How to avoid spammy outreach

Have you been sending out messages to prospects but aren’t getting the response that you expected? Maybe you’re not even receiving responses at all? It could be that the messages you’re sending are being considered “spammy”.

When we say spammy, we don’t necessarily mean that your messages are being seen as malicious or fraudulent, rather than the person receiving them knows that they are being sent a message that is sent out in bulk.

It’s fair to say, these messages often won’t get a response. Think about it, when was the last time you responded to one of these messages?

Although we’re inbound marketing specialists here at Podymos, we fully believe in the power of multichannel marketing, which means sending out your marketing messages across different channels for maximum effect.

After all, there’s no point in creating great content and then not sharing it!

Direct messages, such as email, can be included in those channels to create a well-rounded, integrated campaign.

So, we’re going to let you in on a few of our tips for creating outreach messages that convert, whether they’re emails or direct messages on social media.

Give, don’t just take

One of the worst things you can do when sending someone a sales messages (other than getting their name wrong!) is ask for something straight away, without building any rapport or offering anything of value to them.

We think that a great way around this is to send your prospect 3-4 pieces of really valuable content to them. This might be a video or an article that will be helpful for them in some way.

This is what we mean when we talk about an integrated campaign. The content you create can be used across all your marketing channels, and even as part of your sales process.

So, wait to ask for an action from your prospect until you have shown that you have something to offer first.

Answer their questions

Consumers are more likely to buy from a brand they trust. This can become even more important when dealing directly with a person who is representative of a brand.

One of the best ways to win over the trust of your audience is to create content that openly and honestly answers their questions. Answering their questions before they even ask them and showing that you understand their concerns is what will ultimately persuade them to trust you.

The content you send over in your messages should always be addressing a question that your audience might ask.

Want to learn more about answering your audience’s questions? Check out our article on “How to come up with great content ideas”.

Go through the buyer’s journey

When you’re writing your messages and deciding what content you’re going to share, you should consider how it leads the reader on their buyer’s journey.

Initially, you need to make the prospect aware of who you are and what you do. Hopefully, using our tips, you’ll have done this is a way that sparks their desire.

It’s then your job to nurture that desire and lead them through the consideration phase – this is where your content should be answering the questions that they may have before decide to proceed with you.

Finally, you can lead them to the decision phase. This is where you should suggest an action for them, such as setting up a meeting, which is usually considered a conversion.

When creating your stream of message, ensure that you’re thinking about their buyer’s journey and which content will most effectively lead them through the consideration phase.

Segment your audience

The key to avoiding your messages appearing as part of a set of pre-prepared messages to be sent out in bulk is to ensure you’re sending the right messages to the right people.

When creating your messages, consider your audience carefully. Segmenting your audience and adjusting your messages so they’re entirely relevant to each segment can help to avoid appearing spammy.

For example, if you’re sending information only relevant to those based in the UK to people outside of the UK, you’re probably not going to get the response you were hoping for. It can seem lazy and even careless.

Instead, you can segment your audience by geography, role, seniority and many other factors. From there, you can decide what information will be important to them. What questions are they likely to have? Are you able to answer them? This will help you to craft messages that are appropriate and probably more successful.

Personalisation

A little personalisation goes a long way in building trust. 93% of buyers say they are more likely to engage after receiving a personalised communication. It shows that you’ve taken time to do your research and you’re not just sending out another copy and pasted message.

Personalisation can take many forms. Obviously, you should include the prospect’s name (spelled correctly!), but you can also mention mutual connections, your thoughts on a recent post of theirs or something that you can see their interested in.

It doesn’t have to be anything too in-depth, but it will help you to cut through the noise and earn responses from the people who receive dozens of sales messages a week.

Make it about them

Our final tip is to make your outreach entirely about them.

Similar to giving instead of trying to take, you want to avoid talking too much about what you can offer and more about how they will benefit. Instead of “my device is amazing, it can do this”, you could try something more like “you’ll receive better patient outcomes and fewer bed days”. This is all about being benefit driven, rather than feature driven.

As a general rule of thumb, try to keep discussion of yourself to only what is necessary to raise awareness. After that, you should have a ration of 1 we/our for every 5 you/yours.

Outbound marketing with Podymos

Do you want to communicate more effectively with HCPs and patients? Do you want to be able to deliver high-quality direct messaging and email campaigns as part of your larger multichannel marketing strategy? You’ve come to the right place.

Podymos is a healthcare marketing agency, specialising in multichannel Medical Device marketing.

We’re more expensive than non-specialised agencies and freelance teams because we only work in the Medical Device space so we have specialist knowledge and experience that other agencies may not be able to offer you.

If you want high-quality, compliant campaigns that help achieve your business goals, we’d love to hear from you. Simply leave us your contact details below and we’ll get back to you very soon for a no obligation chat.