cold pitch...in the comments?

Popular opinion:

You should slide into every prospect’s LinkedIn DMs with that ice-cold pitch.

Unpopular opinion:

Posting your pitch in the comments section, for all the world to see, is way cooler and much more effective.

If you’ve been on LinkedIn for more than 12 minutes, chances are your DMs are already bursting at the digital seams with pitches ranging wildly in quality. Everything from the grammatically dubious, poorly targeted bot spam making up the overall haystack, to the few shiny needles it hides promising miracle cure-all tonics you absolutely need to regrow your hair and ward off dysentery. Or, you know, if you live in the 21st century… the miracle cure for what ails your company.

But with so much noise to sift through, chances are good that your wig collection and fears of a harsh winter will just keep growing.

Now think about your own cold pitches. Are you cutting through that noise?

According to Amanda Natividad, though, one way to make sure you are is to bypass the DMs altogether and head for the comments section.

It feels less intrusive, your prospect is more likely to see it (and less likely to threaten you with evocative depictions of physical violence) and, even if they ignore you, their loyal following of like-minded ICPs may stumble upon it and say to themselves “I’d refinance my home for long flowing locks and a shot at surviving the Oregon trail.”

Our Take:

Unless you work at a funeral home, finding new channels for outreach is usually a good idea. And you should absolutely be trying this — it’ll most likely lead to some great results.

Still, there are some caveats:

1. Understand that this isn’t going to be the miracle cure-all for your outreach.

You’ll probably still be sliding into DMs, mailing your CDs of an AOL free trial and your fire mix-tape to prospects, and doing whatever else keeps pumping leads into your business. Cold pitches in the comments can be a great tactic, but it’s hardly a strategy by itself.

2. Make sure it’s relevant to the post

If your prospect posts a sad elegy for all the folks in their party that drowned crossing that first river on the way to Eugene, then a comment about how badass they’d look with cornrows is gonna land you a mortal enemy, not a lead.

So, we can’t stress enough: Find a post discussing the problem your product solves. That way, your pitch is relevant to your prospect and their audience — and it doesn’t make you look like a psychopath.

3. Realize you’re in public.

This should be obvious, but if the prospect responds negatively, don’t get all riled up and start a multi-generational blood feud with them. I mean, you shouldn’t go all Hatfields and McCoys in private conversations either, but the consequences of an angry exchange online are gonna make a lot more people hate you than your prospect.

Be gracious, dust yourself off, and move on.

Your turn:

What do you think? Is cold pitching in DMs dead? Is the comments section a great tactic or a trite gimmick? Is it even possible to beat the Oregon Trail?