Building direct communication with decision-makers is becoming increasingly difficult over time. Cold calling alone is struggling to obtain the desired response.
An integrated multichannel outreach approach is bringing in better responses now. Especially in B2B, where decision makers are more cautious than ever to bring in the best of the best.
This blog will explain how telemarketing sits at the center of an integrated outreach campaign and how email and LinkedIn support it to achieve even better outcomes.
Why Multichannel Outbound Outperforms Phone-Only Telemarketing
Traditional telemarketing services believed that if you call enough times, someone would eventually answer.
But unfortunately, that doesn’t work anymore. B2B buyers nowadays are very keen about their requirements; they research, use demos, scan emails and move to the bottom to find the best possible deal.
That’s why telemarketing alone may not add much value to a B2B buying committee. Rather, a multichannel approach can bring a better result.
Integrated outreach campaigns using phone calls, email and LinkedIn can generate up to 287% higher engagement rates than phone-only telemarketing.
When you have presence across different channels, it creates credibility. Instead of having a reaction like, ‘another cold call!’ your prospects recognize you immediately.
Prospects Rarely Respond on the First Touch
B2B buying is a time-consuming process because decision makers first want to verify all the possible aspects. On average, it could take 8-10 touch points for one contact to become a sales qualified lead or SQL.
Implementing Surround Sound Strategy
Leads need several touchpoints to become prospects but trying to deliver all these touches through phone calls alone can cause irritation.
But if you have a structured schedule among calls, emails and LinkedIn outreach, it creates a surround sound effect.
In simple words, before you make a call, it creates an awareness about you, establishing leads into your marketing funnel.
Reducing Perceived Risk Before You Call
Due to the increasing phishing calls, especially in the USA, businesses tend to avoid unknown contacts. This reduces your chances of getting exposure if you are only focusing on one calling channel.
But if they’ve already seen your name in an email or viewed your LinkedIn profile with a clear photo, role and company information, you suddenly seem familiar.
This psychological shift from perceived risk to verified identity makes lead far more responsive when you call.
Email and LinkedIn to Warm Up Cold Calls
Businesses may have different objectives in running a marketing campaign. According to their goal, the approach strategy for cold leads needed to be set.
For example, a gatekeeper of a buying committee needs a direct call to convince. On the other hand, a core decision maker reacts better to LinkedIn or email outreach.
Overall, the employer’s objectives determine how many calls per day increase revenue and ROI from the campaign.
Warming up cold leads is significant for maintaining a funnel. Personalized LinkedIn or email outreach regularly delivers 10–25% response rates compared to using just phone calls.
Besides that, turning cold leads into warm leads reduces perceived risks. And for this, using email and LinkedIn outreach for warming up cold leads is a strategic advantage.
The Role of Each Channel in Outreach
Telemarketing is the fastest way to establish or expand a business’s presence in both cold or warm markets. But integrating it with email and LinkedIn provides even greater output.
- Telemarketing has direct communication capabilities
- Email works well for professional touchpoints
- LinkedIn provides trust for decision makers
Telemarketing (Primary Conversion Channel)
Telemarketing remains the primary conversion channel in outbound because it enables real-time, direct human interaction.
When B2B telemarketing focuses on telesales, they need to convince a buying committee. A buying committee has:
- Influencers
- End Users
- Gatekeepers
- Risk Managers
- Gatekeepers
- Decision makers
- Technical experts
This layer of management has different perspectives and roles.
Risk managers evaluate all the aspects that may cause financial and image-related issues. Technical experts assess whether it will bring any benefit or not.
With these requirements, queries need a faster real-time response, which is hard to provide via email.
Businesses employ telemarketing not just for these direct sales activities.
Awareness, nurturing and moving leads through the funnel are also something that it does really well. Especially for lead qualification, telemarketing has some key benefits.
A live conversation allows to identify BANT (budget, authority, need, timing) factors. Which is crucial in qualifying. It determines which leads are worth nurturing and which are not.
Besides that, for appointment setting, marketing research and objection handling telemarketing works best too.
Combinedly, this makes telemarketing the primary channel for lead conversion. But accuracy is key in telemarketing. Updated ICP and list building determine how well telemarketing will perform.
Email (Context and Reinforcement)
Email supports telemarketing by sharing information in a flexible way, giving prospects time to review your message at their convenience. It adds clarity and structure to communication, both before and after calls.
The role of email
Email helps the overall purchasing process run more smoothly. Buying decisions are made after extensive testing or evaluation.
When dealing with a contact, you may need to provide documents or key information that can’t be provided over the phone.
Email works best for sharing:
- Value propositions: Simple, clear explanations of what the solution offers
- Context and relevance: Use cases that show why it matters to their role or industry
- Proof points: Results, examples and data that are easier to review in text
Before & After Call Support:
- Before the call: Email builds familiarity and sets expectations, making prospects more open when the call happens
- After the call: Email reinforces what was discussed, outlines next steps and keeps the conversation moving forward
LinkedIn (Trust and Visibility)
While telemarketing and email provide necessary info and nurturing, LinkedIn adds value with an offer. When approaching B2B buyers, it shows the seller’s information, credibility and examples of their past works.
This information help building trust and overall influence conversion in each sales funnel.
Between emails and calls, LinkedIn maintains visibility without interruption. Simple actions like profile views or connection requests create familiarity, making calls feel warmer and eventually reducing initial resistance.
How Telemarketing, Email, and LinkedIn Work Together?
Telemarketing, email marketing and LinkedIn combinedly become a multichannel approach that maintains a sequence and achieves employers’ objectives.
Channel Sequencing Strategy
Start with bottom-level touchpoints:
Email and LinkedIn introduce a connection in TOFU by generating awareness and often interest. They let the contacts understand their offerings and identity relevance and prepare themself for calls.
A specific email cadence works best here. But the outcome of this low-level outreach and touchpoints fairly depends on a good email open rate. Low open rate in a segment most of the time indicates that future follow-up cycles will need a compact strategy.
Build multi-channel outreach
A coordinated sequence using these three often looks like this:
Sending a connection request on LinkedIn > LinkedIn welcome message > Introductory email> Follow-up phone call > Email with value/resource > LinkedIn push with comment interaction > Warm phone calls
This sequence may differ from employers’ objectives, but elements remain similar in a multichannel approach.
Segments have different reactions with different channels. A system of record to keep all the interactions helps build multichannel outreach more consumer demand-centric.
Layered touchpoints increase impact
When a lead enters a funnel, stage by stage, it requires specific nurturing. This nurturing differs with consumer segmentation.
For example, in commercial insurance, when a contract is not in a policy renewal window, calling them directly has the least possibility of seeing any action.
But during this time, approaching different decisions making member through email cadence or keeping them under LinkedIn touch significantly increases prior understanding. Afterwards, when the policy decision-making period approaches, you can remain at the top of the list.
That’s why your outreaching need to have layer touch points.
Trigger behavior-based actions
It’s possible that a contact will not open an email, but respond to calls or LinkedIn messages. For this reason, adaptive outreach based on consumer preference is needed in an integrated outreach campaign.
Message Consistency Across Channels
Just a well-maintained sequence will not obtain the desired result if the narrative is not clear, consistent and continuous, relevant to the lead. 3 Cs (aspect) is needed in the message here,
Clear narrative
An integrated system of outreach maintains a unified voice across all the channels. This increases credibility and trust. When the tone of the outreach remains unified, it reduces funnel leakages and increases stage wise conversions.
Continuity
Even though the channels are different, the outreach teams maintain continuity among different channels. It ensures that while talking to a prospect across different mediums, they never feel a broken communication.
Consistency
As we discussed before, calling, mailing or LinkedIn touches have to be in adequate time. Integrating systems keeps the consistency, maintains a frequency as per the decision makers’ possible buying window.
This coordinated, multi-touch strategy turns cold outreach into a predictable lead engine. Especially when combined with smart telemarketing sequencing and data on ideal touch frequency, timing, and channel dynamics, it works best.
How to Use Telemarketing to Trigger Email and LinkedIn Actions?
An integrated telemarketing campaign normally uses telemarketing as a central part of the action. According to the employer’s objective like lead generation, market survey, appointment setting or simply creating awareness, these three channels change their role.
In some occupations, telemarketing is used as a trigger point for email and LinkedIn action because it also drives sales velocity.
Post-Call Email and LinkedIn Follow-Ups
After an engaging conversation with a prospect, a post-call follow-up email is needed to keep them warm in a funnel.
Timing of post-call email and LinkedIn touches
Post-call email and LinkedIn activity totally depend on how the conversation was. If the receiver wants a demo, the best timing is to send an email during or right after the call. If there is paperwork to send, within an hour is the best time.
If there wasn’t any intent, then follow-up timing is maintained according to the segment’s general approach. Commonly, 30 minutes to 2 hours is the best time to send post-call mails and messages.
Core elements and what the mail should reference
Mail or LinkedIn’s approach needs to mention the exact topic of the conversation. Specifically, it needs to use the CRM to record the call data while developing the message.
When messages match the pain-points of the call, post-call mails drive prospects’ action.
Core elements of the call
- Clear subject line referencing the call
- 1–2 lines of summarizing the conversation
- Confirmed next step (demo, meeting, info)
- Simple CTA (reply, confirm time, review link)
Impact of post-call follow-ups
Post-call follow-ups help
- Improves recall
- Increases reply and meeting confirmation rates
- Keeps the sales velocity positive
- Funnel conversion rate within stages becomes high
- Overall ROI of the telemarketing campaign becomes high
Voicemail-to-Email Alignment
Call-to-Connect Rate in a telemarketing campaign directly affect ROI. But if the system is integrated with other channels, then voicemails are not a dead end.
In a number of cases, prospects read mails and if they find them engaging, then return calls. It works as a backup to cover up funnel leakage and contact losses.
Voicemail answers and email backup
If you reach a voicemail, your message should focus on
- Who are you and why are you calling?
- One clear value or problem statement
- Mention that a follow-up email is coming
- Highly avoid salesy talks and be constructive
- Keep a record of the voicemail timing in CRM for call timing optimization
After a voicemail response, you need to send an engaging LinkedIn touch or email so that the lead moves forward into the funnel. Post voicemail to email responses need to
- Use the same topic and value point from the voicemail
- Avoid salesly pitch in here too
- Expand briefly with context
- Repeat the same next step
While sending emails afterwards, copying the voicemail word by word needs to be avoided, yet the theme should remain the same.
Shorter, to-the-point voicemail under 30 seconds is enough, but the message should sound natural, not sped up.
This whole voicemail-to-email alignment increases follow-up-cycle effectiveness.
Tools That Enable Multichannel Integration
Multichannel telemarketing only works when calls, emails and LinkedIn actions are connected by systems and work as a single entity.
The right tools ensure every interaction is tracked, triggered and optimized.
CRM as the System of Record
To maintain an integrated multichannel outreach campaign, a system record is necessary. System records synchronize the whole approach.
Some most common CRM platforms are:
- Salesforce
- HubSpot CRM
- Zoho CRM
- Pipedrive
- Microsoft Dynamics 365
Role of CRM in multichannel outreach
- Acts as the central data source for all prospect activity
- Connects call outcomes with email and LinkedIn actions
- Prevents data silos across sales channels
- Avoid a redundant approach
- Helps to maintain a specific timing
How telemarketing actions are shaped by CRM?
A CRM record helps to develop a strategy and implement telemarketing action.
- Call disposition updates trigger follow-up tasks
- Qualified calls create automatic email reminders
- Missed calls trigger voicemail + email workflows
- CRM alerts reps when prospects re-engage
Sales Engagement Platforms
These tools or platforms help automate the multichannel outreach sequence. Coordinate calls, emails and LinkedIn activities. These also reduce manual work for sales reps.
Core capabilities of these platforms are
- Call dialing and call tracking
- Email sequencing and scheduling
- LinkedIn task prompts (connect, message, view profile)
- Engagement tracking across all touchpoints
These capabilities further support the overall telemarketing-related action. Such as:
- Calls act as the entry point into sequences
- Call outcomes determine the next automated step
- Voicemails trigger pre-built email steps
- Connected conversations pause or adjust sequences
Eventually, using these platforms helps to obtain higher rep productivity and consistent follow-up performance.
LinkedIn as an Outreach Tool
Just after the call ends, the nurturing process begins. LinkedIn connections help to build trust and validity and extend a mere conversation into social interactions.
Some capabilities of LinkedIn outreach:
- Automated connection requests (with limits)
- Personalized LinkedIn messaging
- Profile view and engagement tracking
- CRM and sales platform integration
Telemarketing provides key insights that improve LinkedIn outreach.
Call notes help sales reps personalize LinkedIn connection requests and texts based on what was discussed or observed during the call.
For prospects who didn’t answer the calls, LinkedIn works as a soft follow-up channel that builds trust slowly. At a point, it brings an opportunity to call again and advance them in the funnel more.
Conclusion
Telemarketing is still a highly effective marketing tool that delivers fast results with adequate spending. But when integrated with LinkedIn and Email it even brings better results.
A proper funnel and sequence strategy to use these three as an outreach tool can deliver a business its desired output in lead generation, appointment setting, to simply a market survey.
Lastly, when done together, it receives a better conversion rate and eventually a better ROI.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Many Touchpoints Are Needed in a Multichannel Outbound Campaign?
Normally, 8-10 touchpoints are needed to see some action from a lead. But depending on the market and complexity of the offerings, it can fluctuate.
Should Telemarketing Come Before or After Email Outreach?
It totally depends on the nature of the campaign. For example, if the campaign targets high-value leads and decision-makers, sending an email to set up a call may be needed.
In a market survey, calls come first, then email provides the necessary form to fill out.
Does LinkedIn Outreach Improve Cold Call Answer Rates?
Yes. When prospects have a prior idea about you, specially company name, designation and offering details, it significantly improves answer rate.
What is the Best Channel to Start With in Multichannel Outreach?
In B2B, starting the multichannel outreach with email or LinkedIn is a better option. Because in B2B buying, there are several members who provide inputs to decision-making. Applying solely phone calls to all of them may bring irritation.
How Do You Track Performance Across Phone, Email and LinkedIn?
To track performance, you need to sync phone, email and LinkedIn activity in one CRM.
This allows you to measure responses, conversions, follow-ups and engagement across channels and identify which touchpoints drive the best results.
Can Multichannel Outreach Replace Cold Calling?
No.
Multichannel outreach cannot fully replace cold calling.
Phone calls create direct, real-time conversations, while email and LinkedIn support follow-ups, warming prospects and improving response rates when used together.
How Often Should You Call The Same Prospect?
Call the same prospect every 2–3 days within a planned outreach sequence. Mix calls with email and LinkedIn touches to stay consistent, build familiarity, and avoid sounding repetitive or intrusive.
What Metrics Matter Most in Multichannel Outbound?
Key metrics include
- Call connection rate
- Email and LinkedIn response rate
- Meetings booked
- Stage-to-stage conversions
- Cost per qualified lead
Is Multichannel Outreach Suitable for Small Sales Teams?
Yes.
Multichannel outreach allows small sales teams to reach more prospects efficiently, prioritize engaged leads and increase reply rates without adding more reps or increasing workload.
