• Try “portfolio”, “ink”, “branding” or a code like “PRS 101”.

CBE 210Creative Business and Entrepreneurship

Client Research and Outreach

Research specific prospective clients, write personalised outreach that respects their time, and follow up with a simple, honest system.

Planned

About this course

Once you know who you serve, outreach is how you reach them directly. This course covers building a prospect list, researching a business before contacting it, finding the right person, writing short personalised messages that offer something relevant, following up without pestering, and tracking it all. It also covers permission and anti-spam expectations in broad terms, including Canada's rules on commercial electronic messages, and why honest, targeted outreach works better than volume. Builds on Finding Graphic Design Clients.

Who it’s for: Freelance designers and illustrators with a defined client focus who want to approach clients directly.

You will be able to

  • Build a researched list of 25 prospects that match your client focus
  • Identify a relevant decision-maker and a specific reason to contact each
  • Write personalised outreach messages under 120 words
  • Run a follow-up sequence and track responses in a simple pipeline

Prerequisites

Studio project

A two-week outreach campaign: 25 researched prospects, ten personalised messages with follow-ups, and a tracked pipeline with lessons learned.

To complete this course

  • Complete every required lesson.
  • Have the assignment “Outreach campaign” accepted by an instructor.
  • Records of completion are issued only for courses whose content has passed instructor review.

Part of

Syllabus

Working titles: they may change as the course is written.

  1. Module 1: Prospect lists

    Quality over quantity.

    1. 1.1Your ideal client profileExercise · 25 min
    2. 1.2Building the listExercise · 40 min

  2. Module 2: Research before you write

    Know why you're contacting them.

    1. 2.1Researching a businessExercise · 35 min
    2. 2.2Finding the right personReading · 20 min

  3. Module 3: Outreach messages

    Short, specific, respectful.

    1. 3.1Anatomy of an outreach messageReading · 25 min
    2. 3.2Personalised draftsExercise · 40 min
    3. 3.3Consent and anti-spam expectationsReading · 20 min

  4. Module 4: Follow-up and tracking

    Most replies come after a follow-up.

    1. 4.1Follow-up sequencesExercise · 25 min
    2. 4.2A simple pipelineExercise · 25 min
    3. 4.3Learning from responsesReading · 15 min

Sources

Author: Ricketts University curriculum team (draft for founder review) · Not yet reviewed

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