The Hunter/GathererWhy influencers hate the pitch and

what you can do about it

Rob “Holy” ToledoHead of Outreach @ Distilled

rob.toledo@distilled.net@stentontoledo

or on Google+

/u/0/116666661154846565570/

I have a confession

I’m terrible at PowerPoint

No seriously…Like…

REALLY

BADatpowerpoint

So please don’t judge me

I have another confession

Despite having sent thousands of

personalized outreach emails

And my team of outreachers having an active contact list of approximately 15,000

bloggers and journalists

I can still count on one hand how many

times I have accepted an email pitch for my

own websites

So why is that?

A lot of them are great emails

http://bit.ly/1luXH1h

And it’s not like I write for the New York Times…

I gave this a think

Asking coworkers, friends and family

My conspiracy theorist uncle knew who to

blame

“Obviously Obama has something to do with this…”

But seriously…

I blame my instincts

Always on the hunt for the next

big thing

Here’s Joe…

Here’s Joe with a toy squirrel in front of him…Doooon’t

caaaare

Here’s Joe thinking he’s hunting an actual squirrel…

SQUIRREL!!!

We enjoy the hunt for the next thing,

just like Joe prefers to chase actual

squirrels

Here, you can tweet this:“I can’t believe @stentontoledo just compared me to his dog… What kind of conference is this?! #SearchLove”

Here’s me in high school

I was “really cool”

I was a music snob

(and still am)

While my friends were listening to…

I was listening to…

I LOVE finding new music and sharing it

with my “tribe”

An Example (circa 2001)

Example (circa 2001)Scenario A

Friend: “Wow Rob, you’re such a musical influencer and tastemaker, I worship the ground you walk on”

Me: “Have you guys heard of this new band, The Strokes? They’re incredible, total game changers”

Example (circa 2001)

Scenario B

Friend: “Hey Rob! Check out this new band The Strokes! They’re blowing up in England!”

Me: “Yeah they’re alright, I guess, man, whatever”

A quick experiment

Apple > Microsoft

Python is far superior to JavaScript

The Shawshank Redemption is a

better movie than Titanic

This local roasted organic fair trade

coffee is far superior to Starbucks

>

Local craft brews put generic macro beer to

shame

We’re all snobs about something

Alongside being a music snob, I’m also a content

snob

A lot of journalists and influencers are the

same way

They want to find it first

In content discovery

No effort = No reward

We don’t want to share a rotten meal with our tribe

What I’m not saying:• Email outreach is dead• Bloggers and journalists don’t want to hear

from you• We must try and trick people into sharing

our content• That the Moon landing was faked

Things aren’t that bad…

Most decent outreach sees response rates

around 40-60%

“You’re happy with 50 percent? You’re on top, and you don’t have enough. You’re happy because

you’re successful. For now. But what is happiness? It’s a moment before you need more happiness. I won’t settle for 50 percent of anything. I want 100

percent. You’re happy with your agency? You’re not happy with anything. You don’t want most of it, you want all of it. And I won’t stop until you get all of it.”

We should be working for that other 50%

But when promoting to the other 50%...

We need to be less like this…

…and more like this

But it helps to be a bit more cleverWe must plant the idea but not take any credit for it

Great… but how?

Three Main Points

1. Find out where your “important people” are hanging out

2. Don’t be afraid to get exclusive

3. Get more creative with your promotion

1. Find out where your “important people” are hanging out

2. Don’t be afraid to get exclusive3. Get more creative with your

promotion

People will likely talk about where they

spend their time online

• Web forums they hang out in• Twitter chats where they participate• Sites where they contribute and

comment• Communities they identify with

Where in the world are your influencers

Rand Fishkin

• /r/AskScience• /r/eli5• /r/LifeProTips• /r/Fitness• /r/Food• /r/Fashion• /r/Art• /r/Economics

Etc….

Rand Fishkin

Rand FishkinLikes:• Nicholas Cage• Pictures of birds that people have

photoshopped arms onto• Cute pictures of puppies• Business related topics

So we built this…

And it worked…

OK but seriously…

A real example

@carson_ward

A real example• Hoping to break into the tech

space• Wanted to get featured on high

profile blogs• Wanted influencers to share

socially

A real example

A real example

So they kept it simple…

A real example• They did some research using their

own data• Wrote a post that appealed to a

specific audience• Kept it relevant to current news• In total about 8 hours of work

http://bit.ly/1jLVGA7

One seed in front of the right people

The spoils of victory• ~70k pageviews• 116 domains sent traffic in 24 hours• Coverage in major media (Ars, Pando, Reddit)• ~500 social shares• More journalists believe them to be an authority

with future stories now (credibility increase)

1. Find out where your “important people” are hanging out

2. Don’t be afraid to get exclusive

3. Get more creative with your promotion

• Nothing makes journalists salivate more than exclusives

• The right exclusive story can make a career

• Exclusives still give the perception of influence, even when pitched

Exclusives

Giving an influencer a head start with your content can make everything easier

The rest of the internet

“Well if [insert major publication] covered it… then we better get something up

about it as well”

Exclusives

Exclusives make bosses and clients

nervous

But we canremove a lot of

the risk

Exclusives

- @Britt_Klontz

“The ‘exclusive’ conversation needs to start way before the content or story is complete”

• You should have the idea in front of several influencers early in the process

• Subtlety hint that you’re shopping the idea around (competition)

• Figure out who is most interested and give them exclusive access to the finished product

Exclusives

• Interesting proprietary data

• A high quality piece of content

• An anecdotal story about your business

• A new product or service release

• Interviews with high level employees

What makes a good exclusive

1. Find out where your “important people” are hanging out

2. Don’t be afraid to get exclusive

3. Get more creative with your promotion

Email is overwhelming

journalists

“I am someone with upwards of 5000 unread messages at any given time” - @jordancrook

http://tcrn.ch/1edhgd2

Even the best brands and

coolest content can get ignored

Think outside the inbox

Creative Promotion• Snail mail• PR stunts• Creating a mystery

Creative Promotion• Snail mail• PR stunts• Creating a mystery

When was the last time you got something fun in

the mail?

Snail mail• Previous efforts saw a response rate of only 10%• Had over 70% of people activate the turntable via

their smartphones • 42% clicked on a link to the Kontor Records

website on their phones• Covered by SPIN, TrendHunter and Hypebot

(double whammy, coverage and conversion)

Creative Promotion• Snail mail• PR stunts• Creating a mystery

But wait…There’s a real thin line

between true creativity and over the top craziness

An extreme example

PR StuntsOK realistically, you’re not creating a drone delivery service but…

…there’s a lesson here• Timing is everything – the drone stunt was right

before Black Friday, all eyes on Amazon• It doesn’t need to be “real”• Keep it related to your brand• Find a hook, something that will really grab the

attention of the media based on relevance

The cheapest PR stunt I’ve ever seen

PR stunts don’t have to be expensive like the

drone, they just have to be smart like the ‘now

hiring’ sign

A well done PR stunt feels really ripe for

coverage

Creative Promotion• Snail mail• PR stunts• Creating a mystery

A boat's a boat, but the Mystery Box could be

anything! It could even be a boat! 

In this world of social / transparent / storytelling / open book branding…

(which is great)

Brands have become Kimmy Gibbler

But they should occasionally be like the guy from Twilight

“Humans naturally want to finish the story”

-Matt Summers, @mattsummers

http://slidesha.re/NUqSPG

Sure, HBO could have emailed Jacob and told him some fun stuff about the new

show but…

>

How much more exciting is it for him to share that surprise

with his readers?

Don’t be the shithead at the party who tells the birthday kid

what you got them as a gift

We want to unwrap the mystery ourselves

Key takeaways• Play into the psychological elements of how

influencers choose what to share• Seek a high level exclusive before mass

promotion• Create a mystery around new and exciting

things you’re working on

People like to huntGive them the opportunity

Thank you!@stentontoledo rob.toledo@distilled.net