Outreach isn’t aways just about sales.
New business is the often the ultimate goal, but outreach can be an opportunity to test new positioning, see if messaging lands with your target market, or see if outbound is a good channel to invest in.
I’ll walk you through how I used Apollo.io’s free version to secure five meetings and land one new customer in about 8 weeks.
I set out to test new messaging with a small, targeted list of prospects and learn what resonates. Whether you’re testing your own messaging or exploring outbound outreach for the first time, this approach offers a cost-effective way to measure, learn, and drive early results without needing a large budget.
First, what is Apollo.io?
Apollo.io is a powerful sales engagement and lead generation platform that helps businesses of all sizes find prospects, build targeted lists, and automate their outreach efforts. It has a huge database of contacts and companies, paired with easy-to-use filters that make it simple to hone in on your ideal audience.
It offers a paid version to help scale outreach, however the free version provides an excellent way to start testing messaging and building relationships with potential customers at no cost.
Here’s the 4-step process I used to build and launch this sequence with Apollo.
#1. Define Your Audience
Before any outreach begins, the most crucial step is finding the right people to contact. It’s tempting to go broad, but I found more success by starting small and hyper-focused. Apollo makes it easy to build targeted prospect lists using its detailed filters, so that’s exactly where I started.
Using Apollo’s filters, I built a list of roughly 200 prospects by focusing on specific criteria. I narrowed down the audience based on industry, company size, and location—key factors for ensuring my outreach would resonate with the right people. You don’t need thousands of contacts to see if your messaging works; a small, focused list can give you a pretty clear picture.
The takeaway here: know your niche. Whether you’re testing messaging or targeting a new market, build your list around your ideal audience. Apollo’s free version is more than enough to help you find a list of targeted prospects that fit your specific goals.
#2. Build Your Outreach Sequence
Now that you’ve got your list, it’s time to craft a sequence that will actually get people to engage. A well-thought-out sequence is more than just a series of emails—it’s your chance to test your messaging, offer value, and ultimately see what resonates with your target audience.
Determine the Goals of Your Sequence
Before you start drafting your emails, get clear on what you’re trying to achieve. Are you looking to book meetings? Validate messaging? Maybe gauge interest in a new service or feature?
For me, the goal was to test new positioning by offering a free website evaluation. The idea was to see if prospects were interested enough to engage with the offer and, ultimately, book a meeting.
The key here is to keep the goal simple and manageable. Maybe your goal is to share a piece of content they’ll read, ask for feedback, or, like me, offer something valuable that sparks a conversation. Whatever you choose, make sure your sequence aligns with this objective.
Develop a Compelling Offer
It’s no secret that cold outreach needs to offer value upfront if you expect people to respond. In my case, I offered a free website evaluation. The messaging focused on showing prospects how they could optimize their website for better search engines, technical performance, and visibility to their ideal customers. By presenting something that directly addressed a problem many of the businesses we work with have, I made the offer both relevant and valuable.
When crafting your own sequence, think about what’s going to get your audience to stop and take notice.
Creating Relevant Messaging
Your message needs to hit home, and that starts with personalization. I made sure my messaging spoke directly to challenges my prospect list typically faces, with an offer of help to solve them (free website evaluation). The more relevant the message, the more likely your prospects are to engage.
It’s also worth testing different approaches within your sequence. For instance, instead of asking for a meeting right away, you could start with a question or a smaller ask, like permission to share a case study or helpful resource. Keep refining as you go—Apollo helps you track what’s working and adjust as needed.
#3. Building and Tracking Your Sequence
Once your list is ready and your messaging is crafted, it’s time to set up and launch your outreach sequence. This is where the real testing begins, and Apollo makes it easy to build a sequence that gradually engages your prospects.
Structuring Your Sequence
I opted for a five-touchpoint sequence. The goal was to gradually build interest without overwhelming people. The first email introduced the offer—a free website evaluation—followed by a series of reminders that reinforced the value of the evaluation.
Each touchpoint was designed to remind prospects of the benefits they’d gain from the evaluation while maintaining a professional tone and avoiding a hard sell. Remember, the goal isn’t just to secure meetings, but to see what messaging gets the most engagement.
Reporting Limitations in Apollo’s Free Version
One thing to keep in mind when using Apollo’s free version is that reporting is somewhat limited.
Unlike the paid version, which gives you deeper insights like open and click rates, I had to focus more on replies, and the data around what types of prospects were most engaged.
I made adjustments based on whether people were replying or engaging with the offer, rather than relying on opens or clicks. While these metrics can be helpful, my main focus was on the quality of the replies.
#4. Adjust Based on Results
Once your sequence is live, start analyzing the results and adjusting your strategy based on what you see.
Outreach is an iterative process, and while booking meetings or getting replies is great, there are other valuable insights you can gather along the way to fine-tune your approach.
If you’re not seeing the responses or engagement you anticipated, consider adjusting your approach. For example, if prospects aren’t responding to your main offer, tweak the language to make the value clearer or try adding an alternative call to action. For instance, you could offer a piece of relevant content or pose a question to get the conversation started.
While I was aiming for replies, I also kept an eye on the aggregate data that you can see in the Report tab in Apollo’s sequence tool, such as open rates by job title, industry, etc. While the data is not as granular as the paid version, it’s still helpful to make some adjustments.
You can also look at the performance of each email within the sequence. Interestingly enough, the 4th email in my sequence was getting the most engagement, so I adjusted the order of the sequence to bump it up higher.
Here’s What Happened
Within about 2 months of launch, I secured five meetings. Of those five meetings, two weren’t the best mutual fit (DQ’d); two were companies that are very early in the buying process (not a fit right now); and one became a customer.
So, while imperfect, this was a very successful experiment. This process of testing and refining messaging helped me filter out unqualified prospects quickly and focus on those that had real potential. It also helped me learn what types of messaging and offers resonate.
Key Takeaways
While I used Apollo’s free version for this campaign, which worked perfectly for testing and learning, the paid version unlocks more advanced features (also, it’s not the only tooling option out there). With access to better targeting and expanded sequencing options, you can scale your efforts and drive even more impactful results.
Ultimately, if there is one key takeaway from this, it’s that you can test, learn, and generate early wins through targeted outreach, all without breaking the bank—proving that effective strategies don’t always require a large budget.
If you’re interested in learning more about this experiment or need help applying this strategy for your business to see what you can learn, get in touch with us today!