5 Tactics to Supercharge Your Outbound Strategy

Just a few weeks ago, industry leaders in sales and marketing gathered for “The Future of Outbound,” a dynamic event focused on equipping businesses for success in the coming year. Packed with actionable strategies, budgeting insights, and active discussions, the event offered a wealth of knowledge for anyone looking to optimize their outbound marketing efforts.

We gathered the key takeaways from it, featuring presentations from the expert participants:

• “Building targeted audiences that respond to your messages” by Taylor Ryan, CMO at Ocean.io.
• “How to implement cold calling that works?” by David Kreiger, President at SalesRoads.
• “Thought leadership on LinkedIn” by Ilya Azovtsev, Growth Marketing Lead at Expandi.io.
• “The shortlist of 10 things to keep in mind when cold emailing in 2024” by Brian Hicks, VP of Sales at Belkins.
• “Conversion optimization tactics” by Joey Williams, Director of Sales Development at Chili Piper.

So, dive in to explore top 2024 marketing strategies, budgeting best practices, and hands-on tips from roundtable discussions with industry peers.

Tactic #1: Be creative when building lead lists

If the same old lead generation tactics don’t work for you, ditch them. Instead, embrace the creative strategies for building super-qualified lead lists.

While the awareness-interest-decision-action funnel is a classic, Taylor Ryan offers to go deeper and create purchase intent:

• Develop a case study playbook. Showcase real-world transformations powered by your solution. This sparks a “me-too” moment in potential leads, making them envision your product as the answer to their struggles.
• Imply the competitor's fear of missing out (FOMO). Play on the natural human desire to stay ahead by highlighting how competitors are thriving with solutions like yours. Craft content that subtly evokes a feeling like, “Man, I feel I’m missing all the opportunities here because my competitors are lapping me.”
• Send people an imperfect solution. Offer a free, “band-aid” solution related to your prospect’s pain point. It could be a basic template or checklist. Follow up later to gauge their experience and subtly introduce your full-fledged offering.

Also, you can use non-standard lead sources to build your lists for further targeting. Here are a few ideas you can grab right away:

Bonus tip: Data degrades over time. Don’t rely on stale purchased lists, they are often outdated. Also, regularly clean and update your lead lists to maintain optimal performance.

Tactic #2: Stop rushing and always track your vital cold calling metrics

The cold call can feel like a high-pressure race against the clock. But what if success hinged on slowing down?

David Kreiger suggests pausing and giving a person you contact some time to squeeze in their thoughts: “Use the permission openers and then slow the beep down. You have to be slow and deliberate in the way that you present things so that people lean in, versus you just rushing through things.”

Another crucial thing to remember is that cold calling is a human game. AI can do everything except sell for you. Here are key elements of a winning approach to consider:

1. Your mood dictates your success. That’s why your positive attitude and confident mindset directly influence your success.
2. Activity trumps perfection. Don’t overthink — go and start dialing rather than polishing your pitch. Over time, you’ll improve it naturally.
3. Be hyper-targeted to be hyper-relevant. Focus on highly specific pain points relevant to their industry or situation. Do your research beforehand.
4. Front-load questions with context. Show you did your homework by mentioning relevant details upfront in your conversation.
5. Mind your tone, intonation, and pauses. How you say something is more important than what you say.
6. Tell stories to be memorable. Share relatable success cases from past clients to leave a lasting impression.
7. Go beyond the call itself. Success hinges on your actions post-appointment, not just the conversation. Ensure a smooth post-appointment handoff to the account executives, and send timely follow-up emails to nurture your potential clients.
8. Appointments aren’t endpoints. Aim for conversions. Your ultimate goal is to close the deal, not just secure a meeting.

Yet, to drive predictable revenue from your cold calls, you need to understand what works for your particular business. This is why you need to watch the following metrics:

By tracking these metrics, you can see whether your cold calling efforts are doing well. You can then use this information to identify areas for improvement and optimize your approach for better results.

Tactic #3: Use personal branding to improve a company’s image

People trust people. That’s the core principle behind leveraging personal branding to elevate your company’s image. Ilya Azovtsev unlocks the secrets to empowering your key employees and C-suite to become social selling superstars on LinkedIn.

Grow your social selling index

Your social selling index (SSI) is your key performance indicator on LinkedIn. An SSI above 65 can result in a whopping 40% increase in connection requests and improved message response rates.

Here’s how to boost your social selling index:

• Share valuable insights, industry news, and thought leadership pieces to position yourself as an expert in your field.
• Actively participate in industry discussions, comment on relevant posts, and join relevant groups to increase visibility.
• Focus on building genuine connections with potential clients, partners, and industry influencers.

Maximize your reach by overcoming new limits

Normally, LinkedIn allows you to send around 100 connection requests per week. With a Mobile Connector in Expandi.io that acts like a virtual mobile device, you can break these limitations. This innovative tool empowers you to grow your network exponentially, multiplying your connection requests by at least 2.4 times. Thus, you can introduce yourself to around 300 people weekly.

Boost response rates through warm-up

The first impression matters. Warm up your outreach by following these simple steps:

• Visit people’s profiles. Show genuine interest in them by checking out their profiles before connecting.
• Engage with their posts. Like and comment on relevant posts, thus showing you’ve taken the time to understand their expertise.
• Endorse their skills. Recognize people’s strengths by endorsing relevant skills on their profiles before writing to them.

These actions can lead to a 55% increase in response rates, significantly improving your connection success.

Personalize creatively, but not too much

While personal touch is also a good idea, you need to find the sweet spot for it. Test a few creative approaches, like:

• Video follow-ups. Integrate video messages into your follow-up sequences for a more personal touch.
• Data-driven scaling. Leverage external data enrichment tools like Clay to personalize outreach at scale while adhering to data privacy regulations.
• Tailored profile info. Adapt your LinkedIn profile to resonate with each target audience you're reaching. Showcase relevant examples and data points to maximize impact.

Expand your coverage

Don’t underestimate the power of your existing network. Ilya mentions that a staggering 89% of likes and comments on trending posts originate from second and third-degree connections. Go and connect with them to boost your message and expand your reach within relevant networks.

Tactic #4: Mind not only the message itself but the technical side as well

A compelling cold email can fall flat if it never reaches its intended recipient. Brian Hicks unveils the technical secrets to ensure your outreach emails land in inboxes, not spam folders.

How to pass the deliverability gateway

Before hitting “send,” prioritize these email hygiene practices:

1. Mind email sending provider (ESP) alignment. Only send cold emails to business accounts using the same ESP as the recipient. Aim for Gmail to Gmail or Outlook to Outlook for optimal delivery rates.
2. Always test what you’re going to send. Check email deliverability using the exact templates and signatures you plan to use for outreach campaigns. This ensures you identify and address any potential delivery issues before going live to real prospects.
3. Stay fresh. Update your email templates and sequences regularly (ideally bi-weekly) to keep content fresh and avoid spam filters that flag repetitive content. Use a free spam words checker to remove any red flags from your messaging.
4. Keep sending limits and don’t send emails in large batches. Distribute leads evenly between SDRs’ mailboxes and sequences.

Best practices to nail your cold email outreach

Here are some additional tactics to boost engagement with your cold emails while keeping away from spam filters:

• Focus on quality interactions rather than on quantity. Contacting 2–4 prospects per organization gives the highest average reply rates.
• Respect domain limits. Only reach up to 3 individuals within the same domain at the same time.
• Less is more. Keep your emails short. Aim for less than 1,000 characters and ditch formatting like bold or colored fonts.
• Follow 1 CTA and 1 link rule. Guide your prospects with a single, clear CTA per email. Avoid overwhelming them with too many options. Additionally, only include one link per email, so as not to trigger spam filters.
• Focus on real engagement. Forget open rates, they’re just a vanity metric — track reply rates to measure the genuine performance of your messaging.
• Re-engage with old leads. Do it every 6 months, but update their contact information first. This ensures your outreach reaches the right person at the right time.

Bonus tip: After scheduling an appointment, send your prospects a reminder email. When done right, it can increase your appointment attendance rate to 95%. A perfect formula is 1 day before the meeting, 1 hour before the meeting, and 1 minute before the meeting.

Tactic #5: The right process is of no less importance for boosting conversions than the right SDRs

Great SDRs are vital, but a winning formula requires more. Joey Williams shares how to define the perfect target account for your SDRs and automate the process of getting them in touch at the optimal time, maximizing conversions.

[spoiler alert] This approach allowed Chili Piper’s SDRs to reach up to 172% of closed-won goals and brought 40% more closed-won ARR than the year before.

Step 1: Determine core approach

Finding ideal accounts goes beyond firmographics and technographics. It’s more about understanding how your SDRs find that person, connect with them, and craft targeted messages.

For example, at Chili Piper, the lead generation process is specifically built for SDRs to:

• Manually identify relevant accounts.
• Assess whether they are a good fit and the reasons why they are a good fit.
• Link the messaging to the identified trigger (e.g., a company increasing website traffic, indicating potential lead conversion needs).

This approach ensures a deep understanding of target accounts, allows for personalized outreach, and lays the ground for automation.

Step 2: Automate account assignment to scale

As your team grows, manual account assignment becomes a time drain. Routing software like Chili Piper’s proprietary tool Distro can help you automate this process. Here’s what you get using it:

• Easy accounts pre-qualification. You just configure a set of criteria to identify if leads are the right fit, and the tool evaluates each account against those criteria.
• Smart workload distribution. Qualified accounts are then automatically routed to the best-suited SDR based on availability and expertise.
• Equipping your SDRs with context. SDRs receive Slack notifications with details about the assigned account. For example, a message might mention that an account recently increased traffic on their lead capture form, suggesting a potential opportunity to convert those leads into sales.

Bonus tip: Allow SDRs the freedom to find their most effective outreach style, whether it's cold calling, cold emailing, or leveraging LinkedIn.

Things shaping the overall 2024 outbound strategy

To help you navigate 2024, here are a few final thoughts packed with insights, concerns, and predictions:

Keeping automation/human interaction in balance

Technological solutions will streamline repetitive tasks, freeing sellers to focus on building relationships and strategic outreach. However, the human touch remains irreplaceable.

B2B buyers are becoming more informed. So, the seller’s ability to understand their needs and truly guide them through the buying journey is what will make the difference.

Still, with AI in place, we might have to optimize our interactions. We might need to offer several options, based on whom we’re selling to:

• In-person contact with those who value human interaction
• Self-service option for those who want low-touch interaction
• Or even AI type of thing to those tech-savvy prospects who look for it

But of course, one of the most essential things is that AI can’t replicate empathy. That’s why understanding buyer needs and challenges on a deeper level is key to building lasting connections.

Key marketing challenges and possible solutions to them

Finally, the speakers offered a few challenges they face and work on resolving:

• Shrinking budgets might require dual-purpose account executives. The line between SDR and account executive may blur. The role of the SDR is likely to evolve towards a hybrid model, combining prospecting and closing skills.
• Finding creative ways to cut through the noise. Standing out in overflowing inboxes and feeds requires personalized outreach strategies and compelling messaging. While no one can tell you how to do it right, you can experiment with different tactics like video follow-ups, interactive postcards, sales decks, etc. 
• Mastering hyper-personalization. Leveraging data and buyer insights to craft highly personalized messages will be critical for engagement. The issue is making it scalable, and that’s where you can try AI-powered tools.
• Spotting micro-trends. Identifying emerging trends within your niche and capitalizing on them can position you as a thought leader and attract early adopters.

In a nutshell, the focus will shift towards building genuine relationships, offering a buyer-centric approach, and leveraging the power of human connection alongside the efficiency of automation.