Fewer messages, to people who should hear from you
Researched, one-to-one approaches to named journalists, partners and prospects. Written for one recipient, sent because there is a genuine reason – the opposite of a bought list and a mail merge.
Research first, then a short message to one person.
Cold outreach has a bad name because most of it is volume dressed up as personalisation. Ten thousand messages, a template with a merge field, and a response rate that only works because the cost per message is close to zero.
We work the other way. A named list, actual research into each name, and a message that could only have been written to that person. Lower volume, materially higher response, and a sender reputation still intact at the end of it.
- Named individuals. Verified people in verified roles, not a purchased database.
- Researched, not merged. A specific reason for contact in the first two lines.
- Deliverability protected. Domain warm-up, volume discipline and clean lists.
- Compliant. Opt-outs honoured, records kept, no scraped personal data.
Six kinds of recipient, each approached differently.
Journalists and editors
Pitched on the story, not the company. Built from current bylines, with the angle that fits what they actually cover.
Prospective clients
Decision-makers in accounts that fit your offering, approached with a reason relevant to their business this quarter.
Channel and distribution partners
Resellers, agents and complementary firms where a partnership would make commercial sense for both sides.
Analysts and industry voices
People who shape sector opinion, approached with substance rather than a press release attachment.
Event and platform organisers
Conference programmers and publishers looking for speakers and contributors – a route most companies never use.
Investors and advisors
Warm, specific approaches to people whose portfolio or expertise genuinely matches what you are building.
The research is most of the work.
- Target definition and qualifying criteria
- Named list building and verification
- Role, seniority and contact validation
- Per-recipient research notes
- Message writing, one recipient at a time
- Sequence design with genuine follow-up value
- Sending infrastructure and domain warm-up
- Deliverability monitoring and list hygiene
- Reply handling and qualification
- Handover of interested contacts to your team
- Opt-out management and record keeping
- Response and outcome reporting
Anything with a specific ask and a reason to read on.
Six steps, and the list is built before a word is written.
Define the target
Not “marketing directors in manufacturing” but the specific characteristics that make someone worth contacting. A tighter definition is what makes a smaller list outperform a larger one.
Build and verify the list
Names, roles and contact details researched and checked individually. Anything unverified is dropped rather than guessed at.
Research each recipient
What they published, announced, hired for or said recently – the material that gives the message its opening line and its credibility.
Write and sequence
Short messages with one clear ask, plus follow-ups that add something new instead of asking again. You approve the templates and the reasoning before anything sends.
Send carefully
Warmed domains, paced volume, monitored deliverability. Burning your sending reputation for a week of volume is a bad trade and we do not make it.
Handle replies and report
Every reply triaged, interested contacts handed to your team with the context, and an honest account of what the campaign returned.
Everyone can now send a thousand personalised messages.
Then
Scale was the advantage. Whoever sent the most messages to the biggest list won on sheer arithmetic.
Now
Generated outreach is effectively free and instantly recognisable, so recipients filter harder and mail providers filter harder still. The only messages that survive are the ones that could not have been written to anyone else.
When everyone can send everything, the scarce thing is being worth replying to.
What you keep when the campaign ends.
Outreach should leave you with an asset, not just an outcome.
- The verified, researched contact list
- Every message and sequence used
- Reply log with qualification notes
- Interested contacts, handed over with context
- Open, reply and conversion rates by segment
- What to change in the next round, and why
The list and the messaging are yours. If you take the work in-house afterwards, you start from everything we built rather than from nothing.
Built for high-value, considered relationships.
Targeted outreach makes sense when one right relationship is worth a great deal – a large contract, a distribution partner, a journalist who covers your sector properly. Where the value per contact is low, this is the wrong shape of investment.
Honest note: we will not send to a list you bought, and we will not promise a response rate. Anyone quoting you a guaranteed reply percentage on cold outreach is guessing or worse.
- B2B firms with a high contract value per client
- Companies entering a new market or region
- Businesses seeking distribution or channel partners
- Founders who need media relationships, not one-off coverage
- Specialist firms whose buyers number in the hundreds, not thousands
- Teams whose own outreach has stalled or hurt their deliverability
The things worth knowing before you start.
How many contacts will you reach?
Usually far fewer than you expect, and that is the point. A researched list in the low hundreds, worked properly, reliably outperforms thousands of merged messages – and it does not cost you your sending domain.
Do you use bought or scraped lists?
No. Lists are built and verified from public professional sources, and personal data is not scraped. If you already hold a bought list, we will tell you honestly what sending to it would do to your deliverability.
Is this compliant?
We work to opt-out handling, honest sender identification and record keeping as standard. Where your market has specific consent rules, we scope the campaign to them rather than around them.
Will it come from our domain or yours?
Usually a dedicated sending domain related to yours, warmed properly, so your primary domain is never exposed to a deliverability problem. You keep ownership of it.
Who handles the replies?
We triage everything and qualify the genuine interest, then hand those contacts to your team with the full context. Where you would rather see every reply yourself, that works too.
How long before it produces results?
Research and setup take one to two weeks. Replies begin within days of sending; a considered B2B conversation often takes several weeks to turn into anything. Campaigns are judged over months, not days.
One brief. We choose the mix.
Digital PR Distributions
Earning genuine editorial coverage on news and online media. Read more
Media Portal Distribution
Placement on the industry portals and trade platforms your buyers actually read. Read more
Social PR Distribution
Amplifying coverage through social channels, communities and credible voices. Read more
Tell us who you need to reach. We will find them properly.
Describe the person worth one good conversation. We will come back with how we would build the list, what we would say, and what it costs.