How to Research Prospects for SEO and Marketing Outreach

Quick answer: Open Prospects, enter keywords plus industry, location, and company size, then run a prospect campaign (web search, LinkedIn search, or custom). Review results, save the best prospects, add them to your contacts, and reach out — ideal for link-building and content-promotion outreach.

Prospects Research helps you discover the right people and sites for marketing and SEO outreach — the foundation of link-building, guest posting, and content promotion.

How to search for prospects

1. Navigate to Prospects.
2. Enter your criteria — keywords, industry, location, company size.
3. Apply filters and click Search.
4. Browse the results.

How to run a prospect campaign

1. Click Create Campaign.
2. Define your search criteria.
3. Choose a campaign type:

• Web Search — web-based discovery.
• LinkedIn Search — LinkedIn prospecting.
• Custom Search — your own criteria.

1. Set parameters, start the campaign, and monitor progress.

How to use prospects for SEO outreach

Prospect research powers the promotion half of SEO:

1. Find sites and people relevant to your content topics.
2. Save prospects and add them to contacts.
3. Run a cold email campaign pitching guest posts, mentions, or backlinks.

This closes the loop on How to Do SEO With OutreachBox.

Best practices

• Use specific criteria — relevance matters more than volume for outreach.
• Save strong prospects and keep campaigns organized by topic.
• Personalize every pitch; generic link requests get ignored.
• Follow up promptly and politely.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the difference between prospects, leads, and sales research?

Prospects Research targets marketing/SEO outreach (e.g., link building); Leads Search is a broad people/company database; Sales Research focuses on decision-makers for a sales pipeline. They complement each other.

Which campaign type should I use?

Use Web Search for broad discovery, LinkedIn Search for people-based prospecting, and Custom Search when you have specific criteria.

How do prospects help my SEO?

Outreach to relevant prospects earns the mentions and backlinks that build authority and rankings — the promotion step of the SEO workflow.

Related articles

• How to Do SEO With OutreachBox
• How to Build a Targeted Prospect List
• How to Run a Cold Email Campaign

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Find relevant prospects, personalize your pitch, and turn outreach into links and coverage.