Imagine this scenario: Your marketing team sent 200 emails over the past week, and you’ve since sent follow-up after follow-up and still haven’t received any responses. It’s simply a nightmare. No matter what you attempt, your outreach campaign feels colder than the cold emails you sent.

 

 

How do you escape the conundrum?

 

 

The answer: multichannel cold outreach. 

 

 

A multichannel cold outreach strategy enables you to take your prospecting to the next level. Not receiving responses over email? No worries, tap into a different channel to try a different approach. In short, multichannel cold outreach enables a higher degree of flexibility.

 

 

In this article, we’ll show you the advantages of using a multichannel cold outreach strategy and how to integrate one effectively into your current marketing plan.

 

 

What Is Multichannel Cold Outreach?

 

A multichannel cold outreach strategy leverages two or more channels to generate leads. It accomplishes the task by strategically tapping into multiple marketing channels to create interest and interactions from MQLs (marketing qualified leads) most likely to convert.

 

 

Multichannel cold outreach enables:

 

• Starting engagements by promoting brand and product awareness
• Communicating your brand message to qualified leads
• Connecting qualified leads to your SDRs (sales development representatives)

 

In short, multichannel cold outreach expands the scope of your outreach strategy to as many channels as necessary. Multichannel, multiple chances of success.

 

 

The Advantages of Multichannel Cold Outreach

 

Multichannel outreach is more effective than single-channel outreach for three reasons:

 

• More approachable: Following up across various channels gives the impression of new conversations, allowing for a new “first impressions” to avoid sounding pushy. Put yourself in your prospect’s shoes—getting multiple follow-ups on the same channel can get quite annoying.

• Expands coverage: Focusing on a single channel inevitably ends with abandoned leads. For instance, if you have a cold email outreach strategy, encountering a prospect whose email you can’t access is a dead end. Instead, with multichannel outreach, you can engage with the same prospect by interacting with them via their social media account.

• Better targeting: Using multiple channels enables more accurate demographic targeting. For instance, older prospects might appreciate email contact over social media, and the reverse might be true for younger prospects. Additionally, you can better tailor personalization efforts based on the channel used.

 

A multichannel approach has multiple benefits if you want the best results from your cold outreach strategy. Why limit yourself to single channels when you can have more than one way to reach your prospects? Exactly.

 

 

Keys to Developing a Multichannel Cold Outreach Strategy

 

Optimal multichannel outreach performance requires improved performance in several key areas, which enhances the odds of success. The three areas to focus on are:

 

• Target audience: A multichannel cold outreach strategy requires a concrete picture of your ICP (ideal customer persona). That way, you have a solid idea of your prospect’s wants and issues. Further, you pinpoint how, when, and where they prefer to engage with your brand.

• Content: Different channels require different content types. Your content should be as personalized as possible for email. Alternatively, social media outreach can leverage image or video content—whatever you know will work better with the demographics.

• Channels: Every channel has unique strengths and weaknesses for cold outreach use. Therefore, analyze each channel to identify which channel garners the most customer engagement and which channels prospects prefer. Zone in on those to optimize efforts.

 

 

Which Channels to Focus On

 

Now let’s discuss which channels bring the best opportunities and how to use them properly:

 

• Website or Landing pages: These are not a natural part of your outreach strategy. However, it’s still an essential component that enables prospects to learn about your brand. The website is the hub for prospects to gain information on your products and services; the landing page is directly responsible for lead conversion.

• Email outreach: The preferred channel for outreach and, therefore, shouldn’t be ignored. In fact, email comes with an ROI of 122%. Furthermore, adding custom elements like images and video can help differentiate your brand from your competition, positively affecting your reply rates. On top of that, you can incorporate email automation tools to manage email drip campaigns

• LinkedIn: The go-to social media platform for generating B2B leads. LinkedIn messages generate three times more replies than email. Simply put, LinkedIn presents a golden opportunity to find prospects, especially if you’re doing a B2B campaign.

• SMS: An ideal channel for cold outreach because mobile texts have an average open rate of 98%. And to top that off, SMS boasts a 209% increased reply rate over both social media messaging and email. However, like email, the law requires you to include opt-in messaging before sending SMS campaigns.

• Cold phone calls: Phone calls are still a powerful tool in your multichannel outreach strategy despite telephone outreach’s negative reputation. Using calls with two additional touchpoints, you can generate 28% higher SQL (sales-qualified leads). Additionally, you’re 16% more likely to contact leads if you send emails between call attempts.

 

Expanding your reach across channels is the keystone of a multichannel outreach strategy.

 

 

5-Step Process to Building a Multichannel Cold Outreach Strategy

 

Now, to create a multi-channel outreach strategy, you’ll need to accomplish a 5-step process:

 

1. Set Goals and KPIs

 

The first step involves getting your team on the same page and addressing what you want to achieve and how to measure success.

 

 

From the beginning, it’s essential to have a clear goal with defined success criteria for your multichannel outreach strategy. Then, you need to align your strategy with the goal in mind. An example of a goal includes: expanding brand awareness, converting trial users to paid users, improving customer retention, etc. Focusing on a priority can help you decide which channels to use to achieve your goals.

 

 

With a goal in mind, you also need a way to measure your success. That’s where KPIs come in. KPIs that can measure a successful multichannel strategy include:

 

• Costs-per-lead (CPL)
• Landing page conversion rate
• Source of leads
• Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
• Customer lifetime value (CLV)

 

 

2. Automate

 

Running a multichannel cold outreach strategy costs a lot of effort, time, and money. So, to keep the strategy efficient, it’s vital to include automation tools. Helpful software includes CRM, data collection, and email capture tools. You can also hire third-party experts on cold outreach to have a fleet of professionals help your company run the operations.

 

 

3. Set a Follow-Up Timeline

 

If you overwhelm your prospects with connection requests, you’re counterproductive to a multichannel outreach strategy. Instead, set a schedule for sending follow requests. Then, if there’s no reply after a follow-up, use another channel to try and contact your lead. Once successfully establishing contact, adjust your strategy per client to address which channels generate the most replies.

 

 

4. Maintain a Consistent Customer Journey

 

Each prospect must have the same customer journey regardless of the contact channel. Also, you must keep your brand and message persistent across every channel. Finally, ensure each channel receives equal dedication to ensure a consistent experience across all channels.

 

 

5. Keep Improving

 

Analyze your results, and determine which channels work best with each other. Optimizing the strategy will help you reach your goals sooner, allowing you to consistently improve with every cold message you send. You’ll also increase your database of customer profiles to polish your outreach methods.

 

 

Multichannel Cold Outreach: The Solution for High Lead Generation

 

On their own, cold calls have a disastrous reputation. Cold calling a prospect has the negative connotation that you have no contacts, recommendations, or customer intel. At worst, it makes you look like a telemarketer working for a low-cost company.

 

 

However, that’s on its own. Cold calling paired with other channels, like email, holds a lot of potential growth for your company. And that’s why multichannel cold outreach shines. One channel might seem like a weak strategy, but it can show its true potential as a lead-generation machine when paired with others.

 

 

Ready to start a multichannel cold outreach strategy but don’t know where to start? 

 

 

Reach out to ScaleUpSales. Our team of experts can get you on the road to expanding your reach across every channel. Contact us today!