Outbound Playbook: Tips and Tactics for Running Cold Email
Outbound isn’t for the faint of heart. To simplify it, our Outbound Playbook breaks down the essentials for good outbound campaigns
Outbound isn’t for the faint of heart.
It’s tough because you’re essentially reaching out to prospects who may have never heard of your brand before. And since you’re cold-starting the conversation, you have sentences – if not words – to get the conversation going.
Our Outbound Playbook: From Prospect to Pitch breaks down the essentials for launching high-quality outbound campaigns.
Here are several excerpts from the playbook.
Figuring out your sales persona
Sales personas are the “secret ingredient” for effective outreach, especially if you use AI sales platforms to generate content and run your campaigns. It’s only logical that they are the primary focus of this article. However, the sales persona thing is much more than that. So stay tuned.
While there’s no 100% “tried and true” way of building a persona, these are the essentials you’ll need to include:
- Prospect data (company, industry, title)
- Prospect pain points
- Solutions provided by your offer
- Competitors
- Social proof (testimonials, reviews)
- Reasons to trust you
- Responses to objections
- Tone of voice & style
- Examples of good emails
Here’s a closer look at each part.
Specify the company, industry, & position
These are the basic parameters you’ll need to start from. They provide the foundation for all of the other parts of your persona.
For example, a CTO will usually have different pains compared to a VP of Engineering.
This is because they care about different things – The CTO is concerned with the company’s overall technology health, while a VP of Engineering focuses on engineering processes and productivity.
Importantly, keep this rule in mind: one persona, one position.
If you want to target CTOs and CEOs, you’ll need two different personas – one for each role.
Outline 3-5 pain points for each position and/or industry
3-5 pain points is the Goldilocks zone.
It’s not too few that your sales team will struggle to find something to say, and it’s not too many that the persona becomes overly prescriptive, unwieldy, and difficult to use.
Descriptions should be brief but tailored to the lead’s company size, industry, and title.
| Good | Bad |
| [Position] needs to save time on routine tasks, such as drafting NDAs and sales agreements [due to reduced headcount caused by [fintech venture capital downturn]] | Need to save time on document drafting |
The square brackets indicate optional areas of personalization that you should add if you have that depth of understanding. Armed with this information, you should materially improve conversion rates.
Map one solution to each pain point
Explain how your software helps solve each of these pains. Descriptions should be focused on solving the pain instead of the software’s features.
For easier pain-solution mapping, we recommend creating an equal number of solutions to pains. In other words, if you list 4 pains, you should list 4 solutions.
State your key competitors and why you’re the better choice
This section should mention your top competitors and how you’re better than they are. Ideally, your reasons should be tailored to your audience.
For example, if you’re selling Windows laptops to high school students, you might emphasize how more games are available on Windows than Macbook. Now if you’re selling laptops to lean start-ups, you may end up drawing attention to the affordability of Windows machines.
In the persona, you might write this out like:
“Your main competitors are [competitor A], [competitor B], and [competitor C]. You are better than them because [reason 1], [reason 2], and [reason 3].”
Alternatively, you can focus on tools people use to solve the problem you’re addressing, even if it’s something as simple as combining email and Google Docs.
Add customer testimonials to build credibility and show customer trust
This is the most important part of the persona. Social proof plays a key role in sealing deals.
Customer stories should be 2-3 sentences long and highlight in a very specific way how a customer solved their problem with your software. Relevance is critical, because no relevance means you didn’t do your homework.
If possible, your social proof should mention names and numbers, like $ saved, % of productivity gained, etc.
Highlight reasons to trust you
One of the biggest obstacles in cold outbound is a lack of trust. If you get an unsolicited email, you may think it’s a scam.
To increase your chances of success, you need to give people reasons to trust you.
Here are a few examples:
- Alum of Y Combinator
- Alum of a famous university (e.g. Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth)
- Ex-employee of a major company (Google, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs)
- Renowned expert in the field
- Customers include famous companies
- Awards
Once your personas are ready, start addressing common objections as the next step to effective email communication.
Explain how to handle common objections
Prospects frequently bring up the same or similar objections, such as:
- “We already use [competitor]”
- “We don’t have the budget”
- “I don’t think we need this”
- “The price is too high”
- “I need to speak with [decision-maker] first”
- “This isn’t a top priority right now”
Just because they have an objection doesn’t mean you need to give up. Instead, you should keep track of objections, identify which ones are most common, and strategize 1-2 standard answers that address the objection.
Describe the tone of voice and style
Emails can range anywhere from geeky and technical to simple and casual. If you want, you can even send emails in Shakespearean English. As he famously put it, “The world is your oyster.”
The choice of tone and style is ultimately up to you, but you should pick one that will resonate the most with your audience.
Provide examples of good emails
ChatGPT is frequently criticized for the poor quality of sales emails it generates. The most common complaints are that the emails are too long, verbose, and unrealistic for sales.
In other words, the emails don’t sound like a person.
The way to solve this is to include your own examples of good emails into the persona.
In the case of AI-powered outbound, you might specify that AI cold emails should be:
- Short – No more than 50 words and 2-3 short paragraphs with concise subject lines
- Straightforward – No “beating around the bush”
- Personalized – Content is tailored to the lead’s interests
- Relevant – Content addresses the lead’s situation
3-5 email templates or real examples is the Goldilocks zone for this part of the persona. If you provide too many, the persona will become too unwieldy whereas too few may make the persona overly prescriptive.
Once you’ve nailed down your audience and outreach strategy, ensure you have all the means and tactics necessary to reach that cohort.
Optimize your email list
As you follow your campaign step by step, things may seem to be going well, but over time, your email list can get cluttered with outdated or irrelevant addresses.
By taking the time to clean up your list, you’ll remove old email addresses, update contact details, and get rid of inactive subscribers. You can also organize your list into segments, ensuring you’re reaching the right people with the right message. This allows you to focus on leads most likely to engage and saves time on those who aren’t a good fit.
What’s great is that AiSDR makes the process easier by handling much of the clean-up for you, such as:
- Removing emails that hard bounce
- Removing contacts who’ve been out of the office for a long time or no longer work at the company
- Automatically unsubscribing leads who opt out and removing them from the list
Regularly cleaning your email list helps reduce both wasted effort and software costs tied to subscriber counts. Many platforms charge based on the number of subscribers, but with AiSDR, you only pay for the emails you send, with list management and other features included in your subscription.
Use multiple email addresses to protect your domain
Relying solely on your primary domain for cold emailing can hurt its reputation. Flagged emails can affect your visibility, lead to Google penalties, or – worse – get you blacklisted. Instead, set up secondary domains and email accounts to keep your main domain safe and ensure better email deliverability. With this strategy, spam filters won’t block your emails, and your main domain will stay secure.
This highly recommended best practice does require careful setup and accurate configuration. You’ll need a distinctive domain that aligns with your email service provider’s sending limits and comes from a reliable registrar. On top of that, configuring SPF, DKIM, and DMARC settings is a must for authenticating your emails and keeping them out of spam folders.
With AiSDR, automation steps in to handle secondary domains and email accounts for you:
- Dedicated domains: We create at least two additional domains, redirecting them to your main website.
- Multiple mailboxes: Each domain gets three mailboxes, fully configured with DMARC, DKIM, and SPF for authentication.
- Mailbox warm-up: Before sending, every mailbox undergoes a continuous warm-up process to build trust with email providers.
- Volume control: Email limits are gradually increased, starting with just 5 emails daily per mailbox and maxing out at 30 emails.
This automated approach ensures high deliverability, scalability, and the long-term health of your domain – all without extra effort on your part.
Avoid generic emails – personalize every time
Have you noticed how most cold emails open with the same uninspired lines? That’s because many are sent in bulk, skipping even the smallest attempt at personalization.
What grabs attention instead? An email that feels crafted specifically for the recipient. The kind that makes them think:
- “This was written just for me.”
- “It actually speaks to what I care about.”
- “The sender seems genuinely interested in helping.”
If tailoring each email feels overwhelming, think of personalization as connecting with the broader persona or profile your prospect belongs to. This circles back to the sales persona section above, as with tools like AiSDR, creating targeted outreach is both manageable and effective.
Don’t neglect this step: taking the time to personalize shows respect for your recipients and makes your emails much more likely to stand out.
Show business benefits over features
Your prospects care more about how your solution will improve their lives or workflows than about what your product actually does. They often view product features as a kind of “facade.” Your job is to show what’s behind it: the real-world impact on their goals or challenges.
For example, instead of saying, “Our software provides advanced analytics,” explain, “Our platform helps you identify revenue opportunities faster, saving hours of analysis time.” This approach makes your pitch relatable and actionable.
To sum up, start small and practical:
- Identify 10 potential prospects you’d like to engage.
- Use an email finder or validation tool to start building your contact list.
- Test hypotheses while preparing the list to get insights and refine your approach.
Once your list is ready, craft emails using these proven frameworks:
- AIDA: The model focuses on four key stages in your email messaging – helps capture attention, spark interest, build desire, and drive action.
- Justin Michael Method: Helps you create personalized, humanized emails that build rapport and make follow-ups more effective.
- Jobs To Be Done: Shifts the focus to the job your prospect wants your product to do. Talk about the outcomes your product delivers rather than just its features.
- Show Me You Know Me: Draws on insights that show you’ve done your homework. Acknowledge specific challenges or goals to make your emails personal and relevant.
This way, you can turn cold emails into stronger connections and measurable results by prioritizing relevance, personalization, and follow-up.
Get your copy of AiSDR’s Outbound Playbook
In addition to the information above, the playbook also contains:
- Extra insights about what to include in personas
- Guardrails to set up for email creation
- Emails templates you can add to your persona
- Tactics for obtaining, cleaning, segmenting, and enriching leads
- Instructions on setting up custom email domains
- Email metrics and performance benchmarks you should be tracking
Download Outbound Playbook: From Prospect to Pitch and start setting up outbound that grows your business.
FAQ
Isn’t cold emailing and email marketing the same?
Positively not. Cold emailing is sending unsolicited emails to people who haven’t interacted with your business. It’s a direct way to reach potential clients for the first time.
Email marketing, however, targets people who have already shown interest in your business or have opted in to receive emails. It’s an ongoing effort to nurture relationships and promote offers.
In short, cold emailing is used for initial outreach, while email marketing is about maintaining contact with existing or interested leads.
Are cold emails legal?
Yes, cold emailing is legal, but it must comply with certain regulations. In the United States, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 sets the rules of the game: emails must have an opt-out option, accurate sender info, a matching subject line, and a physical business address. Unsubscribed contacts must be removed within 10 days.
For EU residents, the GDPR applies, requiring a legitimate reason for contacting the person, a clear explanation of how you obtained their email, and an easy unsubscribe process. Regularly cleaning your email list is also important to stay compliant. Always review local laws for full compliance.
How long should a cold email be?
Cold emails should be short, clear, and to the point. Aim for 3-5 brief paragraphs or 125-150 words. Anything longer than 200 words risks losing the reader’s attention. Keeping your message concise ensures that it is easy to read and highlights only the essentials.
Instead of focusing on product features, emphasize the benefits for the recipient. You can tell a short story or share a case study to illustrate the value, but keep it simple and avoid overwhelming the reader with unnecessary details. Always stay polite and professional.
