B2B Cold Email Specialist – Build Automated Outreach System (Apollo / Instantly)

We are an established European leather goods brand looking to build a new B2B outbound sales channel. We sell premium leather bags and accessories and want to proactively reach companies for: Corporate & employee gifts End-of-year / Christmas gifts Client gifts Larger volume orders Customized / branded products We already have the brand, products, website, photography, suppliers and fulfillment in place. What we don't have yet is the outbound infrastructure - and this is where we need your expertise. What we want to build Our goal is to create a largely automated B2B outreach system that: Finds businesses matching our target customer profile. Finds the right decision-makers within those businesses. Sources and verifies their business email addresses. Automatically adds qualified leads to an outreach flow. Sends personalized cold emails + automated follow-ups. Stops the automation when someone replies. Routes interested replies to us so we can personally take over the sales conversation. Tracks outreach performance. Our initial target market will be the Netherlands and Belgium. We have previously looked at Apollo for sourcing leads and Instantly for managing automated email sequences, but we are not committed to these tools. We want you to advise us on what setup you believe is best. What we're looking for We are NOT simply looking for someone to scrape a list of leads. We want someone who has experience building complete B2B cold email systems and can advise us, build the infrastructure and help us launch the first campaign. This includes advising us on: The overall system and recommended tools Apollo / lead sourcing Instantly or alternative outreach software Target audience / ICP setup Separate sending domains and inboxes SPF, DKIM, DMARC and deliverability Email verification Personalization Automated email sequences and follow-ups Reply handling Tracking and reporting GDPR / European B2B outreach considerations Ongoing maintenance and scaling The main company domain and email reputation should remain protected. How to apply: please answer these questions I don't have extensive experience with cold email infrastructure, so part of what I am hiring you for is your advice. Please don't send a generic application. Instead, imagine you are starting this project with us tomorrow and briefly answer: 1. How would you build this system from zero? Please explain the steps. 2. Would you recommend Apollo + Instantly for this, or would you use something else? Why? 3. How would you set up the domains and sending inboxes while protecting our main domain? 4. How would you continuously source relevant businesses and decision-makers for the campaigns? 5. Approximately how long would it take you to get the complete system ready for the first campaign? Please also share examples of similar B2B outbound systems you have personally built. The first goal is to build the infrastructure and launch/test the first campaign. If the system works well, we want to continue using and scaling it as a permanent B2B acquisition channel, so there could be ongoing work after the initial setup. We are looking for someone practical, experienced and able to explain the process clearly - not someone who simply sends high volumes of generic cold emails.