Starting from zero
Warm outbound without an audience.
No followers, no post engagement, a website nobody visits yet. You can still do warm outbound from week one. You just start in someone else's orbit while you build your own.
On this page 6 sections
The short answer
Warm outbound without an audience works by borrowing one. Message people who engage with your competitors' posts, comment on creators your buyers follow, attend events in your category or join the communities where your buyers talk shop. They're interested in the problem right now. Work them within days, and post regularly so your own orbit starts to fill.
A borrowed orbit is warm to the problem, not to you.
Your own orbit is people who noticed you: profile viewers, post engagers, followers, site visitors. A borrowed orbit is people who noticed someone like you. They raised their hand about the problem in public, just not in your direction.
That's a real difference, and it changes what you say. They don't know your name, so you can't lean on familiarity. But they're far warmer than a database pull: they've shown, this week, that the problem is live. And they have no loyalty yet.
Six borrowed orbits, ranked by how warm they are.
| Source | Warmth | Where to find it | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Competitor post commenters | Medium-high | Comments on competitors' posts about the problem | Some are their customers. Never name the competitor |
| Event attendees and speakers | Medium-high | Attendee lists, session Q&A, the event's LinkedIn posts | Warm for about a week after the event |
| Creator audiences | Medium | Comments on posts by creators your buyers follow | Lots of peers and fans. Filter hard |
| Communities | Medium | Slack groups, forums, membership communities where buyers ask questions | Every community has its own rules. Read them first |
| Newsletter and podcast audiences | Low-medium | People who comment on or share issues and episodes in your category | Subscribers are private; only public engagement is usable |
| Competitor and creator followers | Low-medium | Their follower lists | A follow is passive. Warm for weeks, not days |
One story we like: someone followed a tax-compliance creator on a Tuesday. On Wednesday afternoon, that creator's competitor messaged them, and they became a customer. Following the creator meant the problem was live. The competitor just noticed first.
Week one takes about five days.
Day 1: pick your borrowed orbits.
Three competitors who post about the problem, and three creators your buyers actually follow. Not the biggest names in your industry, the ones whose commenters look like your customers.
Day 2: pull engagers from this week's posts only.
Comments and reactions on posts from the last few days. Engagers on a post from last month have cooled; skip them.
Day 3: qualify hard.
Borrowed orbits are full of peers, fans and people selling the same thing. For a high-ticket offer, keeping roughly 10-30% after ICP filtering is normal. Keep fewer if in doubt.
Day 4: write and send.
About their business, using the topic of the post they engaged with as context. Never mention the competitor or the creator's name unless you're quoting their public comment back.
Day 5: publish your first post.
About the same problem those conversations surfaced. This is the day your own orbit starts.
Every borrowed lead you message becomes part of your own orbit.
Here's the part that compounds. When you message someone from a competitor's audience, a good share of them will look you up before they reply. That's a profile view, and now they're in your atmosphere. When you post, some of them see it. Some engage. Your borrowed orbit slowly becomes your own.
The same works in reverse for public activity. Leave useful comments on the creators' posts you're mining. People who read the thread will look you up. Comments with real substance are often the fastest way to start getting profile views when you have no following.
What to say to someone who's never heard of you.
Before
After
Why it works: he's interested in the problem. The message meets him there and leaves the competitor out of it.
When the source is a public comment, quoting it is fair and often stronger:
Cold still has a job in week one.
A borrowed orbit is small at first. Run a tight, targeted cold list next to it, a few dozen accounts you'd most like to win, so you have conversations while the warm sources fill. Cold pays now. Warm pays more every week. See warm vs cold for where each fits.
Can I do warm outbound with zero followers?
Yes. Start with people engaging with competitors, creators and events in your category. They're warm to the problem. Post regularly and your own orbit will start to fill within weeks.
Is messaging a competitor's audience ethical?
Messaging people who engaged publicly on a topic is normal sales practice. Bashing the competitor, pretending to be connected to them or misleading people about where you found them is not. Write about their business and leave the competitor out.
Which borrowed source should I start with?
Commenters on competitors' posts from the last few days. They're the warmest, the easiest to find and the easiest to write to, because their comment tells you what they care about.
Next: turn your own post engagement into leads, or templates for competitor and creator audiences.
