My Thoughts
Great book. Actions packed.
Giving it a high mark since it was so clear and to the point.
Will adjust the score once I actually implement the advice. That’s the hardest part, as usual.
Summary
Cold email is framed as a practical “safety net” for building or rebuilding income, because business has always been done by one person pitching another via a well-crafted message and not by paying for influencers or massive ad spends.
Cold email works best for high-ticket offers (roughly $2,000+), where the time spent researching, personalizing, and following up pays off; if your price is too low (e.g., $9/month SaaS), you’re usually better off with ads.
The core prerequisite is fundamentals: a hyper-specific offer aimed at a clearly defined buyer (title, company size, revenue), ideally “Golden Geese” companies doing ~$5M–$150M/year—big enough to pay and move fast, not so big you get trapped in enterprise procurement.
Mindset matters because rejection is the norm; when someone calls your outreach “spam,” the fix isn’t volume, it’s improving targeting and personalization so you’re emailing people who could plausibly buy.
The book’s cold email formula is simple and repeatable:
- a short curiosity subject line (they repeatedly recommend “Quick question”)
- a first-line compliment that proves you looked them up
- a second-line case study that conveys authority and results
- a call-to-action that forces an easy “yes/no” and aims only at booking a meeting (not clicks, signups, or surveys).
Lead gen should collect just five fields (name, email, website, company name, custom first line), then run small tests (e.g., send 20 emails, iterate subject/body based on opens and replies) until you reach benchmarks like 4–8 meetings per 100 emails, then scale.
Execution details include warming up inboxes for at least two weeks, starting at ~10 emails/day and increasing gradually, sending at times recipients actually check email (often mornings/end of day; time zones matter), favoring Tuesday/Wednesday (or Sunday afternoon for planners), and using a tight follow-up sequence in the same thread—no more than four follow-ups—ending with a breakup email to get a clean “yes” or “no.”
Learnings
- Cold email is a repeatable “safety net” skill: with the right process you can generate pipeline and revenue from scratch without relying on influencers or expensive ads.
- Sell something worth the effort: cold email works best for high-ticket offers (rule of thumb: $2,000+), where a booked meeting can realistically lead to a 5–6 figure deal.
- Win by being hyper-specific: define a narrow offer for a narrow customer (industry + situation + outcome), not “we do X” generic services.
- Targeting matters more than copy: build lead lists of people who can buy and have the problem; niche markets often respond better because they’re less saturated.
- Use a tight “who” filter: prioritize “Golden Geese” companies (~$5M–$150M revenue) that can pay but won’t force you into slow enterprise procurement.
- A strong customer profile includes buyer title, company size, and revenue; clarity here drives better personalization and higher reply rates.
- The core email structure: short subject line + custom compliment (icebreaker) + case study (authority) + yes/no call-to-action (meeting) + clean signature.
- Case studies do the heavy lifting: they should be specific enough to be credible (numbers, outcomes) but generalizable to similar prospects in your target market.
- Default winning subject line: “Quick question” (keep subjects under ~5 words; test variations but don’t overcomplicate).
- Optimize for replies, not clicks: the email’s job is to book a meeting; avoid CTAs like “check my portfolio” or “join a newsletter.”
- Iterate in small batches: send ~20 emails, measure opens/replies, then adjust one variable at a time (subject affects opens; body affects replies).
- Benchmark expectations: with good targeting and offer, aim for roughly 4–8 meetings per 100 emails, then scale volume gradually.
- Follow-up is essential but bounded: keep follow-ups in-thread, use up to ~4 total touches (bump → new “big win” case study → breakup email) to get a clear yes/no.
- Deliverability is non-negotiable: warm up inboxes ~2 weeks and scale slowly (start ~10/day, ramp toward ~100/day only after hitting benchmarks).
- Timing improves odds: send when prospects check email (often morning/end of day), respect time zones, and favor Tue/Wed (Sunday afternoon can work for planners).
- Mindset is part of the system: expect more rejections than leads, treat negative feedback as signal to improve targeting/personalization instead of “spamming harder.”
’How to Read a Book’ Analysis
Key Sentences
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“Cold email is the ultimate safety net.”
- Why it’s crucial: Frames cold email as a repeatable, controllable way to generate opportunities regardless of external circumstances.
- Proposition: Build cold email as a core skill so you can always create leads, meetings, and revenue on demand.
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“To really thrive, for each cold email, you need a specific offer and a specific customer.”
- Why it’s crucial: Clarifies that volume and generic positioning lose to precision; specificity drives relevance and replies.
- Proposition: Define one narrow offer for one narrow buyer profile (industry, role, company size) before you write or send anything.
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“The fascinating thing about cold email is that one person pitching to another is the way that business has always been done.”
- Why it’s crucial: Recasts cold email as standard deal-making rather than “spam,” reducing hesitation and improving execution confidence.
- Proposition: Treat cold email as professional outreach: targeted, value-driven, and aligned with how real business starts.
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“This case study will be the second line of your cold email template, with a custom compliment as your first line.”
- Why it’s crucial: Gives a concrete structure that creates trust fast: personal relevance first, proof of results immediately after.
- Proposition: Lead with a real compliment, then a tight case study (who you helped + measurable outcome) to establish authority quickly.
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“Getting a solid “yes” or “no” is the goal - we don’t want clients hanging out in limbo.”
- Why it’s crucial: Focuses the campaign on decision-making and pipeline movement, not vague engagement metrics.
- Proposition: Use a simple yes/no call-to-action and a short follow-up sequence (no more than four) to force clear outcomes.
Unity of the Book
Cold email is a repeatable, non-spammy system for reliably generating high-value opportunities from scratch by getting the fundamentals right (a hyper-specific offer, credible case study, and tightly defined target), then executing with a simple proven email structure, disciplined follow-up, and careful scaling based on measurable benchmarks.
Author’s Problems
Main Problem
How can someone reliably use cold email to generate high-ticket, predictable revenue from scratch—without relying on ads, influencers, or “spammy” mass outreach?
Supporting Problems
- What mindset prevents rejections, setbacks, and “you’re spamming me” feedback from derailing the process?
- What kinds of offers are worth selling via cold email (and what price points make cold email inefficient)?
- How do you choose a hyper-specific niche and an ideal customer profile so you aren’t “all things to all people”?
- What proof (case studies) is necessary to create authority fast and differentiate from the hundreds of other cold emails prospects receive?
- What is the simplest repeatable email structure (subject line, compliment, case study, CTA, signature) that consistently books meetings?
- How do you write a call-to-action that gets a clear “yes/no” and optimizes for meetings rather than clicks, signups, or vague conversations?
- How do you generate the right leads, and what minimum data is required per lead to personalize at scale?
- What follow-up sequence increases replies without triggering spam complaints or over-following up?
- How do you test and iterate (subject lines vs. body) to hit benchmark results before scaling volume?
- How do you scale sending safely (warmup, daily volume ramps, timing/time zones) while maintaining deliverability and performance?
Problem Hierarchy
- Build a dependable high-ticket pipeline using cold email
- Get the foundations right (pre-work)
- Define a specific offer that solves a specific problem for a specific market
- Ensure pricing supports the time investment (generally $2,000+)
- Choose a target market that can buy quickly (e.g., “Golden Geese” $5M–$150M revenue)
- Create case studies that are specific enough to resonate but generalizable to similar companies
- Target the right people (lead generation)
- Build ICP: title + company size + revenue + fit criteria
- Collect minimum lead fields: name, email, website, company, custom first line
- Prefer niche segments to reduce competition and inbox noise
- Write emails that book meetings
- Use a curiosity-driven subject (especially “Quick question”)
- Open with a simple compliment/personalization to prove it’s not generic spam
- Lead with a case study to establish authority and outcome
- End with a yes/no CTA optimized for scheduling a meeting
- Use a clean, consistent signature
- Execute the sequence and improve performance
- Follow up in-thread (up to ~4 total follow-ups): bump → “big win” → breakup
- Measure results and iterate:
- Low opens → change subject
- Opens but no replies → rewrite body/offer/case study/targeting
- Scale only after hitting benchmarks (e.g., meetings per 100 emails)
- Scale safely
- Warm up inbox for deliverability (minimum ~2 weeks)
- Ramp volume gradually; optimize send times by role + time zone (Tue/Wed often best)
- Get the foundations right (pre-work)
Prompt / Agent Ideas
1) Hyper-Specific Offer Finder
Goal: Turn a vague skill/product into 3–5 hyper-specific offers aimed at a narrowly defined buyer.
Inputs:
- What you sell (product/service)
- Proof/case studies (even small wins)
- Ideal industries you can serve
- Minimum deal size you want
Outputs:
- 3–5 niche offers phrased in “I do X for Y who have Z” format
- A matching “specific customer” profile for each offer
- One measurable promised outcome per offer
Prompt skeleton: You are my offer strategist. I sell: [describe what you sell] Strengths/unfair advantages: [bullets] Proof/case studies: [bullets with results if possible] Constraints: minimum project value [$X], I prefer [industries], I can’t do [things you won’t do].
Create 5 hyper-specific offers. For each, provide:
- Offer statement (“I help Y do X without Z”)
- Ideal buyer (title), company size, revenue range (use “Golden Geese” $5–150M if fitting)
- The pain it solves
- The measurable outcome (metric + timeframe)
- A one-sentence “why me” proof hook based on my case studies.
2) Case Study Distiller (Specific but Generalizable)
Goal: Convert messy project history into a crisp, reusable cold-email case study line.
Inputs:
- What you did (before/after)
- Who it was for (industry/type)
- Metric change (or proxy metric)
- Timeframe
- Any recognizable constraints (“small team”, “tight timeline”)
Outputs:
- 3 versions of a 1–2 sentence case study (short/medium/metric-forward)
- A “generalizable” version that still feels concrete
- A placeholder-friendly template you can reuse
Prompt skeleton: Act as a case study editor for outbound emails. Here are the raw notes from a project: [paste]
Write 3 cold-email-ready case study lines that are:
- Specific (numbers, timeframe, outcome)
- Generalizable to similar companies (not overly niche)
- 1–2 sentences max
Also give a reusable template with placeholders I can fill in later.
3) Compliment/First-Line Generator (Non-Embarrassing)
Goal: Produce a simple, believable custom first line that doesn’t sound like spam.
Inputs:
- Prospect name + role
- Company name + one public fact (recent launch, hiring, content, award)
- Your tone preference (formal/direct)
Outputs:
- 10 first-line options (short, neutral, not gushy)
- A “default” first line if no research is available
Prompt skeleton: Write 10 non-cringy first lines for a cold email. Prospect: [Name], [Title] at [Company] Public context (1–3 facts): [facts] Tone: [direct | friendly | formal] Constraints: 1 sentence, no exclamation points, no flattery overload, must sound human. Also provide 1 “no-research” default line.
4) Cold Email Builder (5-Part Template)
Goal: Generate a complete cold email using the 5-part structure (subject, compliment, case study, CTA, signature).
Inputs:
- Offer statement
- Customer profile (title/company size/revenue range)
- One case study line
- Desired CTA (meeting)
- Your signature details
Outputs:
- 3 full email variants (more direct / more consultative / ultra-short)
- CTA phrased as a yes/no question
- Subject line options (≤5 words)
Prompt skeleton: You are writing high-performing cold emails. Use this structure: Subject / Compliment / Case study / Yes-no CTA / Signature. Offer: [hyper-specific offer] Target customer: [title], [company size], [revenue] Case study: [1–2 sentences with metric] CTA goal: book a [15/20/30]-minute call Signature details: [name, title, company, phone, email, website, address if desired]
Produce:
- 5 subject lines (≤5 words, include “Quick question” as one option)
- 3 email variants (each ≤120 words)
- CTAs must be yes/no questions and not ask for “feedback” or “thoughts”.
5) Subject Line A/B Test Planner
Goal: Create a simple testing plan for subject lines and iteration based on open/reply benchmarks.
Inputs:
- Industry + target role
- Your current open/reply rates (or “none yet”)
- Sending volume per day/week
- Tools available (if any)
Outputs:
- 10 subject lines tailored to the niche
- A 2-week A/B schedule (what to test, when to switch)
- A decision table: “If open low → change subject; if open high but replies low → change body”
Prompt skeleton: Design a subject-line testing plan for my cold email campaign. Target: [industry], [role/title] Sending volume: [#/day] Current metrics: open [%], reply [%] (or “unknown”)
Give:
- 10 subject lines (≤5 words), including 3 personalized variants
- A 2-week A/B plan (sample sizes, when to switch)
- A simple decision rule set based on open vs reply rates.
6) Follow-Up Sequence Writer (Max 4 Touches)
Goal: Produce a 4-email sequence (initial + 3 follow-ups) that escalates value without spamming.
Inputs:
- Initial email draft (or key points)
- Second case study (“big win”)
- Timing preferences (e.g., 3–4 days)
- Your preferred breakup tone (polite/direct)
Outputs:
- Follow-up emails 2–4 in-thread
- “Big win” email copy
- Breakup email copy that seeks a clear yes/no
Prompt skeleton: Write a 4-touch cold email sequence (same thread). Initial email summary or draft: [paste] Extra case study for the “big win” follow-up: [paste] Timing: follow-up #2 after [X] days, #3 after [Y] days, breakup after [Z] days.
Constraints:
- Each follow-up ≤60 words
- No guilt-tripping, no “just checking in” filler
- Final email should politely signal we’ll stop unless it’s a priority
- Every email ends with an easy yes/no question.
7) “Golden Geese” Lead Filter (Personal Use)
Goal: Triage a list of companies/contacts into “worth emailing” vs “not worth it” using revenue/fit signals.
Inputs:
- Company list (names + websites)
- Your offer + minimum project size
- Ideal revenue band (default $5–150M)
- Red flags (enterprise procurement, tiny budgets, etc.)
Outputs:
- A ranked list: Tier 1 / Tier 2 / No-go
- Reason codes for each classification
- Missing data you should research next
Prompt skeleton: Act as my lead qualification assistant. My offer: [offer] Minimum deal size: [$X] Ideal target band: $5–150M revenue (adjust if needed) Red flags: [bullets] Leads (company + website + any notes): [paste list/table]
Return a table with: Tier (1/2/No-go), estimated fit, estimated ability to pay, and the key reason. Also list what missing info would change the decision.
8) Personal Outreach Scheduler (Time Zones + Best Days)
Goal: Plan when to send important outreach (networking, job leads, sales) based on time zones and likely inbox-check times.
Inputs:
- Recipient time zones (or locations)
- Recipient role types (CEO/CTO/HR/etc.)
- Your available sending windows
- Desired days (Tue/Wed, Sunday option)
Outputs:
- A weekly schedule with send times per segment
- 2 alternatives if you can’t hit ideal times
- A simple rule you can reuse
Prompt skeleton: Build a send-time schedule for my outreach. Recipient segments: [role → location/time zone] My available windows: [days/times in my time zone] Preferences: prioritize Tue/Wed; optionally test Sunday afternoon.
Output a schedule mapping each segment to best send times (their local time) and give 2 fallback times. Explain the rule in 3 bullet points so I can reuse it.
9) Meeting-Only CTA Rewriter
Goal: Rewrite messages so the only objective is booking a meeting (not links, not “feedback”, not research).
Inputs:
- Draft email/DM
- Your offer + outcome
- Meeting length + scheduling method
Outputs:
- 3 rewritten CTAs (basic, benefit-specific, ultra-short)
- A final email ending that forces a clean yes/no
Prompt skeleton: Rewrite my CTA to optimize for booking a meeting. Context: [paste draft email or CTA] Offer/outcome: [one sentence] Meeting: [15/20/30] minutes, scheduling via [cal link | propose times]
Provide 3 CTA options:
- Basic (“Interested? …”)
- Benefit-specific (“Are you interested in … for [Company]?”)
- Ultra-short (≤12 words) All must be yes/no questions.
10) Price Sanity Checker (Cold Email Worth It?)
Goal: Decide whether a thing you want to sell is worth cold emailing or should use another channel.
Inputs:
- Price point and gross margin
- Sales cycle assumptions
- Time per lead (research + writing)
- Expected meeting rate (e.g., 4–8 per 100)
Outputs:
- Go/No-go recommendation for cold email
- Required conversion math (meetings → closes → revenue)
- Alternative channel suggestion if underpriced
Prompt skeleton: Evaluate whether cold email is a good channel for this offer. Offer: [describe] Price: [$] and margin [%] Time per lead: [minutes] Expected meeting rate: [% or “unknown”] Close rate guess: [%]
Do the math and tell me:
- The minimum price at which cold email becomes rational for my time
- What metrics I must hit to justify it
- If No-go, recommend a better channel and why.
11) Spam Complaint Debugger
Goal: Diagnose why a message is being perceived as spam and produce a cleaner, more targeted version.
Inputs:
- The email copy
- Target persona and why they should care
- List source (how you got the lead)
- Any negative replies you received
Outputs:
- Likely causes (wrong target, too broad, too pushy, unclear value)
- A revised email that’s more specific and respectful
- A checklist to prevent repeat issues
Prompt skeleton: You are auditing my cold email for “spamminess.” Email: [paste] Target persona: [title, company type, size] Why it’s relevant: [your reasoning] Negative feedback received: [paste if any]
- List the top 5 reasons it might feel like spam.
- Rewrite it to be more specific (offer + case study + yes/no CTA), ≤120 words.
- Give a 7-point checklist to keep future emails out of spam territory.
12) Warm-Up & Ramp Plan Generator
Goal: Create a safe, stepwise plan to warm up an inbox and ramp volume only after benchmarks are met.
Inputs:
- New vs existing domain/inbox
- Current daily sending volume
- Target daily volume
- Benchmarks you want to hit (open/reply/meetings)
Outputs:
- 2-week warm-up plan
- 4-week ramp schedule (10/day increasing)
- “Do not scale unless…” gate criteria
Prompt skeleton: Create an email warm-up and scaling plan for cold outreach. Inbox status: [brand new | aged] Starting volume: [#/day] Target volume: [#/day] Benchmarks: open [%], reply [%], meetings [# per 100]
Output:
- A 14-day warm-up checklist (daily actions)
- A 4-week ramp schedule (daily volumes)
- Clear gates: when to pause, iterate subject/body, and when it’s safe to scale.
Highlights
Chapter 1. Starting From Scratch
From there it just kept growing and we closed over $600,000 in 2 months. And I realized that cold email is the ultimate safety net. Whatever happens in your life, however low you fall, no matter what problems you encounter, you can dig your way out of it with cold email.
Generally, people believe that they need to get big-name influencers talking about them or spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on ads, and because of that will pay an absolute fortune for this privilege. That’s a massive mistake.
The fascinating thing about cold email is that one person pitching to another is the way that business has always been done. It’s how deals are done - from billionaires meeting potential investors, to film studios putting together the latest action thriller. Every deal starts with a well crafted email. And that’s all we’re doing here. What we’re doing is perfectly natural and proven, which is why it has achieved and will continue to achieve excellent results.
Your mindset and mentality are key. It’s critical to success in cold emailing. They are critical to success in any field. It’s extremely important to remain positive, and to ensure that any setbacks don’t alter your determination or outlook. You are going to get more rejections in this field than leads. I can promise you that! And that applies to any field. You have to be ready to view this process as an experience, as a journey, as a stepping stone to your ultimate success.
The wrong way to react to someone telling you that you’re spamming, is to send out 10,000 emails, and spam even harder! And yet, a lot of people do that. Instead, a smarter approach would be to question why the recipient believes you’re spamming. Is it because your email isn’t personalized enough? Was it because the recipient is the wrong contact, and would never buy your product or service in a million years? If you ask yourself these key questions, you can then use this feedback to get better, so that you are no longer emailing people in a way that appears to be spam.
First, when you’re selling via e-mail you need to ensure that your product or service is priced correctly. As a general rule, I don’t believe that cold email is the best way to go if your software project, product, or service is under $2,000, otherwise the time spent won’t be worth it. But you can use this to sell anything from $2,000 up to millions or even billions of dollars. This is a big mistake that a lot of people make, particularly in the SaaS space. They come in at $9 per month, and believe that cold email will work for their product, but at this price point you’d be better off running ads. But if you’re selling a service like coding, design, marketing or a consulting package worth at least $2,000, that is where cold email can change your business.
A business can succeed like that, but to really thrive, for each cold email, you need a specific offer and a specific customer. The successful version of this is to phrase your offer in a hyper-specific way. Instead of saying “we build websites” say “we do Kubernetes consulting for startups that have over 2 million active users per month.” If you can lock in your offer and get hyper-specific, you can find millions of dollars in deals and you will massively outperform any business that attempts to do everything for everybody. You cannot be all things to all people. You must target clients the right way and hone in on the specific niche for your business and you will hugely magnify your success.
Target effectively. Write a customized email script that will convert (we will discuss this as the book unfolds). And send 20 emails, using any number of cold email sending tools; there are dozens available, and you can get an up to date list by visiting ColdEmailManifesto.com/tools. Then measure your results. If your open rate is disappointing, send another 20 with a different subject line. If you’re happy with your open rate, but received no responses, keep your subject line, rewrite the body, and iterate over and over and over again, until you hit your benchmark stats. If you do this effectively, you should be able to achieve 4-8 meetings on your calendar for every hundred emails, and at the same time ramp up the number of emails you send.
Chapter 2. My Dad Was The Cold Call King
This approach is based on selling high ticket items to companies that can afford to pay. And that means anything from lead generation and marketing services, detailed DevOps projects, to back-end coding projects, and including specialized services - anything from copywriting to videography. Coding projects, app design, development, any sort of service that can benefit a big business.
CHAPTER 3. Making Cold Email Work
First things first, I want to tell you the most important aspect of all cold email campaigns. You must have a very specific offer. You must have something nailed down that you know that you can deliver. And that you know is attractive to a specific market. It can be a product or it can be a service, but it must be a compelling proposition. And let me repeat…it must be specific! “We do web design” is useless! You need something that solves a problem for a specific group of people. This is why you don’t go in cold in the first place. If you have the process honed before you begin then you can write basically anything in your cold email, and still get responses.
When it comes to writing your email, one of the first things to address is distinguishing yourself from the hundreds of other cold emails your potential customer gets daily. How do you create an offer that stands out from the crowd? It all comes down to the case study. This is the hardest and most important aspect of cold email, as it conveys exactly what you do. This is how you’re going to sell your business to the client. This case study will be the second line of your cold email template, with a custom compliment as your first line. The compliment is just a simple way to break the ice. You’re demonstrating that you know something about the client that you’re targeting. The overall structure of a cold email will go something like this: Hey John, Heard about you while looking up Marketing Directors for major hospitals and love your backstory - incredible that you work as a volunteer firefighter as well. I specialize in iOS development for the healthcare industry. Recently, we built an app for Johns Hopkins that has increased their patient happiness rating by 75% through an automated dashboard. Interested in improving your patient happiness at Baylor? Let me know and I’ll send over some times to chat. Thanks, Alex
use the subject line Quick Question. This subject line has consistently outperformed other subjects in our testing.
So we’ve established the case study and the compliment. The final part of the picture is the call to action. This is the least personalized and customized part of the email. In fact, it can pretty much be copied and pasted. But it does need to be asked in a specific form to prompt a “yes” or “no” answer. This is much more favorable than an open-ended question like: “what is your biggest problem at the moment?”. Keep things as simple as possible, and make things easy for these CEOs and CTOs. They’re extremely busy people, with thousands of things going on at once. Here are two ways to end your cold emails: The basic: Interested? Let me know and I can send over a few times to chat. And the advanced: Are you interested in {{benefit you provide}} for {{company name}}? Let me know and I can send over a few times to chat. Example: Can you take on more clients at Fuzz? Let me know and I can send over a few times to chat.
you need to be hyper-specific with your customer. You need to understand the person that is buying intimately. Are you selling to HR, or the CTO of a company? Are you delivering a hiring tool, or a tech solution? What is the size of the business that you’re dealing with? Once you begin to answer these questions, you can create an impression of your client. A strong customer profile will include the title of the person, the company size, and its revenue. Once this has been broken down, I typically target Golden Geese companies - those that are worth between $5-150 million annually. The reason for this is that they are big enough to be able to afford your product or service, but small enough that they won’t drag you through an entire excruciating enterprise process!
You have the leads. You have the client profiles. Next, come the outbound email campaigns. Now we’re going to use a subject line that has been around for nearly a decade. But it still works! If you use this subject line on the right leads, then you can expect 80-90% open rates. It’s “Quick question”. Something straightforward and easy to understand. No need to reinvent the wheel! At this point, again we’re using the example of companies that don’t have a strong Twitter following. So your email could be something like this. Subject: Quick question Hey Jason, big fan of Focusrite - I use your audio equipment every day for our podcast. I specialize in growing Twitter accounts for consumer brands and noticed Focusrite has less than 100,000 followers on Twitter. We recently helped a consumer brand go from 20,000 to 100,000 followers in just seven days and would love to do the same for you. Want more engaged followers on the Focusrite twitter? Let me know and I can send over a few times to chat. Thanks, Alex Simple as that. But that’s just a little bit too simple, right?! Life is never that easy! You’re right. It’s not enough to just send that single email. What I have found is that a lot of people won’t respond to the first email. They might be too busy. It might hit them at 10 AM during a mandatory meeting, or they may prioritize other things. They might also just forget to respond! So following up on that initial email is extremely important. But I must also emphasize, particularly to avoid being marked as spam, that I don’t recommend following up more than four times. So three days after the first email, you haven’t heard back from the client. At this point, you send a very simple follow-up. NOTE: All of these follow-ups should be in the same thread as the previous email. No new subject line is needed. 4 Days Later: Hey Jason, I’m sure you’re busy and wanted to bump this up! Okay, that might not work either! So now you move into the third email, which I describe as the ‘big win’ email. You tell them about another case study that you have, and you announce it to them as if it’s a huge news item. Hey Jason, We just helped Sony break 100K on their God of War campaign! Would still love to help your Twitter grow. Let me know and I can send over some times. Thanks, Alex Then the final email can be described as a breakup email. And it will go with something like this: Hey Jason, At this point, I’ll assume that growing Focusrite’s Twitter account is not a priority for this year. Please let me know if that changes. Thanks, Alex The reason that the breakup email works so well, is that most people in business are accustomed to having salespeople hound them mercilessly. This gives them a bit of breathing room and provides them with the opportunity to respond. It also gives the psychological impression that this opportunity is slipping away and that can be really compelling. So don’t neglect this part of the process, even if you believe the client will never respond, as this last email works way more often than you think it should. Of course, you can’t hook every fish, but always go through the process. Getting a solid “yes” or “no” is the goal - we don’t want clients hanging out in limbo.
CHAPTER 4. The Pre-Work
One of the biggest issues I’ve encountered with cold email is that companies will attempt to do it without having the fundamentals in place. You need to have everything nailed down, otherwise cold email won’t work correctly. And then you won’t get the results you want, and you might end up dismissing cold email forever. Or concluding that cold email is just spam, or that it’s ineffective. Which would be a terrible waste. The reason this happens is that companies are missing three key components of a winning cold email offer. Those three components are case studies, the offer itself, and the target market.
Pitching an offer is about producing something that a customer can buy. For example: Subject: Quick Question Hey Karen, huge fan of the work you’re doing with Acme tours - loved the last video! I specialize in writing emails for tour companies. Recently, one client increased their sales by 141% with just one newsletter. I’d love to do the same for you. Is that something you’d be interested in? Thanks, Mark That’s the way any company doing cold emails should pitch. Instead of telling the client that they do copywriting, tell them specifically who you work with as a copywriting firm, tell them that you have achieved outstanding results, and then offer to do the same for them.
One important point to understand is that your case study must appeal to companies that are similar to the ones that you sold to previously. So the previous sale that you cited in your case study can’t be too specific. I know that I’ve just stated that it must be specific - but it must also be generalizable to the rest of the market. You have to be specific enough that somebody in that market will immediately resonate with the benefits, but general enough that it can be applied to a decent number of companies.
And I’d like to emphasize again that targeting an appropriate niche is important. I mentioned ‘Golden Geese’ companies previously - this is a concept that needs to be engraved in your brain! Any company generating between $5 million and $150 million in revenue. I find that companies in this niche have the ability to pay, and aren’t ground down by layers of management and decision-making that can be associated with massive enterprises. Companies at this level will be willing to spend $50,000 on a project and approve it in a few days. A mom and pop store might approve a project in a few days, but only pay you $200. And an enterprise may be willing to pay you $50,000, or even more, but it might take six months to approve the project. So you want to ensure that your target market fits with the criteria of desperately requiring your services, while also being able to afford them.
There is a general template that you can follow for your signature. ● First line: First name, last name, title. ● Second line: Company name. ● Third line: Office address. ● Fourth line: Best phone number. ● Fifth line: Email and website.
CHAPTER 5. Lead Generation
lead generation. This might not be something that is particularly exciting to you, but it’s vital to build a register of qualified contacts. These are people that are most likely to respond to, and purchase from, your company. Who you send an email campaign to is more important than the content of the email.
In order to achieve this, we need to put lead generation criteria in place. The first part of this process is to address a few points that are required in order to send effective cold emails. These are first and last name, email, website, company name, and the custom first line. Those five data points are all that you really need for each lead.
The great thing about contacting people in niche industries is that no one else can identify them either! So they don’t get bothered very much! In many ways, targeting niche and very specific industries is better, as they simply receive considerably less contact.
CHAPTER 6. The Perfect Cold Email
Here’s the exact cold email we used to generate $600,000 in annual revenue in 30 days and then millions in revenue for our agency and clients: Subject: Quick question Hi Jackson, Been following Fuzz for a while and love your work, awesome job with Rockefeller Center! I specialize in finding new clients for web and app developers. Recently, we helped Dom and Tom, an NYC based developer, bring on McDonald’s and close an extra $1,000,000 in 6 months. Can you take on more clients at Fuzz? Let me know and I can send over a few times to chat. Thanks, Alex — Alex Berman | Founder EXPERIMENT 27 12249 McKinnon Rd, Windermere, FL 34786 Mobile: 972 922 9823 alex@x27marketing.com | x27marketing.com To reiterate, a great cold email consists of five parts: ● Subject line ● Compliment ● Case study ● Call to action ● Email signature We’re going to take a look at each of these in more detail, and I’m going to walk you through everything that you need to know.
After you grab the attention of your potential client, the next thing you need to do is convey authority. This can be achieved by delivering great value upfront, cutting through all of the noise and doubts that will no doubt be reverberating around the mind of this customer. Your job with cold email is to eliminate these doubts, and make the client believe that they simply have to get in contact with you.
Here’s another example for a pay per click advertising campaign: Subject line: Quick question Hi Greg, Hope your day is going well so far - just came across Acme so thought I’d reach out. Recently helped Globonet, a technology company, use email, LinkedIn advertising, and content marketing to advertise their product, which resulted in 500+ leads and $2M in revenue within a year. Would love to help you do something similar for Acme - mind if I send over a few times to chat? Thanks, Alex
Note: Can use this compliment as default.
Hope your day is going well so far - just came across Acme so thought I’d reach out.
Your subject line shouldn’t be more than five words, and ideally two words. It needs to prick the curiosity of the recipient so that they absolutely have to click it. This is one area in which it’s fine to be clickbait! You want them to think about what it could be, but not be able to know without opening the email. And, finally, many good subject lines will be personalized. This isn’t always the case, and, in fact, the number one subject line that we use breaks this rule immediately! But all of the other ones that we use are personalized, meaning that you include their name, possibly the company name… something that identifies it as being specific. Again, this separates your email from emails that will be perceived as spam and it demonstrates that it’s actually directed at the recipient. But to make this as easy as possible for you, I’m going to give you our 10 top subject lines right now that have proven to be successful: ● Quick Question ● [Name], Quick Question ● Quick Question, [Company Name] ●
Before we go any further, remember that the goal of your cold email is to arrange a meeting. That’s why every email ends with a “yes” or “no” question. “Mind if I send over a few times for a quick call?”, for example. It must be easy to accept or decline, as the people that you’re prospecting are busy. They haven’t got time to muck around! The goal of what you’re doing is not to get them to click on your portfolio, or watch some sort of quirky, personalized video, or even to sign up to your email list. It’s just to get them on a meeting so that you can close on a five to six-figure deal. Every other use of cold email is a waste of this powerful tool.
Another important aspect of the call to action is that it must be significant. You want to arrange a meeting, so don’t waste your time discussing or asking for things that are unimportant. Don’t ask for newsletter signups or some other such trivial nonsense! Ask for meetings that will lead directly to sales. Because your time is valuable, the recipient’s time is valuable, and you don’t want to waste it on things of no consequence.
as we mentioned previously, you need to go in there with big box items. It’s pointless selling a product worth $200 via cold email. If you have any doubts about what you’re offering, add a zero to the price, and you can thank me later!
CHAPTER 7. Hit Send
The first thing I would recommend is to relisten the section on email warmup. This is not an optional extra, it’s essential. You must warm up your email inbox for at least two weeks before sending, otherwise you will be marked as spam, and you’ll have to start all over again. Now, let’s move onto scaling emails. During the first week, you should send 10 cold emails per day. You can then increase that by 10 emails every day for the first month, until you’re averaging 100 customized emails per day.
Don’t scale your campaign unless you’re hitting the benchmarks. If you’re not hitting your targets, your approach can improve, so get things right on a small scale before you begin to expand your operation. Otherwise you’re wasting leads (and money).
People tend to check their work emails at certain times of the day and week. So first thing in the morning and at the end of the working day are the best times to send emails, because these are the most likely times that people will check their email inboxes. It’s also important to take time zones into consideration. Make sure that you know where the person that you’re sending an email is located, and also that you optimize your approach based on that location. And don’t just take countries into consideration; the United States is split up into numerous time zones, so bear this in mind as well. 10am in Philadelphia is not 10am in San Francisco! Different times of day also tend to work better for various job titles and positions. For example, CEOs tend to check their emails first thing in the morning and late at night, especially if they’re in hyper-growth startups.
It’s also best to aim for Tuesday or Wednesday as your sending day, as just before the weekend, or first thing on Monday morning, doesn’t really work. People don’t care about emails ahead of the weekend! And they have too much to do on Monday morning. Another possibility is to send on Sunday afternoon, as we’ve found that a lot of people will be planning their week ahead of time, so this can be an excellent opportunity to catch busy people in particular.
Let me give you an example of a campaign that went badly. Some years ago I wanted to start a company that was based on a database of SaaS tools. This would enable people to rank them and identify the perfect tool recommendation for their needs. So I made a list of companies that might require SaaS services. And the email itself was something like this: Hey, I’m doing research into starting a new SaaS company, and we’d love to know what issues you run into with SaaS tools. What’s the big problem with this email? It doesn’t book a meeting and it doesn’t target sales. So all we got back were some half hearted answers. But this was THE recommended cold email strategy at the time! If I was writing the email today, I might try the following: Hey John, I built a tool that gives you the ultimate SaaS recommendations for your company. It starts at $5 a month, and you can get 10 recommendations to reboot all of the tools you’re using, so that you can save more money and get more done. Interested? And from there you can actually judge whether someone is going to buy.