Outbound Sequence Template — 7 touch cadence

A 7-touch outbound cadence that consistently lands a 7-12% reply rate when the ICP and signal are right. Use as a starting point, not gospel.

How to use this cadence

Outbound only works when three things line up: the right ICP, a real trigger event, and a relevant problem statement. Every touch below assumes you have those three. If you don't, this cadence will get you a 0.5% reply rate, not 7%.

Don't run this cadence at more than 50 prospects per week unless you have help. The personal touches require real attention. Mass-sending kills the reply rate.

Touch 1 — opener (Day 0)

Subject: {firstName}, quick question on {trigger}

Body (under 80 words):

Hi {firstName} — noticed {specific observation about their company: a hire, a launch, a funding round, a blog post}. We work with companies in your stage on {one-line problem}. Curious — is {trigger} causing you to think about {related decision}? Happy to share what we've seen at {3 reference companies} if useful.

{sign-off}

Two rules:

• The observation has to be specific. "Saw you raised your Series A" is not specific. "Noticed your new CRO came from Gong — assuming that signals a move into outbound-led GTM?" is specific.
• No pitch. No link. No calendar. Just one open question.

Touch 2 — value drop (Day 3)

Reply in-thread to Touch 1.

One thing that might be useful — {benchmark/template/teardown} for companies at your stage. {Link.} No reply needed; just figured it'd be relevant given {observation}.

Goal: prove you're not transactional. ~5-8% of total replies come from this touch alone.

Touch 3 — gentle bump (Day 6)

Subject: re: previous

Body, one line:

{firstName} — worth a 15-min call to compare notes on {topic}?

Don't apologise for following up. Don't restate Touch 1. The bump is just a bump.

Touch 4 — pattern interrupt (Day 11)

Change format. A 60-second Loom is best. LinkedIn voice note works.

Script for the Loom:

Hi {firstName}, recording this quickly because email feels noisy. Two things I wanted to share: {specific observation} and {hypothesis about their world}. If either lands, would love a quick chat. If not, I'll stop here. Link to my calendar below.

Pattern interrupts move replies because they prove you're a human, not a sequence.

Touch 5 — case study (Day 16)

Subject: how {similar company} {achieved result}

Body, one paragraph:

{Similar company} was facing {parallel problem}. They tried {common wrong approach} first — didn't work. Switched to {your approach} and within {timeframe} saw {specific result}. Their {role} {name if public} put it best: "{quote}." Worth seeing if there's a parallel for {their company}?

Numbers go in the body, not the subject. Subject curiosity > subject specificity.

Touch 6 — break-up (Day 22)

Subject: closing the loop

Body:

{firstName} — I'll assume this isn't a priority right now and stop reaching out. If that changes, you know where to find me. Any quick feedback on why this didn't resonate? Genuinely useful, even one line.

The honest break-up gets 8-15% reply rate because it removes the pressure. Many replies will say "actually, this is interesting — bad timing." Move those to a 60-day re-engagement.

Touch 7 — long tail (Day 40)

One last note, one sentence, no pitch:

{firstName} — saw {recent thing relevant to them, totally unrelated to your pitch}. Thought you might find it interesting: {link}.

~15% of total replies come from this touch. It works because there's no pitch.

What to A/B test

• Subject line length: 3 words vs 8. Shorter usually wins.
• Opener style: observation vs question. Test by ICP.
• Send time: Tuesday 7am vs Thursday 3pm in their timezone. Most B2B founders open mobile email before their day starts.
• CTA strength: soft "worth a chat" vs direct "book here." Soft wins early in the cadence; direct wins by Touch 5.
• Value drop vs no value drop: test whether Touch 2 lifts the overall cadence reply rate by ≥1 absolute percentage point.

Reply branching

If they reply with "interested but bad timing" → move to 60-day re-engagement, exit cadence.

If they reply with a question → answer the question, then ask for the call. Don't pitch.

If they reply with "not me, talk to X" → thank them, ask if they'd intro you. Then start a fresh cadence with X.

If they reply with "stop" → stop. Add to global suppression list.

What this cadence is NOT

• A replacement for ICP work. If you're emailing the wrong people, no cadence saves you.
• A replacement for warm intros. A warm intro converts at 30-50%. Outbound converts at 1-3% from cold to meeting. Use outbound for ICPs you can't get warm intros to.
• A reason to skip personalisation. The fields in curly braces above must be filled in by hand, not by Clay. Manually personalised outbound at 50/week outperforms mass-personalised outbound at 500/week.

Metrics to track per cadence

• Reply rate per touch (target: T1 ≥3%, T6 ≥8%)
• Positive-reply rate (interested + bad timing combined)
• Meeting-booked rate (target: 25-40% of positive replies)
• Closed-deal rate from cadence (target: 5-10% of meetings booked)

Track at the cadence level, not the individual email level. The whole sequence is the product.