The Kiln

Here's a step-by-step guide for building a surprisingly simple outbound machine that floods your inbox with QUALIFIED leads. After sending 1M+ emails, we’ve nailed down a few things that all successful outbound campaigns have: quality data source(s), high-intent prospects, and hyper-relevant messaging This evergreen allbound workflow not only checks all three of these boxes, but also: - Can be propped up in a weekend - Is extremely intuitive and therefore easy to develop copy/messaging for - Doesn't require a crazy expansive tech stack Step 1: Use RB2B to track website visitors Step 2: Filter down visitors your ICP (can be done in either RB2B or Clay) Step 3: Find lookalikes of ICP visitors using Ocean.io Step 4: Reach out with cold emails using Smartlead Plain and simple. #intent #outbound

This one simple addition can bring you high-paying clients A good client has one blocker before converting: the trust that you can deliver results and ensure a great engagement. Giving a glimpse of your knowledge and expertise is key. And how do you do that? By using LEAD MAGNETS. Lead magnets are tools that offer value—like eBooks, webinars, or exclusive templates—designed to capture your prospect’s attention and information in exchange for delivering relevant, useful content. Here’s the good part: Not only do they build trust, but they also showcase your expertise, setting you apart from competitors. IMPORTANT: Your lead magnet should offer so much value it feels almost too generous—like a free in-depth guide, exclusive report, or free consultation to build trust and convert leads. What Lead Magnets Can You Use? 1. eBooks: In-depth guides that solve a specific problem or dive deep into a key topic. 2. Webinars: Live or recorded expert sessions that provide actionable insights. 3. Templates: Time-saving resources like ready-to-use spreadsheets or project frameworks. 4. Checklists: Simple, step-by-step guides to help users achieve a goal. Reports: Data-driven insights that give your audience valuable industry knowledge. Once your lead magnet is ready, ensure your audience knows how to access it with a clear, bold CTA. Use direct phrases like “Download Now” or “Get Your Free Guide,” and make it prominent to encourage immediate action. Lead magnets help you by capturing qualified leads, warming them up, and ultimately shortening your sales cycle. In the video, I’ve also covered what copy to use for lead magnets, how to optimize the lead capture process, and much more. Check it out now! #leadmagnets #sales

How to scrape leads that you KNOW will be interested Cold outreach can be a time sink, with prospects having little patience for unsolicited emails and too many unqualified leads. So, how do you fix it? Shift your strategy to focus on two key approaches: 1. Warm Leads These are people who’ve already engaged with your brand. They know you, and that familiarity increases your chances of a positive response. • Social Media Engagement: Tools like Common Room help you identify those who regularly interact with your posts—perfect for outreach. Tools like PhantomBuster help you scrape profiles who engage with content • Website Visitors: With tools like RB2B, you can track who’s visiting your site, gathering data on job titles and LinkedIn profiles to target prospects showing genuine interest. • Email Replies: Prospects who have already replied to your emails are prime for a follow-up. 2. Near Bound Leads Near bound outreach targets companies already using your partner technologies—making them easier to convert. • Partner Companies: Tools like Reveal let you access your partner’s customer base, like HubSpot, giving you leads familiar with related products. For instance, if you partner with a marketing automation platform, you can use Reveal to see which companies are currently using the platform. This data allows you to tailor your outreach messages to address specific pain points related to marketing automation, increasing the likelihood of conversion. • Technology Stacks: With tools like Phantom Buster and Clay, you can find companies using complementary technologies, ideal for your outreach. By focusing on warm and near-bound leads, you’ll drastically improve your results. Bonus: Watch the video where I explain how to personalise these strategies for even better engagement. #leadgeneration #sales

Cold emails work best when the first lines are relevant and personalized. Here are 5 intent-based personalizations that actually deliver results: → First line for someone newly hired → Mentioning their recent LinkedIn post (one-line AI summary of their recent and relevant post) → Referring to recent company news → Highlighting a company’s headcount growth → Tying your value prop to the prospect’s information Get all the personalizations in one table. Hit Follow & Comment “Intent Signals” and we’ll DM it straight to you!

Ensuring your emails land in the inbox and not the spam folder is crucial for any campaign. Here are some best practices to help you optimize your email deliverability: 1. SPF, DKIM, and DMARC: Make sure these records are set up correctly. They form the backbone of your email’s authentication and reputation in Google + Microsoft’s eyes. 2. Use Real Names: Avoid using generic email addresses like info@ or contact@. Personalize your email accounts with real names to build trust. 3. Choose a Reputable Email Service Provider: Services like Google or Microsoft are ideal. If you opt for your own email server, be prepared to handle the technical aspects—when done right, it can work exceptionally well. 4. Provider Matching for Multi-Account Setups: Tools like Instantly and Smartlead offer provider matching, ensuring Gmail accounts communicate with Gmail, and Outlook accounts with Outlook. This can boost your deliverability rates. 5. Low Volume Sending: Keep email volume low. We recommend around 10-15 emails per account per day BUT some very reputable industry leaders advocate for sticking to as little as 5 emails per day. 6. Limit Email Accounts Per Domain: Limit your infrastructure to two email accounts per domain. Remember, the reputation of each account impacts your main domain. 7. Send Delays: Implement a delay of 30-40 minutes between each sent email to avoid triggering spam filters. If possible, switch this time interval every few days. 8. Custom Tracking Domain: Do not track open rates!! However, if you absolutely must track them for whatever reason, then be sure to use a custom tracking domain. 9. Focus on Reply Rates: Prioritize tracking reply rates and positive replies over open rates. After all, it’s the positive responses that truly matter. 10. Verify Your Email List: Always ensure your email list is double-verified. If your bounce rate exceeds 2-3%, pause the campaign and reverify your list. Any deliverability experts who want to add their insights? Drop them down in the comments👇🏻

Running a B2B business in 2024 is no easy task, especially when it comes to client acquisition. The competition is fierce, and standing out requires more than just a great product. Here’s some honest advice for B2B business owners to thrive: 1. Align expectations: As a B2B business owner, when you first do an outbound marketing campaign, it’s essential to manage expectations regarding response rates. For instance, a well-executed cold email campaign typically sees a positive response rate of only 1 in 350 emails. Many businesses mistakenly believe that reaching out to a few hundred contacts will yield substantial returns, but the reality is often much less promising. To enhance your chances of success, consider hiring key personnel who can elevate your outreach efforts. Two critical roles to consider are: A skilled copywriter: This individual can craft compelling messages that resonate with your target audience. A trusted technical implementation manager: This person can set up the necessary tools and processes to facilitate an effective outbound strategy 2. Deliver differentiated value: Beyond initial outreach, B2B businesses must also focus on closing deals and establishing differentiated value. In industries like insurance or facility maintenance, standing out can be particularly challenging. To address this, consider what additional value you can provide to clients that goes beyond your core offerings. Lifetime value is a crucial concept for B2B businesses. Often, providing a service for free initially can lead to long-term contracts that significantly boost profitability. For instance, if you offer a free consultation or trial, the potential for repeat business can outweigh the initial cost. 3. Focus on retaining customers: Retaining customers is as vital as acquiring new ones. When you have multiple value propositions, clients are less likely to switch to competitors. If a product fulfills several needs, the perceived cost of leaving becomes higher. This is particularly relevant in the B2B space, where switching costs can be significant. To boost retention, focus on delivering consistent value and ensuring your clients are aware of all the benefits your product offers. Regularly engage with clients to understand their needs and adjust your offerings accordingly. By building strong relationships, you can create loyal customers who will advocate for your business. Implement these strategies and the strategies in the video, and you’ll be better equipped to scale your B2B business! #b2b

The easiest way to get B2B clients in 2024? It’s all about leveraging the right tools. Here’s how you can use Clay to automate prospecting and craft personalized cold emails that stand out in a crowded inbox: 1. Data Sources Start by importing data from a variety of sources (here are a few examples)— LinkedIn: Find companies and individuals. Google Maps: Discover local businesses. HubSpot: Access existing contacts. CSV Imports: Bring in your own data sets. Literally anywhere: leverage paid data providers or publicly available data sources. 2. Data Enrichment Enhance your source data by finding relevant information about your target company and prospect. Clay is one of the best tools for data enrichment because it allows you easily to aggregate data from multiple providers into a single spreadsheet. Using various data providers, you can uncover crucial details such as company revenue, employee count, emails of prospects and more. 3. AI Tools Today, using AI for cold outreach no brainer. The only trick is using it properly, and to the appropriate extent. Using AI, you can leverage the data you’ve aggregated from your multitude of providers to automate tasks such as writing email snippets or making deductions about a company based on its description. This feature is particularly useful for personalizing outreach efforts, as it allows you to generate tailored messages that resonate with your target audience. For instance, you can use AI to classify a company as B2B or B2C based on its description, or even create engaging snippets like referencing recent news about the company related to your value proposition. The possibilities are essentially endless, as Clay’s AI agent can scrape the web for public data, providing insights that were previously difficult to obtain. 4. Your CRM If used properly, your company’s CRM could be your most valuable data provider. And, because Clay integrates with virtually every CRM (either natively or via an API connection), you can enrich your CRM’s existing contacts and accounts with almost any data point you could imagine. For a detailed breakdown on how to leverage each of these tools, check out the video below👇🏻! Happy Prospecting! hashtag #clay #outbound

Your B2B outbound copy is bound to fail if you don’t have these basics nailed down. It doesn’t matter how impressive your personalization efforts are—getting the fundamentals right is crucial. Here are the key aspects you need to focus on when crafting your outbound copy: 1. Ideal Customer Profile: Clearly identify who you want to target. Define your ICP on two levels: Company What industry is your ideal customer in? How big are they? Do they work with specific techs? Answer these questions by working back from the pain point your solution solves for. For which companies is that pain point the most intense and prevalent? Contact At a given company in your ICP, who would be the best point of contact? There are often multiple people or ‘personas’) at a given company who are suitable contacts. However, each persona might experience the pain point you solve for in very different ways. Therefore, it’s important to vary your copy for each persona you reach out to 2. Problem Statement: Pinpoint the exact problem you are solving for this ICP. 3. Solution Description: Provide a concise explanation of how you solve this problem and what sets your solution apart from others. 4. Social Proof: Including social proof in your copy will help build credibility and trust. If possible, try to include case studies and results that are relevant to the recipient. Including a case study from a company in your recipient’s industry will be far more beneficial than a non-relevant case study. 5. Trigger/Signal: The cold email that is MOST likely to be engaged with has three things: the right message, the right recipient, and the right timing. Most people focus on the first two. To perfect the message, they spend time and resources on developing the perfect copy and personalizations. To perfect the recipient, they obsess over properly defining their ICP and building the perfect lead list. They do all that work, then send the email at a time when the pain point their solution solves for is not being most intensely felt by the recipient. Use a specific trigger to ensure that your message is well timed. A trigger can really be almost anything but a few example of triggers are: - a company raises funding - a company sees significant headcount growth - a contact switches jobs - etc. Your trigger can also, in some cases, be useful for developing a relevant introduction in your copy. Use Clay and other tools to find those triggers. What foundational elements do you prioritize in your outbound strategy? #outbound #clay

How we save our clients' sales reps 10 hrs/week on account research using Clay: This basic account research automation system is an essential time-saver for sales teams for three reasons: 1. It's wildly user friendly (can be configured to operate entirely out of a Gsheet) 2. The only input required is a company website 3. It's super flexible and gives reps everything they need to build an informed strategy for their initial outreach to prospects Here's everything you need to set it up: - Clay (of course) - Gsheets - A list of prospect companies - 30 mins of spare time A basic version of this system (like the one in the video below) is stupid easy to set up in Clay. However, once it's functional and you're familiar with operating it, there's a ton of room for expansion/improvement. Optimizing a system like this is, of course, different for every business. Which data points should we enrich for the next iteration of this template? Which ones are most valuable for your reps to have?? Hope this is helpful!

Here’s what people get wrong about cold email copywriting: Cold email copywriting, in essence, is a way of quickly, easily, and effectively conveying the value that your product or service has, as well as enticing the person reading it to want to a) learn more or b) purchase the product or service. It’s key in cold email that not a word is wasted- every sentence should serve a strong purpose A lot of companies get this wrong- they try to go on a long-winded spiel about their offering. They talk about their inception story, their founder’s background, the 10 different value propositions they have, etc. etc. People reading emails don’t want this. They want something simple, to the point, and actionable. You should approach copywriting from a psychology perspective. Here are a few psych components that I constantly keep in mind. People don’t care about your product. They just don’t. However much you care about your product, divide that by 100, and they probably still don’t even care about it that much. People respond to sales emails with emotion. There is of course a logical element to it, which is why desperate emails don’t work. However, the problem statement and your resolution to that problem statement should invoke an emotional response. Not a strong one, but emotional nonetheless. Here are some emotions they should feel: Slight worry or discomfort when the problem statement is read Slight hope or encouragement when your value prop is conveyed General trust in what you’re saying, which is due to the natural flow and cadence of the email. This last one is important, and also the most intangible. Look at the difference between these two sentences: Patrick- I saw your company recently raised a round but have not improved sales function yet. We can fix that. Hey Patrick! Congrats on the round, super exciting. Noticed you haven’t been hiring sales executives since the raise- any reason why? We’re not even saying that either of these is better, but they convey different tones and it’s important to understand the tone of your email. Invoke emotion with tone People have short attention spans. Even if they cared a lot about your product, they might not read your 3-page email on it. Even if they do, they’ll forget most of it by the time you’re on the sales call. Keep these in mind- copywriting is an art, one involving emotions and the ability to convey ideas clearly. #copywriting #outbound