The best outreach hook is specific. The most specific hooks come from signals. And a surprising number of signals are completely public — if you know where to look.
Most reps either skip research entirely (and send generic emails) or wait until they have access to an enrichment platform before they feel ready to prospect. Neither approach is optimal. The reality is that enough signal to write a good first line is almost always available before you've paid for anything.
This is what Triage automates. But even if you're doing it manually, here's exactly what to look for — and where to find it.
How the company describes itself on their homepage
The exact language a company uses in their hero section and about page tells you their current priority — and their self-image. A company that leads with "AI-powered" is positioning for a different conversation than one that leads with "compliance-first" or "built for enterprise." If their headline uses a specific phrase that maps directly to your product's value, that's your hook. Mirror their language back to them. It signals you've actually read the page.
Where to look: homepage h1, subheadline, and first paragraph of the about page.Their blog topics (last 3 posts)
A company's recent blog output reveals what they're thinking about this quarter. Not what they've always thought about — what they're thinking about now. A company publishing content about "scaling SDR teams" is a direct signal for anything sales-adjacent. A company publishing content about "reducing churn" is focused on retention. The blog is an editorial calendar for their priorities. Read three posts and you know what they care about this month.
Where to look: company blog or resources section. Sort by date, read the titles and first paragraphs only.Active job postings
Job boards are free, public, and updated constantly — and they're one of the most reliable sources of real-time intent. Hiring for a VP of Revenue? They're building out the sales function. Hiring five customer success managers? They're growing fast and worrying about retention. Three open roles for growth marketing? They're about to push hard on acquisition. Every hiring decision is a signal about where the company is putting resources. That's exactly where your conversation should start.
Where to look: their careers page, LinkedIn Jobs, or search "[company name] jobs" on Google."A job posting for 3 sales engineers is worth 10 cold emails worth of context."
The technologies they're using
Tools like BuiltWith (free tier) will show you a company's detectable tech stack from their website. Knowing they're running HubSpot versus Salesforce changes the conversation. Knowing they're using a specific analytics platform, chat tool, or marketing automation stack tells you what they've already invested in — and what category of tool they haven't. Tech stack signals both where they're spending and where the gaps might be.
Where to look: BuiltWith.com (free tier) or Wappalyzer browser extension.Recent news or press
Funding rounds, acquisitions, executive changes, product launches, and partnerships all end up in press releases — and press releases are free. A company that just raised a Series B is in a very different position to one that raised two years ago. A newly appointed CRO is likely reviewing the sales stack. A recent acquisition means integration work, change, and new priorities. All of this is findable in under a minute.
Where to look: Google "[Company name] site:businesswire.com OR site:prnewswire.com" — free, fast, and often gold.Their LinkedIn company page activity
The company's LinkedIn page shows recent posts, employee count changes, and any pinned announcements. A company that's been posting about hiring is in growth mode. One that's been quiet for six months may be in a different phase. Employee count changes visible on LinkedIn can tell you whether a team is growing or contracting — context that changes how you position. No scraping required. It's all on the public page.
Where to look: LinkedIn company page, "Posts" tab, and employee count vs. previous quarter (shown in the overview).The MX record provider
This one surprises most people. When you do an MX record lookup on a domain — to validate email deliverability before you contact someone there — the result also tells you which email infrastructure the company runs. Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or a custom setup each signal something different about company size, IT maturity, and the broader tool ecosystem. It's a secondary signal at best, but it's free, takes three seconds, and adds a layer of context to everything else you've found.
Where to look: MXToolbox.com (free). Enter the domain and look at the MX record host.How to use a signal
Collecting signals is the easy part. Using them well requires one more step — translating what you've found into a hook that belongs in your first line.
Example: Signal: company has 4 open SDR roles posted in the last 30 days. Hook: they're scaling outbound fast and are likely building or rebuilding the playbook. First line: "Noticed you're building out the SDR team — timing question about how you're equipping them for prospecting."
The signal doesn't go in the email. The hook — the inference you drew from it — does. A buyer doesn't need to know you checked their MX record or looked up their BuiltWith profile. They just need to feel that you know something real about what they're working on. That's what makes an opener feel like a person wrote it.
What Triage does with these signals
Triage automates the discovery of signals 1–3 and 7 (homepage analysis, blog topics, job postings, and MX check) on the free tier — pulling them automatically from a company's public profile and presenting hook options for the rep to choose from. Signals 4 and tech stack enrichment are available on the paid tier.
The rep still decides what angle is relevant to their pitch. The research just happens in seconds rather than minutes.
The rep who knows why they're calling always sounds better than the rep who doesn't. These seven signals are enough to know why, for almost any company on your list — before you've spent a penny on enrichment.
See how Triage surfaces signals automatically
Paste a domain. Get signals. Write better first lines. Free to start.
See how it works →