Opening Doors For Zero-Emission Aviation
When everyone is competing for attention online, sometimes the smartest move is to step out of the inbox completely.
That was the thinking behind a focused outreach campaign created by Josef, Co-Founder and CEO of ELECTRON, a company developing a commercially viable zero-emission aircraft and airline business.
As ELECTRON moved into its next phase, Josef needed to reach investors, aviation contacts and strategic partners who are difficult to engage through standard cold emails or LinkedIn messages.
The challenge was not just to write a better message.
It was to create something personal, relevant and memorable enough to earn a response.
From Digital Noise To Physical Attention
Michael Gordeev, Business Support Manager at BASE Bordon, delivered a Door Opener Workshop in partnership with the Fareham Innovation Centre.
The workshop focused on a practical commercial challenge many businesses face: how do you reach high-value decision-makers when they are busy, hard to access and receiving hundreds of messages?
The session explored how highly personalised letters and physical “door opener” assets can help businesses create a stronger reason to respond. Participants were also given access to a custom GPT tool to help shape, refine and personalise their outreach.
Josef took the idea and applied it directly to ELECTRON.
Instead of sending a standard letter or a generic gift, he created a highly relevant physical asset: a miniature model of the ELECTRON aircraft.
It was specific to the business. It was memorable. And it gave the recipient something tangible to connect with the opportunity.
A Focused Test Campaign
Josef sent 23 packages in total, including 18 to cold contacts.
At the point of review, the campaign had generated three inbound responses from the 18 cold packages — a 16.7% cold response rate, without direct outbound follow-up. That was materially ahead of typical cold outreach benchmarks, where cold calling response rates are often around 1-3%.
For a small test campaign, this was a strong early signal. But the real value was not just the response rate. It was the quality of the conversations the campaign helped open.
One response came from the CEO of a major UK energy company, who sent Josef an inbound WhatsApp message after receiving the package.
Another opened a route into a senior European deep-tech network, creating a high-level engagement point for future follow-up.
A third came from a senior executive at a well-known aviation company, who followed up by email and shared direct contact details after the aircraft model remained visible on his desk.
The model also prompted questions from visitors to his office, creating further awareness of ELECTRON and helping turn a cold contact into a warmer strategic relationship.
Designed For The Long Game
This was not designed as a short sprint.
For Josef, the campaign is part of a longer relationship-building process. The aim was not to close funding immediately from one package. It was to create high-quality entry points with people who would be difficult to reach through conventional outreach.
The campaign also showed how a physical asset can keep working after the first message has been sent.
In one case, the aircraft model remained visible in an office, prompting questions from other visitors and creating further conversations around ELECTRON.
That turned the model into more than a piece of outreach.
It became a relationship-building asset.
Low-Cost, High-Relevance Outreach
The direct campaign cost was relatively low, at around £35 per target.
As this was a test campaign, the bespoke aircraft models were produced in-house. That helped keep external costs down, although it made delivery more time-intensive than outsourcing.
For future campaigns, there is a clear trade-off. Businesses could outsource more of the production to increase speed, or keep more of the process in-house to control cost.
Either way, the principle remains the same: the stronger the relevance, the stronger the reason to respond.
From Business Support To Business Momentum
The campaign remains ongoing.
Josef is now progressing the conversations created by the campaign, with a focus on turning high-value inbound engagement into follow-up meetings and deeper strategic relationships.
The campaign did not directly close funding. Its impact was more precise: it helped ELECTRON create warm, credible conversations with high-value contacts and build relationship assets that can continue to work over time.
Get in touch today if you wish to find out more about joining our community, about the offices and workshop spaces we have available, or to arrange a tour of either our Fareham or BASE Bordon centres.