They’ve tried blogging or set up a Twitter profile, but haven’t really gained any serious following. They end up getting frustrated and feel like marketing is just a big waste of time.

The answer to the audience building question is simple, but not easy. You can’t wait for people to find your website, your instagram feed, or even your podcast. You’ve got out and find them. That’s called outreach.

Tim defines outreach as moving people from not knowing you exist to knowing you exist. 

The basic idea is to get yourself in front of an audience that someone else (called an influencer) has already built, wow them with your content, and invite them over to your email list.

Outreach is by far the most important marketing activity you can do, but outreach is a complicated topic. As the Dude from The Big Lebowski would say: lotta ins, lotta outs. 

And lots of stuff that can go wrong while you’re learning the ropes.

(I like to break down Outreach into seven manageable steps, you can read details of each step in this post.)

Sometimes clients come to me and tell me they’ve tried outreach in the past, and it hasn’t worked for them. When we dig deeper, we uncover some very fixable mistakes and boom, now they’re getting more yeses from influencers and better results from their outreach.

Here are the most common outreach mistakes I see and how to fix them.

Mindset mistake: Playing small

Let’s assume you already got over the biggest mindset hurdle, which is that you’re too scared to do any outreach at all.  The next mistake to look out for is playing small. You psych yourself up into sending ONE pitch. You never hear back. So you give up.

Outreach is a skill you develop by practicing it. And, it’s something of a numbers game. 

Just as we plant more seeds in the garden than we strictly need to account for those that don’t germinate, so too with our outreach efforts. You’ve got to commit to sending a decent volume of pitches so you can get a fair number of influencers to say yes. 

If you’re writing great pitches to the right influencers for your book, it’s realistic to expect a conversion rate of right around 30% or even better. I have a student with a memoir in my Outreach Intensive group right now and she’s leading the pack with 31 pitches sent and nine yeses in just a month and half of pitching. And that’s in the midst of a global pandemic. 

There are a few people in my current group who haven’t gotten any yeses. They are the same people who haven’t sent any pitches.

How to fix it: Commit to sending a good number of pitches within a certain timeframe. For students in my Outreach Intensive, I ask them to send a minimum of 25 pitches in the course of an 8-week program.

Aiming mistake: Not enough research

Many authors get overwhelmed at the thought of how to find influencers and only reach for the obvious. This is often because they haven’t given enough thought to their ideal readers. 

Knowing who your ideal reader is will lead you to your ideal influencers. If you define your reader as “women between the ages of 35-65” you’re thinking way too broadly and will struggle to come up with a concrete list of influencers. 

If you’re not targeting the right influencers for your ideal reader, you’re not going to get as many yeses. 

How to fix it: If instead you say, “a 43 year-old woman named Sue who lives in Portland, runs her own business, is obsessed with mindset, and has two kids and 5 chickens.” Now you can start looking at podcasts for women entrepreneurs, parents, meditators and urban chicken raisers. Take the time to develop an ideal reader persona, it will go a long way to guiding your outreach research.

Ask mistake: A terrible pitch

Here’s where the biggest mistakes with the most impact happen. Influencers are often inundated with pitches—and most of them are crap. They’re blanket press releases, or boilerplate emails riddled with poor grammar and include asks that are completely inappropriate for their audience, or just plain spam. 

How to fix it: Your ask needs to be super specific and customized for each influencer. I have a bit of an unfair advantage here, as I have a background as a freelance writer. If I wanted to publish an article with a magazine or a major website, I had to send a tightly targeted pitch that showcased not only my story idea, but also why that story would work for their audience and why I was just the person to write it. 

The exact same principles apply here. You have to have a very good sense of who you’re pitching and what type of content they are serving up to their audience so you can pitch them something that’s such a perfect fit and make the case for why you’re the author to do it. You want to craft a pitch that makes it no-brainer for them to say yes.

One of my clients applied the principles of a good, customized pitch and sent me this message: “This shit works!” She’d just gotten a “yes” from an influencer who thanked her for writing such a personalized pitch. This influencer wrote: “I’m impressed. You should see the onslaught of crap, AI-robotic PR emails I get for new books/authors. This was refreshing.”

Spending some time writing a good ask is the difference between being ignored and being accepted.

Delivery mistake: No call to action

Some authors go to all the trouble of doing great outreach, get yeses, but then don’t give any thought to how to convert the influencer’s audience into fans when they’ve got the chance. At the end of the article or interview, they fumble the opportunity they’ve worked so hard for. 

How to fix: Make sure you come up with a clear call to action for every piece of outreach you do and practice it. 

Your default call to action, one that’s always a smart choice, should be inviting people to get a sign up incentive (like a free story or checklist) by joining your mailing list. If you’re in the midst of a book launch, you can of course point them to buy your book, but I’d put the mailing list offer in there too. If you can get someone on your list, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to sell your book, and your next book and the book after that.

Mistakes mean you’re in the game — keep playing!

Yes, there are lots of ways to biff up outreach. It’s something that takes a bit of practice to get all the pieces right. It’s okay to make mistakes as long as you learn from them instead of using them as an excuse to quit. Making mistakes means that you’re in the game and it’s staying in the game that matters.  

Normal life is suspended. Many people feel discombobulated and anxious. We don’t know what’s coming. (This is actually always true, we’re just not usually as aware of it.) 

Yes, it can be sad and frightening to watch this crisis unfold. 

But, given the dualistic nature of our existence, much good can come of our current situation. 

For example, many people will learn to properly wash their hands, Italians will teach us all the value of group sing-alongs from balconies, and you, dear writer, may be able to use the time to make serious progress on connecting with a wider audience.

This is not selfish! We need your stories more than ever—to make sense of our surroundings, expose injustice, or to just escape for a few hours.

And consider, writers have always been opportunistic AF. Whenever something bad happens, it only takes a few minutes for us to fantasize about turning it into fodder for our writing. 

The good news is; sharing our work as widely as possible has the power to benefit the world. This is our MOMENT. 

And to seize the moment, we need to get out there (figuratively, of course) and do some outreach.

Influencer outreach is where the marketing magic happens.

Tim defines outreach as moving people from not knowing you exist to knowing you exist. You’ve got to get in front of people who've never heard of you, but would probably enjoy your book. 

In this time where we need meaningful connection more than ever, it’s up to you to do  the reaching out. You can't wait around for your book to be found. (Well, you can, but you shouldn't expect to move many copies that way.) Without outreach, your audience will grow at a snail’s pace. Therefore, outreach is where authors should be putting 80-90% percent of their marketing energy. 

But outreach is a pretty big topic. To help break it down, I've created a 7-step outline for all the components you need to do outreach successfully.  

7 Steps to Outreach Success

Step 1: Get Your Mind Right.
Outreach is the scariest part of book marketing. It’s pretty certain that in the course of your outreach efforts, you’ll be ignored and rejected. But outreach also delivers a high return on your investment of time and energy. 

You've got to deal with your own fears before (and during) walking this path. Without tackling your mindset as your first step, you may inadvertently sabotage your own efforts either by giving up when things get scary, or coming from a needy, desperate place that will turn off potential readers. 

Keys to a good outreach mindset:

• Be willing to be uncomfortable at some points of the process.
• As Tim says, assume the best of people who ignore or reject you. You don’t know what’s behind their decision, so don’t attribute it to some dark motive.
• Remember that virtuous actions have virtuous results. Come from a place of wanting to add value to the world with your book.

For more on mindset, you can read my post on changing the story you tell yourself about marketing. 

Step 2: Set Clear Goals
Too many of us get sloppy about goal setting. We may be game to try some outreach, but we don’t want to quantify it, because we don’t want to set a number we don’t end up hitting and feel like a failure. By the result of not setting goals is not really getting anywhere.

I encourage my clients to set big, outlandish goals as well as smaller actionable goals that can help them get to the bigger goals. Your big goal might be hitting a NYT or WSJ bestseller list, but you aren’t going to hit them without setting smaller outreach goals.

Get clear on the amount of outreach you plan to do, and your timeline for doing it so you don't stall out. In my outreach intensive group coaching program, I ask my authors to create a list of 50+ influencers, and send 25+ pitches over the course of eight weeks. Then I recommend plugging time into a calendar to achieve specific goals. What I’ve seen with my clients is that it’s far more effective for them to add two hours to their calendar to “add 15 influencers to spreadsheet” or “write four pitches” than it is to classify that time as simply “outreach activities.” If you're too vague, your directionless brain will wander off to check Twitter.

Once you’ve set your goals, share them and invite people to keep you accountable. 

Step 3: Take Aim
You shouldn't be flailing around trying to tell EVERYONE about your book. You need to target your ideal readers, which means pausing to figure out your reader persona. 

I really can’t emphasize enough what a valuable exercise this is, and too many authors skip it and just create their outreach plan based on a vague set of demographics. A “college educated woman age 35-65” is not nearly specific enough. Knowing exactly the type of person who should read your book will help you focus your outreach efforts, find the right influencers and make decisions about what content to create for them. 

Step 4: Research
Now that you know the type of audience you're looking for, it's time to figure out how to find them. This means doing the unglamorous work of scouring the internet to figure out where your target readers congregate and who the right influencers are. An “influencer” is simply someone who has built trust with an audience and can impact their book buying decisions. 

When you first start your research, you’re likely to feel like you’re stumbling around a bit. That doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong. It’s definitely jumping down a rabbit hole, but with a specific purpose. 

You are looking for influencers who've built a tribe of people who’d benefit from what you have to say. Start by googling keywords related to your book and coupling them with “podcast” or “blog.” (Obviously, for now we need to focus on digital outreach, not in-person events.) For example, let’s say you want to focus your outreach on podcasts and let's say your book is a memoir about raising goats off the grid. You’d want to google things like “off the grid podcasts” or “urban farming podcasts.” Then you’ll explore the search results and use a spreadsheet to keep track of possibilities that need further exploration. 

Make sure whomever you’re thinking of pitching is still actively creating content (when’s the last time they published an episode?) and that the audience size is worth your time. And there’s no “right” or “wrong” audience size. It’s totally up to you. Many authors prefer to start with influencers who have smaller audiences so they can get comfortable with outreach without the high stakes of being on Super Soul Sunday. Save Oprah for later.

Another approach to this research is to interview one of your actual readers who match your ideal reader persona and find out who they consider influencers, then add them to your list. 

Step 5: Cultivate
Once you know some influencers for your ideal reader, it's time to start cultivating a relationship with them. Ideally, when you reach out to an influencer for help promoting your book, it shouldn't be the first time they've ever heard from you.

Follow them on social media and start liking, commenting and sharing their content. Or send them an email thanking them for what they do or linking them something they may find interesting without making an ask. Use your empathy skills. Figure out what would be helpful to them and then do that thing. You’ll get on their radar as someone who’s helpful and friendly.

Step 6: Ask & Follow-up
To maximize your chances of success, it's important to create a win-win opportunity for both you and the influencer. Influencers need great content to keep their status as influencers. You can help with that. This means customizing each pitch to make sure it's easy for the influencer to say yes. 

Not only should your pitch be a win-win, it should be very specific and highlight the fact that you’re familiar with their work and have given your possible contribution some serious thought. 

It’s a mistake to offer something like “I’d love to come on your podcast and talk about my book.” Nobody cares about your book until you tell them WHY they should. It’s much better to offer specific entertainment, such as: “I’d love to come on the Urban Farming podcast to tell the story of how Gertie the nanny goat saved my life during a thunderstorm.” Or specific information, such as “I’d love to come on the Urban Farming podcast and share with your audience the top five mistake people new to raising goats make.” Of course, you’ll be mentioning your book in the course of all of this, but that’s not what will drive people to read or listen.

Your pitch, while customized for each influencer, can use the following template:

Hi [influencer],

My name is [your name] and I’m the author of [book title] which [social proof such as awards, positive reviews, number of copies sold*.]

I’m a fan of [name of their podcast, website, social account, etc] and particularly enjoyed [example of their work and a specific reason it appealed to you].

I noticed you sometimes have guests on your [ podcast, website, etc]. If you think it would be a good match for your audience, I’d love to [specific pitch, tell them exactly what you’d like to talk about or write about based on your research of what would benefit their audience.] [Explain why you’d be a great person to do this due to your background or the content of your book.]  

Thanks for your consideration. Let me know what you think.  (If you definitely want me on, you can use this link to book a time: [link to booking app].)

Best, 

[your name]

(* If you don’t have anything like this, you can simply say it’s a book that helps people do something or would appeal to a certain type of person because of a certain factor)

Once you send the pitch, if you don't hear back after a few weeks, go ahead and follow-up. It's quicker to follow-up on an ignored pitch than it is to research and write a new one. (But only follow-up once so you don't make a nuisance of yourself. You want a reputation for being awesome, not being a pest.)

Step 7: Deliver
Once you get a yes, (and you will if you consistently do your research and write killer pitches!) you need to deliver the goods. Whatever you've agreed to provide the influencer, be it a blog post, a podcast interview, a joint giveaway or whatever, you need to go in prepared, professional, ready to delight your influencer's audience and make an elevator pitch that invites them to your email list.

Rinse and repeat those seven steps for the rest of your career — or until you have the audience size you want.

In the process, you’ll not only sell more books, you’ll also build meaningful relationships that will help you feel connected and make a difference when the world seems upside down.

I love it. 

The whole reason I do what I do is to help authors get their books into the hands of more readers. Any time I can help an author reach more people, it makes me happy.

However, many of the emails authors send me are written in a way that makes it hard for me to help them.

Reaching out—the right way

A big part of my success has been the ability to surround myself with people who are way smarter than I am. Input from other authors and business people—clients, colleagues, and mentors—has dramatically aided me in getting where I am today.

We all need each other. 

We need people who have walked similar roads to help show the way, to help us avoid the common pits and potholes.

I believe in that process.

But I see many people making fundamental mistakes when reaching out to their chosen mentors and advisors. Those mistakes keep them from making great connections with people who are in a position to help them.

Today, I’m going to walk you through how to reach out and connect with amazing people who will help you reach your goals.

I offer this advice based on three important perspectives:

• For most of my career, I lived in a small town in Virginia. I was at least three hours from anything that could be called a major city. I’ve had to do the vast majority of my relationship-building remotely.
• I know what it’s like to feel like a “nobody” reaching out to a bunch of somebodies.
• As I’ve become a quasi-, low-level “somebody,” I’ve begun to see what it’s like to have people who are just getting started reach out to you for help and advice.

Put these in your toolbox 

These tools will help you get connected in the right way, so you can start building those relationships that will help lead you to success:

1. Get the right mindset

You cannot, in any way, have unhealthy expectations regarding the person you are reaching out to.

If you’ve got a copy of my book Your First 1000 Copies, re-read the first six sections of the Outreach chapter (pages 80–87 in the print edition).

If you feel you are owed something—and that you’ll be angry if you don’t get the response you want—stop now and re-route your thinking, or don’t contact this person.

2. Take a risk

Now is an excellent time to exercise your experimental side. Of course, not everybody you reach out to will respond and be helpful, but some will.

Take a risk and put yourself out there. It’s no fun to be ignored or to get a “no,” but it’s much worse never even to try.

3. Start with the B-listers

There are only ever a handful of A-listers, and most people are trying to get help from them.

So many people forget that the B-listers are also having a lot of success, and are much more available to help unknown authors than the A-listers are.

Everyone is clamoring for help from Stephen King, John Grisham, and Malcolm Gladwell. Shoot for authors who are selling tens of thousands of copies of their books, not millions.

They still see a lot of success, and probably have more time on their hands—and a greater inclination to help you than the more prominent names would.

4. Keep it short

I honestly wish I could sit down and have a long afternoon coffee session with every single one of you. I love hearing author’s stories and giving advice that’s specific to their situation. However, as you can imagine, that doesn’t scale very well, given how crowded my work week is.

The same goes for email. When you send out a message, keep it short!

Don’t share your entire life story. Don’t share a lot of unnecessary details. Get right to the point.

If you show respect for this person and their time, they will be much more likely to respond in a timely and respectful way.

5. Do your research

Recently I received an email from someone who claimed to have read my book and all of the articles on this site. They then launched into a bunch of questions around the intricacies of building a following on social media. If you’ve read or listened to anything I’ve said about social media, then you’ll know this isn’t the right place to start with me.

I never responded.

Every answer this person needed is easily findable in my book or on this website.

Do your research first!

Read this person’s blog posts. Listen to their podcast interviews. Read their books.

If you’re not willing to invest time into your learning, why should they?

6. Ask a specific question

Please do not send a massive backstory of what’s gone wrong (see #1) and then ask a question like “What should I do now?”.

A big, ambiguous question like that would take a lot of back-and-forths emailing to sift through it all.

When you send an email to someone who is an established authority or success story in their field, ask just one or two specific questions that can be answered quickly and concisely. Here's a great article on how to ask useful questions.

7. Take their advice, then report back

Most people ask for advice, get advice, then promptly do the opposite, or never act on the advice at all.

Please, don’t be this person.

People love to help other people. Every author I’ve worked with loves to add positively to other people’s lives.

But after they’ve gotten burned, trying to help a lot of people who never act on their advice, it’s hard to keep trying.

However, if you’re respectful of them and their time, do your research, ask a specific question, then promptly implement the advice—you become someone they love to help and will keep on helping.

Case Study: Do it this way

A good friend of mine used this method to get a very prominent and successful author to become his mentor:

First, he read everything the author had published—in this case, two books.

Second, he listened to every podcast interview with that author that he could find.

Third, he took a specific problem he was having and sent the author an email asking for advice.

That quick, concise, thoughtfully worded email showed he had done his research.

And, most importantly, it was something the author could answer very quickly.

Fourth, the author almost immediately responded with a short email, answering his specific question, and giving a bit of advice.

Fifth, my friend immediately dropped everything and implemented that advice. 

He then fired back an email the following day, describing the results and asking a short follow-up question.

Sixth, the author sent my friend his phone number and told him to give him a call.

Now, tell me: 

What do you think would have happened if my friend had instead sent a 500-word email describing his entire background, then asked a vague, open-ended question that the author had already answered in one of his books?

Exactly.

Get in their corner, and they’ll get in yours

It’s no fun to feel alone on your journey.  It’s also incredibly frustrating to repeatedly make the same mistakes that so many others have made.

By connecting in the right way with people who have walked the same road and found success, you will reach your goals much faster.

You’ll also be inspired and encouraged by the company you meet along the way.

There’s a few reasons for this:

1. It’s the one piece that doesn’t rely 100% on the author. It requires other people — influencers — to be involved.
2. It’s emotional. Inherent in outreach is the risk and probability that you will be rejected.
3. It’s hard to organize. Trying to get influencers to help promote your book is like herding cats.
4. It’s ambiguous. It’s hard to know where to start and if you’re doing it right.

In this article I’m going to walk you through the basics of influencer outreach and give you a simple framework to help you get started.

What are influencers?

Let’s start in this most basic of places. I want to define a couple terms so we are all on the same page.

1. FANS are people who will buy your book. They are on your email list, connected to you on social media, or are your friends, family, and coworkers. They are the people that will go to the bookstore and buy a copy of your book.
2. INFLUENCERS are people who will get other people to buy your book. These are the bloggers, authors, TV producers, magazine editors, and book club moderators. They are anyone who has a following of their own that, if they promote your book, will get people to buy it.

Anyone who can get a large (25+) group of people to buy a copy of your book is an influencer.

See the World in Tribes

In 2008, Seth Godin published his book Tribes and changed my life. It’s one of my all-time favorite books on marketing and you should definitely read it. It is foundational to everything I teach about book marketing and influencer outreach.

I now think of the world in terms of “tribes.” Seth’s definition of a tribe is:

“A group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader and connected to an idea.

There are three pieces to a tribe:

1. The Big Idea. This is something that exists outside of the tribe. This is the thing that drives the existence of the tribe. This is the thing the tribe leader and members are connecting around.
2. Tribe Members. The people that are connecting to each other and to the leader around the Big Idea.
3. Tribe leader. The person(s) that the tribe members are following to the Big Idea.

You see tribes everywhere. You are a member of many tribes yourself. Here’s a few of my tribes.

CrossFit is a type of workout program that “is constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity.” There are over 10,000 CrossFit affiliate gyms worldwide. I am a member of one of them. CrossFit’s beliefs and teachings on fitness and nutrition is the Big Idea. Evan Beach who owns the CrossFit gym I am a member of is my Tribe Leader. The other members of my gym are the other Tribe Members I am connected to around the Big Idea.

• Big Idea – CrossFit’s philosophy on fitness and nutrition.
• Tribe Leader – Evan Beach, owner of CrossFit Forte.
• Tribe Members – Me and the other members of CrossFit Forte.

Derek Sivers is the author of Anything You Want and is the founder of the company CD Baby. Several years ago I discovered Derek and started watching his TED talks, listening to his podcast interviews, and reading his writings. I love the way he thinks and teaches about simplicity, starting small, and living the life you want. Now, I am subscribed to his newsletter and consume just about anything he produces.

• Big Idea – Ideas about simplicity, starting small, and living the life you want.
• Tribe Leader – Derek Sivers.
• Tribe Members – Me and all of the other people that follow his work and subscribe to his newsletter.

WELD is the co-working space in Nashville, TN where I work. WELD’s motto is “We Create Better Together.” WELD was founded by Jordan Bellamy who has set the culture and tone of community and working together. I’ve dropped into and visited other co-working spaces and am always disappointed by the lack of creativity and community that embodies them.

• Big Idea – “We Work Better Together” embodies the ideas of community and creativity.
• Tribe Leader – Jordan Bellamy.
• Tribe Members – Me and the other members of WELD.

Tribes are everywhere. Sometimes the Big Idea is broad, and sometimes it’s specific. Sometimes the Tribe Leader is a single person or several people. Sometimes the Tribe Members gather physically and sometimes they gather digitally, or both.

What you watch, where you go, where you get your information, who you spend time with on the weekends is all connected to Tribes. Once you start seeing the worlds in terms of tribes, you will see them everywhere.

5 Steps to Influencer Outreach

Shifting your view of the world into Tribes is an important step in influencer outreach, but what next? How do you actually start putting that knowledge into practice?

When I look at influencer outreach — whether it’s speaking at conferences, guest blogging, writing for a popular newsletter, or any other way of moving people from not knowing I exist to knowing I exist — there are always five steps to the process.

1. Develop Personas

The basic question is, “what type of person is likely to read my book?”

Think about who is likely to read your book, then start answering lots of different questions:

1. Demographics
   1. What gender?
   2. What ages?
   3. Where do they live?
   4. How much education do they have?
   5. What does their household look like?
   6. What do they do for a living?
2. Where do they get their information?
   1. What forums do they participate in?
   2. Who do they follow on social media?
   3. What blogs and websites do they read?
   4. What podcasts do they listen to?
3. Books?
   1. What genres do they read?
   2. Where do they buy their books?
   3. Where do they get recommendations for books to read?
   4. What reviewers do they trust?
   5. Do they read ebooks, print, or audiobooks?
   6. What other books do they read?

After answering these questions you may develop several different personas. That’s good. That gives you more targets.

If you don’t know the answers to these questions, I would start by interviewing people. Simply send a bunch of these questions to your friends or current fans.

You want to have a good picture of the type of people you are trying to talk to. This will save you from doing influencer outreach that doesn’t actually lead to sales.

2. Identify Where Your Personas Are Congregating

Now you take all of that research from step 1 and start getting very specific. Usually I start a spreadsheet and start making a list of every website, podcast, conference, workshop, magazine, radio show, television show, YouTube channel, magazine, forum, review site, etc that comes up in my research.

These are the places that the people that are likely to be interested in reading your book are currently congregating. These are the tribes.

This is the list of targets for your influencer outreach. These are the places I want to show up to move people from not knowing I exist to knowing I exist.

3. Identify the Tribe Leader

Now, go through your list of influencer outreach opportunities and start identifying who is the gate keeper and tribe leader for each tribe. Who would make the decision to give you access to the tribe?

A lot of times it’s obvious. It’s the blogger or the podcaster or the producer. However, for other outlets, you’ll have to do some digging. Who is making the decisions on the panelists for the various workshops at a conference? What reviewers have a large following in your genre on GoodReads? Sometimes you might just email the generic contact form on a website and ask.

Whatever it takes, you have to figure out for each tribe you want to be introduced to, who the leader of that particular tribe is.

4. Research the Tribe

This is the crucial step that the vast majority of people ignore. Yet this is the step that will set you apart from everyone else and get you more yes’s than no’s.

You must do your research. You can’t send the same copy-and-pasted pitch to every podcast or blog or review site and hope that you will get accepted. Your job is to go through and consume their content from the last 3-6 months. Read the blog posts, listen to the podcast episodes, read their book reviews, read their column, look at past speakers and panelists, etc.

All the while, looking for places where you, your book, and your content overlap with what they do. Look for opportunities where you could speak or offer your book to be reviewed or pitch yourself to be interviewed. I think of it as a Venn diagram.

This allows you to customize your pitch and stand apart from everyone else who is sending the same generic email to fifty different people.

Do your research by consuming their content and looking for places where you can fit into what they are already doing.

5. Send a Pitch to the Tribe Leader

Now you take everything you’ve done over the past four steps to craft and send a pitch.

You know the audience you’re trying to talk to. You know where those people are congregating. You know who the tribe leader is that can give you access to their tribe. You’ve done your research to know what kind of content they produce and how you can fit into what they are already doing.

Now you send them an email pitching them on introducing you to their tribe.

—

These are the steps I go through for all of the influencer outreach that I do. It doesn’t matter what genre you are writing in or whether you are traditionally or indie published, outreach always works the same.

Follow the steps above to properly plan and execute your outreach and you will be surprised at the results!

In my book Your First 1000 Copies, I define Outreach as simply “moving people from not knowing you exist to knowing you exist.”

The vast majority of people don’t know that you and I — or our books — even exist. So what’s the answer to this problem?

The fastest way to grow your own audience is to tap into someone else’s.

We know this on a fundamental level. It's why everyone wants Oprah to recommend their book. It's why they want a spot on the Today show. Or to have a big name blogger review their book.

If you're able to do any of these things, your audience grows because you’ve been introduced to an existing audience.

These are the fundamental truths of finding new fans of your work:

1. You have to move people from not knowing you exist to knowing you exist
2. The fastest way to do this is to get introduced to existing groups of people

It sounds simple enough. But when people try the usual methods, their plans can unravel pretty quickly. Here's why:

Two examples of Outreach errors, from my own inbox

In the past week I’ve received two non-spam emails from people who wanted something from me. Both addressed me as “Dear Sir/Madam.”

What? It’s pretty obvious from my email address (tim@booklaunch.com) that I’m a guy. If they were confused, spending 30 seconds on my website would have helped them out.

Not to mention, how did they think I would take an email with such an obviously impersonal, spammy opening?

I also received an offer this week from a company that helps authors get Amazon reviews for their books. Besides the moral gray area of paying to get Amazon reviews, it was obvious the sender hadn’t actually looked at my Amazon page.

He offered me a chance to pay for 5 reviews, when I already have 140 reviews with a 4.7 average rating.

If he'd put himself in my shoes, he'd have seen that I’ve gotten 140 reviews on my own. Why would I pay for just 5 more?

Again — 30 seconds of research would have changed the tone of his email and shifted his offer into something that made more sense for my situation.

But because he didn't do his research, his email was annoying instead of helpful.

Which brings us to the most fundamental, most common Outreach mistake.

Do you have empathy?

Empathy’s definition from dictionary.com is:

“The intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.”

In other words, put yourself in the other person’s shoes. Imagine what they’ll think and feel when they get your email, phone call or message.

Even top authors forget to do this sometimes.

Recently I was walking a popular author through the process of asking a blogger to promote their latest book. When I read over the author's email draft, I was surprised at how self-involved it was.

It talked all about the virtues of the book, why it was so great, and how the author would really appreciate the blogger's help.

There was nothing in it about the blogger!

No mention of why this was a good fit for his audience. No mention of how the author is going to make it easy on the blogger to promote the book.

In other words, no empathy.

How do you show empathy?

Even the best of us sometimes forget the basic rules. We start thinking about what we can get out of a situation, instead of how we can set it up as a win-win.

Here are the steps I go through before doing any Outreach, to ensure that I approach it with the right attitude:

1. Help First
Instead of first approaching the person with what you can get out of the situation, start by looking for ways to help the other person get what they need help with.

2. Start with the right questions
Before you send that email, ask yourself these questions:

• What does this person want out of life?
• What stresses her out?
• What is her daily job? Could I make that easier in some way?

3. Do your research
I discuss this thoroughly in the How to Connect with Successful Authors post.

To apply those same ideas to Outreach, take the time to actually read through their website, social media, bio and other online resources before reaching out. Once you see how they normally interact with and promote other people, you can tailor your pitch to their platform.

4. Revoke your right to be offended
You are not allowed to be offended if the person you reach out to says “No” or doesn’t respond. These are busy people with many demands on their time.

If you walk around hurt and offended every time someone doesn’t respond the way you’d like, you'll have a hard road ahead.

Instead, look for ways to help them. Reach out graciously, and assume they will make the best decision for their current situation.

Here’s an example

A while back, I was working on a book launch for an author. I really wanted a particular blogger to help promote my client’s book.

I knew that this blogger probably got pitched on a regular basis by people looking to promote their stuff. I needed to make sure I cut through all of that noise — to show that I’ve done my research, and to let them know I’m trying to make their life easier.

I spent ten minutes on that site, scanning the previous few months of blog posts, reading here and there, and getting an overall sense for the kind of content that blogger produces.

Then I noticed something: Whenever he wrote about a book, he combined it with a Skype video interview. He also clearly liked to dive into the personal story behind the author’s writing.

So when I emailed him, I did two things:

1. I shared a very short, three-sentence back-story on my author client. I knew the importance of doing this, because I'd read through a lot of this blogger's content and had gotten a feel for what resonates with him.
2. I also said I'd noticed he liked to do Skype interviews with authors, and that my client would be happy to do one with him whenever his schedule allowed.

Later that day I got an email back from the blogger, thanking me for how I'd reached out to him and saying he would be glad to have my client do an author interview.

Why did this work?

1. I took the time to do my research and got to know how the blogger usually operates
2. I offered to fit easily into the methods that blogger already uses
3. I tried to offer content that would be a great fit for his audience

Is this a slower process than blasting the same generic email to 50 different bloggers?

Sure. But it also gets exponentially better results.

Good Outreach is much more than just pitches and press releases

While we are all trying to introduce ourselves to new audiences and grow our following, we all have to start with Empathy.

When doing Outreach, we have to focus on how we can help other people, before trying to get what we need.

If you do this long enough, you will find a long-term, sustainable success that is otherwise almost impossible to create.

I was talking with an author who had recently signed his first book contract. In about a year he would be releasing it.

The author had been writing and working in his field for years but hadn’t taken the time to start building his platform. It didn’t seem necessary at the time. But now that he was faced with coming out with a book, he was realizing all of the opportunities he had missed.

I get the following questions all the time…

“I’m just starting the first draft of my novel, when should I start building my author platform?”

“I’m trying to get the final edits done on my book, when should I start building my email list?”

“My book came out six months ago and I’m working on the next one. I’m pretty busy with it. When should I start my blog?”

My answer?

“Yesterday. Now. Immediately.”

Every day that slips by without working on your platform is a missed opportunity.

There’s a lot of reasons to put it off though. Trust me, I’ve used them myself and heard them from other people:

• I’m really busy right now writing my book.
• I’ve tried before and it hasn’t worked
• Maybe I should just work on my next book
• I don’t have time
• I don’t know where to start

Here’s what I can promise you:

When it's time to release your book, you'll regret putting it off.

I do understand why it gets put off. It’s often not the thing that seems most pressing. Your job is busy. Writing is more fun. You’re on deadline. There really are a thousand reasons to do something else with your time.

So how can you possibly fit it into your schedule?

Here’s the things I’ve learned:

1. Think small instead of big. You’re not going to be able to get 1000 new readers in a week, but you can get 10 and feel accomplished.
2. Think system instead of goal. Can you do something every week that will move you forward? I focus on doing two things a week to promote my book. If I do that long enough, they will stack up and be successful. Forget some big, lofty goal. Focus on what you can do week in and week out.
3. Think learning instead of failing. Especially at the beginning, you’ll probably have more mistakes than successes, but that’s ok. It’s normal. Focus on the fact that you’re learning as you go. As the great Zig Ziglar said so many times, “Failure is an event, not a person.”

If you focus on small things that you can experiment with every week, you’ll turn around in a few months and realize you’ve made a ton of progress!

But this naturally leads to the next question…

What should I focus on?

This is the next thing that so often locks us down and keeps us from making progress… we don’t know where to start!

There’s just too much advice swirling around out there about blogging, Twitter, Facebook, email, forums, Pinterest, Google+ and so much more, it’s just hard to know what you should be spending your time on.

I know this is true because every single day I have authors reaching out to me for help and direction. I've developed some very useful tools and programs to help writers — no matter where you are in the journey.

Where are you going to be in six months?

It’s easy to put off. It’s easy to say you’ll get started later… after work slows down, you finish your manuscript or the kids are out for summer.

But don't wait.

Act now. Thank yourself later.

“This advice seems geared toward extroverts/people persons, but many writers are introverts who find it hard to reach out to people and who, thus, suck at marketing. [It is] easy for extroverts, and painful or even next-to-impossible for introverts. Is there any hope for introverts like me who just want to write our books?”

And the other:

“Marketing seems to come easy for authors like you but I just don’t think an introvert like me can do it.”

If only people knew.

Put me in a room of more than two strangers and I’m the guy standing against the wall looking at my phone and feeling like everyone can sense the anxiety rolling off of me.

After I did an all-day workshop a few months ago, I literally found a corner in the office building where I could hide behind a couch and just sat there so I could be alone.

Newsflash: Authors, as a group, are introverted

Isn’t that why most of us pick this profession? It allows us to sit alone with our thoughts for hours on end. It’s the perfect situation for an introvert!

Here’s the truth though.

Don't let your introversion become your excuse

It's often a lot easier to blame something like being introverted instead of taking responsibility for our success. Yes, you may have to learn some new skills and yes, that will be uncomfortable. But it's part of the job. And I promise you, if you stick with it, it will become something you truly enjoy in the long run.

We all have hurts, habits and hangups that hold us back. One of yours, like it is for me, is being introverted. That doesn't mean we throw up our hands in defeat. It means we lean into it, and learn how to be successful through it.

How introverts can be good at marketing

The key to success as an author is to change your perspective of what it means to be good at marketing. It’s not a used car salesman mentality. It’s a 1-on–1 helpful mentality.

1. Understand the true definition of marketing. The following is an excerpt from my book, Your First 1000 Copies:

Let’s sum up what marketing is and should be.

Marketing isn’t sleazy car salesman tactics.

Marketing isn’t tricking people into buying.

Marketing isn’t unethical.

Marketing isn’t intrusive self-promotion.

Marketing is two things: (1) creating lasting connections with people through (2) a focus on being relentlessly helpful.

Does that seem so bad?

Once you change your perspective from “marketing is tricking people into buying something they don’t want” to “marketing is helping people connect with my meaningful work”, it takes on an entirely different tone.

2. Focus on one person. I used to go months without writing anything for my platform. No blog posts. No emails. Nothing. I was so caught up in my head about people judging my work, that it wasn’t good enough, and people smarter than me were already writing about this stuff. Even when my readership was extremely small, it still seemed overwhelming.

However, when I got on the phone with an author who was struggling, I would light up and truly enjoy helping.

One day it clicked. When I’m helping one author, it comes easy. When I’m trying to help hundreds or thousands, the sweaty palms happen and I clam up.

So I picked one of my clients who needed my help the most, printed off her picture and taped it to the wall next to my computer. Then, when I would sit down to write, I’d focus on writing something that helped her. I’d forget about the part where I’m going to share it with thousands of authors later. While I wrote, I only wrote for her.

3. Go slow. This is a long-term game. I want my book to continue to sell month-after-month and year-after-year. Don’t put pressure on yourself to make everything happen now. This week. This month. Give yourself grace to play a long-term game. Have an experimental mindset. Do two things a week.

To invoke a cliché, this is a marathon, not a sprint.

Remove the pressure and give yourself permission to find your pace.

4. Find what you enjoy. Here’s the truth: I can talk about books for hours. Both reading and marketing them. While I enjoy writing these blog posts, the writing part is pretty laborious on me so I try to dodge doing a lot of guest blogging on other websites. However, I love doing podcasts and webinars because I really enjoy talking about books. So any opportunities I get that involve me sitting comfortable in my office while talking on the phone with someone about books, I jump at.

I’ve tried many different ways to do outreach, and this is what works for me. I’ve found what I enjoy, so I pursue more opportunities in that vein. You can do the same.

5. Don’t wait for the fear to go away. I talk to a lot of aspiring writers. They all believe the same myth about writing. They believe that at some point the fear goes away. They assume the big best-selling authors confidently approach the blank page and scrawl out their words knowing the world will love them.

This, of course, is not true.

I’ve worked with those top, best-selling writers and I’ve worked with those just getting their first project off the ground. The fear is always there. It never goes away. In fact, they know if the fear is gone, they’re doing something wrong.

The good writers learn to lean into the fear instead of allowing it to keep them from writing.

The same is true for marketing.

It’s scary. Every time I write a new blog post I worry what people will think. Every time I do an interview I wonder if this will be the one where everyone realizes I’m a fraud.

But I do it anyway. Through practice and repetition I’ve learned to lean into the fear and accept it. It’s not something to beat. It’s not something that will ever completely leave. It’s part of the process.

And if it ever goes away, that means I’m doing something wrong.

Introverts can be great book marketers

Don’t believe the lie that your introversion means you’ll never be good at marketing. Just focus on connecting with and helping one person at a time. Experiment to find your pace and your sweet spot.

People need your writing. Don’t hide behind introversion.