Start with a phone call. Email and text are very impersonal and oftentimes lead to no response or very low response rate. While you may have a lower initial outreach output with calls, you can speak with a prospect directly, gain valuable insight, and create follow-up workflows after.
Pop ins. Pop-ins are arguably even more impactful than calls, but are extremely time consuming and you run the risk of people not being on site or being completely unavailable.
Email. Email is a tried and true method of prospecting for B2B and B2C businesses. It’s extremely effective for shotgun approach lead generation, but very impersonal. Response rates can be low and responses can take a very long time.
LinkedIn. Direct messages and comments on LinkedIn are a great way to network with prospects, but with the flood of LinkedIn scrapers and auto-messengers it is getting much more difficult to get to the top of someone’s inbox and pique their interest enough to elicit a response.
Networking events. While sometimes costly and time consuming, networking events are a great one (you) to many (owners/managers) outreach tool. The only issue with these is competition. Oftentimes decision makers are bombarded with multiple companies inside of your same niche within a few minutes and for hours on end.
Direct mail. Low response rates and price make this a low tier outreach method. While it can be effective when paired with other forms of outreach, mailers by themselves are not a preferred way to generate high quality leads or relationships.
Text. FTC regulations make texting harder to do at scale and even harder to do well. There is truly nothing more impersonal than sending a text as a first outreach attempt and many people view texting as more personal than calling. Avoid this until you have permission and have established some type of relationship with a prospect.