But it's also time consuming.

And, let's be honest:

There are aspects of the outreach that are just plain tedious.

Copying and pasting names and email addresses, keeping track in an Excel spreadsheet of who you've contacted, who replied, and who you've thanked.

Putting together a roundup is so time consuming and repetitive that I was beginning to wonder whether it was worth it.

But then I did something that changed my whole perspective:

I decided to try out some Influencer outreach software.

It was a game changer:

The software I’d heard most about was BuzzStream. So I signed up for a 14-day free trial and started to put together an Expert Roundup.

I quickly found myself riding the learning curve that comes with any new software.

Hopefully, the process will be a bit quicker and smoother for you – that’s why I’m writing this article.

CLARIFICATION:
Before I start, a quick clarification: I am not an affiliate of BuzzStream and have no relationship with them, other than being a customer.

A Quick Guide To Using BuzzStream for Expert Roundups

Then click on ‘New Project’:

On the next screen, give your Project a name and enter the URL of your website. Leave everything else as is and click on ‘Create Project’:

Once you have the BuzzMarker installed, a small ‘bookmark’ shaped icon will appear at the top right of your browser (if using Chrome):

Using the Evernote Web Clipper, save each roundup post to an Evernote Notebook, as a ‘Simplified article’, with a tag such as ‘roundup article’:

Repeat this process until you have at least 15 roundup articles saved to Evernote:

The roundup articles you save to Evernote need to be broadly related to the subject of your roundup post.

If you’re compiling a roundup post on ‘content marketing’, it won’t be helpful to save roundups dealing with ‘home finance’…

…because you’ll be contacting these experts and asking them to contribute to your roundup.

On the expert’s web page, click on the BuzzMarker icon at the top right of the browser window:

When the BuzzMarker side panel opens up, paste the expert’s name into the ‘Name’ field and then hit ‘Save to BuzzStream’:

BuzzStream will now open up the individual record for that website.

If the expert’s email address doesn’t appear under ‘Contact Info’, click on the green ‘Discovered Contact Info’ box.

In this instance, BuzzStream has discovered 7 items of contact info:

Go to the expert’s website and simply click on the Hunter Extension icon and a dialog box will open up:

As you can see, Hunter has found an email address for this expert.

Copy it, click on the BuzzStream extension icon, then paste the email address into the relevant field, and click ‘Save’:

In some cases even Hunter won’t find an email address.

When that happens, just go to the expert’s website and sign up their newsletter.

Most online entrepreneurs use a personal email address as the ‘from’ address for their mailing list.

As soon as you get the confirmation email, just copy and paste the ‘from’ address into the relevant field in BuzzStream.

Sometimes the expert doesn’t have a newsletter. At that point I usually decide that the ‘game is not worth the candle’ and move on to the next record in the BuzzStream list.

When you come across a website that you can’t find an email address for, check the box next to that record, then go to ‘Edit’ and then ‘Delete’:

And select ‘Create Template’:

In the next screen type in your message and a subject line. On the right side of the window you’ll see a bunch of ‘merge fields’:

Place your cursor at the beginning of the subject line and then click the [First Name] merge field. This will insert the merge field into your subject line.

Then place your cursor after the salutation and click the [First Name] merge field again. This will insert the merge field into your salutation:

Then click ‘Save’ in the bottom right corner of the template window.

Next, click on ‘Outreach’ in the top menu and then ‘Start Outreach’:

In the next window, select the template you want to use and then click ‘Start Outreach’:

You need to create 2 filters: one in the ‘Outreach’ filter and one in the ‘Date Created or Modified’ filter:

Click on the ‘Outreach’ filter and choose ‘Email Activity’:

Then choose ‘Not Emailed’ from the drop down list:

On the next drop down list, choose ‘Today’:

The ‘Outreach’ filter will now look like this:

Now click on the ‘Date Created or Modified’ filter:

Set this filter to ‘Today’:

Then click ‘Create Saved Filter’ and then click ‘Done’:

Give the filter a name and then press ‘Save’:

In the top menu click on ‘Filter’ and then ‘Saved Filters’:

You’ll see the filter you just saved:

Now click on that filter and then click ‘Done’:

On the next screen you’ll see that your 2 filters have been applied to the current Project:

Now click the checkbox at the top to select all the displayed records:

And that’s it:

You’re ready to outreach to your second batch of prospects.

On the next screen click on ‘Customize fields’:

Under ‘Custom Fields for Websites’ click ‘Add new custom field’:

Give the custom field a name, then select the Checkbox option and click ‘Save’:

On the next screen delete the second field by clicking the trashcan and check the radio button for the current project:

Then give the option field a name:

Next click on the icon within the option field and choose a color for your icon and hit ‘Save’:

You’ll now see your new Custom Field listed under ‘Custom Fields for Websites’:

By default, your new custom field will show up as a new column in the ‘Websites’ view. Click on ‘Websites’ in the top menu and your new custom field will be at the far right of the screen:

If you can’t see a column with your new custom field, it means you need to delete some unnecessary columns. Just click on the cogwheel at the top right of the screen and choose ‘Configure columns’:

Then delete any unwanted column, by clicking on the ‘x’ in the column field, until there are no more than 9 columns showing:

When one of your prospects submits your online form, just click on the relevant column for that person and check the box:

A coloured tag will appear in the relevant column for that record:

When it comes time to send out a thank you email with the link for the live article, you’ll need to apply a filter to your Project so that you only email people who submitted your form.

Here’s how to do it:

Click on the Filter tab in the top menu and scroll down till you see ‘Website Custom Fields’:

Note: you must scroll down because the default view doesn’t show ‘Website Custom Fields’.

Click on ‘Website Custom Fields’ and then check the box for ‘Submitted Online Form’ and press ‘Done’:

In the ‘Website’ view you’ll now see only those prospects who submitted your online form.

Just put a check against each of the records and you can start the Outreach with your email that the post is now live.