Cold outreach cadence playbook D1 D3 D5 D7 D9 D11.

Six touches across 11 days. Two-day gaps. Each touch carries a different angle, never a copy paste of the prior message. The cadence runs across email primary, LinkedIn secondary, Twitter tertiary on warm prospects.

The open-rate floor is 45 percent by touch four. The reply-rate floor is 3 percent by touch six. Drop below either floor and the sequence pauses while the list and deliverability layer get rebuilt. The cadence is paired with the founder funnel service and the marketing foundation engagement.

The D1 / D3 / D5 / D7 / D9 / D11 spacing exists because the prospect inbox compresses recall on a 48-hour window. A 24-hour cadence reads as automation; a 5-day gap loses the thread. Two-day gaps land inside the recall window without tripping the spam pattern detectors that fire on aggressive frequency.

Six touches captures the long tail. On a validated list, 38 percent of replies arrive between touch one and touch three. The remaining 62 percent arrive between touch four and touch six. Cutting the cadence at three touches throws away most of the qualified pipeline.

Each touch carries a distinct angle. Touch one opens on a signal observed in the last 14 days. Touch two pivots to a different angle on the same problem. Touch three drops a proof. Touch four bumps for engagement. Touch five crosses channels. Touch six closes the loop. No touch repeats the prior angle; if it does, the sequence underperforms by 30 to 50 percent on reply rate.

One signal observed on the prospect in the last 14 days. A recent funding round, a new model release, a conference talk, a blog post, a hiring signal. One sentence on the signal, one sentence on the angle, one sentence on the ask. Subject line under 6 words.

Open-rate target on touch 1 alone is 35 to 42 percent on a validated list. Reply-rate target is 1.5 to 2.5 percent. Below those numbers the signal layer is wrong; the list goes back through the validate-prospects gate.

Same problem, different angle. If touch 1 led with the signal, touch 2 leads with the operator-pattern lift. If touch 1 led with a question, touch 2 leads with a proof. The body length is shorter than touch 1, never longer. Subject line is fresh, never RE: the touch 1 thread.

Touch 2 reply rate stacks with touch 1. Combined reply rate target by D3 is 2.5 to 4 percent on the engaged subset (opens of touch 1).

One operator-pattern lift, anonymized. The format is fixed: one-line setup, one-line outcome, one-line ask. The proof chosen matches the prospect cohort observed in the validate gate, not a generic case study. Touch 3 carries the highest single-touch reply rate in the sequence (target 2 to 3 percent standalone).

One sentence reply on the touch 1 thread. Not a forward, not a new thread. The body is shorter than 25 words. The phrase structure is a question, never a statement. Touch 4 is the only touch in the sequence that uses the original thread.

Open-rate target by D7 is 45 percent (the cadence floor). Below that floor the deliverability layer is broken; the cadence pauses for an inbox health check.

LinkedIn or Twitter, never email. A connection request with a note that references the touch 3 proof. Note length under 200 characters. The cross-channel ping signals the cadence is not blast email and lifts the touch 6 reply rate by 1.5 to 2x.

One sentence. Closing the loop. No ask. The structure is a single line that gives the prospect permission to opt out, with an offer to ping again in 90 days. Touch 6 reply rate target is 1.5 to 2.5 percent, weighted heavily toward yes-defer-to-Q-next replies that re-enter the cadence on a 90-day cycle.

ReachInbox or Smartlead for the sequencer (warmup gates wired in). One inbox per persona, capped at 35 sends per inbox per day. Domain warmup ages new sender domains for 21 days before the first touch ships.

Apollo + Clay + Apify for list build. Validate-prospects gate kills any row that fails firmographics, signal-recency, or deliverability checks. List size after the validate gate typically lands at 40 to 55 percent of the input list.

HubSpot or Attio for the CRM. PostHog for the activity dashboard. The audit ledger reads from PostHog and ships every Monday with open rate, reply rate, qualified-meeting count, and the abandon-rule status.

Eleven days, six touches, then stop. That window is long enough to reach the touches where most replies land, since 62 percent of replies on a validated list arrive between touch four and touch six, and short enough that the account is out of the sequence before it starts to read as pressure. Running past D11 rarely adds replies; it mostly adds unsubscribes and spam complaints.

Shorten it only when the list is thin on signal. If the D5 open rate is already under 35 percent, the problem is deliverability or the list itself, and more touches will not fix it. Lengthen it by spacing, never by adding touches: a prospect who answers the breakup with a not-now re-enters on a 90-day cycle with a fresh signal, rather than getting touch seven on D13.

Across channels the clock is shared. The D9 LinkedIn or Twitter ping counts as one of the six touches, not a parallel sequence, so the prospect sees one conversation across channels instead of two campaigns running at once.

Three abandon conditions. The cadence pauses on any one of them and the list goes back through the validate-prospects gate before the next attempt.

1. Open rate under 35 percent at D5: deliverability or list problem.
2. Spam complaint rate over 0.3 percent at any touch: pause sender domain.
3. Reply rate under 1 percent at D11: ICP fit problem, rebuild signal layer.

Pair the cadence with the fractional CMO engagement when the abandon rule fires more than once per quarter; the failure is upstream of the cadence and lives in positioning, ICP, or product.

FORKOFF runs the cadence for you. The sandbox covers the first 14 days, with the 35 percent open-rate floor checked at D5. After the sandbox, the engagement moves to a 90-day retainer at outcome-priced rates with the weekly report shipping every Monday. Sandbox sized by application.

Sister playbook: founder-led growth covers the inbound side of the same buyer journey. Pair them for the full pipeline. Internal tool: qualified view auditor for the measurement layer.