B2B Email Outreach in 2025

Hey, I’m Taavid, Head of Growth at Sera AI, where we focus on perfecting B2B outreach for exporting companies.

It’s 2025 and AI is rewriting B2B outreach. But zoom out and not much has changed: most companies still don’t run any structured outreach.

Here are two approaches that can get you up and running. First up - a simple, slightly scrappy approach that’s got things rolling for a unicorn like Veriff, for energy company Sunly, and for my own smaller projects.

Scrappy, not perfect - but it delivers.

We’ll keep it cheap and practical: 20 emails/day, Monday–Friday (about 100 a week), minimal tools, and yes, ChatGPT (free) to draft faster.

Approach 1: The Scrappy 5-Step Plan (DIY, minimal tools)

1) Define your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

Think about: who you help, the outcome you deliver, and why they should care now.

Do this

• Pick one segment (industry + size + country).

• Pick one decision-maker title (for example, Head of Ops or Sales Director).

• Write a single line: “We help {{who}} achieve {{outcome}} by {{how}}.”

Why it matters: every later decision (who to email, what to say) becomes obvious. Fuzzy ICP = fuzzy replies.

Pro tip: narrow beats broad. One micro-segment per campaign. When industry big names get tons of email daily, a specific niche often gets more replies.

2) Build your lead list manually (cheap & high-fit)

Think about: real companies you can actually help - not a random dump.

Where to find leads for free or almost free

• Business chambers (member directories).

• Expo and conference exhibitor lists (PDF/CSV - copy into your sheet).

• Google Maps (“{{niche}} near {{city}}” -> click into sites -> contacts).

• Industry associations (member pages).

• Google and ChatGPT to brainstorm search queries and niche lists.

• Tools like Hunter’s Email Finder can help when emails aren’t on the site.

Paid databases (Apollo, ZoomInfo, or local providers like WebTailor in Estonia) are useful if you have budget. The manual route works and keeps you picky.

Make a Google Sheet or Excel sheet for your leads

• personalization_snippet = one sentence you could use as the opener.

Manual check (critical if you bought lists): if you over-collect, delete non-fits before emailing. Better to contact 20 perfect fits than 200 randoms.

Verify emails (if possible): run a low-cost verifier and remove invalids and role emails like info@ or sales@. Aim for under 3% bounce rate.

You can start lean with a lead list of 100 contacts, then revisit this step once you’ve got things moving.

3) New domain + mailbox + warm-up

Think about: protect your main company domain, get a clean mailbox live, and teach inboxes you’re a normal human.

Buy a close variant of your domain: if brand.com, try brand.co, getbrand.com, or brand.io. Connect it to an email provider.

Many providers like Google Workspace let you buy a new domain and set up email in one place. This can keep you away from manual MX records and the “scary acronyms” like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.

Warm-up matters because it builds sender reputation.

• Bad reputation = spam folder or blocks

• Good reputation = inbox

There are plenty of warm-up tools, but for the scrappy playbook, do it yourself:

• Days 1–2: about 5 short emails/day to your other inboxes and friends (mix Gmail, Outlook, etc.). Ask them to reply.

• Days 3–5: about 10/day. Vary times. Reply back. Forward one or two.

• Days 6–10: about 15–20/day. Keep it human - threads, quick thanks, tiny questions.

Green light: your test emails land in Primary (not Spam/Promotions) and you’ve got a few live threads.

4) Write short, specific emails

Think about: one problem, one outcome, one tiny next step. Keep it under ~110 words.
Links rule: links aren’t ideal - if you must, use one max (site or calendar). No attachments.

Subject ideas (3–5 words)

• “idea for {{company_name}}”

• “{{my_company}} x {{your_company_name}}”

• In the EU, try native language: “{{first_name}}, una idea rápida” / “eine kurze Idee”

Open with your research (that personalization_snippet):

• “Saw you’re hiring 2 AEs in Tallinn - ramping outbound?”

• “Noticed your pricing page added usage tiers - growth push?”

Then add:

• Outcome you drive (1–2 lines).

• Tiny proof (reference clients or metric).

• Light CTA: “Would this interest {{company_name}}?” or “Worth a 10-min chat?”

Template

Or use ChatGPT (the free version is fine)

Prompt:
Write 5 cold email variations targeting {{role}} at {{industry}} companies (50–500 employees). Outcome: {{outcome}}. Keep each under 100 words, plain language, no clichés. Include {{first_name}}, {{company_name}}, {{personalization_snippet}}, and one relevant proof point. End with a single yes/no CTA. Create one version in {{language}} (native language of the country).

(Yes, native-language copy in the EU often boosts replies.)

5) Send 20/day with a simple 3-stage drip - track replies

Think about: polite persistence. You’re emailing real people.

Cadence (3 touches)

• Day 1 - Intro/value (your main email)

• Day 4 - Short bump
  “Looping back in case this slipped, {{first_name}}. If {{outcome}} is on your Q{{current_quarter}} list, want to see how we could help you achieve it?”

• Day 10 - Proof/resource
  “Hi {{first_name}}, I understand if this isn’t relevant right now. If you’d like to hear more about how {{outcome}}, let me know.”

Choosing the right tool
Email cadence automation is one of the simplest features out there. Gmail has extensions like Right Inbox or GMass. Use whatever lets you keep it plain-text and cap yourself at 20/day.

Track simply in your sheet
Add: status, last_touch, reply_type (pos/neu/neg), meeting_set (Y/N), notes.

Benchmarks at the beginning (about 100 sends/week)

• Replies 2–7%

• Positives 2–4%

• Bounces under 3%

Quick troubleshooting

• Replies under 2% - copy is too vague. Add a peer metric, tighten the CTA, improve manual research.

• Bounces over 5% - remove role emails, re-verify, slow down.

• Spam complaints - tighten ICP and shorten messages. Also audit your manual research quality.

Second option - perfect your B2B outreach with AI

It’s important to remember how to do things by hand. Growth folks like us need to build MVPs fast with limited time and budget - scrappy email outreach has its place. :)

And yet, AI has transformed B2B outreach. We’ve run hundreds of campaigns with the Sera AI agent, and we consistently see 30–50% better reply rates versus the old industry standard. Sera follows these same five steps - and then makes hundreds of tiny conversion decisions along the way. It connects to your CRM, buys leads, does the manual research automatically, and sends personalized emails in 100+ languages by itself. You watch progress and replies in a simple dashboard while you focus on closing.

Keep it scrappy with this guide and launch this week. Or, if you’d rather skip the scrappy part, the Sera AI agent will run outreach for you and route only the interested clients to your inbox.

See what Sera AI could do for you here