Recently, I came across this “RULE of 10s for MARKETING.”
It’s not incredibly profound but sets achievable parameters on something that can feel so overwhelming.
The Rule of 10s is simply:
Send outreach emails or messages to 10 new people
Research 10 new people
Follow up with or “touch” (comment on a LinkedIn post) 10 people you already contacted
Keep doing the above until you’ve shown up 10 times on their radar
In addition, when doing this, you’ll
- Send thoughtful, personalized emails. You’re not going to send the horrible cold outreach emails we receive every day. I’m talking about the ones with “Dear Sir or Madam.” The ones with your name misspelled. The boilerplate ones that make it clear the person knows nothing about you and sends this same piece of automated garbage to 1000s of other people.
- You’re going to get creative with your follow-up. You can find other ways to become known and familiar, including handwritten notes, responding to threads, commenting on a LinkedIn post, resharing a post of theirs.
You’re going to track this outreach in a CRM or GSheet, such as this one. To use it as a template, click File > Make a copy.
Here’s what it looks like on a weekly basis to start –
Week 1
- Research 20 prospects to contact.
- Contact 10 of them.
- If you work 5 days a week, then reach out to 2 prospects per day.
- Don’t worry about what time you send the email or message.
- Don’t worry about following up yet.
Week 2
- Contact the remaining 10 (2 prospects per day).
- Research 10 new people that you will contact next week.
- Follow up with 10 that you contacted last week.
Week 3
- Contact the 10 people researched last week (2 prospects per day).
- Research 10 new people that you will contact next week.
- Follow up with 10 that you contacted last week.
Hope this helps give some structure to what can feel like a huge undertaking.
