👋 Hey, I’m George Chasiotis. Welcome to GrowthWaves, your weekly dose of B2B growth insights—featuring powerful case studies, emerging trends, and unconventional strategies you won’t find anywhere else.
This note is brought to you by Above Apex.
When we launched Restartt, one of the first growth levers we wanted to pull was organic search.
To make an impact quickly, you need high-quality, relevant brand mentions and links from trusted websites.
That’s why I partnered with the team at Above Apex. Within weeks, we started landing links like:
Smartsheet (DR 91, 1M+ traffic)
Supademo (DR 71, 40K traffic)
And more.
These are high-authority mentions that tell Restartt's story in the right places.
If you want the same kind of coverage for your brand, book a call here:
One of the things we do at my new agency, Restartt, is signal-based outbound.
That means reaching out on LinkedIn or email based on specific signals they’ve shown.
Such signals could be…
Visits to high-intent pages,
Interactions with your posts and ads,
Hiring for a specific role,
And more.
Relax! I’m not in the lead gen game. The systems we build are useful for the companies we work with.
In fact, building a signal-based infrastructure in today’s GTM landscape is a must.
I want to share my principles with you.
Hopefully, they’ll be useful when you launch your own signal-based outbound motion.
Principles
I’ll walk you through each principle, share examples, and dive deeper where needed.
As always, if you want to learn more about anything in this post, feel free to leave a comment or DM me here or on LinkedIn.
Let’s go.
Principle #1: Signal
Some signals are fair game to mention (e.g., a LinkedIn comment).
Others, like a website visit, aren’t.
Some people think it’s smart to mention that the person was on their website.
Which is like saying:
“Not only do I reach out without your permission, but I also know you were on my website a couple of days ago.”
Like the email I received a few weeks ago:
Yeah, not bueno.
Use common sense before referencing a signal in your outreach.
And above all:
Use the intent, not the data point.
If it feels intrusive, it probably is.
Principle #2: You need an offer
A strong signal means nothing without a strong offer.
“Want to book a demo?” isn’t one.
“I’ll give you a pair of AirPods for a demo” isn’t one.
You need something valuable and specific enough to say yes to right now.
And I want to be clear about this:
The offer isn’t the copy.
The offer is the offer.
The copy helps you deliver the offer.
There’s an art and science behind crafting good offers.
It all boils down to coming up with something the other person can’t say no to.
If that means working on your product before crafting your offer, then do it.
If that means working on your pricing before crafting your offer, then do it.
Whatever it means, work on it.
There’s no point in reaching out—no matter how strong the copy—if your offer isn’t solid.
Principle #3: Pain > Features
SaaS companies LOVE talking about their features.
Especially those that their competitors are lacking.
But the reality is that nobody buys features.
They buy solutions to problems they feel.
Anchor your message in real pain points you’ve solved before, ideally for someone just like them.
Here’s an example:
Principle #4: Follow-up
One solid follow-up 30 days later is enough.
No aggressive sequences, no clutter.
Respect their inbox.
If they care, they’ll remember.
That may go against conventional wisdom, but that’s how we operate and structure our campaigns.
Having said that, the signal also plays a role here.
What I mean is that if the signal is time-sensitive, you might want to follow up earlier than the 30-day mark.
Be flexible, but respect people’s inboxes like you’d want them to respect yours.
Principle #5: Keep it super short
You have seconds.
Get to the point.
Clarity wins.
The shorter your message, the better chance it gets read and replied to.
There’s no character limit, but the faster you get to value, the better your chances of getting a reply.
Principle #6: No cringe-personalization
Fake flattery and surface-level references scream automation.
Skip the “Saw your blog post” BS.
Here’s an example:
One of the problems with this email is that it references a podcast I’ve stopped over two years ago.
There isn’t a chance that I might be interested in something I wrapped so long ago.
How’s that for personalization?
Be relevant, honest, and direct.
Principle #7: Infrastructure
Never use your primary domain.
Use multiple domains with up to two inboxes each.
Monitor health.
Warm them up, or buy pre-warmed domains.
And for LinkedIn outreach, assuming you want to automate things, never exceed the daily limits set by LinkedIn to avoid losing access to your profile.
Here’s how we approach infrastructure:
Several domains
Up to 2 email accounts per domain
Several email accounts per sales rep
One LinkedIn account per sales rep
Segmented by territory, expertise, or target account type.
You don’t want to go too granular with your segments, unless you have a huge SAM (Serviceable Addressable Market) and a big revenue team.
Principle #8: Wrong incentives
Don’t hide behind bribes.
Free AirPods don’t make your product more interesting.
Let the value come from the product itself, not the incentive.
As simple as that.
Principle #9: Volume isn’t (as) important
I know this may sound like hubris to some cold outbound bros.
But what we’re covering here isn’t cold outbound.
It’s signal-based outbound.
Which means that volume isn’t as important.
Forget mass outreach.
Work from intent.
Fewer, better conversations beat higher reply rates any day.
Principle #10: Focus on intent
Not all signals are equally effective.
And you don’t need me to tell you that some are already super saturated (e.g., hiring, new roles).
Take website visits, for example.
Not all visits are equal.
Someone on your pricing or competitor comparison page is not the same as someone reading your terms of privacy.
Prioritize signals that show intent.
For website signals, specifically, our modus operandi is visits of more than one minute to high-intent pages.
That’s usually enough to show real interest.
Final thoughts
“It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it,” my friend Silvio often says.
And that’s true for signal-based outbound.
I know many people are allergic to anything that includes the word outbound.
I used to be, too.
But as we build these systems and see them work, I’ve realized signal-based outbound can be a great way to connect with in-market accounts who may actually need what you offer.
I hope the principles shared in this piece help you get more replies.
If they do, I’d love to hear how it went, so feel free to reach out.
Thank you for reading today’s note, and see you again next week.