Outreach

Outreach — the link-earning playbook

This is a PLAYBOOK the off-page sub-agent runs, not a live pipeline step, and it runs only once the off-page phase is open (blogs proven + traffic rising — STRATEGY.md "Off-page (later)" + examples/off-page-subagent-AGENTS.md). It produces drafts; it does not send. Every outward-facing message is gated on operator approval (charter guardrails). Outreach is a tool in service of links, never the strategy itself (STRATEGY.md Lesson 10).

Outreach has a deservedly bad reputation because most of it is spam: a generic template blasted at a scraped list, asking strangers to add a link they get nothing from. We do the opposite. The whole skill is two disciplines: reach the right person, and give them a real reason to care that isn't "please link to me."

Data layer (light): Ahrefs MCP (mcp__ahrefs__*) — used only to identify linkers/mentioners and to pull the prospect's context. Read ../research/references/ahrefs-mcp-cheatsheet.md first (string params, select+country, doc {tool:"..."} for unfamiliar tools). The prospect list itself comes from /linkbuild-competitor-mining; this skill personalizes and drafts.

When to use /oversubscribed (Daniel Priestley) — read it before a guest-post / link-demand push (Lesson 9). When the goal shifts from a single link to building demand for our guest articles — a queue of bloggers who want to run our content — apply Priestley's demand>supply model (/oversubscribed):

• Demand > supply ("pitch MORE than you can handle"). Don't pitch one editor and wait; build a pipeline of qualified prospects so more sites want our guest post / data study than we can place. The aim is to be oversubscribed on guest slots — that's what lets us pick the relevant, on-brand placements and hold standards, instead of begging any site that'll have us. (This rides on, not against, the far-right "fewer people, better" effort rule below — more qualified prospects, each still a real, personalized, them-focused note.)
• The 7-Hour Rule (~11 educate/entertain touches before any ask). A cold "will you run my guest post?" converts poorly. Warm the best targets first with ~7 hours / ~11 touches of genuinely useful, no-ask value (our data studies, benchmarks, useful threads — 80/20 educate/entertain) so that by the time we propose a guest article, they already know and trust the work. Signal, don't sell — ask for the signal of interest, not the link.
• Products-for-prospects. Our data studies / linkable assets ARE the products-for-prospects — the free, high-value things that build demand and earn the right to pitch. /linkable-asset produces them; outreach uses them as the warming touches and the citable hook (this is exactly why new-proof is our strongest excuse).

This is a lens for the demand-building push, layered on top of — never replacing — the anti-spam, ≤1-follow-up, operator-gated rules below. More demand does not mean more volume of cold asks; it means more warmed, qualified prospects who want what we have.

Input

/outreach <asset-slug> — the linkable asset (a data study, a definitive guide, a free tool) we're earning links for. Reads:

• content-pipeline/off-page/link-prospects.csv — the vetted prospects from /linkbuild-competitor-mining.
• The asset itself (content-pipeline/.../{asset-slug}.md or the live URL) — so the excuse is grounded in what the asset actually offers.
• brand-config.md — our voice/register, the off-page sender identity + reply-to email (the sub-agent's own mailbox — charter §"Its own email"), and the affiliate-suppression note.
• content-pipeline/off-page/outreach-log.csv if present — who we've already contacted + when (so we never double-contact and we honor the ≤1-follow-up rule).

WHO to reach (and who to ignore)

The single biggest determinant of reply rate is picking people who have already shown they link to / write about this topic. In priority order:

1. Linkers — people who linked to a competing/older resource on our topic (straight from link-prospects.csv: superfans, power-linkers, fresh-link authors). They have, demonstrably, added a link on this subject before. Highest hit-rate.
2. Mentioners — people who wrote about / mentioned our topic, a related stat, or an outdated figure, without linking to a good source. They've shown topical interest and have an unfilled citation slot our asset fills.
   • Find unlinked mentions via Ahrefs content-explorer (doc it for the current params) for our topic/stat, filtered to pages with few outbound links to sources; or mentions of a now-outdated number our data updates.

Who we deliberately do NOT reach (anti-pattern):

• "People who tweeted/shared it" / pure social engagers. A like or a tweet is not a link and rarely becomes one — chasing social sharers is low-yield noise (STRATEGY.md Lesson 10: reach linkers and mentioners, not social sharers).
• Anyone on the suppression list (already links to us) or any affiliate-program prospect Alex owns — those go through Alex, not cold outreach (charter §"Coordination with Alex").
• Anyone with no real human / no editorial contact (the no_contact flag) — there's no one to persuade.

The "excuse" — three templates (why they should care)

Cold outreach only works with a genuine excuse: a reason the email is about them and their page, not about us. No excuse = spam (STRATEGY.md Lesson 10). Pick the template that fits what we actually have for that specific prospect:

1. Fresh-angle — their page is good but misses an angle we cover. "You cover X thoroughly; the one thing readers still ask is Y — we put together [asset] that answers it, in case it's useful for your readers." Use when our asset adds a sub-topic or perspective their page lacks.
2. New-proof — their page cites an old/weaker stat or no source; we have fresh first-party data. "You cite [old figure] — we just ran [N] tests / pulled [our own data] and got [updated figure]; sharing in case you want a current number." Use when our own data / experiment (a linkable asset — STRATEGY.md Lesson 7) updates something they reference. Strongest excuse in the adult niche because data is brand-safe and genuinely citable.
3. Ego-bait — we featured / praised them, and we're letting them know. "We included your [tool/post/quote] in [asset] as one of the best examples of X — thought you'd want to see it." Use when the asset authentically references the prospect (a roundup, a "best of," a methodology that credits them). Never fake the feature — the link must really exist before the email goes out.

Each template is a starting structure, personalized per prospect from competitor_evidence + anchor_seen in the prospect row — never a mail-merge blast. The prospect's own page is named and referenced specifically; if you can't say something true and specific about their page, they're the wrong prospect.

The outreach ↔ spam EFFORT spectrum (the mental model)

The difference between outreach and spam is effort per recipient, on a spectrum:

SPAM  ◄─────────────────────────────────────────────────────►  OUTREACH
mass-blast,           segmented           one real, specific note per person,
no excuse,            template,           grounded in THEIR page, with a genuine
"please link",        light personal,     excuse, no pushy ask, easy to ignore
nag follow-ups        some excuse         (≤1 gentle follow-up, then stop)

We operate at the far-right end only. The cost of that is we contact fewer people, better — which is correct: 10 personalized notes beat 1,000 blasts on both yield and on not torching our sender reputation / the brand. (STRATEGY.md anti-pattern #15: spam communities / mass-blast / push for links / nag.)

Process

1. Load + segment prospects. Read link-prospects.csv; split into linkers (already typed) and go find mentioners for <asset-slug> (unlinked-mention search above). Drop anything in outreach-log.csv (already contacted), the suppression list, no_contact, and affiliate-suppressed rows.
2. Match an excuse per prospect. For each, pick fresh-angle / new-proof / ego-bait based on the evidence we actually have about their page. If none of the three is honestly true for a prospect, remove them — no excuse, no email.
3. Draft, them-focused, one per prospect. Short (a few sentences). Structure: name their page + one specific true observation about it → the excuse (what we have that's relevant to them) → a soft, optional offer ("in case it's useful," "no worries either way"). No demand to link, no "please add our link," no "let me know by [date]," no fake urgency. Sign as the off-page sub-agent's identity with its real reply-to mailbox. Make it trivially easy to ignore — that's what keeps it from being spam.
4. Self-check each draft against the anti-pattern list (below) before it's eligible to send.
5. Write drafts to disk for operator approval — do NOT send. content-pipeline/off-page/outreach-drafts/{asset-slug}/{prospect-domain}.md, plus a manifest. The operator (and, per charter, the approval gate) reviews and explicitly approves before any message leaves the mailbox.
6. On approval + after sending (logged by the sub-agent): record domain, contact, excuse_type, asset, sent_at, channel in outreach-log.csv.
7. Follow-up — at most ONE, and only if warranted. If no reply after ~5–7 days, one short, friendly, no-pressure nudge is allowed ("bumping this once in case it slipped by — totally fine to ignore"). Then stop. Forever. A second follow-up is nagging = spam (STRATEGY.md Lesson 10 "≤1 follow-up"; anti-pattern #15 "nag with follow-ups"). Mark the prospect closed either way.

Output

• content-pipeline/off-page/outreach-drafts/{asset-slug}/*.md — one personalized draft per prospect (+ a manifest listing each prospect, excuse type, and the one-line rationale). Drafts only — operator-gated send.
• content-pipeline/off-page/outreach-log.csv — the contact ledger (who, when, excuse, follow-up status) so we never double-contact and the ≤1-follow-up rule is enforceable.

Quality checklist

• Every recipient is a linker or mentioner — zero "social sharer / tweeted-it" contacts in the list.
• Every draft names the prospect's own page and says something specific + true about it (no generic openers).
• Every draft maps to one of the three excuses, and that excuse is honestly true for that prospect (ego-bait only when the feature really exists).
• No pushy ask anywhere — no "please link," no deadline, no fake urgency, no "Reply STOP." It's an easy-to-ignore, them-focused note.
• ≤ 1 follow-up is structurally enforced via outreach-log.csv; no prospect can receive a 2nd nudge.
• No draft is addressed to a suppression-list domain or an affiliate prospect owned by Alex.
• Nothing is queued to actually send without an operator-approval step recorded.
• For a guest-post / link-demand push: the /oversubscribed lens is applied — a pipeline of qualified prospects (demand>supply), best targets warmed with ~11 no-ask value touches (7-Hour Rule) before any guest-article ask, and our data studies used as the products-for-prospects — WITHOUT increasing cold-ask volume or breaking the ≤1-follow-up / operator-gate rules.

DO / DON'T

DO

• Reach people who linked to / mentioned the topic (they fill a real citation slot) — STRATEGY.md Lesson 10.
• Lead with a genuine excuse that's about their page; personalize every message.
• Lean on new-proof (our own data/experiments) as the primary adult-niche-safe excuse — data is citable where a product pitch isn't.
• Keep it short, soft, easy to ignore; ≤ 1 gentle follow-up, then stop.
• Treat outreach as a tool that earns links, measured by opened/clicked/replied → links accrued.

DON'T

• Don't mass-blast, don't email without an excuse, don't be pushy, don't nag with a 2nd follow-up (STRATEGY.md anti-pattern #15; Lesson 10 DON'Ts).
• Don't chase social sharers / "people who tweeted it" — that's the explicitly-named wrong audience.
• Don't fake an ego-bait feature, fabricate a stat, or invent a contact — if the excuse isn't true, drop the prospect.
• Don't pitch the affiliate program cold — route affiliate-shaped prospects to Alex (charter §"Coordination with Alex").
• Don't send anything without operator approval — this skill drafts; the human gate decides.

Winning =

Messages that get opened, clicked, and replied to — and, over time, links that accrue (STRATEGY.md Lesson 10 "Winning = opened/clicked/replied; links accrue"). Combined with /linkbuild-competitor-mining, the off-page wing's whole north star is the same as Lesson 9's: a steady stream of manual referring domains that lifts our DR, which unlocks higher-KD keystones — feeding straight back into the on-page strategy's winnability ladder (STRATEGY.md §2). Outreach that torches sender reputation or annoys the niche is negative progress, even if it lands a link.