Demand Generation | Complete Guide to Outreach

Today you will learn about how to reach customers and get 10–30 inbounds per month!

For background, I’ve bootstrapped to $450k. I use this playbook to scale my companies.

Let’s begin.

1. Make a List

In the beginning of my week, I make a list of all the outreach I will be doing that week.

This is important because most people fail by not doing 40 hours of outreach. They do 1 hour. Don’t see results. Feel bad. Then quit.

Here’s the outreach I planned for this week:

• 3 Articles
• 5 LinkedIn posts

In the past weeks, this amount has gotten me 10–30 inbounds. Let’s go!

2. Block it out

I blocked out time to write all my posts on my flight to San Francisco.

This is good because I have 4 hours of undistracted time to write.

Demand gen is one of the most time-consuming tasks, so I get it if you don’t want to. You should hire someone instead if you have a budget.

3. For Inbound — Use this messaging

If you’re writing blogs, LinkedIn posts, or social posts, here’s the framework I use.

Start with proof

This INSTANTLY shows people that your material is legit.

Next, give a preview of your content

This lets readers know your content is exactly what they’re looking for. Which means they’ll stick around!

Then dive into your list of topics

In each section, add anecdotal proof. This helps increase trust.

✅ Use stories to tell your point. This “sticks” way more than a generic explanation.

❌ Don’t use generic explanations… Without examples, it’s not a legitimate claim.

4. For outbound — Use this messaging

For outbound email, here’s the framework I use.

Make a love letter to yourself…

I’m going to try to sell myself some Tax planning service. Here’s what I’d write!

Subject: Hi Maddie, Tax question!!

Hey Maddie,

Are you doing taxes yourself? I can imagine this is frustrating. You’re always clicking buttons (YES this is an expense) (NO this is personal).. You probably spend 2–3 whole days doing the taxes.

I’m guessing you value your time and energy A LOT. You’d probably prefer to close more sales in than being stuck in Xero.

Is it worth $1k to outsource this to someone who can do this for you? I make it super easy. On average, founders need to spend only 2 hours to get everything done.

LMK!

Sally Tang

Turbotax

What makes this good:

• Looks personal (Has personality)
• Understands my problem (manually doing taxes sucks BUTT)
• Understands what I’m looking for in a solution (EASY) (Low time)

Bad example:

Maddie, Hope you are well. Are you looking for an accountant this year? If so, check out my profile. I’ve helped dozens of other founders like yourself with taxes.

• Generic
• Value is off (I value easy, not working with many people)
• Doesn’t understand my problem

5. Execute!

You’ve made a list of outreach to do

You’ve blocked it off

During the time block, you use good messaging

Boom. See how it performs in the week. Rinse and repeat each week.

Don’t fall into the trap of doing everything except demand gen.

In fact, demand gen is the most important lever to pull, especially in the early days.

If you want revenue….. Focus on demand gen each week.

[ Demand gen ] -> [ Leads ] -> [sales calls ] -> [ revenue ]

This will help you create a repeatable system for revenue!

In conclusion,

1. create your list of places to outreach
2. block it out
3. write inbound and outbound using the messaging template

The result?

[ 5 linkedin, 2 blogs ] -> [ 10 inbounds ] -> [ 5 sales calls ] -> [ 2 closed ]

Good luck!