Outbound Lead Generation: 6 Best Strategies For Agency Owners

Imagine doubling 🚀 your client base overnight by tweaking your outbound lead generation approach.

We know how important it is for agency owners to reach potential clients effectively on a regular basis.

Each method has different sets of benefits, which can significantly shorten your sales cycle and boost your brand’s visibility.

Curious which strategy might work best for your agency?

What Are Outbound Leads?

Outbound leads are B2B prospects interested in your products or services but have not yet made a purchase. They are potential customers just outside your sales funnel, ready for engagement.

You’ve got two main types: MQLs and SQLs.

🟦 An MQL is someone who’s interacted with your website or social media, showing curiosity.

🟦 On the other hand, SQL stands for “Sales Qualified Lead.” This is someone your sales rep flags as ready to purchase or a potential serious buyer.

Outbound leads are vital because they represent opportunities to convert interest into revenue. By understanding these prospects, you can better tailor your strategies to effectively guide them through the sales funnel.

What Is Outbound Lead Generation?

Outbound lead generation is the process of proactively reaching out to potential customers who may not be aware of your product or service.

You’ll usually see two key players in this process: the outbound sales and marketing teams.

They use cold calling, cold email, and social media to connect with prospects and build a solid sales pipeline.

Outbound Sales Team

In outbound lead generation, the sales team, including SDRs and BDMs, plays a pivotal role in identifying, qualifying, and converting potential leads into customers. Your outbound sales team is the engine that drives new business growth.

Let’s break down their roles:

1. SDRs (Sales Development Representatives) research and contact potential leads, qualifying them through lead scoring models.

2. BDMs (Business Development Managers) negotiate deals, present live demos, and close new businesses.

Each role is essential in outbound lead generation, ensuring a seamless and efficient process from initial contact to final deal closure.

Outbound Marketing Team

A successful outbound lead generation strategy hinges on a well-coordinated marketing team. Your outbound marketing team should include –

• Content marketers
• Campaign marketers
• Performance marketers

1. Content marketers craft engaging materials for your ideal customer profile, hooking their interest. They’re also responsible for running blogger outreach campaigns to land your backlinks.

2. Campaign marketers take these materials and run promotional campaigns through email marketing, television, podcast, influencers, print, and social platforms, ensuring your message reaches a broad audience.

3. Performance marketers manage paid advertising and brand marketing, fine-tuning strategies to maximize ROI.

Together, these roles form a powerhouse team that generates quality outbound leads, paving the way for your sales team to convert prospects into customers.

Is Outbound Lead Generation Expensive?

Outbound lead generation is not expensive. You can effectively kickstart outbound lead-generation campaigns with as little as $200 a month.

Tools	Price	Payment
Domains	3*10 = $30	Yearly
Email Inboxes ( Google Workspace + Outlook)	10*9 = $90	Monthly
Cold Email tool (Saleshandy)	$36	Monthly
Email Collection (BetterContact)	1000 Credits, $49	Monthly
Total	$205

On the other hand, cold call campaigns require a bit more, but you can still manage with a budget of around $500 monthly.

Our recommended cold-calling tech stack for the B2B industry.

1. LinkedIn Sales Navigator
2. BetterContact
3. PhoneBurner OR, Aircall OR, MyPhone
4. Close CRM

Benefits of Outbound Lead Generation

Outbound lead generation can dramatically shorten your sales cycle by targeting ready-to-purchase leads. This proactive approach lets you hyper-target potential customers, speeding up the sales process.

1. Shortens the sales cycle.
2. Boosts brand awareness.
3. Expand into new markets.
4. Enhances targeting precision.
5. Provides real-time analytics.
6. Improves efficiency and scalability.
7. Ensures consistent communication.
8. Supports comprehensive marketing.

Additionally, outbound lead gen is perfect for testing and reaching new markets.

Introduce your offerings to people who need to learn about your business. Use lead enrichment to get real-time analytics; track what works, making it easier to refine your strategies.

How Does Outbound Lead Generation Work?

Identify prospects based on your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) to generate outbound leads effectively. This means focusing on the characteristics of your target audience that are most likely to become qualified leads.

Here’s how outbound lead generation works:

1. Research & Lead Generation: Identify pain points, gather contacts, and reach out.
2. Outreach: Engage prospects via calls, emails, or social selling.
3. Sales Discovery: Research the prospect’s needs.
4. Pitch & Closing: Tailor your pitch, handle objections, and close the deal.

What Are the Best Outbound Lead Generation Strategies?

Wondering how to catch the attention of potential clients and close them?

Let’s break these down to see how each can boost your agency’s growth.

1. Cold Calling
2. Cold Emailing
3. Linkedin Outreach
4. Multi-channel Outreach
5. Pay-per-click (PPC)
6. Social Selling

1. Cold Calling

No, cold calling is not dead.

This classic method that still packs a punch🥊, because it allows for personal, direct engagement with prospects.

SDRs can make the most of cold calling by:

1. Creating targeted prospecting lists: Focus on contacts more likely to be interested in your offerings.
2. Researching the best times to call: Timing can considerably impact your success rate.
3. Polishing your pitch: Know your product or service to secure a meeting.

⭐ Tech Stack

1. BetterContact
2. Close CRM
3. PhoneBurner

2. Cold Emailing

Cold emailing is another highly effective method for outbound lead generation. It offers a cost-effective way to engage prospects directly via pattern-breaker cold emails with No-Brainer Offers.

Accurate B2B email lists guarantee your messages hit the right inboxes.

Using outbound email as a lead generation tool, you can highlight how your product adds value to your prospect’s business.

Sales automation softwares can streamline this process, making managing and tracking your outreach efforts easier. One of our top choice for this is SalesHandy –

Remember, the key to successful cold emailing is

1. Hyper-focused lead list – Apollo, Clay.
2. Email Finder – BetterContact (built-in email & catch-all verification)
3. Email Verification – Neverbounce or Reoon.
4. Catch-all Email Verification– Scrubby or Bouncify.
5. Personalized Icebreaker text, Images, Video – Vinna.ai, Clay
6. Cold Email Sending Software – Saleshandy

⭐ Minimal Tech Stack

1. Free Apollo Account
2. Exportapollo.com
3. BetterContact
4. Saleshandy

3. Linkedin Outreach

LinkedIn outreach can become spammy and ban your account if not done right.

LinkedIn is a powerful platform for connecting with potential leads and expanding your network. For effective outbound lead generation, focus on three key areas:

• Connection Request Messages: Craft personalized, relevant messages. Avoid generic intros and include a clear CTA. A simple, engaging message can notably increase your acceptance rate.
• Message Requests: Use these to contact people in the same LinkedIn group or event. They can accept or decline privately, so make your message count by being concise and value-driven.
• InMail Messages: This paid feature lets you reach beyond your network. Keep messages under 400 characters for better response rates, personalize your outreach, and avoid sending on weekends.

Tools maximize your LinkedIn lead generation efforts.

⭐ Tech Stack

• Expandi OR,
• HeyReach

4. Multi-channel Outreach

Reaching out to prospects through multiple channels dramatically enhances your chances of successful engagement and lead generation. With multi-channel outreach, you’re leveraging several outbound strategies to reach decision-makers.

Combining email, phone calls, social media, and even direct mail as part of your outbound marketing stack guarantees you catch their attention.

This approach creates a more personalized experience, increasing trust and credibility. Integrating inbound marketing tactics, like content sharing, can further amplify your reach.

Remember, consistency is vital—don’t bombard prospects with conflicting messages. Start small, perfect each channel, and watch your efforts pay off.

⭐ Tech Stack

• Free Apollo Account
• Exportapollo.com
• BetterContact
• LaGrowthMachine

5. Pay-per-click (PPC)

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising offers a powerful way to quickly boost your brand’s visibility by placing your ads directly in front of interested prospects.

With PPC, you pay for each click on your ads, making it a focused and measurable digital marketing approach. Your performance marketing team will manage these campaigns, ensuring your ads reach the right audience and drive effective lead generation.

Yes, PPC can be costlier than organic methods, but the immediate visibility and targeted reach can be well worth it. By bidding on specific keywords, your ads appear in search engine results, capturing the attention of potential clients actively searching for solutions.

It’s a straightforward, albeit pricey, way to attract quality leads.

6. Social Selling

Leveraging social media channels for social selling allows you to engage prospects and build meaningful relationships, seamlessly complementing your multi-channel outreach efforts. Platforms like LinkedIn can establish valuable connections and drive effective outreach.

Here are three essential steps to maximize your social selling efforts:

1. Optimize Your Profile:
Your LinkedIn profile should be professional and showcase your expertise. Prospects should see you as a credible resource.

2. Produce & Engage with Content:
Share valuable content and actively participate in discussions. This positions you as a thought leader and keeps you on prospects’ radar.

3. Build Relationships:
Send personalized connection requests and follow up with meaningful conversations. Focus on adding value rather than pushing a hard sell.

Consistently applying these tactics can turn connections into qualified leads.

⭐ Tech Stack

• Breakcold – Social CRM
• ReachOwl – Facebook Outreach
• Manychat – Instagram DM

Bonus #1. Content Syndication

Alright, we get it. This is not your typical outbound marketing, where you go to your leads; you make the leads come to you, which is basically inbound marketing.

Anyway, consider content syndication to expand your reach and drive more traffic to your website. I realized that it’s just SEO when you say it like that.

By republishing your digital content on other sites, you introduce it to new audiences, boosting your visibility and attracting potential leads.

Here’s how you can leverage content syndication effectively:

1. Choose the right platforms: Syndicate your content on high-traffic websites and online communities, such as LinkedIn, Facebook groups, and relevant Subreddits.
2. Diversify your content: Syndicate various forms of digital content, such as blog posts, infographics, and videos.
3. Utilize email communication: Share syndicated content through email newsletters to keep your audience engaged.

Put an NOS on it, and make your content work harder.

Bonus #2. Referrals

By leveraging referral marketing, you can tap into existing networks, satisfied customers, increase brand awareness, and target high-quality leads.

When happy clients recommend your business, it boosts customer loyalty and brings in potential customers who are more likely to convert.

Think of it as creating a ripple effect—one satisfied customer introduces another, who then does the same. This helps maintain a steady stream of high-quality leads.

Plus, referred customers often have higher retention rates, making them more valuable in the long run. So, consider the power of a good referral program in your outbound lead generation efforts.

How to Grow Your Business With Outbound Lead Generation?

To grow your business with outbound lead generation, align your sales and marketing teams to create a cohesive strategy. Agency owners must ensure both teams are on the same page regarding marketing tactics and sales processes.

Here’s a six-step approach to help you:

1) 💵 Set Your Budget:

If someone is just starting out, their budget can be tight. You must cough up some cash to run sales campaigns! Find a co-founder or a partner. I don’t know, mate. Ask your mom, friends, or the neighbor’s mistress.

2) 🥸 Define Your Ideal Customer Persona:

You don’t know who your ICP is?! Just think about what you do best, casually stalk your competitors, and peek at their case studies. Who knows, you might just “borrow” their ICP while you’re at it. 🙈

3) 🏹Set Your Channels:

Do you only need cold calling, or do you need cold email and cold calling? Or maybe you should consider cold calling, cold email, and LinkedIn outreach. Perhaps you just need LinkedIn and Twitter outreach. Cement your channels.

4) 🛠️Tool Stacking:

Load up your tool stack based on the channels and budget

5) 🧑‍💼Lead Gen:

Generate leads’ contact info using BetterContact. C’mon, we’re not that biased! This is considered the best tool since it covers more ground, such as email and phone numbers, without breaking your bank.

6) 🧪AB test:

Find out which campaign works best and scale it to the moon.

via GIPHY

Remember the old saying, The early bird catches the worm🐛? Well, it’s absolutely true here.

The better your email find rate, the more coverage you have, and the quicker you reach out once their intent aligns, the better your chances of landing that high-ticket client.

So, let’s get out there, reduce the sales cycle, boost your brand’s visibility, and make some waves! Your next big client could be just one call or email away.