Results first: 80 appointments for a product that hadn’t launched yet
Over 7 months, Grafi booked 80 appointments while its product was still in development. Half of them came from prospects Grafi had already spoken to before and lost touch with.
- 80 appointments in 7 months, with 20 in the best month
- 50% of appointments with previously engaged prospects
- 1,500 leads researched per month
- Open rates up to 90% and reply rates up to 50% at their peak
- Monthly KPI typically reached within the first weeks of each month
Pre-launch outreach is unusual: there’s no live product to show, and prospects are asked to engage with a promise. That’s why the result came from two places, past opportunities and a niche found through testing, rather than from volume alone.
The challenge: An unreleased product with no defined
When Grafi came to Belkins, three things were working against it:
- The product wasn’t released. Grafi had already met with prospects, but as development continued, it struggled to re-engage them.
- The ideal customer profile (ICP) wasn’t defined. Grafi didn’t yet know which industries or buyers to prioritize, which made targeted client acquisition difficult.
- There was no capacity for outreach. The team needed outside help to identify its audience, sharpen its positioning, and find new active users.
Our approach
The campaign ran on cold email. With no ICP to start from, the first job was finding out who would respond.
Using outreach as market research
The team tested outreach across several industries to see where Grafi’s offer landed. These results helped Grafi define its niche, and that decision fed back into the product’s development.
Focusing on healthcare organizations
Working with Grafi, the team narrowed the ICP to healthcare only. New templates targeted healthcare companies, medical centers, and hospitals, written specifically for that industry.
Writing in Grafi’s voice
The team tested several customized templates and adjusted each one to match Grafi’s vision, tone of voice, and communication style. The final approach drove strong engagement and conversion.
Bringing lost opportunities back
A dedicated re-engagement campaign went back to prospects Grafi had already met before the product was ready. The goal was to give them a full picture of the new product. This campaign produced half of all appointments.
Our obstacles along the way
Promoting a product that hadn’t launched was new territory for the team. Standard lead generation aims at sales, but Grafi’s goals also included market research and positioning. The team mixed several approaches and found the final one through close collaboration with Grafi, adjusting outreach as the ICP took shape.
Lessons learned: What this campaign shows about pre-launch outreach
- Treat early outreach as research. Testing several industries told Grafi where its product fit before launch.
- Go back to past conversations. Prospects who had already engaged produced half of all appointments.
This playbook fits early-stage companies that need to validate a market and build a pipeline before launch. Companies with a released product and a defined ICP can skip the testing phase and focus outreach on conversion.
