Influencers prefer sharing content they find themselves. Here's how to break into their headspace with your brand and content without directly pitching them.

1. The Hunter/Gatherer
Why influencers hate the pitch and
what you can do about it

2. Rob “Holy” Toledo
Head of Outreach @ Distilled
rob.toledo@distilled.net
@stentontoledo

3. or on Google+
/u/0/11666
666115484
6565570/

4. I have a
confession

5. I’m terrible at
PowerPoint

6. No seriously…
Like…
BAD at
powerpoint

7. So please don’t judge me

8. I have another
confession

9. Despite having sent
thousands of
personalized outreach
emails

10. And my team of
outreachers having an
active contact list of
approximately 15,000
bloggers and journalists

11. I can still count on
one hand how many
times I have accepted
an email pitch for my
own websites

12. So why is that?

13. A lot of them are great
emails
http://bit.ly/1luXH1h

14. And it’s not like I write for
the New York Times…

15. I gave this a think

16. Asking coworkers,
friends and family

17. My conspiracy
theorist uncle
knew who to
blame

18. “Obviously
Obama has
something to
do with this…”

19. But seriously…

20. I blame my
instincts

24. Always on the
hunt for the next
big thing

25. Here’s Joe…

26. Here’s Joe with a toy
squirrel in front of him…

27. Here’s Joe thinking he’s
hunting an actual squirrel…

28. We enjoy the hunt
for the next thing,
just like Joe prefers
to chase actual
squirrels

29. Here, you can tweet this:
“I can’t believe @stentontoledo
just compared me to his dog…
What kind of conference is this?!
#SearchLove”

30. Here’s me in high
school
I was “really cool”

31. I was a music snob
(and still am)

32. While my friends were
listening to…

33. I was listening to…

34. I LOVE finding new
music and sharing it
with my “tribe”

35. An Example (circa 2001)

36. Example (circa 2001)
Scenario A
Friend: “Wow Rob, you’re such a musical influencer
and tastemaker, I worship the ground you walk on”
Me: “Have you guys heard of this new band, The
Strokes? They’re incredible, total game changers”

37. Example (circa 2001)
Scenario B
Friend: “Hey Rob! Check out this new band The
Strokes! They’re blowing up in England!”
Me: “Yeah they’re alright, I guess, man, whatever”

38. A quick experiment

39. Apple > Microsoft

40. Python is far superior
to JavaScript

41. The Shawshank
Redemption is a
better movie than
Titanic

42. This local roasted
organic fair trade
coffee is far superior
to Starbucks

43. >

44. Local craft brews put
generic macro beer to
shame

45. We’re all snobs about
something

46. Alongside being a music
snob, I’m also a content
snob

47. A lot of journalists and
influencers are the
same way

48. They want to find it first

49. In content discovery
No effort = No reward

50. We don’t want to share a
rotten meal with our tribe

51. What I’m not saying:
• Email outreach is dead
• Bloggers and journalists don’t want to hear
from you
• We must try and trick people into sharing
our content
• That the Moon landing was faked

52. Things aren’t that bad…

53. Most decent outreach
sees response rates
around 40-60%

54. “You’re happy with 50 percent? You’re on top, and
you don’t have enough. You’re happy because
you’re successful. For now. But what is happiness?
It’s a moment before you need more happiness. I
won’t settle for 50 percent of anything. I want 100
percent. You’re happy with your agency? You’re not
happy with anything. You don’t want most of it, you
want all of it. And I won’t stop until you get all of it.”

55. We should be working
for that other 50%

56. But when promoting to
the other 50%...

57. We need to be less
like this…

58. …and more like this

59. But it helps to be a bit more clever
We must plant the idea but
not take any credit for it

60. Great… but how?

61. Three Main Points

62. 1. Find out where your
“important people” are
hanging out
2. Don’t be afraid to get
exclusive
3. Get more creative with your
promotion

63. 1. Find out where your
“important people” are
hanging out
2. Don’t be afraid to get exclusive
3. Get more creative with your
promotion

64. People will likely talk
about where they
spend their time online

65. • Web forums they hang out in
• Twitter chats where they participate
• Sites where they contribute and
comment
• Communities they identify with
Where in the world are
your influencers

66. Rand Fishkin

67. • /r/AskScience
• /r/eli5
• /r/LifeProTips
• /r/Fitness
• /r/Food
• /r/Fashion
• /r/Art
• /r/Economics

68. Rand Fishkin

69. Rand Fishkin
Likes:
• Nicholas Cage
• Pictures of birds that people have
photoshopped arms onto
• Cute pictures of puppies
• Business related topics

70. So we built this…

71. And it worked…

72. OK but seriously…

73. A real example
@carson_ward

74. A real example
• Hoping to break into the tech
space
• Wanted to get featured on high
profile blogs
• Wanted influencers to share
socially

75. A real example

76. A real example
So they kept it
simple…

77. A real example
• They did some research using their
own data
• Wrote a post that appealed to a
specific audience
• Kept it relevant to current news
• In total about 8 hours of work

78. http://bit.ly/1jLVGA7

79. One seed in front of the right
people

82. The spoils of victory
• ~70k pageviews
• 116 domains sent traffic in 24 hours
• Coverage in major media (Ars, Pando, Reddit)
• ~500 social shares
• More journalists believe them to be an authority
with future stories now (credibility increase)

83. 1. Find out where your “important
people” are hanging out
2. Don’t be afraid to get
exclusive
3. Get more creative with your
promotion

84. • Nothing makes journalists salivate
more than exclusives
• The right exclusive story can make a
career
• Exclusives still give the perception of
influence, even when pitched
Exclusives

85. Giving an influencer a
head start with your
content can make
everything easier

86. The rest of the internet

87. “Well if [insert major publication] covered
it… then we better get something up
about it as well”
Exclusives

88. Exclusives make
bosses and clients
nervous

89. But we can
remove a lot of
the risk

90. Exclusives
- @Britt_Klontz
“The ‘exclusive’
conversation needs to
start way before the
content or story is
complete”

91. • You should have the idea in front of
several influencers early in the process
• Subtlety hint that you’re shopping the
idea around (competition)
• Figure out who is most interested and
give them exclusive access to the
finished product
Exclusives

92. • Interesting proprietary data
• A high quality piece of content
• An anecdotal story about your business
• A new product or service release
• Interviews with high level employees
What makes a good exclusive

93. 1. Find out where your
“important people” are
hanging out
2. Don’t be afraid to get
exclusive
3. Get more creative with your
promotion

94. Email is
overwhelming
journalists

95. “I am someone with upwards of 5000 unread
messages at any given time” - @jordancrook
http://tcrn.ch/1edhgd2

96. Even the best
brands and
coolest content
can get ignored

97. Think outside the
inbox

98. Creative Promotion
• Snail mail
• PR stunts
• Creating a mystery

99. Creative Promotion
• Snail mail
• PR stunts
• Creating a mystery

100. When was the last time
you got something fun in
the mail?

102. Snail mail
• Previous efforts saw a response rate of only 10%
• Had over 70% of people activate the turntable via
their smartphones
• 42% clicked on a link to the Kontor Records
website on their phones
• Covered by SPIN, TrendHunter and Hypebot
(double whammy, coverage and conversion)

103. Creative Promotion
• Snail mail
• PR stunts
• Creating a mystery

104. But wait…
There’s a real thin line
between true creativity and
over the top craziness

105. An extreme
example

107. PR Stunts
OK realistically, you’re
not creating a drone
delivery service but…

108. …there’s a lesson here
• Timing is everything – the drone stunt was right
before Black Friday, all eyes on Amazon
• It doesn’t need to be “real”
• Keep it related to your brand
• Find a hook, something that will really grab the
attention of the media based on relevance

109. The cheapest PR stunt
I’ve ever seen

112. PR stunts don’t have to
be expensive like the
drone, they just have to
be smart like the ‘now
hiring’ sign

113. A well done PR stunt
feels really ripe for
coverage

114. Creative Promotion
• Snail mail
• PR stunts
• Creating a mystery

115. A boat's a boat, but the
Mystery Box could be
anything! It could even
be a boat!

116. In this world of social /
transparent / storytelling
/ open book branding…
(which is great)

117. Brands have become
Kimmy Gibbler

118. But they should occasionally
be like the guy from Twilight

119. “Humans naturally want to
finish the story”
-Matt Summers, @mattsummers
http://slidesha.re/NUqSPG

121. Sure, HBO could have
emailed Jacob and
told him some fun
stuff about the new
show but…

122. >

123. How much more exciting is it
for him to share that surprise
with his readers?

124. Don’t be the
shithead at the
party who tells
the birthday kid
what you got
them as a gift

125. We want to unwrap the
mystery ourselves

126. Key takeaways
• Play into the psychological elements of how
influencers choose what to share
• Seek a high level exclusive before mass
promotion
• Create a mystery around new and exciting
things you’re working on

127. People like to hunt
Give them the
opportunity

128. Thank you!
@stentontoledo rob.toledo@distilled.net