Module 4 — Prospecting and research

Prospecting decides the campaign. A good list converts with a mediocre pitch; a bad list defeats a brilliant one.

 Checklist

-   Write a one-paragraph definition of who would plausibly cite you, and why.
-   List the page or asset each prospect would be linking to. If you cannot name it, you are not ready to prospect.
-   Pick three to five genuine SERP competitors, not the companies your sales team worries about.
-   Run a link intersect and export the domains linking to two or more competitors but not to you.
-   Build at least three operator queries per prospect type and save them somewhere you can re-run.
-   Deduplicate to one row per domain before you look at anything else.
-   Apply hard disqualifiers first and delete, do not flag, what fails them.
-   Find a named human for every surviving prospect, and record where you found the name.
-   Verify each email address rather than guessing at a pattern.
-   Score what survives into A, B and C tiers, and agree in advance what happens to the C tier.
-   Record the date you built the list, because a prospect list decays.

 Lessons

4.1. Defining your target set — https://www.advancedlinktraining.com/course/prospecting/defining-your-target-set/
4.2. Competitor link gap analysis — https://www.advancedlinktraining.com/course/prospecting/competitor-link-gap-analysis/
4.3. Search operators for prospecting — https://www.advancedlinktraining.com/course/prospecting/search-operators-for-prospecting/
4.4. Finding the right contact — https://www.advancedlinktraining.com/course/prospecting/finding-the-right-contact/
4.5. Qualifying and scoring prospects — https://www.advancedlinktraining.com/course/prospecting/qualifying-and-scoring-prospects/

AdvancedLinkTraining.com — a resource by Hartzer.com