B2B Outbound Best Practices: What’s Working Now with Cold Email and Paid Ads (with Alex Fine)

#245: Cold Email | Danielle Messler sits down with Alex Fine, co-founder of Understory, the agency behind some of the most effective outbound and paid strategies in B2B right now. Alex is leading the charge on a smarter approach to outbound called “Allbound”, a tightly integrated blend of outbound, paid media, and LinkedIn tactics that actually convert. If you’re tired of cold emails that go nowhere or ad campaigns that burn cash without ROI, this one’s for you. Danielle and Alex cover:Why most B2B outbound strategies fail and how Allbound fixes the disconnect between ads, email, and LinkedInThe cold email deliverability tactics that actually work in 2025 (including tools like Instantly, Smartlead, and Clay)Real-world examples of hyper-personalized, AI-powered outreach that book meetings with high-ACV prospects Timestamps (00:00) - – Intro (03:11) - – What Is “Allbound”? (05:11) - – Cold Email Isn’t Dead (But It’s Evolved) (07:41) - – Tools to Improve Deliverability (09:56) - – Personalization That Actually Works (11:26) - – Real Example: Fraud Detection SaaS Cold Email Strategy (13:11) - – How to Keep Messaging Consistent Across Channels (15:11) - – Treating Each Channel Differently (18:19) - – Ads as a “Cheat Code” in B2B (20:49) - – Building Genuinely Personalized Emails at Scale (23:49) - – From Swiffer to SaaS (27:19) - – What Sales Teaches Marketers (36:04) - – Where to Find Alex + Upcoming Exit Five Event Plug Send guest pitches and ideas to hi@exitfive.com Join the Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter Check out the Exit Five job board: https://jobs.exitfive.com/ Become an Exit Five member: https://community.exitfive.com/checkout/exit-five-membership *** This episode is brought to you by Webflow. If you're a B2B marketer right now, you’re probably being asked to do more with less - less budget, fewer resources, tighter timelines. And you’re expected to somehow grow pipeline anyway. That’s why more teams are switching to Webflow. Webflow is the website experience platform that helps you consolidate your stack, reduce program spend, and move faster. Instead of juggling a dozen tools and waiting on devs, Webflow gives marketing and design teams the power to build, launch, and optimize sites all in one place. No-code flexibility. Dev-level control. Built-in A/B testing, SEO, localization, and AI tools. It’s everything you need to turn your website into your highest-performing channel. It’s everything you need to turn your website into your most efficient, highest-performing channel. Check it out at webflow.com/exitfive.