LinkedIn and outbound prospecting under CASL

Outbound prospecting means reaching corporate buyers before they start looking for you. Learn to build a focused target list, use LinkedIn as your storefront, run a respectful multi-touch sequence by message, email and phone, and stay within CASL and Canada's telemarketing rules.

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LinkedIn and outbound prospecting under CASL.

Waiting for corporate clients to find you works, slowly.

The companies most likely to book you this year may never search for an event vendor at all, because someone in the office always books the same place.

Start with an ideal customer profile.

Prospecting fails most often because the list is too broad.

"Companies in Toronto" is not a list.

LinkedIn as your storefront.

Every prospect you contact will look you up.

On LinkedIn, they decide in seconds whether you are a real business that serves companies like theirs.

A four-week sequence.

One message rarely works.

A sequence of four to six touches across different channels, each useful on its own, gives a busy person several chances to notice you.

The arithmetic of outbound.

Outbound is a numbers game, but the numbers are small.

An illustrative season for Marco at Lantern and Lane, the west-end Toronto studio from the core modules:

Habits that keep outbound respectful.

Personalize every first message. If you cannot find one specific reason to contact someone, they are not on your list yet.

Never pitch in a connection request, and never send a sales message seconds after someone accepts.

That is the lesson. The worksheet and the quiz are just below this video.

What you will be able to do

• Build a target list of 30 to 50 accounts from a written ideal customer profile
• Write a four-week prospecting sequence across LinkedIn, email and phone
• Identify which CASL consent basis applies to each prospect before you send a commercial message

Waiting for corporate clients to find you works, slowly. The companies most likely to book you this year may never search for an event vendor at all, because someone in the office always books the same place. Outbound prospecting is how you get onto their shortlist before the search begins. Done well, it feels to the buyer like useful timing. Done badly, it is spam, and in Canada it can be illegal.

Start with an ideal customer profile

Prospecting fails most often because the list is too broad. “Companies in Toronto” is not a list. Write an ideal customer profile: a short description of the organizations most likely to buy from you, most profitably, most often.

• Industry: for example, law and accounting firms, technology companies, pharmaceutical and life-sciences offices, or industry associations.
• Size: the headcount that matches your capacity. A 40-guest private dining room suits a firm of 30 to 80 people, not a bank tower.
• Location: within your delivery or travel area.
• Events they run: holiday parties, client evenings, offsites, product launches, conferences.
• The role you will contact: office manager, executive assistant to the managing partner, HR manager, marketing or events manager.

Then build a list of 30 to 50 named accounts that fit. A short list you research properly will outperform a thousand names bought from a data broker every time. For each account, record the company, the right contact, where you found them, any connection you share, and the consent basis you will rely on, which the next section explains.

LinkedIn as your storefront

Every prospect you contact will look you up. On LinkedIn, they decide in seconds whether you are a real business that serves companies like theirs. Before you send a single message, make sure your profile passes this check:

• A clear, professional photo and a headline that names who you serve: “Corporate holiday parties and client events for professional firms in Toronto”, not “Owner at a creative studio”.
• An About section that states the events you run, the group sizes, the industries you know and how to contact you.
• A Featured section with one short event story, a capability statement and a link to your corporate services page.
• Recommendations from two or three corporate clients.
• A company page with the same description and recent posts.

Post on LinkedIn once or twice a week while you prospect. Short event stories with a guest count and the client’s industry, a practical tip for planning a holiday party, a photo of a set-up before guests arrive. When a prospect checks your activity, they should see a business that is busy with clients like them.

A four-week sequence

One message rarely works. A sequence of four to six touches across different channels, each useful on its own, gives a busy person several chances to notice you. Space them out and stop as soon as someone says no.

Scripts you can adapt. Keep each one short enough to read on a phone.

Connection note: “Hi Dana, I saw your firm’s new King Street office in the news. I plan corporate events for professional firms in the west end and would be glad to connect. Marco”

Email: “Subject: Holiday party timing for a firm your size. Hi Dana, firms of around 80 people usually confirm December venues by early October, and the best Friday dates go first. I put together a one-page planning timeline that might be useful for this year, here: [link]. Are you the right person for staff events, or is there someone better to ask? Marco, Lantern & Lane, [mailing address], [phone]. If you would rather not hear from me, reply or use this link and I will not write again: [unsubscribe link].”

Voicemail: “Hi Dana, it is Marco from Lantern & Lane, an event planning studio in the west end. I sent a note about holiday party timing for firms your size. No need to call back unless it is useful; I will send one last email next week. My number is [number].”

The arithmetic of outbound

Outbound is a numbers game, but the numbers are small. An illustrative season for Marco at Lantern & Lane, the west-end Toronto studio from the core modules:

• He researched 60 accounts and reached 60 contacts through the sequence.
• 21 accepted a connection or replied in some way, about 35 percent.
• 9 agreed to a short call.
• 5 asked for a proposal.
• 2 booked, at an average of $14,000, for $28,000 in first-year bookings.

His time: about 30 minutes of research and writing per account, or 30 hours, plus another 10 for calls and proposals. Forty hours for $28,000 of bookings, and two clients who may book every year, is a strong return. It also tells him what to fix: if few people accept, the profile or note needs work; if calls do not become proposals, the offer or the targeting does.

Habits that keep outbound respectful

• Personalize every first message. If you cannot find one specific reason to contact someone, they are not on your list yet.
• Never pitch in a connection request, and never send a sales message seconds after someone accepts.
• Write and send messages yourself. Mass-automated outreach is easy to spot, and it treats prospects as a list rather than people.
• Stop after the final touch, or at the first no, and record it.
• Give before you ask. A planning timeline, a venue capacity guide or a note about a date that is filling up earns a reply far more often than a list of your services.
• Keep your notes in a CRM or spreadsheet, so you never contact someone who has already declined.

In Canada and the GTA

CASL applies to prospecting emails and messages. Under Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation, a commercial electronic message is one where one of the purposes is to encourage the recipient to take part in a commercial activity, such as buying your services. CASL defines an electronic address as an address used for an email account, an instant messaging account, a telephone account or any similar account, so treat a LinkedIn message that promotes your services the same way as an email. Every commercial message needs a consent basis, identification and an unsubscribe mechanism.

Which consent basis applies? Cold prospects usually have not given express consent, so you need to know which form of implied consent you are relying on, and record it.

• Conspicuous publication. You may rely on an address the person has published, such as a business email on the company website or a profile, only if the posting has no statement refusing commercial messages and your message relates to the person’s business role. The CRTC’s example: a social media marketing course sent to a marketing officer qualifies; an administrative assistant skills course sent to a chief operating officer does not. A holiday party offer to an office manager fits; the same offer to the company’s software engineers does not.
• Business cards. An address someone gives you, such as a card at a trade show, can support implied consent. The CRTC suggests a follow-up email that mentions the conversation and the date, and that follow-up must itself include identification and an unsubscribe mechanism.
• Inquiries. If the person asked about your services, you have an existing business relationship for six months from the inquiry.
• The business-to-business exemption. CASL does not apply to messages between employees of organizations that already have a relationship, about the receiving organization’s activities. Contact between two individuals alone does not create that relationship, so it rarely covers true cold outreach.

What every message must contain. Your business name, a current mailing address and a phone number, email address or website, valid for at least 60 days after sending, plus a free, easy unsubscribe mechanism. Process unsubscribes within 10 business days. The maximum administrative penalty is $10,000,000 per violation for a business and $1,000,000 for an individual. Read the CRTC’s guidance on implied consent.

Phone calls. CASL’s rules on commercial electronic messages do not apply to an interactive two-way voice call between individuals, a fax to a telephone account, or a voice recording sent to a telephone account. Calls are covered instead by the CRTC’s telemarketing rules. The National Do Not Call List rules do not apply to telemarketing calls made to businesses, but you must still identify who you are calling for at the start of the call, and keep an internal do-not-call list: a request must be honoured within 14 days and kept for three years. See the National DNCL exemptions page. If you call a sole proprietor’s personal mobile number, treat it as a consumer call and check the list.

Prospect data. PIPEDA’s principles of limiting collection and safeguards apply to the information in your prospecting list. Record only what you need, keep it secure, and delete prospects who decline. This is general information, not legal advice.

Timing in the GTA

Outbound works best when it arrives just before the buyer’s decision window. For holiday parties, start your sequence in late July and August. For spring conferences and galas, start in the fall. Avoid the last two weeks of December and the middle of August. Industry association events, chambers of commerce and boards of trade across the GTA are good places to meet prospects in person, which gives you a business card and a far warmer starting point than any cold email.

Worksheet

Download the worksheet and complete it for your own business, using Lantern & Lane as the model where it helps. Keep it with your marketing plan. It takes about 10 minutes.

Download the worksheet (PDF)