Case Study
Austere
How a Cold Email + LinkedIn Engine Helped an Award-Winning Creator Agency Book Consistent Influencer Leads
Eric Montanez, Creative Director at Austere
“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. The consistency of leads and the quality of the meetings were beyond anything we’d managed on our own before.”
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Location
Dallas, Texas
Industry
Social Media Advertising
Result
Rebuilt Outreach Infrastructure Turned Deliverability Failures into $100,000 in Pipeline Revenue
Overview
Austere is an award-winning digital agency based in Dallas, Texas, dedicated to helping:
- Musicians
- Creators and communities
- Personal brands and influencers
plan, create, and grow their social media presence.
They already had a strong service, a clear creative edge, and a growing reputation in the creator space. What they didn’t have was a repeatable, outbound system to consistently reach and convert the right kind of creators at scale.
Over a six-month engagement, we built and ran a cold email + LinkedIn outbound engine for Austere, powered by our own high-deliverability infrastructure.
Result:
- 15 qualified leads in the very first month
- Roughly 3 new leads per day over the following six months
- Multiple meetings booked with emerging and niche influencers
- A steady flow of creators signing up to work with Austere
The Challenge
The Challenge
Austere faced a familiar challenge for creative agencies:
They knew exactly who they could help—musicians, small communities, and personal brands who needed a strategic content partner.
They had the portfolio and awards to back it up.
But inbound alone wasn’t enough to control their pipeline, and their existing outbound attempts hadn’t produced reliable results.
The main problems were:
- No Scalable Outbound System
Outreach efforts were ad hoc, inconsistent, and not built on a solid infrastructure.
- Deliverability Risk
Cold email to creators and influencers is sensitive. Poor deliverability would mean wasted effort and lost opportunities before a message is even seen.
- Fragmented Channels
Email, social, and DMs weren’t aligned into a single, structured acquisition strategy.
Austere needed a clean, professional outbound machine that felt respectful of creators, protected their brand, and actually filled the calendar.
What We Did
We created a multi-channel outreach system that matched Austere’s creative positioning while being technically robust and data-driven.
1. Built a High-Deliverability Email Infrastructure
Instead of relying on generic sending tools, we used our own in-house SMTP servers, engineered for cold outreach. This allowed us to:
- Control deliverability end-to-end
- Protect domain and sender reputation
- Maintain stable, predictable sending patterns
- Reach creators in their inboxes with 100% deliverability across campaigns
This infrastructure became the backbone of Austere’s cold email engine.
2. Defined the Right Creator ICPs
We worked with Austere to define and refine their ideal outreach targets, including:
- Musicians and bands needing visual and content direction
- Personal brands growing across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube
- Community-driven creators looking to professionalize their presence
- Lower-intensity, emerging influencers who were serious about growth but still reachable and responsive
This ensured each campaign spoke directly to creators who were a strong fit for Austere’s services.
3. Crafted High-Impact Cold Email Campaigns
We designed cold email campaigns that:
- Respected creators’ time and attention
- Spoke to their real pain points—content overwhelm, inconsistent branding, low engagement, and lack of strategy
- Positioned Austere as a creative partner, not just “another agency”
- Used simple, clear calls to action: short intro calls, audits, or content strategy sessions
The tone matched the creator world—approachable, visually-minded, and focused on collaboration.
4. Synced LinkedIn Outreach with Email
We layered LinkedIn outreach on top of email, creating:
- Connection requests and follow-ups aligned with email messaging
- A unified presence across inbox and LinkedIn
- Soft touches and reminders that warmed up cold email conversations
- Additional lead flow from founders, managers, and brand-side decision-makers
This combination helped increase reply rates and trust, especially for creators who received both an email and a LinkedIn touch.
The Solution (The System We Built)
The System We Built
By the time the system was fully in motion, Austere had:
- A cold email engine powered by in-house SMTPs
- 100% deliverability across campaigns
- A daily sending rhythm calibrated for safe, consistent volume
- Outreach sequences tailored to creators and personal brands
- A LinkedIn layer that mirrored and reinforced email touchpoints
- A repeatable model they could scale and refine over time
The Results
The numbers highlight just how quickly the system began performing.
🚀 15 Qualified Leads in the First Month
Within the first month of going live, Austere saw 15 qualified leads book calls or express strong interest.
This established early proof that:
- Their offer resonated
- The outreach was reaching the right creators
- The infrastructure was healthy and effective
📈 ~3 Leads Per Day for Six Months
Over the course of the six-month engagement, the system delivered, on average:
- Around 3 new leads per day across cold email and LinkedIn combined.
This led to:
- A consistently active pipeline
- Multiple ongoing conversations at various deal stages
- A predictable stream of opportunities for Austere’s team to qualify and close
🎯 Meetings Booked with Emerging Influencers + Creator Brands
The outreach consistently attracted:
- Low- to mid-tier influencers serious about leveling up their brand
- Musicians and creators who valued design, visual identity, and strategic content
- Personal brands and communities looking for a long-term creative partner
- Many of these conversations converted into ongoing client relationships with Austere.
Conclusion
Austere already knew how to help creators look and perform like the brands they wanted to be.
What they needed was a way to consistently get in front of those creators at scale—without burning their reputation, spamming inboxes, or stretching their internal team thin.
By:
- Building a dedicated cold email infrastructure with 100% deliverability,
- Crafting high-impact campaigns for creators,
- And syncing that with a thoughtful LinkedIn outreach strategy,
we turned outbound into a reliable lead engine, delivering:
- 15 leads in month one
- ~3 leads per day over six months
- And a steady stream of new clients for an award-winning creator agency in Dallas.
Want results like this?
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Migrate competitor users
Activate old or cold lists
Achieve inbox placement at scale
Build a reliable, high-volume user acquisition engine
Grow daily signups without ads
We can help you replicate this exact system.
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