a standard.
  4. Look for patterns. While sending out HARO queries for my book Lead The Stampede (which will be out this summer), I noticed a pattern in how I responded to emails. Instead of writing the same thing 50 times, I only wrote it once. Then, I simply copied and pasted what I would have typed into the 49 other emails with small changes (name of the person, the story, etc).
  5. Hire an assistant. When you start to make it big time, you should hire an assistant to respond to your emails for you. Not only will this make you look more professional, but you will also have more time to do your work. The assistant can tell you about important emails you got for the day so you can respond to the right ones instead of reading all of the individual emails that appear in your inbox.

Those are the five ways to respond to emails quicker. What are your thoughts on the list? Do you have any additional tips that you would like to mention? Please share your thoughts and tips below.

 

5 Frequently Asked HARO Questions

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HARO is a powerful way to build free PR. For the most part, I have been using HARO as a source. Writing Lead The Stampede motivated me to become a reporter on HARO as well. I have learned a lot about HARO over many months, and there was a point when I had many questions. These are the 5 most frequently asked questions about HARO.

  1. Why does it take people so long for reporters to get back to me? This was on the top of my list of questions. I did not get to know the answer to that question until I decided to become a reporter. Sending out an email with hours or days to spare gives you enough time to come up with a response. However, the reporter needs to read all of those responses. As the reporter reads the responses, that reporter needs to do research on every person. The reporter wants to interview the best options, and the weeding process takes some time. It took me an hour to read through 45 responses. Imagine how much time it takes someone who is from the Associated Press or Forbes to read the responses they got. In addition, the reporter has to contact possible candidates with individual emails/interviews which takes up more time. This is why people are rarely told if they got rejected. There simply is not enough time in the day to send out that many emails and still do everything else such as writing blog posts or scheduling tweets.
  2. How do I get more reporters to accept me? We all want the reporter to say yes to us. We all want to be in the Forbes article, the first page of The New York Times, or any other big magazine or TV channel. The three components that go into getting more reporters to accept you are how much time you put into your response, how clear your response is, and how quickly you respond. For some reporters, you could be the first or last person to respond and still get featured. However, most reporters usually look for no more than 5 people, and some queries get well over 100 responses. When you send out your response to the reporter, include your bio and credentials in the email. Instead of letting the reporter guess or do more research to figure out that you are the right fit, use your bio and credentials to convince them that you are the right fit.
  3. How do I become a reporter? The main requirement is that your blog or website needs to have an Alexa rank under 1 million. Just like all other places on the web, HARO does have restrictions on inappropriate content and using HARO to promote products. Remember that HARO is something to either get free PR or find people to feature in a book or blog post. HARO is not a place to tell the world to buy your product. These are HARO’s official rules.
  4. How frequently do the responses come in? That depends on a lot of factors. The best way to get more responses is by asking a clear question with a summary that is crystal clear. Being an anonymous reporter or being a reporter from The New York Times also plays a part in the process. When in doubt, list the media outlet as your blog’s URL. That will give readers something to see that proves you are influential on the web. In some cases, responses can come in at 15 minute intervals while others come in shorter or longer intervals. It all depends on how clear the query is and your media outlet (but don’t lie about who you are either).
  5. Is the workload worth it? The workload is worth it both for the reporter and the source. The source gets free exposure. Some sources get to be in front of millions of people just because they took 15 minutes out of their day (ideal amount of time) to respond to a HARO query. For reporters, the workload is worth it because you will be able to connect with incredible people. HARO has allowed me to connect with many people who have been featured on big media outlets such as Forbes, CBS, NBC, and many others as well. As a reporter, being able to tell your readers that you were able to talk with someone who was on the Today Show will give you preeminence because you were able to get that person to talk to you. For both ends, the workload is more than worth it.

Those are the five most frequently asked questions about HARO. Do you have any questions about HARO that I did not address in this blog post or thoughts? Please share them below and I will respond as quickly as possible.