The Hunter/Gatherer

Why 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/0/11666

666115484

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I have a

confession

I’m terrible at

PowerPoint

No seriously…Like…

BAD atpowerpoint

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…

Here’s Joe thinking he’s

hunting an actual 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 clever

We 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 exclusive

3. 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

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 can

remove 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” - @jordancrookhttp://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 Stunts

OK 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 hunt

Give them the

opportunity

Thank you!

@stentontoledo rob.toledo@distilled.net