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Compliant Outbound: UK-legal cold email for your area
Compliant Outbound is a lead list for your area plus outreach emails with a working opt-out, your company details in the footer and every reply caught in one place. From £499 to set up, then £99 a month. First emails in 10 days.
Why does most cold email end up in spam?
Most cold email is done badly: a bought list, a thousand sends on day one and no way to opt out. That is how a domain ends up in spam folders, and how a firm ends up explaining itself to the ICO.
The UK rules are clear enough. PECR (the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, the law on marketing emails) lets you email companies without asking first, as long as you say who you are and let them opt out. Sole traders and partnerships are different - they need to have agreed.
I run outreach for GigXchange on exactly these rules. The value is not the sending; it is the checks before it and the discipline after it.
Should I buy an email list or hire a lead-gen freelancer?
Compliant Outbound builds a list for your area that you keep, checks every address against the PECR rules and paces sends with a slow warm-up. A bought list is unchecked, and a freelancer keeps the list and the replies.
| A bought list | A lead-gen freelancer | Compliant Outbound | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The list | Someone else's, age unknown | Theirs, kept by them | Built for your area, yours to keep |
| Who it goes to | Not checked | Depends who you hire | Checked against the PECR rules |
| Opt-out | Often missing | Their tool's | One click, permanent |
| Pace | All at once | Their call | A slow warm-up, then steady |
| Replies | Scattered | In their inbox, then forwarded | One place, nothing lost |
What do you get with Compliant Outbound?
Compliant Outbound gives you a lead list for your area, checks on every address before sending, a short email sequence in your voice, a legal footer, a permanent opt-out list, a safe sending pace, one home for replies and a written runbook.
- 01
A lead list for your area
Businesses that match your buyer, from public sources, each with where we found it and when.
- 02
Pre-send checks
Every address checked: real, the right business, a company rather than a sole trader, not on the opt-out list.
- 03
The emails
A short sequence written in your voice, one person to another, with no sales tricks.
- 04
A legal footer
Your company name, number and registered office, a privacy notice link and a one-click unsubscribe.
- 05
A permanent opt-out list
Anyone who unsubscribes is never emailed again, checked again just before each send.
- 06
A safe pace
A slow warm-up from a handful a day, so your domain earns trust with the inbox providers.
- 07
One home for replies
A single subject and inbox filter, so every reply lands in one place and none is missed.
- 08
The runbook
The daily routine written down, so you or a member of staff can keep it going.
What checks run before each email is sent?
Compliant Outbound checks every address before it is used: real, the right business, a limited company rather than a sole trader, and not on the opt-out list. The greeting, footer and pace are set too. Here is a sample.
today's send
- Check: email address real - pass
- Check: right business - pass
- Check: limited company, not sole trader - pass
- Check: on the opt-out list - no
- Greeting: "Hi Ruby," - first name in the address
- Greeting: "Hi The Crown team," - info@ address
- Footer: company number + registered office
- Unsubscribe: one click, permanent
- Pace: warm-up day 3 - 20 a day
- Replies: one label, one filter
- 100venues in the first hand-checked batch
- 26outreach email templates
- 14days minimum between campaign emails
- 120a day cap after warm-up
Source GigXchange's own figures, as of 25 October 2026
How soon do the first outreach emails go out?
Compliant Outbound sends its first emails on day ten. Days one and two are the brief, three to five build the list, six and seven write the emails, eight and nine set up the footer and filters, and day ten sends a small batch.
- 01
Days 1-2
Brief
Who you sell to, where, and what you can genuinely offer them.
- 02
Days 3-5
List
The lead list built and checked. You remove anyone you already know.
- 03
Days 6-7
Write
The email sequence drafted in your voice. Nothing goes out until you approve it.
- 04
Days 8-9
Set up
Footer, unsubscribe, opt-out list, warm-up pace and the reply filter.
- 05
Day 10
Send
The first small batch goes out. The monthly routine starts.
Is cold email outreach right for my business?
Compliant Outbound suits a business that sells to other businesses, whose buyers are on public listings and websites, and that can answer a reply within a day. It is the wrong fit if you want to email the public or send thousands in week one.
A good fit if
- You sell to other businesses, not the public
- Your buyers can be found on public listings and websites
- You can answer a reply within a day
Not for you if
- You want to email the public without their agreement
- You want thousands of sends in week one
- You need a full sales dashboard today
Questions
07Asked and answered
Yes, to companies - PECR lets you send marketing emails to limited companies and other corporate bodies without prior consent, if you identify yourself and give a simple way to opt out. Sole traders and some partnerships count as individuals under regulation 22, so they need to have agreed first. The ICO's guide to electronic mail marketing sets this out. Our pre-send check holds back anyone who looks like a sole trader.
The £499 setup covers the first lead list, the email sequence, the legal footer, the opt-out list, the warm-up and the reply filter. The £99 a month covers topping up the list, running the sends at a safe pace, keeping the opt-out list current, and a monthly note of who replied and what they said. Sending costs on your own email account stay with you, at cost, with nothing added.
From public business sources: company websites, directories and listings where a business publishes its own contact details. Each lead records where and when it was found, because you may have to tell a person where you got their details. We keep leads for 12 months unless they engage, the rule written into GigXchange's own data map. We never buy lists, and we never guess addresses by pattern.
Few at first - the warm-up starts at a handful a day and builds over two weeks. Inbox providers judge a new sender by its pace, and a sudden burst is the quickest way into the spam folder. GigXchange caps campaign sends at 20 a day for the first three days, rising to 120 a day, and never sends one business two campaign emails within 14 days. Your caps are set to suit your list size.
They are added to a permanent opt-out list and never emailed again, by this system or any later one. The unsubscribe is one click, both as a link in the footer and as the button some inboxes show next to the sender. The list is checked again just before each email leaves, so even a lead added twice cannot be contacted. The opt-out list is yours and stays yours if you leave.
You need a business email address on your own domain, your company details, and the ICO data protection fee paid if it applies to you. A privacy notice that covers outreach helps too, since the footer links to it. If you do not have one, the GDPR Compliance Kit writes it along with your data map, and the two work well together.
Not fully - the dashboard I use to track replies on GigXchange is mid-move to a new system, and I would rather say so than sell you a screenshot. What works today is the reliable part: every reply lands under one inbox label, and the lead sheet records who was contacted, when and what came back. That is how GigXchange tracks its own outreach right now. The dashboard joins the package when the move is done.
Yes, any month, with no notice period. You keep the lead list, the email sequence, the opt-out list and the runbook, so you or a member of staff can carry on alone. If you want more people finding you without being emailed at all, Programmatic Local SEO is the slower, steadier route, and your invoices can go out the same way with Document Automation.