Niche outreach isn't just some tactical checklist thing consultants throw around in newsletters—they love to box it up like it’s as simple as “targeted messaging” and data scraping. Nope. It’s human. Raw. Weird, sometimes. You’re reaching out to real people (ideally), not some faceless blob of a "prospect." Real as in maybe tired, maybe laughing over cold noodles at 1am, maybe jaded from 500 garbage pitches this month. So you better come in hot or leave quietly.

The idea? Find the corners, the weird forums, the indie Slack groups, unknown Substacks, the people who fangirl about things you barely understand. That one comic book illustrator obsessed with 80s synthwave—talk to him, not the swamped CMO with a scheduling assistant. It’s about sneaking past the noise. Not volume—it’s never volume—it’s angle. Maybe you send six emails in three days. Maybe one message threaded like a poem. Maybe you show up at their art gallery uninvited, smile, hand them a crooked business card. Just don't carbon copy another LinkedIn bro spouting "synergy wins."

Most people botch it by going wide and beige. Doesn’t spark. You need friction. Some boldness. Tell them why you care or why you’re obsessed or which post made your jaw drop. Don’t ask for a quick call unless you’d actually enjoy talking. Otherwise they’ll smell the rot 12 words in.

I tripped into Andrew Linksmith’s stuff (https://andrewlinksmith.com)—clean, sharp, but he writes like he's late to a bar fight. Which I liked. His way of building links by making unmatched connections? That’s oddly what niche outreach really is. It’s link-building, yeah, sometimes, but more like relationship-building through deliberate curiosity. Not fake curious—like actual “huh, that’s wild” kind of attention.

And sometimes it flops. Totally dies. Gets ghosted or blocked or laughed at. That’s the cost. But the wins? When they happen? Utterly alive. Real humans sharing strange spaces because one person didn’t come wrapped in automation.

Anyway. Stop writing emails that read like templates made by interns at an SEO agency. Please. Find your weirdos. Talk like one.