How to Bounce Back from Outreach Rejection

Outreach isn’t always successful. It can be tough to get through to the right sources and platforms, especially if your attempts are rejected. If you’re new to the outreach game, it’s easy to take the rejection to heart, but you shouldn’t. There are multiple reasons as to why you might be rejected in outreach. However, we’re on hand to tell you how to deal with it in an effective and productive manner. So, how can you bounce back from outreach rejection? Let’s take a look.

Do your own through research

Research is paramount when it comes to outreach campaigns. You need to know what their angle is, you need to get some evidence of budget and you also need to make sure that they receive a good amount of traffic before wasting time and money posting on their site. Research all of these things before starting your campaign. This saves your time and that of the person you’re reaching out to.

Write good follow-up correspondence

After rejection, it’s not uncommon for people to simply give up on that lead altogether. There’s no point pursuing something that’s ended up nowhere, for instance. However, you shouldn’t look at it in this way. Instead, you need to go back to them more determined than ever to get them hooked on your outreach programme. Although, sending follow up outreach correspondence can be difficult, and there’s normally a courtesy or a process that marketers will follow to get this done. Here’s how to tackle the art of the outreach follow up process:

• Choose a good time to send the follow up – don’t send it too quickly after the rejection but not too late afterwards, either
• Take the feedback received into consideration also – use the feedback from your rejection email to adjust your approach
• Give them more information – provide them with the insight they need which might well change their opinion or decision; something they didn’t know beforehand
• Express gratitude – thank them for their time, their consideration and for their patience throughout the process
• Suggest an alternative way to collaborate – offer services for free or ask them if there’s something you can change that will mean you can work with them

Base your outreach campaign on data & analytics

Before you start any type of outreach campaign, you need to make sure that you’re contacting targeted sources. There’s no point asking a home and garden blog to post an article on their site that’s about how to change a car tyre. It’s just not relevant. Some opportunities might not be so obvious in terms of their relevance. You don’t want to give an article to a site that receives barely any traffic either, for example. Just do your analytical research using tools such as Google Search Console and Google Analytics and you’ll be sure to choose a source that works for both parties.

Understand why you’ve been rejected in the first place

One of the ways you can bounce back from rejection when it comes to your outreach campaign is to understand why you’ve been rejected in the first place. What did you do wrong? By learning where your technique has failed to impress, you can have a better understanding of how to carry out outreach campaigns in the future, mitigating the mistakes you made initially. But what are some of the reasons as to why someone will reject your outreach attempt? Let’s explore things further:

It’s not in their budget currently

It might just be that outreach isn’t in their budget currently. They’ll likely have something else that’s more of a priority when it comes to their finances. Don’t take it personally if they tell you that they just don’t have the budget for outreach right now. The only thing you can do to solve this is to offer them your outreach for free, which is better than no exposure from another online source at all.

They’re too busy to respond

Everyone in the marketing industry is busy doing something. You might not get a response because people have just got too much on their plate to deal with outreach campaigns right now. Like yourself, they too will have a priority list that they need to stick to. Again, don’t take it to heart if you just don’t get a response. You could always try a couple of times to get hold of them. But after that, leave them alone because you don’t want to make a nuisance of yourself.

They’re just not interested

It might be that they’re just not interested in what you’re offering. You can’t really dfo much to mitigate this or to change their minds, most of the time. The best thing you can do is to hold out and see if they do, eventually, become interested in something you’re writing about. Either that or you could ask them what they would be interested in, if anything, and write your content based on that instead. 

They’re exploring other avenues

It might be that the content you’re writing just isn’t for them right now. They might be going in  a different direction with their target market, for instance, or they’re bringing out new services they want to focus on. No matter the reason, it’s always possible that your content just isn’t what they need right now. To get over this one, ask them what their focus i son and write something to cater for that. 

They’re handling it all internally

It might be that they don’t actually need content from outside of their organisation. If they’re handling it all themselves, either because they have their own copywriter or creative team, then they have no reason to pay you for content that’s just not necessary. It’s got nothing to do with your style or the topic, so don’t take it personally. It’s simply more cost-effective and streamlined to keep everything in-house. While it’s difficult to overcome this situation, it might be worth offering them your services for free or try convincing them that outsourcing their content is the best way to go. 

The person you’re dealing with doesn’t make the decisions

It could be that there’s a simple reason for the rejection, and that’s because the person you’re talking to simply doesn’t deal with that side of things. Either that or they aren’t part of the decision-making team, or they just don’t have the authority to liaise with you. The solution to this one is to just ask them if they can help you to get through to the people you need to speak to get the job done. They should be more than willing to give you a helping hand in that regard.

Kumo is a dedicated digital marketing agency with a wealth of experience in the field. With over two decades in the industry, you’ll be able to count on us for SEO, PPC, content writing and website design services, to name just a few. If you’re looking to propel your business into the spotlight, setting you apart from your competitors, then get in touch with a member of our friendly, professional team today – we’re always pleased to hear from you.