August 2, 2017

Outreach planning

Several folks asked me follow-up questions on yesterday’s email about the outreach I’ll going to begin for my mobile consulting business (i.e., jonathanstark.com).

Here’s the plan:

Make a list of cities serviced directly out of my local airport. Why? Because I’m going to focus on credit unions headquartered in cities that aren’t near me (I don’t like having local clients), but that are easy to fly to if need be (i.e., so I can fly direct and have lots of scheduling options).
Compile a list of 100 credit unions in my target cities. Creating this list is incredibly easy because credit unions are regulated by the U.S. government. And the U.S. government apparently LOVES to make detailed lists of things that they oversee. If the Washington D.C. doesn’t provide a list for your target market, it’s easy enough to make one by Googling around a little bit for “[TARGET MARKET] in [CITY/STATE/REGION]”
Create a list of senior marketing staff at my target CUs by searching on LinkedIn “CMO at [CREDIT UNION NAME]”. As that turns up profiles, I can use Email Hunter to try to get their contact info, but I’ll probably just message them through LinkedIn. If I can’t find someone for each CU on LinkedIn, I’ll try Googling around. If that still doesn’t work, I’ll search the CU’s website manually for senior leadership names. If I can’t find someone, I’ll scratch that CU off the list.
Research and take notes on the remaining CUs. Read their most recent annual report looking for a mission statement or an annual strategy from the president. Look for public statements and press releases from senior leadership or anyone on the board of directors that indicate what their current strategic focus is.
Search the app stores for a mobile app from the remaining CUs. If there is one, I’ll note the overall ratings and compile complaints from the 1 and 2 star reviews.
Attempt to join the CU on my phone, taking copious notes and perhaps a video of the experience. Make notes of obvious and easy things to fix.

Once I have my “dossier” on each CU, I’ll be ready to start crafting my outreach messages.

Stay tuned!

Yours,

—J

P.S. Can you feel a famine cycle creeping up on you again? Book a 1-on-1 coaching call with me and we’ll make a plan that will break the vicious cycle. https://jonathanstark.com/call