This is the playbook we'd give to any B2B team starting outbound from scratch. No theory, no fluff — just the steps in order.
Phase 1: Foundation (Week 1)
Define Your ICP
Before you write a single email, answer these questions:
- What industry are your best customers in?
- What company size (employees, revenue)?
- What job titles make the buying decision?
- What specific pain point does your product solve?
The tighter your ICP, the higher your reply rate. A list of 300 perfect-fit prospects will outperform 3,000 generic ones.
Set Up Your Sending Infrastructure
- Register a dedicated outreach domain (e.g., outreach.yourcompany.com)
- Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records
- Create 3-5 mailboxes on the domain
- Connect all mailboxes to ClickReach
- Set daily limits to 30-50 per mailbox
- If domain is new, ramp gradually over 2-3 weeks
Phase 2: Build Your List (Week 2)
Source Contacts
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator for research
- Apollo free tier for email lookup
- Manual company website research
- Industry directories and conference attendee lists
Import Into ClickReach
- Export from your source as CSV
- Import with column mapping (email, name, company, job title)
- Add custom fields for personalization (pain point, company news, trigger event)
- Use color-coded lists to segment by campaign or priority
Phase 3: Write Your Sequence (Week 2-3)
The 5-Step Framework
Step 1 (Day 0): Personalized intro. Reference something specific about their company. Ask one question.
Step 2 (Day 3): Follow up with social proof. Share a relevant case study or metric.
Step 3 (Day 7): Different angle. Share a resource, insight, or industry data point.
Step 4 (Day 12): Direct ask. Propose a specific meeting time.
Step 5 (Day 18): Break-up email. Acknowledge silence, offer an easy out.
Spintax Everything
Run each step through ClickReach's AI spintax generator. Every recipient gets unique phrasing, which protects deliverability.
Phase 4: Launch (Week 3)
- Start with a 50-contact test batch
- Monitor bounce rate (must stay under 5%)
- Watch for replies over the first week
- If reply rate is above 3%, scale to full list
- If reply rate is below 3%, rewrite your opening line and test again
Phase 5: Manage Replies (Ongoing)
When replies come in (detected by ClickReach's IMAP monitoring):
- Move hot leads to the Engage pipeline
- Respond within 5 minutes for highest conversion
- Track each deal through custom pipeline stages
- Use custom fields to log context and next steps
Phase 6: Iterate (Monthly)
- Review per-step performance: which email gets the most replies?
- Test new subject lines on a small batch before full rollout
- Clean your list: remove bounces, unresponsive contacts after full sequence
- Add new leads monthly to keep pipeline fresh
