Logistics Outbound, Run Through Apollo
The dirty secret of most freight prospecting lists is that half the companies on them don't ship the freight you carry. A reefer broker emailing a software distributor, a drayage specialist pitching a company with no import volume — those sends aren't just wasted, they train inboxes to ignore you. The fix isn't better copy; it's matching the list to the lane. A reefer lane is fed by food and beverage manufacturers. A drayage book is fed by importers near the port. A flatbed desk is fed by building-products and machinery makers. Each lane has a vertical fingerprint, and Apollo's B2B database is one of the few places you can filter for it directly.
Apollo's industry and sub-industry filters, stacked with headcount and location, let a brokerage cut a shipper list down to exactly the verticals a lane serves — then sequence them with email, call, and LinkedIn steps. ColdRelay is the layer underneath: the secondary domains, mailboxes, and dedicated IPs that Apollo's email steps actually send from. This guide covers how logistics teams wire the two together so every send goes to a company that genuinely ships what you haul.
Why Run Apollo on ColdRelay Infrastructure
Apollo's edge for logistics teams is precision at the list-building stage: a contact database you can slice by industry, sub-industry, employee count, and facility location, plus signals like new office openings and recent funding that hint a shipper's freight profile is about to change. Saved personas and saved searches mean the 'food & beverage manufacturers, 200-2,000 employees, within 150 miles of our reefer lane' definition gets built once and refreshed automatically. What Apollo doesn't do is provision the domains and mailboxes its sequences send from — and in freight, that infrastructure layer carries unusual weight, because your operating domain also moves rate confirmations, BOLs, and carrier communications that can never be exposed to prospecting risk.
That's where ColdRelay fits. You order dedicated mailboxes on isolated Azure tenants with dedicated IPs, fully DNS-configured (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and ready in about an hour, with no warmup waiting period before sending — warmup runs continuously as part of each mailbox's 4 sends/day budget (2 outbound + 2 warmup). ColdRelay supports 100-150 mailboxes per domain, so even a brokerage running vertical-targeted campaigns across several lanes can stand up its full sending pool on one or two secondary domains.
The pairing is additive, not competitive: ColdRelay is the infrastructure, Apollo is the data and sequencing layer on top. You keep Apollo's filters, personas, signals, and multi-channel sequences — you just point them at mailboxes built to land.
Visit Apollo →Connecting ColdRelay Mailboxes to Apollo
Provision mailboxes on ColdRelay
Pick secondary domains adjacent to your brand but separate from the operating domain your shippers and carriers know. ColdRelay supports 100-150 mailboxes per domain — vertical-targeted lists are smaller and tighter than generic blasts, so most brokerages start with 30-80 mailboxes on a single secondary domain. Everything provisions on isolated Azure tenants with dedicated IPs in about an hour, with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC already configured and no warmup waiting period before you can send.
Build one saved search per lane's vertical fingerprint
In Apollo's People search, stack the filters that define who actually ships each lane: Industry and sub-industry (Food & Beverage Manufacturing for reefer; Wholesale, Import & Export for drayage; Building Materials and Industrial Machinery for flatbed), employee headcount as a freight-volume proxy, and company location within the geography the lane serves. Save each combination as a saved search so it refreshes with new matching companies automatically, and save the buyer titles — logistics manager, supply chain director, transportation lead — as personas you can reapply across every vertical search.
Connect ColdRelay mailboxes under Settings → Mailboxes
In Apollo, go to Settings → Mailboxes and link each ColdRelay mailbox so sequences can rotate across the pool. Set each mailbox's daily send limit in Apollo to 2 outbound emails per day, mirroring ColdRelay's per-mailbox budget of 4 sends/day total (2 outbound + 2 warmup). Warmup runs continuously on ColdRelay's side, so Apollo's limits should govern outbound sequence sends only.
Build a vertical-specific sequence per saved search
Create one Apollo sequence per vertical, not per title — the copy that wins a food manufacturer ('temp-controlled capacity, FSMA-compliant carriers') is useless to an importer ('port congestion, chassis availability, free-time clocks'). Use Apollo's multi-step sequences to mix channels: email steps send through your ColdRelay mailboxes, while call tasks and LinkedIn steps layer in for the highest-headcount accounts, where a single awarded lane justifies the manual touches.
Wire expansion signals into the top of each sequence
Layer Apollo's signals — new office or facility openings, headcount growth, recent funding — over each saved search. A manufacturer opening a distribution center is about to award lanes that didn't exist last quarter, and the broker in the inbox that month wins them. Route signal-matched companies into the same vertical sequence but with a first email that names the trigger, and enroll them within days of the signal firing, not at the next monthly list pull.
The Logistics Apollo Playbook
Map every lane to its vertical fingerprint before pulling a single contact
Write down, per lane, which industries actually generate that freight: reefer means food and beverage manufacturers and grocery distributors; port drayage means importers and wholesale trading companies; flatbed means building products, steel, and machinery. Then build that as Apollo industry and sub-industry filters. A list where 90% of companies genuinely ship your mode will outperform a bigger generic list on every metric that matters.
Use headcount and facility location as a freight-volume proxy
Apollo can't tell you a company's annual truckload count, but employee count and site location get you close: a 500-person food manufacturer almost certainly ships full reefer loads weekly, while a 15-person one is parcel and LTL. Set a headcount floor per mode in your saved searches, and use the location filter to keep companies within the geography your lane actually serves — a perfect-fit shipper 800 miles off-lane is still a wasted send.
Treat expansion signals as lane-award windows
Routing guides are sticky — until something changes. A new distribution center, a second plant, a funding round that doubles production all force a shipper to award lanes fresh, and incumbents don't automatically win them. Use Apollo's new-facility and growth signals to catch these accounts in the window when routing is genuinely open, and lead the first email with the specific change you spotted.
Reserve calls and LinkedIn steps for the accounts that move the book
Apollo sequences support email, call, and LinkedIn steps in one flow — but manual touches don't scale, so spend them where one win changes the quarter. Run email-only sequences for the long tail of mid-size shippers, and add call tasks and LinkedIn connection steps only for accounts above your headcount threshold in the verticals with the fattest freight. Logistics buyers still live on the phone; a call task three days after a vertical-specific email is often what turns an open into a quote request.
Typical Logistics Outbound Benchmarks (Apollo + ColdRelay)
| Metric | Benchmark | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Inbox placement rate | 95%+ | Dedicated IPs and isolated tenants outperform shared Google/Microsoft pools |
| List fit after vertical filtering | 85-95% | Share of contacts at companies that actually ship the targeted mode; generic logistics lists often sit near 40-50% |
| Reply rate on vertical-matched sequences | 3-6% | Mode-specific copy to industry-filtered lists; signal-triggered sends land at the top of the range |
| Outbound capacity per mailbox | 2/day | 4 sends/day total per mailbox — 2 outbound + 2 warmup |
| Time to first campaign | Same day | ~60 minutes to provision on ColdRelay, plus saved searches and sequence setup in Apollo |
What It Costs: Apollo + ColdRelay
You pay per mailbox per month for the infrastructure, with volume tiers that drop as you scale (see the table below). DNS, IPs, and isolated Azure tenants are included — and because vertical-filtered lists are tighter than generic blasts, most teams need a smaller pool than they expect to start.
Apollo is billed separately on its own per-user plans, which cover database access, export credits, saved searches and personas, signals, and the sequence engine across email, call, and LinkedIn steps.
Infrastructure cost scales with mailbox count; Apollo's cost scales with seats and credit usage. The two stack cleanly — one bill for sending capacity, one for the data and sequencing on top.
| Mailboxes | ColdRelay price / mailbox / month |
|---|---|
| 1–199 | $1.00 |
| 200–999 | $0.85 |
| 1,000–4,999 | $0.70 |
| 5,000+ | $0.55 |
Each mailbox sends 4 emails per day — 2 outbound to prospects + 2 warmup. ColdRelay provisions mailboxes on isolated Azure tenants with dedicated IPs; Apollo handles the sending, sequencing, and inbox rotation on top.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does ColdRelay replace Apollo?
No — they're complementary layers of the same stack. Apollo provides the shipper database, the industry and signal filters, and the sequences with email, call, and LinkedIn steps. ColdRelay provides the underlying domains, mailboxes, and dedicated IPs that Apollo's email steps send from. Logistics teams use them together: Apollo on top, ColdRelay underneath.
Which Apollo filters actually predict whether a company ships my mode?
Three stack well: industry and sub-industry define the freight type (food and beverage manufacturing points to reefer, import/export wholesale points to drayage, building materials points to flatbed); employee headcount proxies shipment volume, separating full-truckload shippers from parcel-only companies; and company location keeps the list inside the geography your lane serves. Save the combination as an Apollo saved search per lane so it refreshes with new matching shippers automatically.
How do new-facility signals change when I should reach out?
They mark the rare window when a shipper's routing guide is actually open. A new distribution center or plant means lanes are being awarded that no incumbent owns yet, so a broker arriving that month competes on merit instead of against an existing relationship. Apollo's expansion and growth signals surface these accounts; enroll them in a sequence within days of the signal, with a first email that names the specific change.
How many sends per day do my mailboxes support, and do I need to warm them up first?
Each ColdRelay mailbox sends 4 emails/day total — 2 outbound + 2 warmup — so set each mailbox's daily limit in Apollo's Settings → Mailboxes to 2 outbound sends. There's no warmup waiting period: mailboxes provision on isolated Azure tenants with dedicated IPs and SPF, DKIM, and DMARC pre-configured in about an hour, and warmup runs continuously as part of the 4/day budget, so you can launch your first vertical sequence the same day.