At my previous company, I spent 12 years mastering outbound campaigns, refining the strategies and tools needed to personalise the outreach and connect businesses with the right leads. When we set out to expand our marketing channels at StartHQ, incorporating outbound campaigns was a natural fit. But as we dug into the tools available, we discovered a surprising gap in the market—one that led us to create something entirely new.
The Search for the Perfect Platform
As we evaluated outbound messaging platforms, we were impressed by many of their features. These tools have come a long way in terms of usability and functionality. But one crucial aspect fell short: personalisation.
The “canned intro paragraphs” some platforms offered felt more like a gimmick than a genuine attempt at connection. For example, just because someone went to a particular university doesn’t mean they’re passionate about that town’s football team. These kinds of assumptions felt disingenuous and unhelpful for building meaningful relationships.
Then there were the AI-powered features. While promising, they often left us with a blank canvas, requiring too much manual effort to craft prompts that worked effectively. Worse, these capabilities typically only personalised the initial message, leaving the rest of the sequence generic and uninspiring. The pricing also made it impractical to scale personalisation for every contact within a campaign.
Building Something Better
Faced with these limitations, we decided to take a bold step: we built our own AI messaging engine.
Our goal was clear: to create a tool that could craft polite, personalised, and engaging outbound messages for every individual in a campaign—not just the first touchpoint but the entire sequence. Importantly, we wanted to do it in a way that meant we didn’t have to replace our CRM.
Early Successes
We began trialling our AI engine internally just before Christmas and the results were great. The messages it generated struck the perfect tone—friendly, professional, and tailored to the recipient meaning interested parties were much more likely to reply. It was also fast, generating personalised messaging for over 1,000 contacts in less than half an hour.
As we shared this development during discovery calls with other clients, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Businesses were intrigued by the idea of a tool that combines the efficiency of AI with a human touch in messaging. The demand seemed clear, and it felt like we were onto something.
Offering a New Approach to Lead Generation
Today, we’re thrilled to offer our AI messaging engine as a service for other businesses. It represents a fresh approach to lead generation, one that balances the precision of AI with the personalisation that outbound campaigns truly need.
We believe this tool can help companies unlock new opportunities by building connections that feel genuine and thoughtful—at scale.
If you’re curious about how our AI messaging engine can transform your outbound campaigns without you needing to replace your CRM, we’d love to chat. Visit us here to learn more and get started: StartHQ AI Email Personalisation.