Top 12 Cold Email Mistakes to Avoid for SaaS Outbound
This guide is for early-stage SaaS companies looking to build pipeline through their first outbound efforts.
Overall Outbound Trends
- B2B Buying Process - More research by B2B prospects happens online before agreeing to demos, trials, or replies. B2B marketers must provide relevant content to accounts and buying personas.
- Outbound Sales Noise - Proliferation of tools and data makes it harder to cut through cluttered inboxes.
- Email Provider Rules - Changing rules from Google and Microsoft make it tougher for emails to reach main inboxes versus spam or promotion tabs.
Outbound remains essential for early-stage SaaS GTM strategies to reach ideal customers, though relying solely on inbound can result in smaller deals.
1. Using your own domain for cold outreach
Why is it bad to use your own domain for cold email outreach?
Can damage your main domain’s SEO and deliverability. Can even result in ISP blacklisting.
How to set up separate domains for cold outreach
- Buy separate domains (example - instead of Amazon.com, use Amazon.email, Amazonmail.com, Amazonemail.com)
- Redirect to main domain
- Set up SPF, DMARC, DKIM records (DNS)
Tools and Resources
- Free Domain Health/DNS Checker (dnschecker.org)
- Google Workspace
- NameCheap / Godaddy
2. Not warming up or monitoring health of domains
Why is it bad to not warm up your domain for cold outreach?
Poor deliverability. Accounts shut off, wasting time, money, and lists.
How to warm up your domain for cold outreach
- Use 2 email addresses per domain
- Use an email warmup tool
- Limit emails per mailbox (30-40/day)
- Use a central inbox (Unibox) for “reply as”
- Monitor domain health
- Keep an unsubscribe list and process
- Don’t include links or images in initial cold emails
- Consider not tracking open rate
- Verify emails
Tools and Resources
- Smartlead.ai
- Instantly
- Findymail for clean B2B data and email verification
3. Not defining your ICPs (Accounts)
Why is it bad to not define your ICPs?
Messaging, targeting, data, lists - everything ties back to this. Spray and pray doesn’t work. Wastes time, sales opportunities, at-bats, and deliverability.
How to define your ICPs (Accounts)
- Firmographic Targeting - Company size, industry, geography
- Technographic Targeting - Technologies installed
- Intent Data Targeting - Accounts researching solutions in your niche
- “Trigger” Events - New funding rounds, hiring for specific roles, headcount growth
- “Lookalike” Accounts - Based on your customer list
- Build multiple account lists for campaigns
- Build custom account scores (refined over time)
Tools and Resources
Data: Apollo.io, Lusha, Seamless, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Cognism, LeadGenius, Uplead, Snov.io, Zoominfo
Technographic: Apollo.io, Builtwith
Intent Data: Bombora, Leadsift (Apollo.io)
Other: Web scraping
4. Not defining your Personas (Contacts) for outreach
Why is it bad to not define your personas?
“Right Message to the Right Person at the Right Time” is marketing fundamentals. Targeted campaigns with personas achieve higher response rates and enable experimentation. A CIO’s message differs from an IT Manager’s.
How to define your Personas (Contacts) for cold outreach
- Build a matrix of buyer personas at different account sizes (SMB differs from enterprise)
- Build lists in Apollo.io or similar for personalization, targeting, reporting, and messaging
Tools and Resources
- Apollo.io
- ChatGPT
5. Not understanding your prospects’ buying journey and content needs
Why is it bad not to understand your prospects’ buying journey?
Results in poor response rates and slower sales cycles. B2B buyers conduct extensive online research before engaging with reps or agreeing to calls/demos.
How to better understand your prospects’ buying journey
- Create content maps/matrices by account ICPs, personas, and sales stages
- Develop minimum content requirements
- Build social proof through case studies and listings on review sites (G2, Capterra)
Tools and Resources
- SEMRush
6. Broad, General Messaging
Why is broad, general messaging bad for outbound?
After defining ICPs, personas, content, and infrastructure, apply that work strategically to drive results.
What to do instead of using broad, general messaging
| Persona | Care About | Content |
|---|---|---|
| CIOs | Shadow IT, security | Industry analyst reports, trends |
| CFO | Cost savings | ROI calculators, payback reports |
| IT Operations Manager | Saving time, provisioning resources, supporting users | Demos, technical details, videos |
Tools and Resources
- ChatGPT
7. No Personalization for Outbound
Why is it bad to not have personalization for outbound?
Drives more results and books more meetings.
How to do personalization for outbound
- Use Spintax to avoid sending identical messages to everyone
- Conduct additional research for highly-scored accounts/targets
Tools and Resources
- ChatGPT with Google Sheets integrations
- Clay.com - Combines 50+ data providers, real-time scraping, and AI for personalized campaigns
- Lavender
8. No Experimentation or A/B Testing
Why is it bad not to experiment or A/B test for outreach?
“Spray and pray” approaches fail. Early-stage SaaS companies may still be searching for product-market fit, refining messaging, and understanding sales cycles.
How to experiment and A/B test for outreach
- Experiment, measure, refine
- Meet periodically with sales and marketing teams
Tools and Resources
- ChatGPT
9. No Formal ROI Tracking for Cold Outbound
Why is it bad not to have formal ROI tracking for Cold Outbound?
“Flying blind” prevents necessary adjustments. You need data to eliminate underperformers and double down on winners.
How to track ROI for cold outbound
- Set up granular reporting
- Check in regularly and make adjustments
- Run reports by industry, job title, personas, ICPs, lists, sequences, offers
- Integrate with CRM or maintain contact and account stages for informed reporting
Tools and Resources
- Apollo.io pre-built and custom reports
10. Relying on Only One Channel (Email) for Outbound
Why is it bad to rely on only one channel for outbound?
Surround the account and buyer - especially for highly-scored or engaged accounts.
How to use multiple channels for outbound
- Incorporate LinkedIn, phone, and other social channels depending on audience
- Example: Prospect opens email 3X - call task created
- Highly scored contacts/accounts - multi-step campaign with LinkedIn connection, email, phone
11. Not Marrying Your Inbound with Outbound (Allbound)
Why is it bad not to marry your inbound with outbound?
“90+% of website visitors will not fill out forms or otherwise engage.” These represent missed opportunities without an outbound strategy.
How to do allbound marketing
- Capture anonymous first-party data and automate targeted outreach
- Example workflow: Visitor from pre-defined ICP hits your website - added to Apollo.io account list - Apollo.io finds matching persona contacts - adds contacts to campaign sequence with targeted messaging
Tools and Resources
- Clearbit (acquired by HubSpot) - Robust free plan for account visitor ID with ICPs, target account lists, tagged pages, Slack/email notifications
- Leadfeeder / Dealfront
12. Relying on Manual Processes for Outbound
Why is it bad to rely on manual processes for outbound?
Goal is building an automated lead engine. Systems relying on pure manual inputs will fail.
How to automate outbound
Create workflows in Apollo.io or automations:
- Target new hires in roles at target accounts (more likely to consider new tech)
- Convert anonymous website visitors (using Dealfront or Clearbit integration)
- End sequences for outdated data or job-changed contacts
- Find contacts at accounts showing research intent around your keywords (using Leadsift intent data)
- Use shared calendar scheduling tools to simplify prospect booking
Conclusion
This guide provides ideas on top cold email mistakes and alternative approaches. GTM Works is an Apollo.io Certified Agency Partner offering Apollo.io strategy, setup, and managed services.