---
title: ABM Tier Strategy — Tier 1/2/3 Email Campaigns
type: article
created: '2026-04-05'
updated: '2026-04-05'
source_docs:
- raw/2026-02-18-aviaryai-weekly-call-123511089.md
tags:
- abm
- email-automation
- aws-ses
- hubspot
- outbound-sales
- aviary-ai
layer: 2
client_source: null
industry_context: null
transferable: true
---

# ABM Tier Strategy — Tier 1/2/3 Email Campaigns

## Overview

AviaryAI's outbound strategy uses a three-tier ABM model to segment targets by personalization depth and send volume. The core problem driving this architecture: manual sending was capped at 100 emails/day — statistically insufficient to measure open rates or message effectiveness. The solution is a custom AWS SES automation layer that scales volume while preserving full HubSpot visibility.

This approach was finalized in the [[clients/aviary-ai/meetings/2026-02-18-abm-email-strategy-hubspot-automation|Feb 18 weekly call]].

---

## Tier Definitions

| Tier | Type | Volume | Personalization | Send Method |
|------|------|--------|-----------------|-------------|
| Tier 1 | Personal outreach | ~100/day (scaling) | High — individual strategy docs, custom email sequences | AWS SES (automated) |
| Tier 2 | Semi-personalized bulk | Up to 1,000/week | Medium — templatized with name/company merge | AWS SES |
| Tier 3 | Broad market blast | 1,000+/week | Low — industry-level personalization only | AWS SES |

---

## Architecture Decision: AWS SES over SendGrid

**Decision:** Build a custom AWS SES solution rather than using SendGrid or HubSpot's native email tools.

**Rationale:**
- Avoids paid tool costs (HubSpot bulk email requires Marketing Pro; SendGrid adds another vendor)
- AWS SES can handle millions of emails/day at near-zero marginal cost
- Integrates with HubSpot via webhooks for full activity tracking (sent, opened, clicked)
- Sends can be logged back to HubSpot contact/deal records with full email body included

**Key requirement from client:** Blessing (AviaryAI's internal stakeholder) reviews all outreach activity in HubSpot. The system must log the **full email body** — not just open/click events — mirroring what the existing Outlook integration provides. This was the deciding factor in the architecture.

> "He would want to have the emails in HubSpot. Not just, did they send an email, did they open the email? He would like to see the body of the email." — Aaron Grossman

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## Tier 1 Email Flow

1. Strategy documents are pre-built per target company (research + 7–8 email sequence)
2. AWS SES pulls the queue every minute and sends automatically
3. HubSpot receives webhook events: email sent (with body), opened, clicked, unsubscribed
4. Activity appears in the HubSpot contact/deal activity feed — identical to Outlook-logged emails
5. Aaron receives a Slack notification when the first batch goes out

Aaron does **not** review individual emails before send. The expectation is: review the strategy docs and email tone once, approve the flow, then let it run and iterate based on results.

---

## Tier 2 / Tier 3 Bulk Campaign Notes

- Same AWS SES infrastructure handles bulk tiers
- Personalization is merge-field level (name, company) rather than individually researched
- Target volume: 1,000/week to start, scalable beyond that
- Requires a clean, categorized contact database — see [[clients/aviary-ai/projects/hubspot-database-cleanup|HubSpot Database Cleanup]]
- Initial learning budget: **$1,000/month** to test and measure results before scaling

---

## Contact Database Requirements

The existing 71k-contact HubSpot database must be cleaned before high-volume campaigns can run. Key issues:
- ~20k contacts are VC firm records (irrelevant to ICP) added in a prior data dump
- Many contacts have broken/missing names from a failed automation attempt
- Email addresses are stale — contacts have changed jobs, leaving invalid addresses that will bounce

**Cleanup scope:** deduplicate, fill missing names via Clay/Apollo, categorize into Credit Unions / Community Banks / Insurance Companies / Other, run email hygiene validation.

See [[clients/aviary-ai/projects/hubspot-database-cleanup|HubSpot Database Cleanup]] for full scope.

---

## Generalizable Pattern

This tier architecture applies beyond AviaryAI. The core insight:

> **When a client's ICP is large and well-defined (e.g., "all U.S. credit unions"), a tiered send model lets you run high-touch Tier 1 outreach in parallel with high-volume Tier 3 market coverage — using the same infrastructure.**

The AWS SES + HubSpot webhook pattern is reusable for any client where:
- HubSpot is the CRM of record
- Stakeholders need email visibility without a separate tool login
- Send volume exceeds what HubSpot's native email or a paid ESP can handle cost-effectively

See also: [[knowledge/outbound-sales/aws-ses-hubspot-integration|AWS SES → HubSpot Webhook Integration Pattern]]

---

## Related

- [[clients/aviary-ai/meetings/2026-02-18-abm-email-strategy-hubspot-automation|Meeting: ABM Email Strategy & HubSpot Automation (Feb 18)]]
- [[clients/aviary-ai/projects/hubspot-database-cleanup|Project: HubSpot Database Cleanup]]
- [[clients/aviary-ai/projects/hubspot-workflow-automation|Project: HubSpot Workflow Automation]]
- [[knowledge/outbound-sales/aws-ses-hubspot-integration|AWS SES → HubSpot Webhook Integration Pattern]]