Reaching Out to Buyers

Who to reach

For a small shop, outreach usually goes to:

• Local shops that might stock your products.
• Online stores in a related niche that might carry them.
• Businesses that might buy in bulk, like offices, cafes or studios.
• Bloggers, newsletter writers and creators who review products in your area.

The outreach bot

Add an Ask first rule for sending email, if you haven't already.

Building a list

Ask the bot for a short list, ten to twenty, that genuinely fit. For each one:

• What they sell or write about, with a link.
• Why your product fits.
• Who to contact and how they say they want to be contacted.
• Anything relevant right now, like a new section or a seasonal theme.

Anti-spam laws

This matters enough to cover before the first message.

Writing the message

A good outreach message is short, specific and easy to answer.

Slow and steady

Send a few messages a week, each one different. If you find you're approving the same message with only the name changed, stop.

Follow-ups and no

One polite follow-up after a week or two is normal. After that, let it go.

When someone's interested

Good. Now the bot switches to helping you close the deal.

Past customers

Your past customers are the people most likely to buy again. If they've agreed to get emails from you, an occasional message about a new product is fine.

Walkthrough: approaching a local shop

• The outreach bot found a home goods shop in town that sells desk and kitchen accessories, with a "Makers: get in touch" note on its website.
• It drafted a short message mentioning the shop's maker section and offering samples.
• The owner changed one line to mention they'd been in the shop before. They had.
• They approved, and the bot sent it from the shop's business email.

What went wrong: the same email twice

One week, the outreach bot drafted a message to a plant shop that the owner had already pitched two months earlier, under a slightly different shop name on its new website. The owner noticed the address and stopped it.

A worked example: the newsletter

Shelf Life added a monthly email for past customers who had ticked the sign-up box at checkout. The outreach bot drafts it: one new product, one tip for using an old product, one photo from a customer who agreed to share it.

Questions people ask

How many messages a week is too many? If you can't make each one personal, you're sending too many.