8 Worst Content Marketing And Influencer Outreach Mistakes That can be Made

Outreach is an integral part of marketing when it comes to pitching content and influencers. A great outreach professional can drive sales, shares, and backlinks. Generic pitches simply are not working anymore so it is time to step it up. Below are content marketing and influencer outreach mistakes to avoid like the plague. 

• Reaching Out To A Person With A Similar Pitch

There are so many related publications that have editors that manage multiple online publications at once. Proposing a certain article that you would write custom for a website doesn’t seem as legitimate if you have promised this to a number of people. This doesn’t mean that similar content cannot be created but don’t pitch exact titles. 

Understanding which publications are related is important as this only takes a small amount of time. Repitching can make a company seem like they would rather spam publications than offer them something special.

This can ruin current relationships so avoid this like the plague and track outreach. So many pieces of technology can help track outreach campaigns and help with automated follow-ups with a single click. 

• Open With The Wrong Name

Finding contact information is usually not rocket science but it can be difficult at times. Reaching out to a person and using the wrong name is a terrible mistake. Not paying attention to the spelling of a name can also be insulting if you are very wrong. The small details matter and most people just delete an email if they use the wrong name.

Assuming the gender of an individual is not something you should do. You should be able to find the person and seeing how they like to be referred to. Social media can be perfect to research this as some people do put their preferred pronouns on platforms like Twitter or LinkedIn. 

• Failure To Introduce Yourself

Going right into a pitch in an outreach email will have the recipient thinking,” Who the hell are you and why should I care?” Editors are pitched by aspiring writers all of the time that have little in terms of a portfolio. Stating that you produce quality content should be accompanied by a few links of your previously published work. The question will come regardless before you are even considered unless a publication is desperate for content. 

• Get Into Frivolous Arguments On Social Media 

Social media is a hotbed of people losing their tempers and saying things that are out of character. Heated debates tend to occur during political debates or when someone is personally involved in a situation that has gained publicity. If you are going to link your Twitter in your email, make sure nothing that is said there could reflect poorly on the company. 

Cleaning up all versions of your social media presence prior to starting an outreach campaign is essential. With cancel culture being dominant in today’s world, you never know who might dig back through your past for something questionable that could have been said joking. So many things are taken out of context and have ruined careers. This can leave an outreach professional blacklisted in certain circles. 

• Sending A Canned Outreach Email To An Influencer

Influencers are swamped with so many emails about potential brand partnerships. The best influencers for a brand are ones that are selective with the brands they partner with. This individual could have a process for filtering out brands that didn’t even take the time to pitch them personally. 

An influencer might see this as not being valued and all of these professionals want to work in a mutually beneficial environment. The worst thing that can happen is the influencer puts your email up on their social media channels. Ego-baiting an influencer is often the right way to approach this as flattering them will work more than insulting their intelligence with a generic outreach email. 

The fact that a poorly written email is representative of the content produced by a brand does not give an influencer confidence that working together will be pleasant. Not all of these professionals really want to create a piece of content so that might be up to a brand could be responsible for. 

Email automation workflows can be very useful when it comes to sales but influencer outreach can be a bit about playing to the ego of the individual. 

• Being Unreasonable About A Payment Timeline 

Starting a relationship is important but maintaining the relationship is even more important. If there is an agreement in terms of payment timeline you need to stick to it. Asking for an immediate placement on a website or on a social media account then delaying payment for weeks ruins a relationship. 

When money is involved in these relationships people want money once they have provided a service. Waiting a few weeks is not uncommon but continually delaying payment can lead to the end of profitable business relationships. Too many marketing agencies might do this due to getting paid after a campaign is complete. The services that are used are not on the payment plan of a client as the service has been provided. 

• Sending Content That Has Already Been Published 

Sending content that has already been published can be a disaster. Publishers do not want to be penalized by Google for duplicate content. Some publishers will find the content had already been published before they publish and others will not.

Before sending over any content do a quick Google search to make sure a publisher didn’t publish it and not notify you. Editorial times can differ vastly with some publications publishing content months after it was received due to a backlog. 

Other disasters are if you promised to write this up specifically for your site then it was published a week before. The relationship could be over as the publisher could feel like you are producing generic content for anyone that will take it. 

• Partnering With An Brand/Influencer/Publication That Are At Odds

Influencers and brands frequently have beef either for exposure or genuine dislike. Partnering or reaching out to an influencer that is at odds with an influencer you already work with is dangerous. The influencer that was approached could throw this in their enemy’s face which could lead both to never consider working with your brand again.

Doing the appropriate research on topics that might offend an influencer or people they do not like is imperative. Exposing outreach professionals seems to be getting more common just for views although it can impact the livelihood of an individual.

Outreach is always going to be a part of the marketing world so honing outreach skills is imperative. Don’t make one of the mistakes above as it could ruin an entire campaign.