Business Growth Blog

I found this infographic on the HubSpot Blog that breaks down a bad prospecting email. It really caught my attention because I have recently seen an email that looks just like this one. I think the author, Leslie Ye is right on with this analysis. Writing good prospecting emails is hard work, and this is a great example of how NOT to do it.

If you ask any stand up comedian what the most difficult part of his or her job is, they might say, “Reading the room.”

This phrase refers to the comedian's ability to analyze information from the audience and use that information to improve their act. They have to be able to perceive what jokes people are loving and what jokes aren't hitting the mark, so they can factor that into the rest of the set.

On a base level, inbound marketing has to be able to do the exact same thing.

Just like a comedian, a marketer has to to know what their audience will be into and what they will likely ignore. It makes sense if you think about it: you can't appeal to an audience that you don't understand.

So what is the best way to understand what your readers want? To many inbound marketers, it's content curation.

Simply put, content curation is finding and sharing articles with your audience. What exactly does that mean to a business owner? It means that if you know how to curate valuable content and analyze your audience's response, then you can learn what interests your current readers and what can potentially attract new ones.

One fall day I jumped on my bike (bicycle that is) to take a nice 15 mile ride in Northern Michigan. As I was enjoying the fall colors, I turned on my tunes to Octane on Sirius radio. The DJ was interviewing Flyleaf about their new album, Between the Stars.

As I was listening to the interview, a thought popped into my head: these songs are content, with a goal of driving a following and increasing sales.

That's the same exact thing any company needs to do: Create content that drives followers and sales.

So, you have a list of potential customers you want to contact. The problem is, they have no idea who you are.

How are you going to take them from not knowing anything about you to wanting to meet you to learn more about your products and services?

That was my biggest struggle for years. I’m pretty relentless when it comes to prospecting. While many salespeople give up after a few tries, I have no problem contacting them 10 times over a period of time.

I just never knew what I should say when I picked up the phone or typed up that email. It was agonizing. Literally.

This may sound a little melodramatic, but my whole life changed when I read Jill Konrath’s bestselling sales book Selling to Big Companies. In that book, she spoke directly to the angst I was feeling and offered a way out. In it, she said: