3 builders who never spoke to each other

List the outlets your market follows, then ask

Three builders describe the same unglamorous method: write down the publications, newsletters, podcasts, blogs, accounts and webinars your buyers pay attention to, get an introduction where you can, and ask whether they want to do something together. One credits it with nearly forty thousand free users in a year, while admitting a third of the collaborations cannot be proved to have sent a single visitor. Rank the list by the share of your audience that engages with each source rather than by its size: thirty one percent of people posting about one trading niche engaged with a single specialist site, which beats any famous network.

The method

1. 01

   List the publications, newsletters, podcasts, blogs, accounts and webinars your market pays attention to, get an introduction, and ask whether they want to do something together.

2. 02

   Make a list of media people and influencers with audiences larger than yours, contact them and ask whether the product interests them. If any of them cover it, buyers follow.

3. 03

   Write down a hundred names who discuss your subject all day, and use the list as a filter: if not one of them would care about the piece, pick a different piece.

4. 04

   Rank outreach targets by the share of your audience that engages with each source, not by how big the source is.

What it returned

• 40,000

  Rand Fishkin calls this influence marketing and credits it with nearly 40,000 free users in twelve months, while admitting that roughly a third of the time he cannot prove a collaboration sent even one visitor.

• 16,857

  Of 16,857 people posting about stock option trading, 31 percent followed or engaged with Stocktwits, which Rand Fishkin says beats a boss demanding a placement on a famous network; he knew of no other public product reporting the metric.

• The founder names public relations and media as having worked well for Combat Flip Flops and describes the method as exactly that outreach.

• Patrick McKenzie's script for getting influential people's attention.

Sources

• Your blog could be a partyJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · Getting the message out · undated
• Six Ways SparkToro's Early Customers Use Our Product - SparkToroRand Fishkin · sparktoro.com · Using SparkToro for Digital PR · undated
• SparkToro's Year One Retrospective - SparkToroRand Fishkin · sparktoro.com · A Look at Marketing & Traffic · undated
• Leaving the Army & Starting a +$350K/month eCommerceMatthew Griffin · failory.com · Which are your marketing strategies to grow your business? · undated