One strategy to automate sales and marketing

One of our favourite outbound strategies combines both sales and marketing.

It gives you a great way to get high response rates doing outbound sales, whilst also creating loads of marketing assets at the same time.

So if you'd like to put your sales + marketing on autopilot... read on.‍

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The Interview Strategy‍

Sometimes getting people to respond to outbound sales emails can be hard work.

So instead of directly selling your product or services, ask your prospects if you can interview them for a new podcast / video interview series or simply for an article you're writing. They'll love the ego boost and you'll have a shot at building a genuine relationship with them.

This non-salesy approach tends to have much higher open rates and response rates. And a major bonus is that if you record the interviews (which you should), they can be repurposed into all kinds of marketing assets. Youtube videos, podcast episodes, audiograms, social media posts, blog articles etc.

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Step 1 - Write the campaign‍

Create a 3 step email sequence inviting your target prospects to an interview.

Here is a basic email sequence template:

‍Email 1

Subject: Can I feature you on acme.com?

Hi {firstName},

I’d love to feature you on an episode of our video interview series that profiles interesting companies and individuals in {industry}.

It would be around 20-25 mins interview covering your professional experience in {industry}, your work at {companyName}, as well as the wider {subject area} landscape.

If you’re interested, I’d love to get this scheduled as soon as convenient for you. We’re trying to do at least 6 more profiles before the end of the quarter and we only have a few spots left.

Would next Tuesday 11 am work for you?

Thanks,

{signature}

‍Email 2

Subject: {same thread}

Hi {firstName},

Just wanted to follow up in case you missed my last email.

We’re looking to profile you and {companyName} for our video series, which discusses various aspects of {industry or subject area}, opportunities, challenges ahead, etc.

You’ll be able to use the content for your own marketing as well.

Let me know if this sounds interesting and we can schedule something in.

Thanks,

{signature}

‍Email 3

Subject: {same thread}

Hey {firstName},

Hope all is well.

We have a couple of spaces left for the video interview series and it would be great to feature you and {companyName}.

If now isn’t the right time, we could potentially feature you in the next series. Shall I reach out in a couple of months?

If you are available, would next Tuesday at 10:30 am work for you? We’d need about 45 mins in total.

All the best,

{signature}

‍Step 2 - Setup your email sending tools.

Create an account in Lemlist, outreach, apollo, or whichever tool you prefer.

If you'd like to combine email and Linkedin steps, you could use lemlist to do this.

If you'd rather do your campaign in linkedin only, you could use a simple tool such as weconnect.

If you plan on sending high volumes of emails, make sure you warm up your email address first. Tools like Lemlist have this functionality built in.

If you're serious about doing email outreach, its worth having a secondary domain (e.g. TryAcme.com) and using an email address associated with this secondary domain. This is to protect your primary domain.

‍Step 3 - Setup your calendly and zoom account‍

You want it to be easy for people to book into your calendar and minimise having to send any meeting links. So setup your Calendly account, which will integrate with your google calendar.

In your calendly account, create a calendly link for 'video interview', which you can share with anyone who responds (or link directly in the emails).

Make sure you have zoom integrated with your calendar so it's easy for someone to jump on your zoom call without needing a separate link.

In your zoom settings ensure that you're able to save your recordings directly to your computer. You can choose the cloud with zoom, but they don't offer much storage on the basic plans.

‍Step 4 - Build your prospect list‍

Ideally you'll be targeting potential customers if you'd like to use this strategy as a soft sales approach. 

To actually build your prospect lists could use a tool like apollo.io or linkedin sales navigator.

If you'd like to have the lead lists built for you, we can do it :)

Pro Tip: Add a column to your lead lists with the social reach of both the individuals and the companies you're reaching out to. Once you've created all your marketing assets (see below), make sure it's easy for your guests to share your interviews with their own audiences too!

‍Step 5 - Launch!

With everything setup, get your campaign up and running and watch the responses roll in!

If you want someone else to handle every step of this campaign for you, including managing responses and your calendar so you can literally just turn up to meetings, then get in touch and we can do this for you.

Repurposing your video content

So now you have your sales campaign running and you're recording your interviews, now it's time to create some marketing assets.

Below is a checklist of all the assets you should be able to create from one interview. Amazing right?! Make sure you also make it easy for your guests to share the final content assets with their own audiences. Win win.

• 1 video interview posted on youtube
• 1 podcast interview using the audio
• 10+ social media posts
• 2 recap threads
• 5 audiograms/video clips
• 5 quote/stat graphics
• 1 email newsletter
• 1 episode transcript
• 1 promo kit for your guest/host
• 1 SEO-focused blog article

If you or your team don't have the capacity to create all these assets yourself, I highly recommend speaking to James at Castaway or Katie at Creatorly. Their services are very affordable so you can make sure this whole strategy is completely automated.

If you'd like to turn all your video assets into a podcast, you can also leverage the team at Castos to host your podcast as well as edit all of your episodes. Katie from Creatorly can also help with everything you need to launch a podcast such as creating artwork and music intros / outros, etc so your podcast is pro.

So, with your interview strategy campaign running on autopilot and your content repurposing outsourced to the above services, you could be filling up your calendar with relevant meetings with your target customers as well as making sure your content marketing is running 24/7.

Hope this is useful! If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch!