Finding warm advertiser leads

I know B2B media companies that have made $100,000+ using one technique.

It’s so simple—anyone can do it. In B2B media, it delivers amazing results.

The technique is based on the following observation:

Your readers are your best advertisers.

Why are my readers the best advertisers?

Let’s imagine one of your readers. Someone who opens your newsletter every time you send it. A true fan.

1. They know the value you deliver.
2. They are intimately familiar with your content.
3. They know your audience and why it’s valuable.

When you talk to them, it will be the easiest sales conversation you’ll ever have.

You won’t have to explain what you do. You won’t have to explain who your audience is. You won’t have to explain why you are better than others. They will just get it.

How do I get more of those leads?

You’ve probably had a reader or two reach out in the past. They started advertising. Everyone was happy. It was awesome!

However, we don’t want to leave it up to chance whether we make sales.

Audience Doctor is all about using our audience data to grow our revenue. Once we do that, things become easy.

How do I use audience data to find leads?

If you are in B2B, you should have some way of knowing what your readers do for work.

You’ll want at minimum:

1. Their names
2. Their job titles
3. Their company names

Ad: If you don’t have this data yet, check out Megahit. I’ve built it to get you this data.

Once you have the data, lay it out in one big table. Include emails, too.

Then go through your list, look at people’s job titles, look at their companies, and check the following:

1. Would the company be a good advertiser?

   Does the company sell to your audience? Do enough of your readers match their ICP? Is the company large enough to afford your ads?

2. Can the reader make sponsorship decisions?

   Usually, decision makers would be marketers (at larger companies) or founders and CEOs (at startups and smaller companies).

3. Can the reader introduce me to a decision maker?

   If their company is interesting but they have an unrelated job title, you can ask them if they can introduce you to a decision maker.

If you think a reader could be a fit, mark them as a lead.

In general, conversations will go more smoothly if your reader is the decision maker. For your outreach, focus on decision makers first. This group is the most valuable.

Afterward, you can ask non-decision makers for introductions. If your reader is a fan, an intro to a colleague can be powerful and land you a deal.

How do I best reach out?

Let’s get into the details. When talking to media companies about this, I usually get the following questions:

1. Should I automate the outreach?
2. What’s the best message to send?
3. Which messaging channel works best?

Media companies also often have concerns:

1. They don’t want to annoy their readers.
2. They don’t want to seem creepy.

Let’s address those questions and concerns.

Should I automate the outreach?

No, you shouldn’t.

Your readers are your most valuable leads. Do everything you can to convert them. Don’t annoy them with generic messages.

Research the person and send them a highly personalized message. Show them that you care about them. It takes time, but it’s worth it.

A CEO I’ve worked with sent personalized messages. He booked meetings with 70% of the CEOs from his list that he reached out to.

When I’ve worked with media companies that have tried to automate this outreach, they haven’t see any results at all.

What’s the best message to send?

B2B media companies usually approach this differently depending on the source of their audience data.

Case 1: Someone fills out a survey or form and gives you their data.

In this case, sales reps often take a direct approach. A message could look like this:

Hey, I saw you filled out our survey. I think there could be a potential partnership. [This is how we can help.] Do you want to talk?

Personalize the message as much as you can. Show them that you care.

Case 2: Someone signs up with their work email and you research them.

Let’s say john.doe@company.com signs up for your newsletter. You recognize the company name, so you look them up on LinkedIn. You find out that they’re the Head of Marketing who controls the advertising budget.

Because they signed up with their work email, most sales reps are also pretty direct:

Hey, thanks for being a subscriber! I saw you’re the Head of Marketing at [company]. I think there could be a potential partnership. [This is how we can help.] Do you want to talk?

Case 3: Someone signs up with a personal email and you obtain their data through a third party.

Let’s say a reader signs up with their personal Gmail address. Then you go to a third party to get data on what they do for work. In that case, you might want to be less direct—so that it doesn’t creep people out.

I’ve seen companies that still took the direct route (“I saw you’re a reader”) and were successful with it. However, there is a safer way.

Here’s how it works: You send them a message on LinkedIn or to their work email. You make it look like good cold outreach. You don’t tell them that you know they are subscribed.

They will know they’re a fan! They will recognize you. They will remember your great content. And then they will take the meeting.

Your message might look like this:

Hey, we’re [publication X]. [This is what we do.] [This is how we can help your company.] Do you want to talk?

Again, personalize it as much as you can. It will pay off.

Case 4: You ask for introductions.

When you ask subscribers for introductions to their colleagues, your messages could look like this:

Hey, thanks for being a loyal reader! We appreciate it a lot. We rely on advertisers to keep our publication free. [We get those advertisers X results.] [Maybe include case studies.] I think [company] could benefit from this. Would you be comfortable introducing me to the person in charge of advertising?

This is easier when you have someone’s work email. It’s harder with personal emails.

What’s the best channel to use?

The best channel varies from company to company (and from industry to industry).

For some media companies, email works better. Others see more success on LinkedIn.

I recommend experimenting and seeing what works best for you. You can also try contacting people through one channel first. If they don’t respond, you can follow up through another channel.

In general, if you don’t hear back, follow up regularly.

Any other interesting approaches?

1. Some media companies, instead of going straight to pitching, first add their prospects on LinkedIn. Then they build a relationship over a longer period of time. They don’t pitch for weeks or even months. They build trust instead. When done right, the prospect will often bring up the topic of advertising by themselves at some point. If not, the person from the media company can at some point suggest having a conversation to explore how the two companies can help each other. This works particularly well for larger deals.

2. Do the inverse lookup: Whenever you want to reach out to a certain company, check if you have readers who work there. Ask them for an intro.

Try it!

If you have data on what your readers do for work, use it to find leads. It will pay off.

Ad: What if I don’t have any data?

Over the last two years, I’ve built a great data tool for B2B media companies.

It’s called Megahit. It’s great at helping you convert your readers into advertisers.

Megahit finds your subscribers’ job information. You get their names, LinkedIn profiles, job titles, employers, and more. All from their email addresses (even from Gmails).

You can then filter your audience to see only decision makers: marketers, founders, and CEOs. That makes prospecting easy.

There are many other helpful features, too. For example, to keep track of good leads. Megahit is designed specifically for B2B media companies.

Check out Megahit! I’d love to give you a demo.