Since my following grew at the beginning of 2024, I’ve received hundreds upon hundreds of canned outreach DMs from spammy marketers (mostly copywriters, appointment setters, and video editors). I usually don’t respond to these folks, since I’m working in a different space.
Simultaneously, I’ve worked on a few projects which had me reaching out to creators through the DMs for influencer campaigns. The response rates I get are much higher (about 50%) than the folks I respond to (about 5%). I think it’s because of one thing: I include my phone number in the cold DM.
When you show openness, and put something on the table, people are more likely to respond in-kind. When you ask people to click on a link, or DM back a word, but don’t include any credibility, we’re not sure if you’re a real person. A phone number is great human credibility. I put my cards on the table first. If they were a spammer, they could spam me back. It shows I’m open and have nothing to hide.
Try it out and let me know how it goes!
