GrowthRise Mastermind Recap Feb 10, 2026

1) Topics Covered

Topic: B2B SaaS Marketing & Growth Strategy

• Challenges: Entering new international markets (Australia, Dubai, Mexico, Thailand, Bali, etc.), building targeted lists for cold outreach, determining priorities between cold calling vs. cold emailing, and understanding best practices for list building
• Advice: Use multiple data sources (Apollo, ListKit, Instantly, Seamless) for list building and enrich with Clay; combine cold email with Meta ads targeting the same audience to increase familiarity before outreach; run ads 2-3 weeks before cold outreach begins; use retargeting to maximize effectiveness

Topic: Cold Email Outreach Best Practices

• Challenges: Low engagement rates, determining optimal email strategies, understanding what click-through rates to target
• Advice: Use AI personalization to increase engagement (can achieve 9-10% click rates vs. 2-3% standard); send multiple emails in sequence with first 2-3 focused on information rather than booking meetings; ensure using proper cold email tools like Instantly; average click-through rate of 2-4% is considered good for non-personalized emails

Topic: Product Launch & Advertising Strategy

• Challenges: Launching a new product to a different market than existing customers, never having successfully run ads before, determining budget and approach
• Advice: Start with Meta and Google ads (skip LinkedIn initially due to high costs for lower-priced products); create retargeting audiences from past 180 days of website traffic and all historical leads who didn't convert; use 14-day free trial for cold traffic; expect to spend a few thousand dollars for initial testing; focus on understanding unit economics and customer lifetime value

Topic: LinkedIn Advertising Optimization

• Challenges: Getting high click rates ($1 per click) but no conversions, uncertainty about campaign setup
• Advice: Disable "Enable Audience Expansion" and "LinkedIn Audience Network" settings which are on by default and cause ads to reach outside target audience; expect normal LinkedIn clicks to cost $10-15; these settings often cause accidental clicks from irrelevant audiences

Topic: Video in Cold Outreach

• Challenges: Determining effectiveness of including demo videos in cold emails
• Advice: Video demos work well, especially when personalized (e.g., Loom videos reviewing prospect's website); people increasingly prefer consuming content independently rather than on sales calls; qualify prospects before full demos to maximize conversion

2) Tools Recommended

List Building & Data Enrichment:

• Apollo (primary recommendation for building lists)
• Clay (for data enrichment)
• ListKit
• Instantly
• Seamless
• Fiverr (for finding data brokers who can pull Apollo data at lower cost)

Cold Email Outreach:

• Instantly (specifically built for cold email)
• HubSpot (mentioned as CRM, can export audiences to ad platforms)

Advertising Platforms:

• Meta (Facebook/Instagram) - primary recommendation
• Google Ads (Display and retargeting)
• LinkedIn (use cautiously due to high costs)

Video & Personalization:

• Loom (for personalized video demos)

3) Best Advice Given

The most valuable advice was the two-stage approach combining digital advertising with cold outreach: Run Meta ads to your target list for 2-3 weeks before sending cold emails or making cold calls. This pre-warming strategy significantly increases engagement because prospects are already familiar with your brand when they receive outreach. The approach includes:

1. Build a targeted list using tools like Apollo
2. Upload that list to Meta and run ads to those specific people
3. Also use Meta's targeting options (interests, job titles) to find additional relevant prospects
4. After 2-3 weeks of ad exposure, begin cold email outreach to the same audience
5. Set up retargeting ads so anyone who clicks emails continues seeing your brand everywhere

This strategy works because people are far more likely to engage with emails from companies they recognize, dramatically improving conversion rates compared to purely cold outreach. The retargeting component creates ongoing touchpoints that nurture prospects over time, which is particularly effective for longer B2B sales cycles.