In general, there are two types of email automation: outreach (cold) and email marketing (warm).
→ Outreach is when a company offers its products/services to another company without prior interest or subscription.
→ Email marketing is when the recipient has subscribed or is already a customer.
The primary aim of the outreach is to book an appointment with the sales team, while email marketing aims to inform about a new product or offer and persuade people to buy it. Outreach is typically used in B2B, while email marketing can be used for both B2B and B2C markets.
| Outreach | Email marketing |
Relationship | None | There have been some previous interactions |
Goal | Book an appointment / present a product or service | Convert potential customers / keep current customers on board with the brand |
Channels | Cold calls, cold emails, social media messages | Nurturing emails, calls, or social interactions |
Tools | Woodpecker, Reply.io, QuickMail, Outreach, Smartreach, Salesloft, Apollo.io, etc. | Brevo, Sendgrid, Constant Contact, Mailchimp, Omnisend, SendPulse, Elastic, etc. |
Success Tip | Personalize the approach; show genuine and relevant interest | Reference past interactions and consistently provide value |
Cold outreach initiates a new conversation while warm outreach maintains or rekindles an ongoing one.