How to plan an outreach sequence

Choose the campaign by its goal

Pick one goal: Start a conversation, Book a meeting, Visit a webpage, Offer a resource or Offer a free sample. Starting a conversation or offering something useful suits most first campaigns, and Book a meeting is there when you want it.

Plan three to six touches across channels

Follow-ups brought 58.6% of replies in Belkins' 2025 data, and going from one message to three roughly doubled reply rates in Hunter's. Each extra email adds less, and in Belkins' 2024 data a fifth email tripled unsubscribes and more than tripled spam complaints. Leadpoet's default email sequence stops at four; if you build a longer one, add LinkedIn touches rather than more email.

Sources: Belkins, 7.5M emails, 2026; Hunter, 31M emails, 2026; Belkins, 16.5M emails, 2025

Give every follow-up a new reason

Changing the wording of each reminder raised the odds of a response by over 30% in a randomized study. Leadpoet's follow-ups add one part of your offer that earlier messages didn't state, until none is left; then they send only the ask.

Example: Weak: "Just bumping this to the top of your inbox." Better: "Shiftly also forecasts labor by location. Would you be interested in hearing more about labor forecasting?"

Source: Sauermann and Roach, Research Policy, 24,000+ survey invitations to scientists and engineers, 2013

Use LinkedIn alongside email

In an 11.5M-request study, a connection note slightly lowered acceptance (25.3% against 27.6%) but raised replies from 5.3% to 8.2%. Keep the note to one or two sentences about why you're connecting. LinkedIn restricts accounts whose invitations are ignored or marked as spam, so invite people who fit.

Example: "Saw Orbit posted a RevOps Manager role. Thought it'd be good to connect."

Sources: Belkins, 11.5M LinkedIn requests, 2025; LinkedIn Help, invitation restrictions, 2026

Spend tests on audience and angle, not send time

Day of week and hour made no significant difference in a randomized study, and weekday reply rates differed by a few hundredths of a point across 7.5M emails. Send during the recipient's business hours and test the audience, angle and ask instead.

Sources: Sauermann and Roach, Research Policy, 24,000+ survey invitations to scientists and engineers, 2013; Belkins send-time study, 7.5M emails, 2026

Approve the first drafts yourself

Run a new campaign in Copilot so you approve each draft. Switch to Autopilot once you'd send a full day's drafts unchanged; it checks each message for quality and safety and sends it within your limits.

Protect your sending domain

Set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC on the domain you send from, even at low volume. Leadpoet warms each new mailbox at 10 emails a day in its first week and 20 in its second, then sends up to 30 a day. Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook require all three of bulk senders, which Gmail and Outlook define as about 5,000 or more messages a day. Keep spam complaints below 0.3%, and ideally below 0.1%, and honor opt-outs within two days.

Sources: Google email sender guidelines, 2024; Google bulk sender FAQ, 2024; Yahoo sender requirements, 2024; Microsoft Outlook high-volume sender requirements, 2025