The Competitor Followers Playbook

The competitor followers play scrapes the follower list of a competitor's LinkedIn page, filters it down to your ICP, and reaches out with a contextual call-out: "I saw you're following X on LinkedIn." The audience is already problem-aware and solution-aware, so reply rates run 2-3x higher than cold lists. It is one of the first plays we ship for new clients because it produces meetings fast, even before the offer has been validated to death.

What is the competitor followers play?

Your competitor has done the hard work of educating the market and building an audience. The people following them on LinkedIn are already shopping in your category. This play finds a competitor's LinkedIn company page, scrapes their followers, filters the list down to people who actually match your ICP, then reaches out with a contextual call-out.

The hook is simple. Open with the signal and the prospect immediately knows why you are in their inbox. You are not paying to educate cold prospects. You are paying to be the second option they see while they are already looking.

Why does targeting competitor followers work?

• Pre-qualified intent. A follow on LinkedIn is a public signal of interest in your category.
• Faster ramp. Reply rates run 2-3x higher than cold lists with no prior context.
• Specific call-out. Mentioning the competitor in line one earns the next 10 seconds of attention.
• Stackable. You can run it across multiple competitor pages and pull a clean, de-duped list.

How do we run the play?

Step	What we do	Tools
1. Pick pages	2-5 direct competitors, or adjacent ecosystem tools	LinkedIn
2. Scrape	Pull the full follower list, broad, no heavy vendor filters	Following.co
3. Filter to ICP	Titles, industry, size, geography; exclude their employees	Google Sheets, Clay
4. Enrich	Email waterfall to find verified addresses	LeadMagic, BetterContact, Findymail
5. Send	Signal call-out copy on email, LinkedIn fallback	HeyReach

1. Pick the right pages

For a direct competitor play, pick 2-5 companies that solve the same problem you do. For an ecosystem play, pick adjacent tools your prospect uses: think a CPA targeting people who follow QuickBooks and Xero. Avoid pages with massive follower counts unless you are going to filter aggressively, because scraping costs scale with size.

2. Scrape the list

We pull the full follower list using a vendor that handles this cleanly. We currently use Following.co for delivery. Where we differ from most operators: we do not ask the vendor to apply heavy filters during the scrape, because vendor-side filters limit your final list size unnecessarily. Pull broad, then filter on your side.

3. Filter down to ICP

Drop the export into Google Sheets or Clay and filter against your ICP: titles that match the buyer or champion, industries that fit, company size, geography. Always exclude employees of the company you scraped, current and past. Otherwise you will send a competitor's rep an outbound message, and they will not be amused.

4. Enrich for email

Run the filtered list through your email waterfall (LeadMagic, BetterContact, Findymail and similar) to find verified emails. For prospects without an email, fall back to LinkedIn: InMail if they have an open profile, automated connection requests via HeyReach if they do not.

5. Send the right copy

The copy ties back to the signal. Two angles work:

• The direct call-out. "I saw you're following [Competitor] on LinkedIn. I run a similar service but [your specific differentiator]. Worth a 15-minute look?" This works when your differentiator is sharp and you are comfortable with the optics.
• The ecosystem angle. "I saw you're following [Tool]. Curious, are you getting the most out of it? We've shipped 1,000+ campaigns on it and would happily audit yours." This works when you sell a service that complements the tool, and it is less aggressive than calling out a direct competitor.

Which channel should you run it on?

Email is the easiest channel to scale this play on. The contextual call-out lands well in the inbox and the volume maths works. If a prospect does not have a verified email, route them to LinkedIn through HeyReach with a similar opener. Coordinated email plus LinkedIn doubles touch density without doubling the noise.

What should you watch for?

• Vendor freshness. Some scrapers return stale lists or pull from the wrong page when an avatar's history is dirty. We spot-check the first 50 rows before launching.
• Filter discipline. Always exclude past and current employees of the scraped company.
• Direct competitor backlash. Calling out a direct competitor by name will occasionally get pushback. Worth it on conversion rate, but only if you are comfortable with the trade.
• Cost on huge lists. Pages with 100k+ followers blow up scraping costs fast. Add light vendor-side filters (industry plus company size) for those, then filter further on your end.

What does a good run look like?

On a clean run with the right offer, we expect:

• 30-50% match rate after enrichment and ICP filtering
• Reply rates 2-3x higher than a cold ZoomInfo or Apollo list (see our reply rate benchmarks for baselines)
• Meeting conversion that compounds week over week as the list refreshes

Source material adapted from Nick Abraham's breakdown of the play (Leadbird / Cleverly), with our own targeting, copy, and channel notes layered on top.

FAQ

What is the competitor followers playbook?

You scrape the follower list of a competitor's LinkedIn company page, filter it down to people who match your ICP, then reach out referencing the follow. The audience is already problem-aware and solution-aware, so it converts faster than any cold list.

How do you get a competitor's LinkedIn follower list?

Through a scraping vendor that handles it cleanly. We currently use Following.co for delivery. Pull the list broad without heavy vendor-side filters, then do the ICP filtering yourself in Google Sheets or Clay so the vendor does not limit your final list size.

Why do reply rates run higher on competitor follower lists?

A follow is a public signal of interest in your category, so the audience is pre-qualified. Mentioning the competitor in line one earns immediate attention. Reply rates run 2 to 3 times higher than cold lists with no prior context.

Should you name the competitor in the email?

Two angles work. The direct call-out names them and states your differentiator, which converts well if your differentiator is sharp and you accept the optics. The ecosystem angle references an adjacent tool they follow instead, which is less aggressive and suits complementary services.

What if a prospect has no verified email?

Fall back to LinkedIn. Send an InMail if they have an open profile, or an automated connection request via HeyReach with a similar signal-based opener if they do not. Coordinated email plus LinkedIn doubles touch density without doubling the noise.

What results should you expect from a clean run?

On the right offer we expect a 30 to 50 percent match rate after enrichment and ICP filtering, reply rates 2 to 3 times higher than a cold ZoomInfo or Apollo list, and meeting conversion that compounds week over week as the list refreshes.