Attract Corporate Partners in 30 Days with 2 Cold Emails with Chris Barlow

Let's transform your mission into a movement . Hello listener , it is so good to be with you here today If you're listening live , having hopefully a very wonderful Wednesday . I am joined today with a second time guest , chris Barlow . Welcome back to the show , man .

But can you give us a little bit of a background into your brilliance , that is , your role as the founder and customer happiness director at Beeline .

And that eventually turned into them saying we've got budget for this , we want to pay you to do this and expand what you're doing . And they referred me to other nonprofits and so kind of happily fell into the nonprofit sector . I've always been a people pleaser and so that's why customer happiness director is my title Cause that's kind of what drives me .

That's also a fault , because sometimes it's better for someone , like it's for their ultimate good , not to please them . It's to , you know , do something more important for them . So it's both a strength and a weakness .

I don't know how you do it , but one thing that I love in your bio is that you say you try to teach them how to live in a way that multiplies good in others , and I love this For a new mom over here and listeners . Do you have any practical tips for us on how you do that ?

So they can convert them to real money or they can use them to buy stuff from the mom's store . There's a box that she , that Lydia , has , with gum and journals and pens and snacks , and so they can use their money to buy stuff from that store .

Well , at the end of this year and at the end of 2022 , we told them if there is a nonprofit or cause you want to donate to , you can donate your mama bucks and we will match them . One mama buck for a dollar . So if you give 50 , we'll donate $50 .

And so all of the kids wanted to do that and all of them contributed , and a couple of them gave like almost all of their mama bucks , and it was just like so humbling and inspiring to see them do that .

Okay , so let's dive into the goodness today , which we're going to talk about a case study all about attracting corporate partners and , specifically , in 30 days , with just two cold emails . Chris , will you break down this process and how you used it with a couple of clients of yours ?

Well , who are the big companies , the Fortune 500 companies ? They're really well known and we know they give money and stuff and there's nothing wrong with that . It's good to be ambitious and they do have money to give . But I also think it's important to start with identifying the companies who have some values alignment .

So we've worked with a human trafficking nonprofit and we thought about , well , who are the kinds of companies who would really value what they do , and we identified some different sectors , like companies that do like apps for parents to protect them from online like dangers and that kind of stuff .

We thought about attorneys and law firms that prosecute human traffickers . And again we're thinking about companies who would have both values , alignment , and might have programs or the money to just support the organizations .

But rather than saying , okay , let's think about how we can pitch these companies to sponsor us , which , again , those companies might be thinking about that and might want to do that , but they still don't know who you are . We're thinking about what do those companies want to do , naturally all the time . So let's take a step back .

The first thing to do is just make a list of these companies as many as you can , start with 20 , start with 50 , like somewhere in that range and I just identify them based on the values overlap .

If you see them living those values out , like you see that they do volunteer days or that they talk about social media , like some gifts that they've done or any programs , if they have that , that's great , they didn't have to have that .

But and then obviously , like the company size the larger the company or the more employees or the more customers they have , the more revenue they have , like those things are obviously indicative of whether they can support you . But that shouldn't stop you from reaching out to a small company .

Say they have a million in revenue , like they can still support you , your organization , in a meaningful way . So it doesn't really matter , as long as there's some values overlap . That's the primary thing For sure . Once you've made that list , then you want to look , and part of what you're looking at , too , is does the company ?

What kind of marketing do they do and , specifically , what kind of content do they have ? Do they have a blog ? Do they post on social media ? Do they have content , offers on their site or video or anything like that , where they're using their expertise to share and attract an audience and help educate people ?

Because , ultimately , like , the first step in this building a relationship with a new corporate partner , in my opinion , in my experience , is to build a content collaboration of some kind .

so , rather than them just like taking recipes off any website or what they already knew , or even from their own , sourcing it from their own audience or network , they reached out to celebrity chefs and influencers , people who had shows on the food network , and we just asked will you donate , quote , unquote the couple of these recipes that are already on your

website to our piece of content ? And we're going to give you a page in this recipe book that features you , that will link directly to your Amazon recipe book and we'll tell people all about you . So each contributing chef is going to get a featured page in this recipe book and for all of them it was an easy slam dunk .

Yes , because they're like go for it , use the recipes on my site that I've already published . Right , and you can do that in any industry . It doesn't really matter In reaching out for this human trafficking organization . We mentioned an interview that the app company , the software company , the parental protection you know kid protection app .

We just referenced an interview that one of them had done with Drew Barrymore and like this is great and we'd love to feature your knowledge and a piece of content that we want to create ,

or referencing a blog post . You can just ask , like you can ask them to help and collaborate with you , or you can repurpose something that they've already created , like this recipe book that I just mentioned .

What's so cool about this is you're offering , like saying hey , we want to feature your subject matter expertise and help you put your content to a different audience in a different format , in partnership with our nonprofit .

And for the marketing person whose responsibility it is to get their content out there , to come up with creative new ideas like this is an easy win for them , because they want to do that anyway what's your recommendation on finding those people to do the outreach ? Great question .

So I would say , first , once you have that company , I would go to LinkedIn , try to find someone who has that marketing title , or go to the company's website . A lot of times they'll list their employees and positions . And then there are a bunch of different resources and tools you can use to get their email address . A great one I recommend is hunterio .

You can just type in the company's domain name and it'll give you the format of the email , so like does this company use first initial last name at , or do they use full name dot last name ? However , it'll just give you the format and then you can figure out their email address from there and it's very accurate .

Those are also effective If you find that you prefer that or that you're not getting a response via email . So again , like you want to start with , I want to style this email in a way that's real , that doesn't sound like I'm spamming them , and one way that emails can sound like spam .

There's the hook , which is essentially your subject line , and the way to get them to open the email for your subject line and first line yeah , like how do you even get them to open it ? Yeah , so with the hook , I like to use their first name in the subject line . That's it Just the first name .

Nothing wrong with that , and the reason I like that is because nowadays every most people use Gmail or Outlook and all of them have the email preview of like what's the first line of the actual email .

I just treat the subject line as the first line of the email and then the first line of the actual email body as the real first line , and I don't put their name again . So I put subject line Dana and then whatever the first line of the email is . There's actually some helpful tools in writing good subject lines .

One of the tools that I use is called it's on OmniSend and it's just called Email Subject Line Tester , and that'll really help you Email .

But from a principle based perspective , it's am I writing the email in such a way as to get them to want to open it without being clickbaity ? So if you know someone in common , you see that on LinkedIn , like we both hey , dana , we both know this person . You can say that on your first line of your email .

Or I got connected to you through X , or I saw that you went to this event or something about them or about their company with that's relevant Like , don't go to . Like , be too stalkerish and be like whatever . You know how that would feel .

So something I used to do back when I worked more like in cold sales in corporate , was I would reach out initially on LinkedIn to create the connection and then I would find their email and then I would use the subject line connecting via LinkedIn and that like 10 out of 10 always got an open because they're like oh , we already know each other because we

connected .

Nearly like nine out of 10 would be like yeah , absolutely , let's do it .

It shows like so the way to get people to listen to you is you have to either know them sorry , they have to know you , or you know each other or , if they don't know who you are at all , you need to know who they are , at least their company . And so that's the piece of writing , the first cold email that really gets them to open .

It is showing some knowledge of who their company is Like . Once you get them to open it . The second part piece of the email is called an anchor that's how I call it and basically you need to establish that how you know them and show that .

And so this is the part where a lot of the spam emails are like your blog is the best and we want to help promote it . And instead of saying that , you say something like well , I bought one of your company's products and I left a five-star review , or I left a one-star review , and here's why .

They put a screenshot of the Apple review and it was a very specific pitch showcasing that they actually listened to the show and I responded back and I said your pitch was wonderful . I would love to have your guest on the show , because you actually took the time and the due diligence to actually know what my show is about .

But the easy thing you can do is find a blog post or a video or something that displays the subject matter expertise and share it on your social media and comment on it . Then do exactly what you just said screenshot it and say I really liked this post . I just shared it .

Here's why it's relevant to our organization , or here's why we found it really helpful . So you just show that you appreciate what they have to say . So hook , anchor and then the win . The win is the win for them and what they will get out of this . You're not going to talk about what you want . Who cares what you want ?

They're going to assume that you're going to get something out of it , or you can talk about that if you get a meeting with them . But the win for them . I like to start this with a very simple sentence because of why I thought we could do Z . So because your company cares about this or because your team posts about this .

I thought we could collaborate to create a resource on this . Because you have these recipes on your site , I thought we you might be able to donate them to our recipe book that we're giving away to our donors .

These are like the assets that I have to offer that would compliment what you're trying to achieve with Blink . So , a hundred percent . And I think the big thing that's happening there is that , yes , they can provide some creativity back to you and you can brainstorm together , but you are giving them the idea they already have so many things on their plate .

You are presenting them with something , an idea that you already have thought about . Like , I never launch a call and not know what I'm going to offer . I already have an idea of what it is that I have , knowing my research of what's going on with their organization and if they say something new .

Great example I just had a wonderful conversation with Good United and I saw that they had an event and it's coming up soon , so I thought they would definitely already be full on speakers . So I thought , well , I could just help promote you with the show . But I was like , hey , are you also looking for speakers ?

And he goes yeah , actually we have spots available . Oh , okay , well , I can do that too . And then it led to like three different ways of us partnering together . So just listening , for how can you really authentically help each other out ? Yes , we still need speaker spots . Oh , I can fill that void for you . Great , further partnership happening .

like it's generic , it's not like something , a specific idea for me , and again , it doesn't have to be the perfect idea , it doesn't have to be what you end up doing , but it needs to show , like , here's something I can bring to the table , here's something else , and so you're asking for this specific piece of content from them , or we want .

I thought we could create a guide on how to help parents protect their kids from predators online . That's what we're creating and we'd love your you know something specific that you want them to contribute to or help with . And then , finally , our ask is a yes or no question Are you interested , or can we get on a call ? That's it . Don't make them think .

Make it as easy as possible . Don't go into the details of , like , how we're going to do this meeting , and just say yes , like , are you interested ? Because if they say yes , then you can set up your call and talk through the details .

Just make it really easy for them to say yes or no , and if you're already offering them what they want and it's relevant , they're going to say yes .

So sometimes it'll take three , but almost , I would say like 90% of the time , if you're going to get a yes , you'll get a yes , the first email or the first follow-up , and then occasionally that if you do a third follow-up and then if you don't hear from them , like you could try again . Try again in six months or something , if you want .

How can you build out something that has longer legs and that you can do maybe multiple times a year ? That creates a longer partnership . Something else that I think we downgrade a lot is you , as an organization listener , have an email list , you have social channels , you have an audience .

Maybe you have a podcast , maybe you also have yes , you do have these events that happen . You have these things that you can offer that can also create opportunities for them to be featured . I even like the idea of pitching email space like a nonprofit email space for a monetary exchange as well . I think that would be interesting . Or like a trade ?

Because really what you want are companies who know you and trust you , who you can approach every year .

And you might not get a gift every year , you might not get a sponsorship , but they know you and they've worked with you before and likely , if you get a sponsorship and they already have a previous relationship with you and they like it's going to continue , you You'll be in their sphere now and one great way to follow up is like you do this collaboration and

oh yeah , and to your point , like you also have the Google grant , you can say we're going to promote this resource with our $10,000 monthly ad grant to people and so this isn't just going to go nowhere . Like we're going to get this . People are going to see your name and that's something that companies can't touch .

Like they might have a $10,000 real marketing budget or more per month , but they still can't touch that . The grant space . That's just a significant amount of leverage you can bring them you can follow up with them , like 30 days after you guys , you know , start putting out your piece of content , like check in with them and say wanted to give you an update .

This is how many people have seen it , this is how many people have downloaded it . And you can , so you have a natural reason to stay connected . And then you can ask , like , instead of again approaching that the person in charge of corporate philanthropy , you can say well , so who's in charge of your company's values ?

Who , like , makes the decisions about how your company lives out those values ? Or another approach , like who in your HR is in charge of employee engagement and helping employees , like , get involved with your values and stuff ? Because there was a recent study shown that I read a couple of years ago .

That was like millennials and is it Gen Z , don't stick with companies more than two or three years if they don't feel like there's a values alignment . And what better way to help a company live out its values by doing this really tangible , like content partnership that doesn't cost them anything . That's just like the first step .

And then you can ask for , basically , an internal introduction . So can you connect me to the person in charge of your corporate philanthropy and so now , instead of just like coming in as an outsider and giving a proposal with 10 other nonprofits proposing them at the same time .

Your marketing person is saying , hey , I want you to talk to this guy at this organization . We worked with them already . Look at this thing we did together . We really need to consider them in our next round of sponsorships .

PS , do you have any corporate matching ? So then we could announce that we're going to match any of your contributions if you decided to give or become a monthly donor , or X , y and Z . So I love the like . Let's do a content collaboration easy , win-win for both people . It doesn't take a whole lot of resources or time to do it .

Then how do we work internally ? Maybe then we become a fiscal , like monetary , sponsor . I think there's like so many routes there to be able to build a more like established relationship . This is so good , chris . Thank you for sharing this little case study with us today . I want to jump into a section called ask and receive .

If you remember it , I've added a twist question since , which is is there another incredible marketer or organization that you think I should have on the show in future ?

It's not just a donor list that's out at large , but they're really really , really good at creating content and serving people through that and meeting people's needs and keeping their audience engaged . They just understand nonprofit marketing really really well .

I know there's a lot of times I'm doing something I'm like why am I doing this ? I shouldn't be doing this Like . This is not the best use of my time .