System 04
B2B outreach system
A system that finds companies resembling your ideal customer, enriches them with usable information, and approaches them with something demonstrably about them. Not a mass mail with a first name dropped in, because that stopped working years ago.
Why outreach keeps getting worse
The standard approach is broken. Buy a list, take a template with a few variables, send a thousand a week. Recipients recognise the pattern within half a second, spam filters too, and your domain reputation pays for it.
What does work is less volume and more relevance: knowing why you are approaching this particular company, and being able to show it. That used to be too labour-intensive to do at scale. It is not any more, provided the system is built to stop on uncertainty rather than send anyway.
How the system fits together
Four layers, the last two of which decide whether it works or whether you land in the spam folder.
- 01
Finding prospects
Based on traits your ideal customers share: sector, size, technology they run, roles they are hiring for, growth visible in public sources.
- 02
Enriching with context
Per company, whatever is relevant to your offer gets pulled in. Not just headcount, but signals you can actually open a conversation with.
- 03
A message with a reason
Every approach contains a concrete reason why this company. Without a reason nothing is sent; the system would rather skip a prospect than send something generic.
- 04
Follow-up and opt-out
A limited number of follow-ups, automatic stop on any reply, and an unsubscribe that works and is respected.
How it gets built
- 01
Sharpen the ideal customer profile
The existing customer list usually reveals a clearer pattern than people expect. That pattern is the starting point.
- 02
Start small and measure
A few dozen approaches a week, read by a human first. Only scale once replies are substantive rather than politely dismissive.
- 03
Scale within limits
Volume up with deliverability and reputation monitored. There is a ceiling, and respecting it is the difference between a working channel and a burnt domain.
What the system does
It produces a steady stream of approaches that hold up on substance, with the channels they travel through monitored.
- Prospect lists built on traits rather than bought files
- A concrete reason for contact on every prospect
- Automatic follow-up that stops the moment someone replies
- Monitoring of deliverability and domain reputation
What it costs
What an engagement costs depends on its scope and on how many systems are involved. I work with a fixed price per phase rather than open-ended billing: you know what a phase costs before it starts, and you decide after each one whether to continue.
I only quote a figure once I know what we are talking about. That takes a half-hour conversation, at no charge.
Whether this fits
This works well when
- you have a target group that can be clearly bounded
- your offer carries an order value that justifies the contact
- someone can respond to replies within a day
- you are willing to start small and measure
This fits less well when
- your target group is consumers rather than businesses
- you are after maximum volume at minimum cost
- nobody has time to follow up replies properly
Questions about B2B outreach
Is this allowed under GDPR?
Approaching business contact details is permitted in the Netherlands under conditions, on the basis of legitimate interest. What is required: a documented balancing test, transparency about where you got the data, a working opt-out, and actually respecting that opt-out. The system records all of it, so that if a complaint comes you can show how those conditions were met.
How many messages a day can this send?
Technically many, sensibly few. Above a few dozen per mailbox per day deliverability degrades. Anyone promising thousands a day is selling you a problem that only becomes visible in your domain reputation three months later.
Does the AI write the messages entirely?
The reason and the opening yes, the framework no. Fully generated messages read like fully generated messages. In practice a fixed, short framework with a genuinely specific opening works better than a completely unique message.
Let's discuss how I can help your business grow
A short call is enough to tell whether there is a good fit. No sales pitch, just an honest read on what is possible.