Multi-channel prospecting: Is war declared?
Lemlist, Waalaxy, Woodpecker... So many companies and tools that offer B2B prospecting solutions and that have expanded their activity to multi-channel prospecting.
Prospecting is the search for potential customers in order to increase its market and ultimately its sales.
Today, we talk about multi-channel prospecting, allowing to integrate several points of contact with prospects, namely via email, telephone, social networks etc. The need to move on this mode of operation present on all fronts has several goals. First, you offer your prospect a seamless experience and show them that they can be in touch with you at any time and via any medium, and second, you allow them to interact with you in the way they prefer. Some people will stick to emailing while others may not, but may be more present and responsive by phone for example.
It is now imperative to offer the best user experience and respond via different communication channels.
As an example, at Salesbytech last year our main solution was Michel. The tool allowed our customers to engage their B2B prospects on LinkedIn in an automated and personalized way.
With an average acceptance rate of 25%, we were frustrated by the 75% of non-engaged leads that ended up being forgotten.
From now on, and thanks to a multi-channel prospecting, Salesbytech campaigns are on average :
- 80% coverage rate
- 60% average global opening rate (compared to 20% last year)
- 25% response rate (versus 10% in 2020)
Many tools have understood the scope and importance of multi-channel, like those mentioned above.
But if all the tools, previously specialized in one field, such as ProspectIn in LinkedIn prospecting and Lemlist in cold mailing, are joining forces on the same field that is multi-channel, is a war brewing?
I - WAAPI AND ITS NEW TOOL WAALAXY
ProspectIn, the most renowned tool developed by the Waapi company, has been a great success in the marketer community who use it in their prospecting strategy on the LinkedIn professional network. It is intended only for automated prospecting on the latter. However, the new tool currently in beta test at 100€, Waalaxy, combines prospecting on LinkedIn with cold mailing.
In terms of product, they compete with Lemlist, the leading cold emailing automation tool, which has just released a new version of its application that now includes LinkedIn prospecting. Lemlist, like Waapi, wants to increase the chances of response by diversifying the points of contact with prospects. This is the advent of multi-channel prospecting.
Is Waapi's intention to compete with Lemlist? Not according to its CEO. The market is still growing and both companies are on the French market as well as the international market. So, before the growth of one overshadows the other, there is plenty of room for maneuver. Moreover, and still according to Toinon Georget, the opposite would even be true for the moment. A large part of the market is not yet educated on these subjects, which means that the growth of one of the companies allows to educate this part of the market, and consequently, both boxes get customers.
Waalaxy is very good on the LinkedIn part since their designers already knew the subject well, but the tool is still looking to improve on the cold mailing part, which is new to them. For Lemlist, the situation is the opposite. They have just integrated LinkedIn into an application that perfectly masters cold mailing. As a result, the two tools tend to be direct competitors as soon as both have gained competence on the subjects they respectively need to master and perfect.
II - LEMLIST AND ITS NEW VERSION
Lemlist is a French company that has been on the market since 2018 and offers to do B2B prospecting especially through cold mailing. They now operate in more than 85 countries and have recently exceeded 6 million ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue). They also recently turned down a 30 million euro fundraising.
They try to offer their clients an easy-to-use tool that allows them to have a balance between automation of outbound campaigns, and therefore large-scale passage, and hyper-personalization.
It's already been a year since they started multi-channel prospecting, adding new features to their tool over time, such as recently integrating LinkedIn prospecting to their offer.
So they compete directly with Waalaxy, currently in beta test. Is it a will from the company? Not according to their CEO, Guillaume Moubèche. Just like Toinon Georget, whom we interviewed a few weeks ago, they both consider that the market is big enough not to play elbows.
For Guillaume, it is important to educate the market on the topics of Salestech and SaaS as they are destined to take a large place in this digitalized landscape. To do this, Lemlist uses its Facebook community mainly to create a place to share information, templates and best practices. The SaaS curve is exponential, which promises a glorious future. Guillaume is ready to bet that in the years to come, behemoths offering platforms with broad services will cohabit with micro-SaaS that will choose to develop a niche.
What is Lemlist's strength today and will continue to grow tomorrow? First of all, its deliverability thanks to their user base which is one of the largest in the world with a very large panel of companies of different sizes, in different countries and whose creation dates are varied from the young and new company to the company with more than 20 years of existence. Then, their algorithms allow them on the one hand to take an email out of spam to redirect it in the recipient's inbox, and on the other hand to send it as if it were a human. Indeed, the sending is done one by one so as not to damage the reputation of your marketing emails. Finally, they combine automation with hyper personalization by giving you the possibility to add images and videos to make the interaction more human and therefore get a higher response rate.
It appears that the two leaders, while addressing the same markets and with the same features, do not feel threatened by each other. They are now direct competitors in every respect, but both recognize the vastness of the market, allowing each to thrive in their respective fields. Waapi has added cold mailing to its LinkedIn prospecting while Lemlist, already a cold mailing expert, has integrated LinkedIn prospecting into its value proposition. Both agree on the rise of multi-channel and the importance of not automating to compensate for a flawed strategy. They believe it is important to have flawless processes and a clear course of action in order to thrive in this industry. Automation only comes after building a trusting relationship with your prospects, which is done in a personal way. It is only afterwards, through reminders or other means, that automation will be really useful and that the opening rate, but especially the response rate, will increase.
If you want to set up an acquisition strategy for your company and have us take care of your multi-channel prospecting, don't hesitate to enter Salestech with us!
