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The 8 Must-Have Outreach Tools for Effective Campaigns

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Dan Mowinski

Jan 21, 2025
14 minutes read
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The 8 Must-Have Outreach Tools for Effective Campaigns

Email automation tools have come a long way since they emerged in the 1980s.


The Bitnic Listserv, one of the earliest examples, could send emails to a list of subscribers and little more. It was groundbreaking at the time. Now, AI-powered assistants can orchestrate entire campaigns, from prospecting to real-time follow-up and everything in between. 


Sales teams that keep their stacks up to date will see tangible impacts on their outreach metrics—email opens, meetings booked, and the oh-so-important closed won deals. 


Let’s transform your workflow with must-have outreach tools. 


When to Use Outreach Tools in Your Strategy

When To Use Outreach Tools

Outreach tools can be used at all stages of an outreach campaign. Even phases that require a high level of human involvement, such as when it comes time to close the deal, can benefit from tools.


You should use outreach tools for three main tasks:


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    Automated lead generation: All aspects of prospecting and filtering. 


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    Engagement and follow-up: Personalization and delivery of initial outreach and follow-ups. 


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    Scaling: Expanding successful campaigns to meet increased delivery targets. 



Let’s look at each of these areas in more detail.


Automating Lead Generation

Most B2B lead generation for outreach at scale relies on third-party databases or extensive purchased lists


LinkedIn Sales Navigator is perhaps the best-known example of a database. However, filtering leads according to your ideal customer profile (ICP) is time-consuming.


Outreach tools take care of this process. They trawl through vast databases to find best-fit leads. They also assist your outreach efforts by ensuring that lead data is accurate and current. 


Enhancing Engagement with Personalization and Follow-Ups

Automation tools increase open, response, and engagement rates with prospects. 


They do this in two ways: by allowing for personalization at scale They do this in two ways: by allowing for personalization at scale and by automating follow-ups based on recipient behavior and profiles. 


Applications use message templates, variables, and (increasingly) AI analysis to select relevant lead details and personalize outreach messages. Sections typically personalized include subject lines, openings, and the offer portion of the pitch.


Scaling Outreach for Larger Campaigns

Outreach tools allow businesses to scale social and email campaigns for larger audiences. Once you’ve found a successful campaign template, automation can take you from less than 100 daily outreach messages to thousands. 


This applies particularly to tasks that have traditionally required lots of human input. Examples include lead filtering and scoring, personalization, and A/B testing. 


Artisan’s AI BDR called Ava has consistently delivered a strong ROI for our clients. If you’d like to see how a modern AI sales platform can create, manage, and optimize entire outreach campaigns at a fraction of the usual cost, get in touch to book a demo.


Types of Outreach Tools 

There are three essential outreach tools that every stack should contain. Often, you’ll find them available as part of an all-in-one solution. They act as the basis of your automated campaigns, and you can supplement with point solutions as needed. 


Cold Email Outreach Tools

Cold email outreach tools handle all parts of a sales campaign until a recipient responds to an email, after which point a human BDR or account executive (AE) takes over. 


Use cold email apps to take care of:


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    Lead prospecting


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    Personalized outreach


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    Scaling with email templates


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    Automated follow-ups


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    Performance tracking and forecasting



They also include A/B testing functionality for improving deliverability, response, and open rates. Much of the time, cold email outreach tools will also have features for sending cold messages to prospects on social media platforms like LinkedIn. 


PR Outreach Tools

Outreach to journalists and media publications is a powerful, low-cost way of raising awareness of your brand. However, it does take time and persistence. 


PR outreach tools help with the following tasks: 


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    Pitching journalists and influencers


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    Monitoring mentions in media publications


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    Distributing press releases


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    Media-specific analytics and tracking



PR outreach platforms often also include semi-manual time-saving tools like Chrome extensions. 


Influencer Outreach Tools

Influencer outreach tools are similar to PR tools but focus on individuals with large followings, usually on social media.


Influencer outreach tools have the following features:


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    Influencer outreach automation


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    Influencer search and filtering functionality


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    Quality checks of influencer audiences 


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    Analytics for tracking campaign results



Influencers have complete control of their platforms. They’re also usually open to paid partnerships. This provides you with an opportunity for relatively quick coverage on your terms. 


8 Powerful Outreach Tools to Boost Your Business 

1. Artisan

Artisan

Artisan has established itself as one of the most popular next-gen cold email outreach tools. It’s an AI-first platform, which means the software is built around AI rather than the other way around. This provides a host of powerful features that simply aren’t available in “traditional” apps. 


Artisan’s pro virtual business development representative (BDR) is called Ava. She handles all outbound campaign phases right up until a prospect is ready to speak to an AE. This includes lead prospecting, qualification, and scoring, email personalization, outreach and follow-up delivery, and automated optimization of a variety of conversion rates (opens, responses, meetings booked, etc.).


Key Features

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    Automated email and social (LinkedIn) outreach


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    Access to a B2B database of over 300 million leads


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    Domain warmup and email deliverability testing


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    Human-quality personalization based on a proprietary waterfall system


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    Management of multiple campaigns and email lists



Who is Artisan Best For?

Artisan is suitable for businesses of all sizes. Its practically unlimited scalability means it’s ideal for larger enterprises. However, its ease of use and comprehensive automation features mean that smaller companies will see excellent results. 


Pricing

Artisan tailors pricing to individual clients to ensure the best value. Get in touch with the sales team to discuss plans. 


2. Reply.io

Reply.io

Reply.io focuses on multi-channel outreach. It covers email, LinkedIn, cold calling, and SMS. AI functionality is also available. If you’re looking for automation across a variety of outreach channels, it’s a platform worth considering.


Reply.io is also a good option for businesses that are expecting to scale. It offers flexible pricing based on usage, though costs can add up for additional features. It also allows smaller companies to run large campaigns without needing a large team. 


Reply.io offers several packages. The dedicated “AI SDR” plan, which is focused on email, begins at $259/month for 1000 contacts. 


Key Features

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    Omnichannel outbound sales (email, LinkedIn, phone, and SMS)


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    AI sales development representative (SDR) 


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    Large database of B2B leads


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    Email tracking and deliverability optimization



Who Is Reply.io Best For?

Reply.io is best for businesses wanting to run semi-automated campaigns across multiple channels. 


Pricing

Reply.io offers several plans with different sets of features. The “Sales Engagement” plan is $59/month per 1000 active contacts.


3. Woodpecker

Woodpecker

Woodpecker is a dedicated email outreach platform with several AI features, including an email writer and “interest level detector”. Its flexible packages and usage-based pricing make it a good option for smaller businesses looking for a solid tool with some nice AI add-ons. 


For those seeking comprehensive automation with advanced AI capabilities, alternative platforms may be more suitable. Importantly, the “Max” plan, which comes in at just under $10,000/month and allows for unlimited contacts, is pricey even for an enterprise solution. 


Key Features

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    Cold email campaign management


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    B2B lead database with ongoing hygiene monitoring


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    Deliverability testing


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    Integrations library for a small additional cost



Who Is Woodpecker Best For?

Woodpecker is ideal for smaller businesses that are willing to manage portions of their outbound email campaigns manually. 


Pricing

Pricing starts at $29/month for 500 contacts. A limited free plan is also available. 


4. Hunter Campaigns

Hunter

Hunter is a well-known outreach platform. It grew in popularity because of its high-quality email search tool, which allows users to enter a domain or company and find the email addresses of contacts associated with it. 


Hunter also offers lead prospecting and cold email campaign management. This package of features is called “Hunter Campaigns”. 


While Hunter offers hygiene-checked, high-quality lead data, it currently lacks advanced AI functionality. It’s best suited to companies running targeted email outreach campaigns with a reasonable degree of manual input. 


Key Features

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    Outreach strategy management


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    Large lead database


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    Domain-based email finder and email verification


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    Integrations library



Who Is Hunter Campaigns Best For?

Hunter is best for companies running targeted outreach campaigns with some degree of manual input.


Pricing

The starter plan is $49/month and allows for 6000 yearly email addresses (one credit is used when an email address is revealed). 


5. JustReachOut

JustReachOut

JustReachOut is a PR management platform that offers some powerful AI features. Its core functionality covers journalist outreach and automated management of pitch requests (from platforms like HARO and Qwoted). You can also use it to pursue other media opportunities like podcasts and guest posts. 


The focus is on quality over quantity, and the entry-level plan—which is $147/month—allows you to send 100 emails per month. Its dedicated database of approximately 700,000 journalists has garnered some excellent reviews, including from leaders at HubSpot and Wistia. 


If journalist and media outreach is part of your marketing or sales process, a tool like this will save your reps a substantial amount of time. 


Key Features

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    Journalist outreach management


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    High-quality journalist database


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    AI-based pitch opportunity management



Who Is JustReachOut Best For?

JustReachOut is suitable for any business that wants to generate more press coverage. 


Pricing

JustReachOut has three transparent packages. The small business plan is $147/month, and the enterprise plan is $497/month. 


6. Influencer Hero

Influencer Hero

Influencer marketing is a relatively new way of generating leads. When done well, it’s extremely powerful, giving brands access to engaged audiences at a relatively low cost. 


Outreach software like Influencer Hero helps you manage all the stages of your influencer marketing campaigns. This includes filtering influencers based on your brand and target audience criteria, finding contact information, automating the outreach process, tracking results, managing affiliate and discount codes, and keeping track of user-generated content. 


It works with Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok and also has some limited AI personalization functionality. 


Key Features

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    Influencer outreach campaign management


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    Influencer search and filtering tools


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    Ecommerce platform and email client integrations (including Gmail)


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    Search and discovery for Instagram YouTube, and TikTok



Who Is Influencer Hero Best For?

Influencer Hero is suitable for any company that runs influencer outreach campaigns. Large enterprises will benefit from a custom plan. 


Pricing

Plans start at $349/month. The basic plan has a limit of 1000 “reach outs” per month. 


7. BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo is widely known as a content research and discovery tool. It’s used by content marketing teams to identify viral content ideas based on the popularity of previously published articles, videos, and social media posts on the web. 


BuzzSumo also offers a “PR and Comms” suite of tools for monitoring brand mentions, identifying influencers, and building journalist lists. It has a media database of journalists and influencer search functions for X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook. 


Its full suite of tools is aimed at companies with ten or more people on the marketing team. You’ll need to purchase the $499/month package to gain access to all of the influencer outreach features. Automation is somewhat limited compared to other sales enablement platforms on this list. 


Key Features

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    Content creations tools


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    Journalist and media database


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    Influencer search tools (YouTube, X, TikTok, Facebook)


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    Brand mentions and content performance monitoring


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    APIs for enterprise solutions



Who Is BuzzSumo Best For?

BuzzSumo is best for medium and large companies looking for a whole-picture monitoring and research tool to assist with influencer marketing and journalist outreach. 


Pricing

Plans with outreach tools start at $299/month. 


8. Dripify

Dripify

Dripify is one of the market leaders in the category of LinkedIn sales automation tools. For B2B marketers and sales teams, outreach on LinkedIn—which boasts the world's largest lead database—is often non-negotiable. 


Dripify offers a targeted set of features at a reasonable price. You can use the platform to automate all aspects of cold outreach, encompassing connection requests with potential customers, InMails, direct messages, and follow-ups.


However, AI features are limited. If you’re looking for more advanced automation functionality like personalized messages and hands off prospecting, an AI-first platform like Artisan may be more suitable. 


Key Features

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    Automated LinkedIn outreach


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    Syncs with LinkedIn's lead database


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    In-depth analytics


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    Integrations library (including Zapier)



Who Is Dripify Best For?

Dripify is ideal for businesses of all sizes. Plans are per user, which essentially means one LinkedIn account. 


Pricing

Plans start at $29/user per month. 


How to Choose the Right Outreach Tool for Your Needs: A Quickfire Strategy

How to Choose Outreach Tools 4-Point Checklist

The outreach tool market is crowded, to put it mildly. There are lots of options, from highly specific point solutions to all-in-one platforms with a dizzying array of features. 


So how can you pick the tool that’s best for your needs? Here are four key considerations. 


Define Your Outreach Goals

Which of the following goals do you want to achieve?


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    Lead generation


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    Discover untapped markets


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    Sales and revenue


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    Brand awareness


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    Partnerships


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    Media coverage 



Sales outreach tools have different applications. Defining your strategic objectives will provide a high-level filter by which to evaluate providers. 


Evaluate Tool Features and Integrations

It’s important to distinguish between must-have features for running an outbound campaign and features that are unique to your particular needs. 


The following features are almost always essential for executing a campaign: 


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    Messaging automation


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    Personalization 


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    Analytics and reporting


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    Contact management


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    Follow-up scheduling


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    CRM integration


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    A/B testing


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    Team collaboration features



Other features, such as access to a vetted database of journalists or a Zapier integration, may be necessary for your goals. These should be defined from the outset. 


Consider Pricing and Budget

There are many well-priced solutions for small and medium businesses. But there are also providers that have overpriced their platforms. Once you have a shortlist of applications with all the features you need to meet your goals, it’s important to compare pricing. 


Here are the usual price brackets for all-in-one outreach tools:


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    Basic package: $20 to $50/user per month


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    Middle package: $50 to $200/user per month


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    Enterprise package: $1000 upwards depending on number of users



Take Advantage of Free Trials and Demos

Ah, the good ol’ free trial. It can be time-consuming, but it’s more than worth it. Always try software before making a purchase. And don’t decide straight after a guided demo (though these are important). Insist on a free trial so you can get some hands-on experience with it. 


Streamline Your Outreach in One Platform for Better Results 

The current market for outreach tools and sales engagement platforms has two problems. First, there are lots of point solutions that don’t integrate with each other easily. Second, most platforms include AI functionality as an add-on rather than as the engine that drives everything else. 


Artisan is different. It’s part of the next wave of AI email marketing tools capable of streamlining substantial portions of cold outreach. Artisan is excelling at reaching new leads, building engagement, and closing deals—all on autopilot. 


Artisan’s virtual BDR is called Ava, and she takes care of the following tasks: 


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    Prospecting from a database of 300 million B2B leads 


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    Automated email warmup, delivery, and follow-up emails


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    Lead filtering based on your ideal customer profile (ICP)


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    Ongoing enrichment and hygiene monitoring of lead details


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    AI scraping from a compressive set of online sources for up-to-the-minute lead data


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    Large-scale message personalization based on a proprietary “waterfall” system


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    LinkedIn outreach 


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    A/B testing and hands-off optimization  


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    Integration with third-party lead generation tools and CRMs 


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    Advanced reporting and tracking of outreach metrics (response rates, bounce rates, deliverability, etc.)



To explore how Artisan can expand your B2B lead network, automate your outbound campaigns, and boost your reply rates, get in touch to book a demo



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