Blogger outreach has become both a subject of contention and affection amongst the SEO arena. As outreach plays a significant role in SEO, a great deal of time has been spent learning how to do it correctly.

Although it's agreeable that outreach emails should be tailored and personal, what is less discussed are the key strategies for achieving this.  From a marketing perspective, we understand that humanising our outreach emails is fundamental, but how about going one step further, by incorporating a key psychological behaviour pattern.

Mirroring Words for Masterful Outreach

According to Wikipedia, 'Mirroring is the behaviour in which one person subconsciously imitates the gesture, speech pattern, or attitude of another.'

I believe we can borrow from this study by practicing mirroring in our outreach emails. Before sending out your next outreach email, look more closely at the website or blog you are reaching out to and identify any keywords or phrases used often.

Let's say you're outreaching to a blogger who often uses a phrases such as 'absolutely amazing' and 'so thrilled'. This is a key piece of information which may distinguish their style from another blog or website. Armoured with this knowledge, you can tailor your outreach email by incorporating the same language.

Rather than an email that says: 'We have an awesome piece of content, which we're delighted to share with you', you could write: 'We have an absolutely amazing piece of content we're thrilled to share…'

By tailoring your outreach email based on common words or phrases you are:

• Stimulating rapport and the likelihood of a positive response
• Building trust and a sense of familiarity
• Connecting on an emotional level - making you more persuasive

Mirroring is NOT the same as Mimicking 

The key here is not to go overboard. Even if you spot ten or more common phrases used, only integrate two or three in your initial outreach email. The trick is to trigger the recipient's emotions in a subconscious, rather than an intrusive way.

This technique can help you to build a strategic outreach email in natural way. So remember when composing a tailor made email for a blogger, be familiar with their tone of voice and use keywords to increase the chances of a positive response.