This is the cold email plan we'd run for an account-based marketing (ABM) agency that serves one industry. Some of these agencies only run the ads and some run the whole program with content and events and direct mail. Both aim everything at the same short list of companies.
Your market is every company in your industry with a known list of target accounts and a long sales cycle. They sell to buying committees of several people and need all of them to know the name.
These are the signals worth looking for.
Their customers are big names and their case studies talk about long projects.
A job post for an account-based marketing manager or a field marketing manager means they believe in the approach and need help running it.
An events page with dinners and roundtables for executives. They already invest in meeting target accounts in person.
Several open roles for enterprise account executives means a longer target account list is coming.
Crunchbase shows the round. Growth money usually comes with targets for bigger accounts.
Lead with the job post and the program that person would run.
Lead with their next event and the accounts they want in the room.
Lead with the new reps and the accounts they'll be chasing.
Lead with the round and the accounts it is meant to win.
Selling to hospitals and selling to banks means different committees and different events. Keep them in separate campaigns.
A one page plan for one company on their wish list. The buying committee and the message for each person and the touches over 60 days across ads and content and events and direct mail.
It works because it makes a vague strategy concrete on an account they care about. The next step is running it for 20 accounts.
Fifty accounts that match their best customers split into tiers. The top tier gets the most personal treatment. Apollo or ZoomInfo builds it from their customer logos.
It works because it is the list their sales team would build if it had the time. The program runs on it.
A 60 day pilot on ten accounts at a fixed fee. Direct mail and event costs are theirs. Report engagement account by account at the end.
It works because the sales team sees which of their own targets engaged. The full program is the next step.
Start within two weeks of agreeing the accounts.
This one suits agencies that only run the ads. Take the 20 accounts their sales team cares about most and run ads to just those companies for 30 days. They pay the platform for the ad spend. You set it up and manage it free.
It works because their sales team can check the engagement account by account. The full account list is the retainer.
Launch within two weeks of getting the list.
Hi {{first_name}},
Saw {{company}} is hiring a {{job_title}}.
We run account-based programs for {{industry}} companies. Mapped out the first play we'd run so you can see it before you hire.
Want to see it?
{{sender_first_name}}
Hi {{first_name}},
If {{target_account}} is on your wish list I mapped out how I'd go after it. The buying committee and the message for each person and 60 days of touches.
Want the one pager?
{{sender_first_name}}
Hi {{first_name}},
We run account-based programs for {{industry}} companies. Ads and content and events and direct mail aimed at the accounts your sales team wants.
{{proof_line}}
Worth a conversation?
{{sender_first_name}}
Swap {{proof_line}} for one real result of your own. A program and the accounts it opened. If there is no result yet then leave the line out.
The head of marketing owns account-based programs. The head of sales has to agree on the accounts so bring them in early.
Results depend on the offer and the list. Three outbound agencies that publish their own numbers land between one booked meeting per 1,000 people contacted and one per 2,000. One of them also tested 650,000 cold emails with a plain offer and got about 3 to 6 interested replies per 10,000 people.
Those are other people's numbers and not a promise about your market. Your market's number only comes from testing it.
We build and run this campaign for one agency per industry.
Thirty minutes on your market and how we'd reach it.