If you’ve attempted any amount of time link building, you quickly realize the most frustrating process of it all is the low response rate and unsuccessful outreach. While the possibility of the cause may be of an infinite amount of reasons such as poor prospecting influence list (which is an easy fix here) inattentive webmasters, bad timing, or the webmaster of the site is just on vacation. One of the most common reason for low response rate is due to a poorly constructed outreach pitch. Some people will just plain-right just ask for a link, rude. A better way to approach this is to use some persuasive techniques to help better your response rate! Why not use Dr. Cialdini’s Six Principles (Weapons) of Influence. Today I’ll be talking about the first 3 principles of Ciadini’s influences: Reciprocation, Liking, Commitment/Consistency.
Bad Example of Outreach
Reciprocation:
To Give Before You Receive – Reciprocation recognizes that people will feel indebted to those who do something for them or give them a gift. “Cialdini says: “The implication is you have to go first. Give something: give information, give free samples, give a positive experience to people and they will want to give you something in return.”
Application to a Link Builder: A good example of this would be to give your prospect something before you even ask for anything remotely close to a link back. Let’s say you have a product, tangible or intangible, you could offer this to an influencer as a gift. Say something like “Hey, I noticed you are highly passionate about men’s fashion, I’d like to offer you to try our service.” They will most likely blog, write, promote about what you have just offered them, especially if it’s in their passion of interest.
Liking:
“People prefer to say ‘yes’ to those they know and like,” Cialdini says. People are also more likely to favor those who are physically attractive, similar to themselves, or who give them compliments. Even something as ‘random’ as having the same name as your prospects can increase your chances of making a sale.
Application to a Link Builder: Finding common interest with the site owner and sliding it in with your pitch (be sure you are natural about it). Be sure to engage with the influencer through social media. A good example would be pitching an article that ties in and builds upon with what that person had recently tweeted about. You’ll now be able to ask for a link as a peer, not as a stranger.
Commitment and Consistency:
People do not like to back out of deals. We’re more likely to do something after we’ve agreed to it verbally or in writing, Cialdini says. People strive for consistency in their commitments. They also prefer to follow pre-existing attitudes, values and actions.
Application to a Link Builder: Sharing an article with an influencer and asking what they think about it is a good way to build that initial and small commitment. They’ve built a now existing attitude toward that piece of content. If they like it, you may ask them to share it with their audience and they will most likely say yes.
What do you think?
Sources:
- https://www.influenceatwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/E_Brand_principles.pdf
- https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/growing-popularity-and-links
