Cold Emailing

[#OutreachStories] Running an automated campaign to close website visitors

lemlist team
LAST UPDATED
October 24, 2023
READING TIME
7 min.

Smart email automation is gold.

It's the fastest road to eliminate mind-numbing tasks from your plate and move on to more interesting challenges.

One such example in making is what the Albacross team has been up to these last two months.

Here's their #OutreachStory...

What are #OutreachStories? In short, lemlist users share their experience with ongoing email outreach campaigns. Wins, struggles, challenges, future moves... it's all in there.

Quick summary

Albacross uses lemlist to send personalized emails and automated follow-ups to all the users and companies who visited their website.

lemlist outreach stories

About Albacross

Albacross is a lead generation tool that analyzes the inbound traffic of a website and shows which companies the traffic belongs to.

It provides an extensive set of data about every detected company along with its website, size, revenue, physical address, as well as the contact emails and phone numbers of the key decision-makers.

Their goal

Book a demo with the decision-maker from the company that visited the website. Instead of spending a significant amount of time to do this manually, the Albacross team planned to automate the entire process and run on autopilot.

"Our customers often ask about the best way to use Albacross leads. So we decided to set up this campaign to see if we can make it accurate and profitable from the business perspective"

- Marcus Svensson, Head of Growth

While setting up a campaign such as this one, there were a few things that had to be considered:

Their strategy

Since their product captures contact details from companies who visit a website, Albacross already had their target audience figured out.

To transfer leads to lemlist, they are using Zapier workflows. Another important thing that happens in this step is that existing customers are being filtered out. This way, the campaign will be targeting unregistered leads only.

When it comes to lemlist and the email outreach part, Albacross launched a 3-step email sequence pitching demo calls with one of the company representatives.

The first email is an introductory one which explains why they are reaching out, while also mentioning that the recipient can do the same for their business.

To make the message a bit personalized, their team is using {{firstName}} and {{companyName}} custom fields, both in the body and subject line. The idea behind it is for every recipient to receive an email with familiar names in it.

Here's how step 1 cold email looks like:

Subject: Albacross & {{Company Name|Your Company}}

Hey {{First Name|there}},

Saw a few folks from your company were checking out Albacross recently and wanted to see how I can help.

Albacross can identify all the potential customers that aren’t converting and initiate the first contact. Just like this.

Let me help you capture these potential customers right away.

Do you have 15 min to discuss this further?

Click on
this link to book a meeting with me

Thanks!
{{signature}}

The rest of the emails are just generic follow-ups that go out every 3 days if the prospect didn't book a call.

Follow-up 1

Hey {{First Name|there}},

Just wondering if you’ve seen my previous message.

I was hoping on getting on a call to help you setting up your lead generation system.

Feel free to
book a time here

Thanks,  
{{signature}}

Breakup email

Hey {{First Name|there}},

I unsuccessfully emailed you and it looks like you are super busy to reply.

So if you would like to revisit this conversation later,
sign up for Albacross free trial here or book a demo call if you need help.

Best,
{{signature}}

Every link in the template contains a special UTM so they can easily track how many demos are getting booked from the campaign.

Their results

Albacross is running this campaign for two months now. In total, they've sent over a thousand emails.

"We set up the automation via Zapier and it works smoothly. Meetings are getting booked left and right, so we keep getting new clients from this campaign every month!"

- Marcus Svensson, Head of Growth

They've managed to book 30 meetings, out of which they've converted 10 into paying customers.

As far as the email performance goes, the team scored a 55% open rate, which means that more than 550 prospects saw the email. You can argue that 30 meetings out of 1,000+ emails won't get you to email outreach Hall of Fame, but adding 10 companies that are highly profitable for the business is always good.

Plus, besides doing a demo, everything you see runs automatically, which is pretty cool.

Next steps for Albacross

When we got this story pitch from Albacross, we were really happy to see them grinding and finding creative ways to do email outreach.

If this was NBA, these first results they're seeing could be considered as if they won a few opening games.

After talking to their team, it was great to see they're already thinking about how to improve and double down on the strategy, while keeping it as automated as possible.

Since this is an #OutreachStory after all, something that all of us can relate to, we've decided to outline some of the potential things that might be interesting to test next:

  1. A/B test personalized images and dynamic landing pages to increase meetings booked and meetings closed
  2. Drive better open rates and click-through-rates by A/B testing subject lines and the copy
  3. Testing different follow up frequency and quantity to boost conversions

In essence, Albacross is on the right track, using creative outreach automation between our two tools in a cool way. Curious to see what they do in round two.

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G2 Rating
Price
Best for
Standout feature
Con
4.9
star
star
star
star
star
$30/mo
$75/mo
$2,999/mo
Large, distributed sales teams
AI evaluation precision, gamified KPIs
Lack of tracking system
4.6
star
star
star
star
star-half
Not publicly available
Sales operations and finance teams
Powerful configurability
Limited training resources and complex to navigate
4.4
star
star
star
star
star-half
Not publicly available
Mid-market and enterprise businesses
Comprehensive incentive management
Potentially high cost and steep learning curve
4.7
star
star
star
star
star-half
$15/user/mo
$40/user/mo
Enterprise: custom price
Complex sales structures and businesses of all sizes
Complex sales structures and businesses of all sizes
Steep learning curve
4.6
star
star
star
star
star-half
Not publicly available
Collaborative teams
Connected planning
Complexity and steep learning curve
4.6
star
star
star
star
star-half
Not publicly available
Companies with complex sales structures
Complex incentive compensation management (ICM) with high efficiency and accuracy
Complexity for smaller teams and potentially high costs
4.7
star
star
star
star
star-half
Not publicly available
Companies who want to automate commission calculations and payouts
Simplicity and ease of use
Lack of features like redirection
4.7
star
star
star
star
star-half
$30/user/mo
$35/user/mo
Custom: upon request
Businesses that need a comprehensive and user-friendly sales compensation management software
Ease of use and adoption
Lack of ability to configure the product based on user needs
4.8
star
star
star
star
star-half
Not publicly available
Companies with modern sales culture and businesses who want real-time insights
A built-in dispute management and real-time visibility
Users say it works slowly, customer support is slow
4.9
star
star
star
star
star
$30/user/mo
$50/user/mo
Smaller sales teams
Powerful automation
Lesser user base and average user interface
4.7
star
star
star
star
star-half
Not publicly available
Companies with scalable needs
Automated Commission Calculations
Lack of filtering by date, no mobile app
ERP vs. CRM
ERP
CRM
Summary
Backbone of a business's internal operations.
Backbone of customer-centric interactions and operations.
Goal
To centralize and streamline core business processes in a company.
To increase customer experience, satisfaction and loyalty, and boost sales.
Focus
Internal operations and processes across departments (finance, accounting, inventory, supply chain, HR, and sales).
All interactions with leads and customers.
Manages
Internal business data like financial data, inventory levels, production details, supply chain, HR info.
All customer data like contact info, purchase history, communication history, customer preferences and more.
Users
Finance, accounting, operations, supply chain, and HR departments.
Customer-facing teams like sales, marketing, and customer service.
Benefits
Streamlines operations, improves data accuracy, enhances decision-making, boosts collaboration, increases productivity.
Improves customer relationships, increases sales, strengthens customer service, personalizes marketing campaigns, provides insights.
Price
$150 per user per year on average.
$10 to $30 per user per month on average.
PRM Tool
Rating
Feature
Pro
Con
Mobile App
Integrations
Free Plan
Pricing
4.65
star
star
star
star
star-half
Org-wide alignment
User-friendly layout and database
Suboptimal as a personal CRM
square-check
Lack of tracking system
square-check
Team: $20/month
Business: $45/month
4.7
star
star
star
star
star-half
Social Media Integration
Easy contact data collection
No marketing/sales features
square-check
Lack of tracking system
square-xmark
7-day trial
$12/month
4.75
star
star
star
star
star-half
Block Functions
High customization capability
Not a dedicated CRM
square-check
Limited
square-check
Plus: €7.50/month
Business: €14/month
N/A
Open-source
Open-source flexibility
Requires extensive manual input
square-xmark
Limited
square-check
Self-hosted
$9/month or
$90/year
3.1
star
star
star
Simple iOS app
Ideal for non-tech-savvy users
iPhone only
square-check
iOS only
Limited
square-xmark
1-month trial
$1.49/month or
$14.99/month
3.6
star
star
star
star-half
Smart Contact Management
Feature-rich and flexible
Reported bugs
square-check
Rich
square-xmark
7-day trial
Premium: $13.99/month
Teams: $17.99/month
4.4
star
star
star
star
star-half
Customizable Interface
Customizable for teamwork
Pricey for personal use
square-check
Rich
square-xmark
Standard: $24/member
Premium: $39/member
4.7
star
star
star
star
star-half
Integrated Calling
Integrated Calling
Too sales-oriented & pricey
square-check
Rich
square-xmark
14-day trial
Startup: $59/user/month
Professional: $329/user/month
4.8
star
star
star
star
star
Business Card Scanning
Business Card Scanning
Mobile only
square-check
Limited
square-check
$9.99/month
4.45
star
star
star
star
star-half
160+ app integrations
Comprehensive integrations
No free app version
square-check
Rich
square-xmark
14-day trial
$29.90/month or
$24.90/month (billed annually)
Capterra Rating
Free Trial
Free Plan
Starting Price (excluding the free plan)
Maximum Price (for the most expensive plan)
Best for
4.5
star
star
star
star
star-half
square-check
14-day
square-check
€15/month/seat billed annually
€792/month/3 seats billed annually + €45/month for each extra seat
Versatility and free plan
4.2
star
star
star
star
square-check
30-day
square-xmark
But it offers reduced price to authorised nonprofit organisations
€25/user/month
€500/user/month billed annually (includes Einstein AI)
Best overall operational CRM
4.3
star
star
star
star
star-half
square-xmark
square-check
Limited to 3 users
Comprehensive incentive management
€52/user/month billed annually
Small-medium businesses and automation
4.5
star
star
star
star
star-half
square-check
14-day
square-xmark
€14/seat/month billed annually
€99/seat/month billed annually
Sales teams and ease of use
4.1
star
star
star
star
square-xmark
square-check
Limited 10 users
$9.99/user/month billed annually
$64.99/user/month billed annually
Free plan for very small teams up to 10
CRM goal
Increase the sales conversion rate for qualified leads from marketing automation campaigns by 10% in the next 6 months.
SMART Breakdown
1. Specific: It targets a specific area (conversion rate) for a defined segment (qualified leads from marketing automation).
2. Measurable: The desired increase (10%) is a clear metric, and the timeframe (6 months) allows for progress tracking.
3. Achievable: A 10% increase is possible based on historical data and potential improvements.
4. Relevant: Boosting sales from marketing efforts aligns with overall business objectives.
5. Time-bound: The 6-month timeframe creates urgency and a clear target date.
Actions
Step 1: Refine lead qualification criteria to ensure high-quality leads are nurtured through marketing automation.
Step 2: Personalize marketing automation campaigns based on lead demographics, interests, and behavior.
Step 3: Develop targeted landing pages with clear calls to action for qualified leads.
Step 4: Implement lead scoring to prioritize high-potential leads for sales follow-up.
Step 5: Track and analyze campaign performance to identify areas for optimization.
Outcomes
Increased sales and revenue
Improved marketing automation ROI
Marketing and sales alignment
Data-driven marketing optimization
Table
CDP Software
CRM Software
Approach
Data-centric
Customer-centric
Focus
Interactions across various channels and touchpoints, both online and offline.
Sales, marketing, and customer service interactions.
Functionality
Automatically collects, organizes, tags, and makes data available in real-time.
Helps businesses track customer interactions, sales pipelines, prospects, and service requests.
Goals
Personalized customer experiences across all channels.
Better customer relationships, streamlined processes, and improved profitability.
Benefits
Data integration, management, and accessibility, allowing for detailed analysis and segmentation.
Better communication within teams and with customers by organizing information about customer interactions and history.
Data Handling
Handles both identified and anonymous data, stitches together various data points.
Deals primarily with identified customer data.
Use Cases
Personalized marketing campaigns, targeted advertising, content customization across multiple channels.
Managing campaigns and leads, enhancing customer service, providing better customer support, increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Examples
Insider, Bloomreach, Salesforce Marketing Cloud CDP
HubSpot, Salesforce Sales Cloud Lightning Professional, and Zoho CRM

What you should look at next

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