Glossary
What is warm outreach?
Warm outreach means contacting people who already have some connection to you: former colleagues and customers, people who engaged with your posts, event contacts, referrals and leads who showed interest. It usually gets more replies than cold outreach, because there is a reason to answer, but only if you mention that connection honestly.
Published by Sellinger AI. Numbers and settings checked on 24 October 2026 against the fact register. Report an error.
What counts as warm?
| Temperature | Examples |
|---|---|
| Warm | Past customers, former colleagues, people who asked for information, referrals |
| Lukewarm | People who engaged with your posts, event attendees, followers of your page |
| Cold | People who match your profile and have never heard of you |
How should a warm message differ?
It should name the connection in the first line, plainly and accurately: "You commented on our post about onboarding" or "We worked together at X". Then it should ask one question, as in any good outreach. What it should not do is exaggerate the connection; a like is not a relationship, and people notice.
Does warm always beat cold?
Usually on reply rate, not always on outcomes. In the Lamothermic campaign, intent signal lists replied twice as often, but 57% of those replies came from recruiters, vendors and peers, and named company searches produced most of the buyer side outcomes. Warm lists need checking for fit like any other list.
How Sellinger handles it
Sellinger has intent signals on LinkedIn with 26 ready made signal templates in 8 categories, included with every bundle, such as engagers and commenters on posts you choose, competitor engagers and conference attendees. Those lists are lukewarm by design, and the agent mentions what the person engaged with.
Common questions
Is a LinkedIn connection warm?
Should warm outreach be automated?
What is the warmest outreach?
Sources and method
Lamothermic figures from its case study. Sellinger signals from the fact register, checked 24 October 2026.
Related: Cold outreach, Buying signals, Trigger events, Signal based outreach.
