How to Find and Convert Quality Leads with Outbound x Brendan Bester

Introduction to Outbound Genius & Guest 0:00 welcome to this new episode of outbound 0:01 genus today we have Brandon uh in this 0:05 new episode so basically this episode 0:08 will highlight how Brandon leverage 0:11 outbound for his company and I will let 0:15 him introduce himself after so outbound 0:18 genus is a podcast where we interview 0:20 expert in the field of outbound we trust 0:23 that the entry barrier at outbound have 0:26 increased in the last few years and that 0:28 while people like brand then need a real 0:31 expertise and real strong focus on these 0:34 specific skills to uh make the outbound 0:37 great again so Brandon welcome to this 0:40 podcast I will let you introduce 0:42 yourself and we can go through the 0:44 interview right after sweet thank you Brandon’s Background and Marketing Experience 0:46 Julian for the introduction um to 0:48 everyone else good morning afternoon or 0:50 evening wherever you're joining us from 0:52 um so yeah my name is Bren investor um 0:55 I've kind of been working in the 0:56 marketing field for five almost more 0:59 than 5 years now um I've kind of been 1:02 everywhere in the company from corporate 1:04 to Startup uh I originally started in uh 1:07 corporate moved away from that because 1:10 um it just wasn't for me it wasn't the 1:12 politics and everything wasn't there but 1:15 uh since then I've kind of delved into 1:17 marketing completely it's what I do for 1:19 a living now uh I started with um small 1:23 scale stuff and then I worked it up to 1:25 um a bigger management position I moved 1:28 away from that to start my own company 1:30 and since kind of pivoted into email 1:32 marketing I've done paid ads I've done 1:35 SEO um I've done really everything I 1:38 even put my hand into social media which 1:41 I'm not too keen on I I tend to avoid 1:43 that let the other experts handle that 1:46 but nowadays um I do fullscale marketing 1:48 that in primarily implies uh email 1:52 marketing that's my pivate um email 1:54 marketing in the sense of uh private 1:57 email marketing where it is for our 1:59 owned um customers are owned uh list and 2:02 everything we also do um outbound 2:05 strategies we also do cold emailing uh 2:08 we used to do cold calling and SMS in uh 2:11 but it hasn't been that applicable in 2:13 the recent years but um kind of been 2:15 everywhere so I I think I'm I have some 2:18 experience in this 2:20 industry that's amazing last question 2:23 for the the quick introduction about 2:25 yourself where are you located uh I Why Brandon Started Using Outbound Strategies 2:27 currently live in Abu Dhabi which for 2:29 people AR it's an hour away from du buy 2:32 so that's really great so we we really 2:35 can see that marketing need to be 2:37 applied everywhere and AD bound have the 2:39 own benefit in all the all the country 2:41 world really great so what may you 2:44 decide to start using outbound as a 2:47 strategy realistically for any company 2:49 and even my own um it kind of started 2:52 with the thing is you only have so many 2:54 owned lists you only have so many owned 2:56 customers and then you have to consider 2:58 either doing ad ads or doing some sort 3:01 of outbound or doing uh some sort of 3:04 other marketing technique realistically 3:06 if you're scaling you're going to be 3:08 doing a little bit of everything but 3:10 outbound strategies realistically 3:13 especially in email marketing side of 3:15 things uh cold emailing like I said 3:17 previously cold uh calling and all these 3:19 approaches they work it just has to be 3:21 very targeted it has to be very focused 3:24 um it kind of has to be aligned as well 3:26 with what you're doing and what you're 3:27 offering for the customer um or 3:30 potential customer in this case right so 3:33 I I think that's kind of the situation 3:35 on why outbound has become way more 3:38 critical uh because as well ads ads get 3:41 expensive depending on the time of year 3:43 so it's kind of playing the field true 3:47 true exactly and you mention it like the Biggest Challenges in Outbound Marketing 3:49 art getting expensive and I think uh we 3:51 experience the same in the outbound 3:53 expertise to have deliverability that is 3:57 higher to achieve and to get reply rate 3:59 that is to Achi so what is the biggest 4:01 challenge for you when you when it come 4:03 to 4:05 outbounds um a few things I I think the 4:07 key takeaways would be finding good 4:10 quality leads um because you could find 4:13 massive list you could find um you could 4:16 reach out to a million people but if 4:17 only 10 of them respond you could as 4:19 well have just called up five of your 4:21 neighbors right it's kind of logic there 4:25 so I I think the key thing is there 4:26 finding good quality um potential leads 4:29 and then also just offer matching you 4:32 know someone that's buying cookies 4:34 doesn't want to be sold in jet engine 4:37 it's you kind of want to see what you're 4:40 offering to the people and making sure 4:41 it reaches their inbox so they could see 4:43 that 4:44 offer that's kind of the hardest 4:46 struggle I'd say right 4:47 now exactly uh so and and have you ever Targeting & Deliverability in Email Outreach 4:51 found any solution that help you to 4:53 achieve such a precise targeting with 4:56 the right value proposition in front of 4:58 the right people to an extent it's still 5:01 difficult um it's getting harder but 5:04 there there's certain outbound 5:05 strategies that we can incorporate and 5:07 do incorporate um targeted uh list 5:11 growth right like finding the people 5:13 that are actually applicable to what 5:15 you're trying to sell um there's cycling 5:18 um there's also sending at certain times 5:21 certain days certain peaks of the year 5:24 so there's a mix there's a very big 5:27 mixture in that pot right of trying to 5:29 figure out what works and what doesn't 5:31 and sometimes you fall face flat and 5:33 you're like what happened even though it 5:35 just worked 5:37 recently indeed so what should the ideal 5:41 solution be able to do to make your life 5:45 easier and make the outbound really 5:48 effective I think like you mentioned 5:50 Julian uh a key part is making sure it 5:52 lands in front of the right people um 5:55 it's it's it's part of sales it's part 5:57 of outbound it's part of everything if 6:00 your message doesn't even reach the 6:02 person then then you're going to have 6:03 problems right because you're you're 6:05 you're like throwing clay against the 6:06 wall hoping it's stick so making sure 6:09 that your uh deliverability and 6:11 compliance is there but then also making 6:12 sure your offer matches and then making 6:14 sure to who you're sending the list um 6:18 they're clean list they're uh you know 6:20 we don't have junky emails we don't 6:22 spend money for no reason I think that's 6:25 key part of what you look for in a good 6:28 um service from a software's perspective 6:31 you know there's like UI complaints and 6:34 stuff like that but the key point is 6:36 does your email reach the intended user 6:38 yes or no right it doesn't matter how it 6:40 looks like if it looks like Microsoft 6:42 2010 um so exactly but eventually what Sourcing the Right Leads with Intent 6:47 is important is how do you Source the 6:49 because this is the very biggest 6:51 pinpoint that exist at that moment is 6:53 how do you find the people that have the 6:55 right intent with the right problem that 6:57 the solution we we are solving 7:00 exactly and then reaching them because 7:02 you have them and you need to reach them 7:03 right correct how how would you approach 7:06 that as a as a software to actually 7:09 Source the right people um well we live 7:13 in an internet economy right so uh 7:16 there's a lot of touch points it's 7:18 generally from a sourcing perspective 7:20 you really need to go to first develop 7:23 your customer profile what is the 7:25 customer you're trying to sell to right 7:27 like I said earlier with the baker 7:29 example if you want to sell to Bakers 7:31 you should go to Baker communities you 7:34 should go to uh Reddit social media 7:37 wherever they are um in regards to 7:40 sourcing that's probably where you're 7:42 going to find your best quality you know 7:44 they're not going to be as cold they're 7:45 going to be a lot more um H 7:49 qualified exactly exactly and if they 7:53 qualified they're aware of the problem 7:55 that you're are solving and will be way 7:57 more likely to understand what you have 7:59 to offer as well and if they understand 8:01 and they have the problem this is where 8:03 you actually achieve very high 8:05 conversion rate correct exactly right 8:09 great so how do you how do you define The Role of Outbound in Overall Marketing Strategy 8:12 the importance of the ad Bound in your 8:14 overall strategy is like like 50% with 8:17 the inbound content marketing and stuff 8:19 or how do you apply that 8:21 currently um I would say it depends kind 8:24 of on your company size it depends on 8:26 your where you're working because some 8:29 companies some Industries depend a lot 8:31 more on it and I think it's super 8:33 crucial for certain industries that need 8:35 it like 100% uh for me it's a little bit 8:38 of a a pot that's doing because I do 8:41 work right in all avenues of marketing 8:44 right now so for me um I I do do the 8:47 email marketing I do the uh outbound I 8:50 manage um a set a number of people in 8:53 regards to what they do as well so I'm 8:55 kind of all over the place but I think 8:57 the key takeaway is if you're a company 8:59 looking to scale and you're a company 9:02 that hasn't quite right found their 9:04 message their Market fit then it's very 9:07 essential because you're not going to 9:08 grow without figuring out what you need 9:10 to sell and how to sell 9:12 it exactly that the key essential 9:15 component of of the strategy and uh and 9:18 you seems to have multiple Venture under Lead Volume and Seasonal Fluctuations 9:20 your your cover currently how many lead 9:23 do you usually handle each 9:25 month um depends on the peak of the year 9:29 uh there's certain times of the year 9:30 where we upscale it and there's certain 9:32 times of the year where we're too busy 9:34 with other things so um I would say on 9:37 an average during a peak um qualified 9:40 leads probably around in a month's time 9:45 uh I'd say 18 to 25 maybe qualified 9:49 leads um uh that's like they're in the 9:53 pipeline and everything around list size 9:55 we we work with huge list um I'm not 9:57 going to delve into that but 9:59 uh we we we're everywhere so we try to 10:03 work with big list small list any 10:07 list all right so what is the number of Email Sending Volumes and Campaign Peaks 10:10 email you send per per per outbound 10:13 email specifically if you have that 10:15 number in mind um let's take our recent 10:18 Peak I think we sent 10:20 around 10:22 um probably 10:25 400,000 or so um in our last Peak we had 10:28 a qualif IFI leads it was a good 10:31 conversion I think um surprisingly good 10:33 actually for us but yeah like I said it 10:36 fluctuates sometimes we do list size of 10:39 20K sometimes we do um 300 sometimes we 10:42 do 500 uh like 500 independently and 10:46 500,000 depends on the time of 10:49 year okay very interesting so you work 10:51 with really big big account big number 10:53 of list or that's plenty of of emails 10:56 that you're sending really real 10:58 expertise here and uh and and I think How AI Is Used in Marketing Strategy 11:00 this is a really trendy question how do 11:03 you use uh and do you use AI in your in 11:05 your 11:06 strategy I mean ai's now been 11:10 everywhere every stage of the business 11:12 in uh marketing now has some sort of AI 11:16 um kind of incorporated into it we've 11:18 experimented with AI for um pattern 11:22 tracking so essentially out of all the 11:24 emails that we've sent where um kind of 11:26 have the hotpots been which countries uh 11:29 we've used AI to try to utilize that 11:32 data because we try to collect that data 11:34 and try to sample it through AI we've 11:36 used AI to personalized subject lines uh 11:39 we've kind of used AI to mass um first 11:42 lines so um yeah AI everywhere I I think 11:46 it's in all it's in all marketing 11:49 subcategories right it's in ads it's in 11:52 normal email marketing it's in uh F 11:54 social media marketing so AI is very 11:57 prominent I'd say 11:59 yeah we cannot get rid of it anymore and 12:01 it will remain for the next decade I 12:03 believe and and happy for us right it 12:05 only make our life easier yeah I mean 12:08 rather embrace it and try to fight it I 12:10 don't know about you guys but I'm not 12:12 going to go against a you know 12:13 artificially million dollar TR 12:17 computer no chance we win over the 12:20 machine right machine right all right so 12:22 I think the last question is is coming I Preferred Outbound Channels (Email, LinkedIn, Calls) 12:25 think we all know the the answer for 12:27 that one but uh it might be surprising 12:30 what is your go to outbound 12:32 channel channel yeah um I mean very 12:37 ironically with the the sites that we 12:38 work with it's email of course 12:41 um um email is primarily we've used 12:44 LinkedIn um for more of our B2B connects 12:48 uh I would say that's probably a little 12:49 bit better for sourcing and uh reaching 12:52 out to uh working professionals and B2B 12:56 if you're working from a b2c standpoint 12:58 you're probably doing email um and if 13:01 you're really really desperate you're 13:02 calling people 13:04 so exactly b2c calling people wow for 13:10 b2c you calling people yeah I mean back 13:13 like yeah especially in the US um it 13:17 depends on the ticket if the tickets are 13:19 higher then 13:21 yeah 13:23 yeah okay very great to to have those 13:26 inside I never cool thought about about 13:28 that I'm currently living in Bangkok so 13:31 whenever call I get every day I don't 13:33 understand what they're 13:34 saying perhaps I do have some some 13:37 people that are selling me stuff that 13:40 that's exactly where they're not doing 13:41 it right right if they if they're 13:43 selling in Bangkok they need a guy 13:44 that's speaks your language 13:47 exactly exactly eventually AI going to 13:50 help that because they're going to be 13:51 able to do the script and the AI speaks 13:53 all the languages right So eventually I 13:55 will get targeted with the right value 13:57 proposition and that will help me to 13:59 make the right decision or help me to go 14:01 faster in my in my buying process as 14:03 well yeah 14:06 100% if it's an AI or not you're like 14:11 hello perhaps someday you could be at 14:13 the beach and and still be on podcast or 14:16 Discovery call with people while uh 14:18 while being at 10 10 times on on call 14:22 right all right very good do you want to Brandon’s Services and How to Connect 14:25 add anything any promotion about your 14:27 services your audiences if you have 14:29 anything to share where people can 14:30 follow you anything you would like to 14:32 share before we end this episode all 14:35 right uh thanks for that Julian I I 14:37 think the key things that I'd like to 14:38 promote is um is where I work now is Ema 14:43 marketing that's what I do I do it 14:44 professionally uh I do it for clients of 14:46 all scale um not so much super small 14:49 scale anymore we've kind of moved away 14:52 from that so if you're a company that's 14:54 generating anywhere from 100 to a 14:57 million plus a month um and you're 14:59 looking to do your email marketing right 15:01 you know 20 to 30% of your total store 15:03 Revenue coming from email marketing 15:05 which is exactly where you want to be 15:07 because email marketing as most know is 15:10 the best uh Roi uh for your money so 15:13 unlike ads where you spend a lot and 15:15 make less you know um contact me and I I 15:19 think the best way to reach me is 15:21 probably LinkedIn I think my LinkedIn is 15:23 at Bren investor similar to my name and 15:26 if you want to send me an email then you 15:29 could always just uh do that as well and 15:32 I I think that's primarily the uh key 15:34 socials I use I I do have a website as 15:37 well I think it's uh BB marketing uhme 15:41 so yeah reach out if you are serious 15:43 about making some money in your 15:46 emails very good thank you very much and 15:48 indeed I think uh according to what we 15:52 observe and and stuff um outbound allow 15:55 you to make predictable uh Pipeline and 15:58 and that the power of of that thank you 16:01 very much and uh let's get in touch uh 16:04 all the link will be around for get in 16:06 touch with brandan and see you in the 16:09 next episode bye bye