LinkedIn Content Strategy for Outbound Agencies | Netwarm
LinkedIn playbook · Case study
LinkedIn content strategy for outbound agencies: how a Chicago cold outbound founder reached 146 founders and sales leaders in 5 weeks
We read every reaction on 25 posts from a Chicago-area cold outbound agency founder. 1,147 people, 146 founders and sales leaders. Here is what brings buyers, what brings peers, and the 5 posts we'd publish next.
Max Sawyer · Netwarm··11 min read
The creator in this case studyA Chicago-area founder of a cold outbound agency
Followers24,534
Posts~5 a week
Sells
These numbers are from 1 November. Your audience has already moved.
New founders and sales leaders turn Hot every week and others go quiet. Run your free scan to see today’s version, with the names.
Done-for-you cold outbound (email and LinkedIn) that books qualified meetings for startups and B2B companies
PeriodSep 28 – Oct 31
Ideal client: startup and B2B founders, CEOs and sales leaders who need qualified meetings without building an SDR team.The challenge: The agency founder writes about outbound for the founders who'd buy it. But outbound is also the favourite topic of SDRs, other agencies and sales creators, and 37% of everyone who reacted works in it. Which posts reach the founders who'd hire an agency?
Key takeaways
1 in 8 readers is a buyer.146 founders, CEOs and sales leaders reacted in 5 weeks: 12.7% of everyone who reacted. Peers were nearly 3x more: 427 SDRs, agencies and sales creators.
Roasts and list stories bring the most buyers.Cold message roasts reached 13.6 founders and sales leaders per post, deliverability posts 7. Multichannel workflow posts had the lowest share, 11.3%.
13 buyers are Hot right now.They reacted to 5 posts or more. One of them reacted to 13 of the 25.
01
Who actually reads you, and what the LinkedIn algorithm changed
The agency founder posts five mornings a week about outbound: AI SDR takes, roasts of bad cold messages, list building, deliverability and multichannel workflows. 25 posts between 28 September and 31 October, almost all at 4 a.m. Eastern.
The LinkedIn algorithm shows a post to the people who reacted to the last ones, then to people like them. Outbound is a crowded feed: the founders who'd hire an agency read it, and so does everyone who does outbound for a living. Reach can't tell them apart. Who reacted can. We looked at every person who reacted and sorted them by role.
25posts in 5 weeks
1,147people reacted
146founders and sales leaders
23came back 3+ times
Audience by roleThe 1,147 people who reacted, by roleFree
Founders, CEOs & sales leaders146 · 12.7%
SDRs, outbound agencies, lead gen & sales creators427 · 37.2%
Everyone else574 · 50%
Peers are the largest named group: 427 SDRs, BDRs, outbound agencies, lead gen freelancers, ghostwriters and sales creators, more than a third of everyone who reacted. They laugh at the jokes and share the posts. They rarely hire an outbound agency.
The 146 founders, CEOs, VPs and heads of sales are the buyers: about 1 in 8 readers. Many run AI, software and services companies that need meetings and don't want to build an SDR team. Some sell to the same founders the agency founder does, so not every one of them is a client.
SeniorityAll people who reactedFree
Founder, owner, C-level22.5%
Director, VP3.5%
Manager12.7%
Independent5.1%
Other56.1%
IndustriesFounders and sales leaders onlyNetwarm
AI, software and tech45.9%
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Core audience23 founders and sales leaders engaged 3+ times · 13 engaged 5+ timesNetwarm
23 founders and sales leaders keep coming back. One of them reacted to 13 of the 25 posts.See your regulars
Engager company sizeEveryone who reacted, by company sizeNetwarm
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See which company sizes your founders and sales leaders work at.See company sizes
02
What to post on LinkedIn to reach founders and sales leaders
Most agency founders judge a post by its reactions. An agency founder who sells should judge it by who reacted.
We tagged each of the 25 posts by topic, then measured the share of founders and sales leaders among the people who reacted, and how many of them each post brought.
Your topicsWhat your 25 posts were aboutFree
25posts
AI SDR takes7
Lists, data & targeting7
Cold message roasts5
Deliverability & sending3
Multichannel & AI workflows3
Topics that attract founders and sales leadersShare of each topic’s reactions from founders and sales leadersNetwarm
Lists, data & targeting16.7%
Cold message roasts16.6%
Deliverability & sending14.7%
AI SDR takes14.3%
Multichannel & AI workflows11.3%
One topic brings about 2x more buyers per post than another. See which.See which topics
Roasts of bad cold messages reach about 2x more founders and sales leaders per post than deliverability or multichannel posts: 13.6 against 7. List and targeting stories have the highest share, 16.7%.
Posts that brought the most founders and sales leadersShare of founders and sales leaders in each post’s reactions1 of 5 open
#1Recording: auditing a cold email I received23.2%
#2“We need to talk”: the subject line that gets the open and loses the trust23%
#3Mission 2: escaping the CSV maze20.8%
#4The CRM is six months old and the AI SDR doesn't know20.4%
#5206 wrong-fit companies nearly made the outreach list19.5%
For comparison, the post on running LinkedIn, email, calls and voice notes in one sequence reached 8% founders and sales leaders, the lowest share.
6 rules for LinkedIn engagement from founders and sales leaders
These rules come from what worked on the agency founder's own profile, and from the best-performing posts by outbound and cold email experts on LinkedIn over the last 3 months.
1
Roast the message, then fix it. Every founder has received the email being roasted, and many have sent one. The joke gets them in. The fix at the end shows who to call when their own campaign sounds like that.On this profile: the five roast posts reached 13.6 founders and sales leaders per post, the most of any topic.
Show the audit, not only the verdict. Walking through one real message line by line (what to cut, what to keep, why) is the work a client pays for, shown for free.On this profile: the recorded cold email audit had the highest share of founders and sales leaders, 23.2%.
Tell one client brief, with the exact number. “206 wrong-fit companies” is a number a founder remembers. A story from a real brief shows the judgement no tool sells.On this profile: list and targeting posts had the highest buyer share of any topic, 16.7%.
Talk to the leader buying the AI SDR. SDRs read AI SDR posts to see if their job is safe. Founders read them to decide what to buy. Write for the one who signs: what to fix before scaling anything.On this profile: “Almost anyone can build an AI SDR” reached 17.5% founders and sales leaders, the best of the seven AI SDR posts. Across the niche: “You've just automated the chaos” drew 820 likes and 180 comments.
Take one clear side in the first line. A position a reader can disagree with (“Adding notes to connection requests is a bad idea”) stops the scroll better than a balanced overview, and the comments do the rest.Across the niche: one contrarian line drew 1,922 likes and 113 comments.
End on a question about their own pipeline. A question a founder can answer from this week's pipeline (“How are you building your calling lists right now?”) brings buyers into the comments instead of peers.On this profile: the 5 posts ending on a question reached 18.8% founders and sales leaders, against 14.4% for the others.
When founders and sales leaders read: the best time to post on LinkedIn for outbound agencies
We compared the share of founders and sales leaders by the day each post was published. 23 of the 25 posts went out at 4 a.m. Eastern, so there is no hour to compare.
Share of founders and sales leaders by posting dayAmong the people who reacted to each postFree
11.4%
Mon
17.6%
Tue
16.1%
Wed
14.9%
Thu
17.7%
Fri
15.7%
Sat
Monday posts got the most reactions (463 across 5 posts) but the lowest share of buyers, 11.4%. Tuesday and Friday had the highest shares, 17.6% and 17.7%, and Friday brought the most buyers per post, 13.7.
Keep the 4 a.m. Eastern slot: posts are waiting when US founders open LinkedIn. Put the posts that sell the work (the audit, the client brief, the lead magnet) on Tuesday and Friday, and keep Monday for the lighter jokes peers love to share.
05
5 posts ready to publish to target founders and sales leaders
Each post follows the rules above, in the agency founder's voice. Swap in your own details before posting: the real campaign and the real numbers are what make it land.
1Ready to postRoast + fix
The AI SDR email that knew everything except whyRule 1: roast the message, then fix it. Modelled on Julia Carter's recruiter email parody and the “We need to talk” post.
Hook
“I noticed you're hiring 3 SDRs, raised a Series A and posted about pipeline last Tuesday.” 😂That was the first line of a cold email I got this week.The second line:“That's why I thought you'd love our AI-powered outbound platform.”Wait. Why? 💀It did more research than my accountant.And it still didn't tell me one reason to reply.Here's what happened:The AI found the facts.
Nobody decided what they meant.So every fact got stapled to the same pitch.Hiring SDRs? Buy our platform.
Raised money? Buy our platform.
Posted about pipeline? You get it.If I'd written it, I'd pick ONE of those facts and follow it:→ Hiring 3 SDRs means someone has to ramp them
→ Ramping them means lists, angles and copy that work on day one
→ So the email is about that week, not about the platformOne signal. One consequence. One question.“Hiring 3 SDRs usually means someone owns their first 30 days of lists. Is that you, or the new sales lead?”Shorter. Less impressive research.Way more likely to get a reply.The signal isn't the personalization. What it means for them is.What's the most “researched” cold email you've received that still made no sense? 😂
Visual · ScreenshotThe real email, names and company blurred, with the two lines that break highlighted in red.Check before postingUse a real email you received and quote it as it was. Blur the sender and their company.
I rewrote a founder's cold email in 7 cutsRule 2: show the audit, not only the verdict. Modelled on the recorded cold email audit, the highest buyer share on the profile.
Hook
A founder sent me their cold email to review. I made 7 cuts. Here they are.They'd been sending it for 6 weeks. Opens looked fine. Replies didn't. 😂Cut 1: “I hope this email finds you well.”
Nobody has ever replied because of this line.Cut 2: The 3 lines about their company.
The prospect doesn't care who you are yet. They care why you're here.Cut 3: “We're the leading provider of…”
Every company in the category says this. So it says nothing.Cut 4: The second CTA.
“Book a call, or check out our case studies, or reply here.” Pick one.Cut 5: The case study link.
If the proof matters, put the one number in the email.Cut 6: “Quick question” in the subject line.
It isn't quick, and it isn't a question.Cut 7: The P.S. with a discount.
On a first email, it reads like you already expect a no.What was left:→ One line on what we noticed about their business
→ One line on why it matters right now
→ One number from a similar client
→ One question they can answer in a wordThe email went from long to short enough to read on a phone in 10 seconds.The research didn't change. The cuts did.Which of these 7 is still in your sequence right now? 💀
Visual · Short video or carouselThe original email on slide 1, each cut struck through on the next slides, the final version on the last slide. Or record the audit like the October video.Check before postingUse a real email (with the founder's OK, or anonymised) and the real word counts. Don't claim a reply-rate change you haven't measured yet.
The one line in the brief that removed a third of the listRule 3: one client brief, with the exact number. Modelled on the “206 wrong-fit companies” post.
Hook
The list had 1,400 companies. After one question, it had 910.The client sells payroll software to restaurant groups.The brief said: 5+ locations, US, owner-operated.Easy, right? 😂We built the list. Industry filter, location count, decision-makers found, emails verified.1,400 companies. Beautiful spreadsheet energy.Then, on the kickoff call, I asked one question:“Who did your last 10 customers use before you?”Answer: almost all of them were still on spreadsheets or a basic tool.None of them came from the two big payroll platforms.So we checked.490 companies on our list already ran one of those two platforms. Multi-year contracts. Integrated with their POS. Not switching because of a cold email.They matched the brief.
They didn't match the buyer.We removed all 490 before a single email went out.Fewer emails. Better reasons to send each one. And a lot fewer “we're happy with our current provider” replies.The filter tells you who fits.
The client's last 10 deals tell you who buys.What's one question you ask every client before building the list?
Visual · Single imageA simple funnel: 1,400 on the list, 490 removed, 910 contacted. No client name.Check before postingUse a real client brief and its real numbers (the payroll and restaurant example is illustrative). Keep the client anonymous.
Before you buy an AI SDR, answer these 5Rule 4 and rule 6: write for the leader who signs, end on a question about their pipeline. Modelled on Olivier Tytgat's “automated the chaos” post.
Hook
Founders, before you buy an AI SDR, answer these 5 questions.Because an AI SDR won't fix your outbound.It will show you, at scale, what was already broken. 💀We've seen a campaign get a 5.31% reply rate and zero opportunities.And one get 0.32% and open a $150K deal.Scale the first one and you just get a bigger spreadsheet of polite no's.So, before the demo:1. Who exactly are we targeting, and why now?
If the answer is an industry and a headcount range, that's a filter, not a reason.2. Would you reply to your own best email?
Read it out loud. Honestly.3. Is your data less than 3 months old?
Job changes happen every week. The AI won't question your CRM.4. Are your emails landing in the inbox?
The greatest email in the world doesn't matter in spam.5. Who picks up the conversation when a prospect says “tell me more”?
A reply is the start of the work, not the end.If you can answer all 5, an AI SDR can help you go faster.If you can't, it will help you reach the wrong people faster.Which of the 5 would your team struggle with first?
Visual · Single imageThe 5 questions on one card, titled “Before the AI SDR demo”.Check before postingThe 5.31% and 0.32% figures come from your own October 28 post: keep them only if they're still the numbers you want to quote.
The 12-point cold email audit we run on every new clientLead magnet: give the system away, see which founders ask. Modelled on Dima Bilous's “2027 Revenue OS” and the recorded audit.
Hook
Every new client's campaign goes through the same 12 checks before we send anything.Some clients think it's overkill. 😂Then we find the domain with no DMARC. Or the list that's 30% old job titles. Or the subject line that's quietly killing opens.So I turned it into a one-page audit you can run on your own outbound.It covers 4 areas:→ Infrastructure: domains, authentication, sending volume per inbox
→ List: fit, freshness, and the exclusions nobody remembers
→ Message: the first line, the reason, the proof, the ask
→ Follow-up: who answers the replies, and how fast3 checks per area. Each one is a yes or no.If you get fewer than 9 yes's, don't add volume. Fix the no's first.It's the same sheet I used when I recorded myself auditing that cold email last month.Want it? Comment “AUDIT” and I'll send it to you.
Visual · Single imageThe audit sheet itself, 4 columns of 3 checks, with a few boxes ticked and one crossed.Check before postingBuild the sheet from the checks you really run. Put your Netwarm Reveal link in the message you send, so you can see which founders open it.
Free forever: unlimited scheduling through LinkedIn’s official API, with images, video and PDF carousels.
06
LinkedIn lead generation: lead magnets that work to target founders and sales leaders
Reactions show interest. A download shows intent. Peers react to outbound jokes all day. The fastest way to see which founders are serious is to give them something useful and see who asks for it.
In outbound and cold email, these formats get the most requests:
Format 1The playbook behind the resultsThe whole method in one document, with the volume or revenue that proves it on the first line.
Format 2The agent and prompt kitOne stage of the sales workflow per prompt, plus one context file to fill in once.
Format 3The agency's own systemThe stack and process the agency charges for, priced, then given away.
Our pick for you: “The 12-point cold email audit”Built from the audit the agency founder already recorded in October, the post with the highest share of founders and sales leaders: 12 yes-or-no checks across infrastructure, list, message and follow-up. Offer it in post 5 for a comment.With a Reveal link, every person who downloads it is shown by name, with their role and how warm they are. Your first Reveal link is free.Create your free Reveal link
07
From reactions to clients
Content brings founders to the profile. It doesn't say when to reach out. Most never comment, so they stay invisible among hundreds of SDRs and agencies, and a founder reading every post in October may have hired someone else by January.
On LinkedIn, the right moment to start a conversation is when someone keeps coming back. We call that Hot: 5 or more points over 90 days, where a reaction counts 1, a repost 2, a download or a reply 4.
Hot right now13 founders and sales leaders · not contacted yetNetwarm
13 founders and sales leaders are Hot. See who to message first.See who’s Hot
First messageAn opener for each Hot person, based on the posts they readNetwarm
Hi Jordan, you've been reading my posts on AI SDRs for a few weeks. Are you looking at one for your team, or already running one?Hi Sam, I saw you reacted to the cold email audit. Want me to run the same checks on one of your emails?
A first line for each of them, ready to send.See the openers
Netwarm sends nothing for you. It tells you who and when, and you write the message. It also works inside Claude and ChatGPT: ask “Who's Hot today?” and get the list.
08
FAQ
Here, roasts of bad cold messages and stories from real client lists brought the most founders and sales leaders: 13.6 per roast post, and a 16.7% buyer share for list stories. Show the work (the audit, the brief, the exact number), take a clear side, and end on a question about their pipeline.
For this agency founder, Tuesday and Friday brought the highest share of founders and sales leaders (17.6% and 17.7%) and Monday the lowest (11.4%), even though Monday posts got the most reactions.
This founder posts about five times a week, and 23 founders and sales leaders came back 3 times or more in 5 weeks. Five a week works when the posts that sell the work go out on the best days.
Look at who reacts, not how many. Group reactions by role, measure the share of your ideal clients per post, and follow the people who keep coming back. A free Netwarm scan does this for you.
Yes. Netwarm only reads public reactions to your own posts. It never logs in as you, never asks for your password, and never messages anyone for you.
How we made this playbook
We read the public reactions on 25 posts published between 28 September and 31 October 2026 (the first 100 reactions on each), and sorted the 1,147 people by role. Duplicate posts were left out. Comments were not counted, so engagement figures are a floor.
Niche rules come from top posts by outbound and cold email experts over the last 3 months. Role groups are approximate, and some founders sell to the same audience; a Netwarm scan matches people to your own ideal client.
