Before Working With Us (Aug-Oct 2024)
- 170,000 emails sent
- 44 opportunities
Working With Us (Sept 2025 → now)
- ~140,000 emails sent
- 2,100+ opportunities generated
Results:
- 600+ creator signups
- 150+ brand signups
- Marketplace growth accelerated on both sides
- Posted crossed $1M ARR
Before Working With Us
Posted is a two-sided influencer marketing marketplace connecting brands with creators for paid content. Before us, they were sending 170,000 emails and getting 44 opportunities - huge volume with almost no return, and no way to grow either side of the marketplace predictably.
- Two-sided marketplace: needed to grow brands and creators at once, with no repeatable way to do either
- Leaning on inbound and manual outreach - unpredictable and impossible to forecast
- 170,000 emails already sent, only 44 opportunities - the offer wasn’t built for cold and emails weren’t landing
- No offer a cold brand or creator would act on first touch
- Sending from infrastructure that wasn’t warmed for volume - replies slow and inconsistent
- No system to test which angle worked for which audience
The 3-Month Proof of Concept
We started with a focused 3-month proof of concept: cold email at volume on both sides of the marketplace, done properly. Craft cold-built offers for brands AND creators, launch on pre-warmed infrastructure, and scale the angles that converted.
1. Craft the Offer
We rebuilt distinct cold offers for the brand side and the creator side, and tested multiple offers and personas across both audiences to find the winners. On the brand side, we sourced from high-intent data (App Store & Google Play, Shopify & e-commerce databases, Product Hunt, Apollo, RB2B) so we were only reaching brands that already cared about creators and were actively scaling. On the creator side, we scraped TikTok at scale and extracted creator emails from bios to target creators actively monetising content.
2. Launch at Volume
We moved all sending onto dedicated, pre-warmed inboxes landing in the primary inbox - then launched at volume against tested angles for both sides of the marketplace. Less spray, more relevance, and emails that actually got read. Managed replies at every step so nothing fell through.
3. Scale the Winners
Once we had winning offers and lists on each side, we pushed volume against the angles that converted - scaling brand and creator acquisition in parallel. ~140,000 emails, 2,100+ opportunities. Less volume than before, 48x the results.
Then We Added Fast-Response Capture
Only after the POC proved out did we layer on the multi-channel capture system that squeezed every ounce of pipeline out of the volume:
- Inbox management with sub-5-minute personalised replies
- LinkedIn connection + message after landing-page visits
- RB2B outreach for anonymous website visitors
- Multi-step form tracking (email → phone → trial) with CRM updates at every stage
- Immediate calling, newsletter + SMS/iMessage for high-intent leads who didn’t sign up
Every interaction created context. No lead fell through the cracks.
The Results
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Opportunities | 44 (Aug-Oct 2024) | 2,100+ |
| Creator Signups | Minimal | 600+ |
| Brand Signups | Minimal | 150+ |
| ARR | Pre-revenue | $1M |
| Response Time | No system | 5 minutes, personalised |
Key Learnings
Volume ≠ Pipeline
170k emails and 44 opps proved the problem was targeting, not effort. Less volume, better signals, 48x more results.
Two Sides Need Two Engines
Growing a marketplace means building separate acquisition systems for supply and demand in parallel.
Speed Closes Deals
Sub-5-minute personalised replies outperformed every sequence. Response time became a competitive advantage.
Signals Stack
App Store + Shopify + Product Hunt + RB2B - layering intent sources compounded relevance at every step.