Build an effective outreach strategy

Outreach means to reach out, and that, in a sense, is exactly the definition of outreach. Outreach is a way of reaching a specific audience with a specific message in an effective and relevant way. Outreach strategy can involve many different disciplines, such as email marketing, PR, social media and working with influencers. The main point of outreach is to create a relationship with a given target audience and communicate a message clearly and effectively.

A good outreach strategy raises awareness of your brand and reaches a wider audience. Do you think it sounds too good to be true? Then think again. Because I've gathered my best lifehacks for building an effective outreach strategy that reaches your target audience.

You can't plan your outreach strategy without defining your target audience.
To be successful in outreach, you need to understand your audience to the core. Understanding what the target audience or customer will get from your message is key. The more personal you can be, the more effective your strategy will be.

It is relevant to ask the following questions:

• Who is my target group?
• What are their interests?
• What is their need or challenge?

The next step is to choose the right channels to reach the audience you've just defined. It's important to choose the channel that best suits your audience and your message. That's why I've compiled a short list of the most common channels below.

• Content marketing is an outreach strategy you can use to produce and share content that is relevant to your audience. You'll also have the opportunity to build a relationship while increasing awareness of your brand.
  
  
• Email marketing is used to reach your target audience with information about your brand, product or message. Here you need to be very specific and creative to capture the recipient so you don't end up in the spam list.
  
  
• PR (public relations) is a form of outreach that can be used to maintain positive publicity for your brand or product.
  
  
• Event marketing is used to build a relationship and communicate a message to your target audience.
  
  
• Social media is a brilliant way to interact with your audience and engage them with your brand or product.
  
  
• Influencer marketing is a collaboration between a brand and an influencer to increase brand awareness, promote a specific product or reach the influencer's target audience.
  
  
• Referral marketing is used to encourage the customer to recommend your brand or product to their network.

As I mentioned earlier, it is important that you are clear-headed and that you know your message backwards, forwards and in your sleep. If your message is not clear, it will be difficult for the target audience to retain interest and understand the purpose of the message.

There are 3 golden rules when it comes to defining your message:

• The message must be simple.
• The message must be interesting.
• The message must be relevant to the target group.

Outreach can be much more than promoting your brand or a product. Through outreach, you can also offer value to your audience in the form of information, useful tips or other tools to help them solve their challenges. In this way, you can use outreach for more than advertising - and actually build a relationship with your audience.

It is important that you measure and evaluate your outreach strategy. What has gone well? And what can you do differently to change the output? You can also look at which channels have worked best and whether there are new ones that will work better.

Want to boost your company's online presence, promote a specific product or something else entirely? Then Webamp might be the right partner for you.

At Webamp we have specialists in search engine optimisation, Google advertising, SoMe marketing and a range of other areas that can create brand awareness for your business. Contact us and we'll set up a no obligation consultation.