Case study · GTM engineering
Finding a market the databases miss, then reaching it on every channel.
Big Sea is a marketing and web design agency for nonprofits. Their buyers are missing from the standard databases. We found the market ourselves, then joined up email, LinkedIn, their website and their LinkedIn ads, so outbound brings in inbound as well as meetings. What started as a three-month engagement in February 2026 is still running.
Regan Dishon · Clutch review
9 Meetings
9 meetings booked and 1 deal closed
in the most recent campaign we ran.
33.7%
reply rate on LinkedIn to website visitors
104
organisations filled in a contact form after our outreach in a one month campaign.
60,000
nonprofits in Big Sea’s ICP in the database we built
Big Sea · marketing and web design agency for nonprofits · United States · Engagement: GTM engineering across data, email, LinkedIn, website visitors and ads, February 2026 to today
What they wanted
Big Sea’s buyers are marketing and communications directors at US nonprofits.
The standard B2B databases cover nonprofits poorly and don’t keep them up to date, so there was no list to buy. And meetings were only part of the aim: they also wanted website visits, downloads, webinar sign-ups and better audiences for their LinkedIn ads.
What we built
- 01
Found the market without a database. A custom web scraper, public tax filings, federal health-centre records and an in-house email finder on 60,000 nonprofits.
- 02
Kept testing the cold email. We tested subject lines against identical bodies and split campaigns by cause, from arts to healthcare. Offers changed as we learned: a webinar, a guide, a personalised article, an Ad Grants strategy session.
- 03
Turned website visitors into LinkedIn conversations. Visitors to Big Sea’s site were identified, filtered for fit in Clay and routed into a LinkedIn sequence.
- 04
One audience for email and LinkedIn ads. We passed the list of people getting the emails over for Big Sea’s LinkedIn ad audiences, so the same buyers saw both.
- 05
Used outbound to drive inbound. Big Sea produces amazing content for their audience. Instead of outbound competing with inbound, we utilised the outbound channel to drive inbounds and webinar sign-ups.
- 06
Kept outbound and HubSpot in step. We check every lead against Big Sea’s HubSpot before it’s emailed, so customers, open deals and anyone already in a pipeline are left out. Every link carries UTM tags and outbound meetings book through their own link, so HubSpot shows what outbound brought in, with notes about what the email said.
- 07
Watched who came back to the site. Most people never reply to a cold email. RB2B identified who visited Big Sea’s site, and we matched visits to the organisations we had emailed. Many read the site, signed up for a webinar or downloaded a guide and became marketing contacts without ever booking a meeting. That interest counts, even when nobody replies.
9 Meetings
9 meetings booked and 1 deal closed
in the most recent campaign we ran.
33.7%
reply rate on LinkedIn to website visitors
104
organisations filled in a contact form after our outreach in a one month campaign.
60,000
nonprofits in Big Sea’s ICP in the database we built
Big Sea · marketing and web design agency for nonprofits · United States · Engagement: GTM engineering across data, email, LinkedIn, website visitors and ads, February 2026 to today
What they wanted
Big Sea’s buyers are marketing and communications directors at US nonprofits.
The standard B2B databases cover nonprofits poorly and don’t keep them up to date, so there was no list to buy. And meetings were only part of the aim: they also wanted website visits, downloads, webinar sign-ups and better audiences for their LinkedIn ads.
What we built
- 01
Found the market without a database. A custom web scraper, public tax filings, federal health-centre records and an in-house email finder on 60,000 nonprofits.
- 02
Kept testing the cold email. We tested subject lines against identical bodies and split campaigns by cause, from arts to healthcare. Offers changed as we learned: a webinar, a guide, a personalised article, an Ad Grants strategy session.
- 03
Turned website visitors into LinkedIn conversations. Visitors to Big Sea’s site were identified, filtered for fit in Clay and routed into a LinkedIn sequence.
- 04
One audience for email and LinkedIn ads. We passed the list of people getting the emails over for Big Sea’s LinkedIn ad audiences, so the same buyers saw both.
- 05
Used outbound to drive inbound. Big Sea produces amazing content for their audience. Instead of outbound competing with inbound, we utilised the outbound channel to drive inbounds and webinar sign-ups.
- 06
Kept outbound and HubSpot in step. We check every lead against Big Sea’s HubSpot before it’s emailed, so customers, open deals and anyone already in a pipeline are left out. Every link carries UTM tags and outbound meetings book through their own link, so HubSpot shows what outbound brought in, with notes about what the email said.
- 07
Watched who came back to the site. Most people never reply to a cold email. RB2B identified who visited Big Sea’s site, and we matched visits to the organisations we had emailed. Many read the site, signed up for a webinar or downloaded a guide and became marketing contacts without ever booking a meeting. That interest counts, even when nobody replies.
From the client
I think Charlie and the Groundswell team have done great! We are in a tough industry but we still got meetings booked with high quality prospects.
Regan Dishon, VP of Growth, Big Sea. Clutch review, November 2026.