Table of Contents
The Results
After Week 1
Approach |
Open Rate |
Response Rate |
Guest Posting Opportunities |
| Manual Campaign | 70.00% | 23.00% | 6 |
| Semi-automated Campaign | 66.00% | 21.00% | 4 |
After Week 4
Approach |
Open Rate |
Response Rate |
Guest Posting Opportunities |
Email 1 Sent |
Follow Up 1 Sent |
Follow Up 2 Sent |
Follow Up 3 Sent |
Follow Up 4 Sent |
| Manual Campaign | 70.00% | 23.00% | 7 | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Semi-automated Campaign | 72.00% | 31.00% | 12 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
The Experiment
Two different approaches to cold outreach for guest posting opportunities were undertaken: manual and semi-automated. I found that the semi-automated campaign was more effective for 2 reasons:
- It allowed us to scale the outreach efforts more easily.
- Follow-up was very hard and annoying with the manual effort and so I quickly gave up after just one follow up (Never doing that again either!). With the semi-automated method the follow ups were done automatically. As a result our follow-up was actually effective.
The manual campaign involved sending 100 personalized emails to prospects. The semi-automated campaign involved sending 100 templated emails to prospects, with some personalization for each prospect.
Take Away 1# Follow Up Is Too Hard To Do Manually
The results of the experiment showed that the semi-automated campaign resulted in more guest posting opportunities than the manual campaign. I believe that this is because the semi-automated campaign allowed us to reach a wider audience of prospects even though both campaigns sent the same amount of emails.
Both campaigns sent 100 emails, however the automated follow-ups allowed us to reach more people.
Take Away 2# Semi-Automated Email Is More Scalable
The semi automated campaign was comparatively effortless. It took about 15 minutes to set up. Then I hardly did anything. The long part was gathering the emails before I started which you can read about here.
The manual campaign was a pain in the ass. I got very confused with the followups even though I kept a spreadsheet. As a result, I only managed to send 1 follow up email for the manual campaign. I think I spent at least 3 hours keeping track of everything before I got too pissed off with it.
The absolute ease with the semi-automated method made me realize what my next takeway was:
Manual tasks are not scalable and are likely to fizzle out as you get frustrated and quit.
Much More Effective
Effective is an important concept. I refuse to do things that are not effective and you should do the same. At the end of the experiment, it was clear that the semi-automated cold email approach was effective at getting back links. Furthermore, it was completely painless. I like things that are effective, but I also like to take the path of least resistance!
The Method
Without stating the obvious, I used the GetOffTheDamnPhone Email Sender to help with the cold outreach campaigns.
For A Quick Crash Course Watch This:
How To Get The Email Addresses Of Blog Owners
This part is important and takes maybe 1 hour in the beginning.
Step 1) Get The Domains
The most crucial component of any cold outreach campaign is finding a highly relevant, targeted list of blog domains. You can use Ahrefs’ Content Explorer to find blogs that mention your target keyword in the title tag.
Step 2) Get The Email Addresses From the Domains
Step 4) Take A Risk Or Use Humor
Ok, this is what separates the men from the boys and the women from the girls (can I say that this year?…don’t cancel me please).
I really, really hate boring cold emails. That’s not even the worst part. The worst part is that I really, really IGNORE boring cold emails.
Do you want to know how effective it is? Read about writing quirky and funny emails here.
Step 5) Use At LEAST 3 Follow Up Emails
For this experiment I used 4. Just remember not to be an annoying twat. I find that humor let’s you get away with a lot more follow ups.
What would you rather be:
- Mostly annoying but following up
- Mostly funny/different and following up
If you don’t agree with me, please leave because I hate you.
Learn How to Set Up your Follow Ups Below
Final Points
Here are some additional tips for guest post outreach:
Do your research: Before you reach out to any blogs, make sure you do your research and understand their audience, their content style, and their guest posting guidelines.
Be personal: Address the blog owner by name and personalize your email as much as possible.
Offer value: Explain how your guest post would be a valuable addition to the blog and how it would benefit their readers.
Be persistent: Don’t give up if you don’t hear back from the blog owner right away. Follow up with them a few days later whether manually or automatically.
