Some prospects will never reply to your cold email. They just won’t. Either it’s not time or they are inherently suspicious or turned-off by outbound emails. So if you’re only reaching out via cold email, why not try reaching out via other channels at the same time to increase the chances of reaching those people? This article will suggest a few simple ways for doing that, without starting a war between your sales & marketing teams.

What is multi-channel outbound and why should I try it?

Multi-channel outbound is a relatively new strategy that reaches your prospects multiple times across multiple channels. It shows them your offer in a coordinated way that keeps it on their plate of things to consider, which increases the likelihood of them taking action at some point.

If they see your offer multiple times in multiple places, they’re more likely to remember it. They’re also more likely to respond to it when they finally have the bandwidth to think about it — because for the most part, they probably just don’t have time right now. That’s why so many emails get trashed.

Multi-channel also gives you a simple way to convey several different value propositions without bombarding your prospects with all of the information in one go — a misguided tactic that leaves your emails unread and deleted. Plus, it also allows you to add visual elements that help explain your value props more clearly.

More channels, more problems?

Doing multi-channel outbound might sound daunting at first because it typically requires sales teams to work with marketing teams. Outbound email campaigns (traditionally handled by the sales team and SDR’s) only require plain text, so they’re relatively easy to get up and running and edit… but adding additional outbound channels like Google display ads, Facebook ads, or LinkedIn ads requires images or videos.

The key to getting marketing teams to pitch in.

The secret to doing multi-channel successfully is figuring out how to make your marketing team's job as easy as possible, because that’s the bottleneck. Typically, there are too many cooks in the kitchen and everyone is waiting on someone else.

If you can cross the aisle and ask for their help, there is a pot of gold waiting on the other side of the rainbow... adding a channel to your outbound email campaign can increase conversion rates by 30% after adding just one additional outbound channel.

One option to do this might be sending automated physical mail in addition to your cold emails with the help of a tool like Thanks.io. This strategy creates a strong impact on your outbound with minimal work from the marketing team.

Or, if you really want to add a visual ad channel, another potential approach to explore is the Google Display Network. It has a simple interface so you can get ads up and running faster than Facebook or LinkedIn, and you can get massive reach at a lower cost than those other platforms too. You can easily use your contact list to target the same people you are reaching out to via email.

Reposition the way you approach your marketing team

If you haven’t found a simple way to reach your prospects multiple times across multiple channels, try asking yourself these three questions:

• What creative assets can my marketing team create quickly and easily?
• What can I ask marketing to do that they won’t hate?
• Can I come up with ideas that will help my marketing team add additional channels faster?

It’s not that your marketing team doesn’t want to do the work. It’s that your sales team requests things from your marketing team without understanding the impact on their workload. Tell marketing it will ultimately help drive more cost-effective SQLs. That should get them onboard.

If tapping your marketing team is completely out of the question, go back to physical mail as an option and bust out your fanciest creative hat with a tool like Canva. Tons of templates for physical mailers you can edit in under 5 minutes. Drag and drop your logo and add your brand colors. It’s insanely easy… yes, even you can do it.