"We knew there were thousands of creators who were a perfect fit for us, but we had no real way to reach them at scale. The outbound system they built changed that completely. Emails landed, LinkedIn conversations opened up, and suddenly we had a steady flow of influencers and personal brands wanting to talk."Eric Montanez, Creative Director at Austere
Austere is an award-winning digital agency in Dallas helping musicians, creators, communities and personal brands plan, create and grow their social presence. They had the portfolio, the awards and the creative edge. What they lacked was a repeatable outbound system to reach the right creators at scale.
Over a six-month engagement I built and ran their cold email + LinkedIn engine on my own high-deliverability infrastructure. The result: 15 qualified leads in month one, roughly 3 new leads a day for six months, and a steady flow of creators signing on as clients.
Instead of generic sending tools I used my own SMTP servers engineered for cold outreach: end-to-end deliverability control, protected sender reputation, stable sending patterns and 100% deliverability across the campaigns.
Musicians needing content direction, personal brands growing on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, community-driven creators professionalizing their presence, and emerging influencers serious about growth but still reachable. Each campaign spoke to a specific fit for Austere's services.
Emails that spoke to real pains: content overwhelm, inconsistent branding, low engagement, no strategy. Austere positioned as a creative partner, not "another agency", with simple CTAs: a short intro call, an audit, a strategy session.
Connection requests and follow-ups mirroring the email messaging created a unified presence across both inboxes, warmed cold conversations and pulled in additional leads from founders and brand-side decision-makers.
Austere knew how to make creators look and perform like the brands they wanted to be. My job was getting them in front of those creators consistently, without burning reputation or spamming inboxes. Fifteen leads in month one, three a day after that, and a pipeline their team now closes from.