Ninja Outreach Review
Ninja Outreach software officially launched in January of 2015 and I was lucky enough to be included as one of the early users. In this post, I will talk about what Ninja Outreach is, who Ninja Outreach is for, why Ninja Outreach is important, the features of Ninja Outreach, the pros and cons of Ninja Outreach, and if I think Ninja Outreach is worth getting.
UPDATE: Since I initially created this post, Ninja Outreach has changed quite a bit. Instead of being just a desktop program, they now have a complimentary web application that has all of the functionality that you see below. This review is still accurate, but realize that they have added a web application which has changed things pretty drastically (for the better!) and you can learn more about it by clicking here.
You can follow along and read this software review from top to bottom, or you can use the hyperlinked text in the review navigation area to jump to a specific section.
Disclosure: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that if you purchase a product, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission. Note that I have used the product below and recommend it because I know it will help you and is from a company that I trust.
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3) Why is Ninja Outreach Important?
7) Do I think Ninja Outreach is worth getting?
1) What is Ninja Outreach?
The team over at Ninja Outreach describes it as being a prospecting and outreach tool. So, what does that mean to you? Well, let’s talk about one of the most difficult things that you can do as a blogger. That thing is to be able to find guest posting opportunities and build relationships with influencers in your niche.
I don’t know about you, but I personally have spent HOURS trying to find guest posting opportunities and build relationships with influencers. For me, the few guest posting engagements that I’ve had so far have been incredibly valuable in getting people to sign up directly to my email list. As we all know, the money is in the list. And I don’t even think that I need to begin to tell you how valuable it is to have a relationship with an influencer in your industry.
Strip away all of it’s bells and whistles and this is what Ninja Outreach is going to help you do. There are definitely more uses for it, but the main thing that it boils down to is that it helps you easily find, manage, and contact influencers that are ranking for the keywords that you’re looking for and gives you the ability to easily find guest posting opportunities.
Below is a quick video (1:18) explaining the premise of Ninja Outreach. Hopefully you’ll find this helpful.
2) Who is Ninja Outreach for?
The way I see it, Ninja Outreach is for anybody that wants to be able to get in touch with influencers in their industry. In other words, Ninja Outreach is for every single company out there. It doesn’t matter if you have a large corporation or even a single person who runs a blog or tries to make money on YouTube like me, Ninja Outreach is one of those tools that can be used at all levels and will definitely yield significant results if used correctly.
3) Why is Ninja Outreach important?
When I was looking at Ninja Outreach, it reminded me of another tool that I’m extremely fond of. That tool is Dragon Naturally Speaking Software. Now, you might be asking yourself why transcription software reminds me so much of Ninja Outreach. The reason is because Ninja Outreach is able to give me the one thing that is most valuable to my business. And that thing is…
Time.
All of you reading know this, but time is the most important thing that an entrepreneur has and is one of those commodities that you can’t get any more of. Every single day consists of 24 hours and whether we like it or not, there is nothing we can do about it.
The reason why this software gives you your time back is that it takes the manual process out of finding influencers and guest blog opportunities. Instead. it makes it very simple and efficient to reach your targets to build relationships.
4) Features of Ninja Outreach
As I said previously, although Ninja Outreach is great for getting guest post opportunities, there is a lot more to it. Below are some of the screenshots that accurately describe what Ninja Outreach is all about. I have to admit, I took these directly from their website because they were so well done and although I could’ve made my own, I think it makes more sense to show these.
Search Influencers by Keyword
One of the best things about Ninja Outreach software is that you can search for influencers by specific keywords. I’ve found that this is very sensitive to the keywords that you type in, so you may want to consider putting in variations of the same keyword if you want to get all the results that fit what you’re looking for.
Organize Thousands of Contacts and Export Lists
Personally, I’ve yet to find any situation where I was able to break the system with the amount of contacts that I had inside of a list. With that being said, the software explains that you are able to have “thousands” of people inside in a list and it will still work effectively.
Manage Relationships
The screenshot below shows how you can easily manage influencer targets within your lists. This is incredibly helpful because it allows you to have one interface were you can easily track the people that you want to network with.
One of the things that’s very important here is that the screenshot also points out that you can filter by people who have giveaways, allow sponsored posts, or product reviews. How amazing is that?
In my opinion, this one feature alone makes the entire software worth it because it allows you to very simply filter your search queries or your list to find people who will be more receptive to your contact requests.
And here’s what the Web Application looks like:
Create Email Templates
Another cool feature within the Ninja Outreach software is the fact that you can easily create email templates to send messages out. One of the other things that you may notice is thatyou can choose fields to insert into your email. Meaning, you can automatically insert a person’s first name, last name, website, etc. Obviously when you are trying to do guest posts customizing the contact request is key because otherwise it will look like a bulk email message. This template builder allows you to customize it so that it doesn’t appear that way.
And here’s what the Web Application looks like:
Send Email Directly From the Software
The other really cool feature about the software is that you can send email directly from within the interface. This is important because this means that you can easily select one of your templates and choose a list, then just press a button and the message is sent out to your prospects. With that being said, I think it’s important to note that people have to be careful with this feature.
I say this because it’s a bad idea to of use this feature and send a ton of templated emails out with no personal touch. Instead, I recommend that you create an email that is somewhat templated so that you cover your main points in contacting them, but you should still have to go into each message and type specific information for each specific blog or person that you reach out to.
Easily see Social Influence and Contact Info
I made sure to put a big black box over the contact information of the person who I did the search for, but this software actually pulls in their email address and social information, SEO metrics, and traffic/engagement for the website. This is extremely valuable because it make sure that you focus on getting influencers were actually going to benefit your brand and not just some guy out there on the Internet who has no following whatsoever.
5) The Pros of Ninja Outreach
- I know one of the creators of the software (Dave Schneider) and can say with absolute certainty that he is a man of great integrity. With this being said, I know him and his partners are working their butts off and want to deliver software that is truly valuable to people. I know this isn’t necessarily about the software itself, but it’s always good to know that you have trustworthy individuals behind-the-scenes.
- Ninja Outreach is going to save you time. Plain and simple, the software makes prospecting for guest posts and influencer outreach extremely simple.
- The training is on point and very well done. One of my initial questions when I signed up for the software was what training was available. Shortly thereafter, Dave pointed out the knowledge base area. Most of the videos are short, but I assure you that they are very straightforward and answer the questions that you’re going to have.
- They offer a 14 day free trial. In my opinion, one of the best ways to find out if you are really going to like a software is if you try it before you buy it. I do want to say that before you take this trial, make sure that you are ready to focus on guest posting outreach.
- Even after the trial, at its lowest level the software costs $19 a month. Again, this software gives you your time back, so how valuable is your time? If you think that your time is more valuable than $19 an hour (and you better if you plan on being successful) then this software pays for itself if you use it once a month.
- It allows you to very simply search for people who allow for guest posts. I can’t emphasize how important this is because doing this isn’t always a simple task. If you’ve ever tried before, you know exactly what I mean.
- It’s a start up. Because of this, the founders take great pride in making sure that they can incorporate the most important feature requests from their users. In fact, they even have a page on the website that is focused strictly on their upcoming features. Although it doesn’t have a ton of content there yet, I see this as a huge benefit because it gives insight as to what the team is working on.
- The Ninja Outreach team is using a very transparent approach to their business. If you go to the website’s blog, you will see that they commonly post about what they are learning and how they are progressing as a business. Again, it’s always good to know that the people behind the software have integrity and the fact that they document their journey while it happens is commendable.
6) The Cons of Ninja Outreach
- While using the software, I did find some very small user interface issues that impacted my experience. They really weren’t huge issues, but one that I can recall is that when I save an email template it didn’t give me user feedback and let me know that it was saved. This was a little frustrating because I clicked the same button over and over trying to see if it was working correctly. With that being said, I’m sure that Dave will see this and fix the issue so by the time you read this, it may not be an issue anymore.
- Ninja Outreach needs you to integrate your email with it in order to send messages. For some, this is going to open up a security risk. With that being said, I reiterate the fact that Dave and his partners have a lot of integrity and I don’t think that they are going to use an email addresses for malicious activity. But keep in mind….you can always open up a new email account just to use with the software if you’d like and I personally recommend that approach.
- Integrating your email isn’t the easiest thing to do. While the company has done a great job of integrating many of the major email platforms, one of the things that I found difficult is to integrate my free email which comes with my hosting service (Hostgator) which is an open-source solution called Horde. Again, solved if I create a different email address.
- Another thing that makes me nervous about attaching my email address is what if it gets flagged for spamming? Another reason why you may want to create a new email address.
- Although I also have it listed as a pro, I also see it as a con that Ninja Outreach is still a startup. The only reason I say that is a because there is obviously limited resources available to work on the product. With that being said, I can absolutely guarantee that the folks who are working on this are probably sleeping six hours a night and are busting their butts to make sure it is successful.
7) Do I think Ninja Outreach is worth getting?
As I said toward the top of this page, Ninja Outreach gives us back the one thing that is absolutely the most valuable resource that we have; time.
Not only that, the user interface is really simple once you get used to it and I can tell you with absolute certainty that the software works very well. Aside from that, how many other companies do you know that list the CEO’s phone number on the header of the website? Lastly, I also know that they will literally talk you through setting up the software and using it if you’d like. There isn’t much better customer service out there….
So, do I think the software is worth getting?
AB-SO-FREAKIN-LUTELY
They offer a 14 day free trial. I’m very confident in saying that if you use the software for 14 days you’re going to be absolutely hooked. I think that this is especially valuable to those that are just starting out and need to get their name out there (like myself) and with the free trial I honestly don’t understand why people wouldn’t try this out.
So, take my recommendation and give the software whirl. You can do so by clicking on the button below.
