OUTREACH
Reaching the real decision-maker
A well-written pitch sent to a general "info@" inbox or a website contact form usually goes nowhere. It's not that the message was bad — it's that it never reached anyone with the authority to say yes. Front-desk staff and shared inboxes are built to filter things out, not pass them along.
Why this matters more than the pitch itself
Owners of small and mid-sized businesses are usually the ones making the call on anything that costs money, especially something new like hiring outside help. If your message doesn't reach them directly, the quality of your offer is almost irrelevant — it's being judged, if at all, by someone without the authority to act on it.
A few ways to find the direct contact
- Check the "About" or "Team" page — smaller businesses often list the owner by name
- Look at the business's Google listing or state business registry for an owner's name
- Check LinkedIn for the business name; owners of small operations are usually easy to find
- Call and simply ask who handles decisions about the website or marketing
None of these take long individually, but doing it manually for every prospect adds up. It's one of the more tedious parts of outreach, which is exactly why tools that surface direct owner contact automatically save real time — not because the research is hard, just because it's repetitive.
Once you have it
Reaching the owner directly doesn't guarantee a reply, but it means your message is at least being read by someone who can act on it. That alone tends to lift response rates more than any change to the wording of the pitch.