Looking for the best outreach planning tool for your SEO agency or maybe in-house SaaS company? There are plenty of solutions for outreach planning on review sites, but they don’t make the choice any easier. The crux of the issue is – to make the right choice, you need to account for your priorities: your different jobs to be done, your budget, and the size of the company. But don’t worry – we’re coming to help! In this post, we’ll discuss exactly that – which outreach planning tool is best depending on the different criteria that companies looking for outreach planning software typically have. Let’s dive in!
TL;DR
- Outreach planning is developing a strategy to reach a specific audience or community.
- It helps identify the target audience, choose effective communication methods, and build relationships.
- Outreach planning tools are essential for organizing, tracking, and managing outreach efforts.
- Good tools have customizable templates, collaboration features, task and contact management, analytics, and integration capabilities.
- Ahrefs is great for link audits, analyzing backlinks, and tracking search engine rankings.
- Pitchbox excels in email outreach and content marketing, with influencer finding and campaign tracking features.
- Respona is ideal for guest posting, offering a user-friendly interface and CRM functionality.
- Postaga provides link-building CRM capabilities, including opportunity management and automated follow-ups.
- BacklinkManager is a comprehensive tool for link building CRM, managing relationships with clients, vendors, and freelance link builders.
- Each tool has its pros and cons, and pricing varies based on features and plans.
- Choose a tool that aligns with your specific needs and goals.
What is outreach planning?
Outreach planning is the process of developing a strategy to reach out to a specific audience or community. It involves identifying the target audience, determining the best methods of communication, and creating a plan to engage with them effectively. Outreach planning is often used by organizations, businesses, and government agencies to promote their products, services, or initiatives, and to build relationships with their stakeholders.
Why is outreach planning important?
Outreach planning is important because it helps organizations to:
- Identify their target audience
- Develop effective communication strategies
- Maximize their resources and budget
- Measure the success of their outreach efforts
- Build relationships with stakeholders and communities
Why do you need outreach planning tools?
Wondering why you even need a outreach planning tool? There are several reasons why you may need one:
Why do you need outreach planning tools?
- To organize and track outreach efforts
- To manage contact lists and communication with stakeholders
- To analyze and measure the effectiveness of outreach strategies
- To collaborate with team members and share information
- To streamline and automate outreach tasks
Must have features of good outreach planning tools
1. Customizable Templates: The outreach planning tool should have customizable templates that allow users to create outreach plans that are tailored to their specific needs.
2. Collaboration Features: The tool should have collaboration features that allow multiple team members to work on the same outreach plan simultaneously.
3. Task Management: The tool should have task management features that allow users to assign tasks to team members and track their progress.
4. Contact Management: The tool should have contact management features that allow users to store and organize contact information for outreach targets.
5. Analytics and Reporting: The tool should have analytics and reporting features that allow users to track the success of their outreach efforts and make data-driven decisions.
6. Integration with Other Tools: The tool should be able to integrate
Best outreach planning tools
The best outreach planning tools for SaaS include the following:
Best Tools for Outreach Planning
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- Asana: A project management tool that can help you keep track of tasks and deadlines for your outreach plan.
- Google Analytics: A web analytics service that can help you track the success of your outreach efforts by monitoring website traffic and user behavior.
- Mailchimp: An email marketing platform that can help you create and send targeted outreach emails to your audience.
- Hootsuite: A social media management tool that can help you schedule and publish posts across multiple platforms to reach a wider audience.
<Let’s dive deeper into how each stacks up for different company sizes, budgets and jobs to be done!
Ahrefs- Best outreach planning platform for link audit
Ahrefs is a powerful SEO tool that helps you analyze your website’s backlinks, research your competitors’ backlinks, and monitor your website’s performance in search engine rankings. It is a web-based tool that can be used to analyze HTML code and identify potential issues with your website’s SEO. It can also be used to identify broken links, analyze keyword performance, and track your website’s performance in search engine rankings.
Conducting regular link audits is vital for maintaining a healthy backlink profile and ensuring your website’s credibility and search engine rankings. Ahrefs provides a robust set of tools to help beginners perform comprehensive link audits. Here’s how you can use Ahrefs for link audits:
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- Create an account: Sign up for an Ahrefs subscription to access their suite of SEO tools designed to help with link audits and more.
- Analyze your backlink profile: Use the Site Explorer tool to gain insights into your domain’s backlink profile, including the number of referring domains, backlinks, and their quality.
- Identify low-quality or toxic links: In the Site Explorer, navigate to the ‘Backlinks’ tab and use filters to find low-quality or toxic backlinks, such as those with low Domain Rating (DR), high Spam Score, or coming from unrelated or spammy websites.
- Export toxic links: Export a list of toxic backlinks by clicking the ‘Export’ button in the Site Explorer. This will provide you with a CSV file containing the data required for further analysis or disavowal.
- Create a disavow file: Use the exported list of toxic backlinks to create a disavow file, following Google’s disavow guidelines.
- Submit the disavow file to Google: Submit the disavow file to Google Search Console to request Google to ignore the low-quality or toxic backlinks, thereby preventing any potential negative impact on your website’s rankings.
- Monitor your backlink profile: Regularly monitor your backlink profile using the Site Explorer and set up Ahrefs Alerts to receive email notifications about new or lost backlinks, ensuring you stay up to date on any changes.
- Learn more: Enhance your knowledge of link audits by leveraging the educational resources available through Ahrefs’ Academy and Blog.
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PROs of Ahrefs
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- Comprehensive backlink analysis
- Competitive research tools
- Keyword research and analysis
- Content gap analysis
- Robust reporting capabilities
- Integration with other SEO tools
- Easy-to-use interface
- Affordable pricing plans
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Cons of Ahrefs
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- Expensive subscription plans
- Limited data for free users
- Difficult to use for beginners
- No keyword research tool
- No social media analytics
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Ahrefs pricing
Ahrefs offers a range of plans and pricing options to provide access to their powerful SEO tools and data. These plans cater to various needs, from small businesses to large enterprises:
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- Lite: Starts at £79/month – Essential data for small businesses and hobby projects. Subscribe.
- Standard: Starts at £159/month – Perfect for freelance SEOs and marketing consultants. Subscribe.
- Advanced: Starts at £319/month – More tools and data for lean in-house marketing teams. Subscribe.
- Enterprise: Starts at £799/month – Ideal for agencies and enterprises. Talk to us.
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Each plan comes with a variety of features and data allowances, such as SEO Dashboard, Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, Site Audit, Rank Tracker, and more. You can choose to pay monthly or pay annually and get 2 months free. To learn more about each plan and get started, visit Ahrefs’ pricing page.
Still looking for the best outreach planning tool for your business?
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Pitchbox- Best outreach planning platform for email outreach
Pitchbox is a content marketing platform that helps marketers and content creators to find, engage, and nurture relationships with influencers and journalists. It provides a suite of tools to help users find and connect with influencers, track and measure the success of campaigns, and manage relationships with influencers. Pitchbox also offers a range of analytics and reporting tools to help users understand the impact of their campaigns.
Email outreach is a crucial aspect of link building, guest posting, and content promotion. Pitchbox is a comprehensive outreach platform that streamlines the process of connecting with influencers, website owners, and other potential partners. Here’s how you can use Pitchbox for effective email outreach:
- Create an account: Sign up for a Pitchbox subscription to access their suite of email outreach tools and features.
- Find outreach opportunities: Use Pitchbox’s Prospecting feature to discover relevant influencers, bloggers, and websites in your niche for potential collaboration or link building.
- Collect contact information: Leverage Pitchbox’s Contact Finding feature to automatically gather email addresses and social media profiles of your target prospects.
- Create personalized templates: Design customized email templates that resonate with your target audience, incorporating personalization tokens to tailor each message for individual recipients.
- Automate follow-ups: Configure automated follow-up emails to improve response rates and save time on manual outreach tasks.
- Track campaign performance: Monitor your outreach campaigns using Pitchbox’s Reporting feature, which provides insights into open rates, response rates, conversions, and other key metrics to help you optimize your strategy.
- Collaborate with your team: Utilize Pitchbox’s Team Collaboration features to assign tasks, share notes, and manage workflows with your team members, ensuring smooth and efficient outreach campaigns.
- Expand your knowledge: Enhance your email outreach skills by exploring Pitchbox’s Resources section, which offers case studies, webinars, and blog posts with valuable insights and best practices.
PROs of Pitchbox
- Automates outreach processes
- Integrates with multiple platforms
- Provides detailed analytics
- Enables team collaboration
- Offers personalized outreach
- Saves time and resources
Cons of Pitchbox
- Expensive subscription fees
- Limited customization options
- Lack of customer support
- Difficult to use for beginners
- Limited integrations with other tools
Pitchbox pricing
Pitchbox offers two comprehensive pricing plans tailored to suit the needs of outreach teams of all sizes. The Professional plan, priced at $495 per month (billed annually), provides all the essential tools required for a successful outreach team, including 5,000 outreach emails, access for three users, five email accounts, and unlimited campaigns and contacts. On the other hand, the Enterprise plan, at $1350 per month (billed annually), is designed to empower larger teams and includes everything in the Professional plan, along with a dedicated success manager, single sign-on (SSO), customized service agreement, and custom onboarding & team training. Both plans provide the flexibility of paying upfront to save money or committing annually with monthly payments.
Respona- Best outreach planning platform for guest posting
Respona is a powerful all-in-one outreach and link building platform designed to streamline and optimize your digital marketing efforts. Combining the functionality of a CRM, an email finder, and a content research tool, Respona provides marketers and SEO professionals with the resources they need to efficiently build and manage relationships with influencers, publishers, and website owners. Whether you’re aiming to secure guest posts, build high-quality backlinks, or collaborate on content projects, Respona offers a user-friendly interface and a suite of advanced features to help you achieve your goals, improve your online visibility, and drive organic traffic to your website.
Respona is an effective outreach tool that can help you secure guest posting opportunities to increase your website’s visibility and authority. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to use Respona for guest posting as a beginner SEO:
- Identify target websites: Use Respona’s App Search feature to find relevant websites in your niche that accept guest posts. Consider factors such as domain authority, traffic, and audience engagement to select the best prospects.
- Find the right contact: Utilize Respona’s Email Finder feature to locate and verify the email addresses of website owners or editors. This ensures you’re reaching out to the appropriate person responsible for content submissions.
- Prepare your pitch: Craft a compelling email pitch that outlines your guest post idea, demonstrates your expertise, and highlights the value your content will provide to the target website’s audience. Use Respona’s Email Personalization feature to tailor your message and make a strong impression.
- Automate your outreach: Schedule and send your guest post pitches using Respona’s Automated Email Outreach feature. Set up follow-up emails to increase your chances of getting a response and securing guest posting opportunities.
- Track your progress: Monitor the performance of your guest post outreach campaign using Respona’s Email Analytics feature. Evaluate your open, click-through, and response rates to identify areas for improvement and optimize future outreach efforts.
- Collaborate with your team: Use Respona’s Team Collaboration tools to coordinate with your team members, assign tasks, and share notes, ensuring everyone is aligned and working together effectively.
- Learn from the experts: Stay informed about guest posting best practices and strategies by exploring Respona’s Blog and Resources section. Gain valuable insights to improve your outreach campaigns and secure more guest posting opportunities.
PROs of Respona
- Flexible and customizable
- Easy to use
- Secure and reliable
- Cost-effective
- Scalable
Cons of Respona
- Requires a significant amount of time and resources to set up and maintain
- Can be expensive to use
- May require additional training for users
- Can be difficult to integrate with existing systems
- May not be able to handle large volumes of data
Respona pricing
Respona offers two pricing plans to cater to the needs of businesses and individuals at different stages:
- Starter: Priced at $99 per month, this plan is ideal for in-house teams and SMBs. It includes 1 email account, 5,000 credits per month, and access to all features like email sequences, pitch analyzer, article summarizer, spam protection, auto-reply detection, custom variables, and more.
- Unlimited: For $399 per month (billed annually), this plan is designed for agencies and large teams. It offers unlimited email accounts, 600,000 credits per year, and all the features included in the Starter plan, catering to larger outreach campaigns.
Both plans come with a 14-day free trial, allowing you to test the platform and find the right fit for your needs. Respona also offers a custom onboarding session to help you get started.
Postaga- Best outreach planning platform for link building CRM
Postaga is an all-in-one outreach platform designed to streamline and enhance your outreach campaigns. Whether it’s for SEO, PR, or sales, Postaga brings efficiency to your efforts, allowing you to focus more on your core tasks.
Postaga serves as an all-in-one outreach CRM platform that assists you in managing and tracking your outreach efforts. It allows you to stay on top of your open opportunities, measure results, and continually improve your outreach strategies based on the data-driven insights it provides.
Key Features of Postaga for Outreach CRM:
- Opportunity Management: Postaga’s CRM functionality helps you manage all of your outreach opportunities in one place, ensuring you don’t miss any potential leads.
- Automated Follow-ups: With Postaga, you can automate your follow-up emails, increasing the likelihood of responses and conversions.
- Performance Tracking: Postaga allows you to track your outreach efforts’ performance and provides useful data to help you refine your strategies.
- Contact Management: Postaga automatically finds and organizes contact information, making it easier to manage your contacts for outreach efforts.
- Personalized Outreach: The platform helps you create personalized outreach campaigns, increasing engagement and effectiveness.
- Integrated AI: Postaga’s AI capabilities help generate high-converting campaign ideas, tailor-fit to your business and audience.
- Data-Driven Insights: Postaga provides data-driven insights to help you continually improve your outreach efforts, based on performance and response data.
PROs of Postaga
- Automated Outreach: Postaga offers automated outreach capabilities, allowing you to streamline and scale your outreach campaigns. This saves time and effort by automating the process of finding contact information, personalizing emails, and sending follow-ups.
- Email Personalization: With Postaga, you can personalize your outreach emails by dynamically inserting recipient-specific information. This helps increase the chances of engagement and building meaningful relationships with your prospects.
- Intelligent Email Sending: Postaga optimizes email sending by analyzing factors such as email deliverability, open rates, and response rates. It uses this data to schedule emails at the most opportune times, increasing the likelihood of your emails being seen and responded to.
- Contact Discovery: The tool helps you discover relevant contacts for your outreach campaigns. Postaga searches for contact information on websites, social media platforms, and other online sources, making it easier for you to find and connect with the right people.
- Integration Capabilities: Postaga integrates with popular CRM and email marketing tools, allowing you to seamlessly manage your outreach campaigns within your existing workflow.
Cons of Postaga
Cons of Postaga:
- Learning Curve: Like any new tool, there may be a learning curve associated with using Postaga effectively. Getting acquainted with the interface and understanding its features may require some initial investment in time and effort.
- Limited Customization: While Postaga offers email personalization, the level of customization may be limited compared to some other outreach tools. If you require highly customized outreach emails or advanced segmentation, you may find the options provided by Postaga somewhat restricted.
- Pricing Structure: Postaga’s pricing structure may not be suitable for everyone. Depending on your specific needs and budget, the cost of using Postaga’s features and functionalities may be a consideration.
- Dependency on Third-Party Sources: Contact discovery relies on the availability and accuracy of contact information from third-party sources. While Postaga aims to provide reliable results, occasional inaccuracies or missing data may occur.
Postaga pricing
Postaga Pricing
All plans at Postaga start with a 14-day free trial, allowing you to experience the platform 100% risk-free. This is a great opportunity to start building relationships with your fully-featured trial. Source
Postaga offers two main paid plans:
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Pro Plan
This plan is perfect for businesses seeking to supercharge their outreach. Priced at $84 per month, it offers a variety of features including all campaign types, 2,000 contacts, unlimited campaigns, 10,000 emails, 300 daily emails per user, 5 users, 1 account, 1,000 opportunity searches, SMTP integrations, a custom signature, campaign generator, instant campaigns, website intelligence, content intelligence, upcoming API access, and automated reporting. Source
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Agency Plan
Designed for multiple sites and/or multiple clients, the Agency plan costs $250 per month. It provides all campaign types, 15,000 contacts, unlimited campaigns, 100,000 emails, 300 daily emails per user, unlimited users, 30 accounts, 15,000 opportunity searches, SMTP integrations, custom signature, campaign generator, instant campaigns, website intelligence, content intelligence, API access (coming soon), and automated reporting (coming soon). Source
In addition to these, Postaga also offers a free plan. With this plan, you can use all of Postaga for free with certain limitations: all campaign types, unlimited contacts (with a Hunter subscription), 3 campaigns, 500 emails, 100 daily emails, 1 user, 1 account, 50 opportunity searches, SMTP integrations, custom signature, API access, and automated reporting are included. Source
BacklinkManager- Best outreach planning platform for link building CRM
BacklinkManager is a tool used to monitor and analyze the backlinks of a website. It helps to identify the quality of the backlinks, detect any malicious links, and track the progress of the website’s backlink profile. It can also be used to generate reports and track the performance of the website’s backlinks.
BacklinkManager presents a robust solution for managing and optimizing link partnerships. With its comprehensive feature set, the platform enhances collaboration and productivity in reciprocal link building.
- Link Partnership Management: BacklinkManager’s dedicated CRM system enables seamless management of relationships with clients, link builders, and vendors, consolidating all information in one place and eliminating the need for multiple Google Sheets.
- Link Vendor & Freelance Link Builder Relationship Management: The platform allows users to manage all link exchange sheets and guest posting partnerships from one place, ensuring efficient tracking and organization.
- Link Partnership Scorecard: With the scorecard feature, users can track the status of link exchanges easily, ensuring that commitments are met and balances maintained in partnerships.
- Chat and Comments: The built-in chat and comment features enable users to communicate directly with their link-building partners and vendors, promoting better collaboration and issue resolution.
As a comprehensive solution, BacklinkManager equips users with advanced tools for link-building operations, such as link monitoring, report generation, goal setting, and the sharing of interactive dashboards. This makes it an invaluable tool for businesses seeking to enhance their link partnerships and reciprocal link-building efforts.
PROs of BacklinkManager
- Automates the process of building backlinks
- Helps improve website’s search engine rankings
- Provides detailed reports on backlink performance
- Offers a variety of backlink sources to choose from
- Allows for customization of backlink building strategies
- Saves time and effort compared to manual backlink building
- Can be used for multiple websites or clients
- Provides ongoing support and updates
Cons of BacklinkManager
- Can be expensive for single SEO hustlers or really small businesses
BacklinkManager pricing
BacklinkManager offers three pricing plans to help you streamline your backlink building operations. You can start for free without a credit card, and each plan comes with different features and limits:
- Free: Monitor and manage up to 250 backlinks, 50 targets, and invite 3 team members. Start for free.
- Pro: $49/month billed annually – Monitor and manage up to 2,500 backlinks, 100 targets, invite 15 team members, and receive priority support. Start for free.
- Enterprise: $500/month billed annually – Monitor and manage up to 50,000 backlinks, 10,000 targets, invite 30 team members, whitelabel reporting, and priority support. Start for free.
Choose the plan that best fits your needs to effectively monitor and manage your backlink building operations. To learn more about each plan and get started, visit BacklinkManager’s pricing page.
Conclusion
As we’ve seen from the post above, there are several reasons why you should be using a outreach planning tool.
To provide a stellar outreach planning, you need to have the right tool in your stack.
Hopefully you’ve found this post helpful with choosing the right outreach planning tool for your SaaS!