Building A Business With Cold Email

The idea of promoting my wares to people I have no clue about always made me feel uneasy. Even sending off this newsletter that you've voluntarily requested in your inbox makes me tense.

So, using cold outreach to build a business was never an option for me. I parked that one in the too-uncomfortable basket.

But last year, that all changed.

After adding my 167th future business idea to my list, I decided it was time to give one of these things a nudge. And being the good lean methodology disciple that I am, I first had to try and make a sale.

In my previous half-hearted attempts at new businesses, I've hidden behind Facebook ads and landing pages to prove demand. But this time, that wasn't going to work. I needed to get some real-life yes’s, not call-to-action button clicks. Cold email made sense.

That was March 10th, 2023. By March 16th, we had our first customer. Fast forward 10 months and ~200 cold emails later, we're doing 6 figures in revenue and have 20 clients. And we still don't even have a website.

I'm by no means an expert at this and you do need sales skills on the back-end - but cold emailing is underrated and way easier than the experts out there would have you believe. 

Here's what we do.

Be Specific

Your response rate is a proxy of how good your is targeting. There is 0 point in sending emails to people not interested in your offer.

We're hiring for a CFO for Rugby Bricks atm, and I've received many emails from accountants, consultants, and otherwise offering to give us different versions of tax advice. We want a CFO, not tax advice. They're wasting their time.

We are as specific with our targeting as we can possibly be.

Show Legitimacy

Today's website is yesterday's storefront - it legitimises your business, and we're hurting ourselves by not having one. The first thing people do after reading an email from us is hop on Google.

Many write us off as a scam when they don't see our website.

Include a reference

Our response rate doubled when we included a reputable reference in our emails. That means the name and number of someone who will vouch for your work that people respect.

Offer In The Subject Line

The inbox is a busy place. We don't be clever, vague or otherwise with our subject lines. We've found that boldly stating our offer works better than anything else: "we can do this for you" "do you need this?".

The best email in the world is still at the mercy of its subject line.

Show Proof

Tell them exactly (specifics matter) what you can do and who you've done it for. "I've done this for them and can do it for you". We add as much detail as possible here.

Exact dates, Exact dollars, Exact percentages.

Beyond those points, writing clearly and concisely always helps - use Grammarly or a tool like that to improve, and I'd stay well away from ChatGPT - it kinda sucks at writing.

In the end, this cold email thing has been the most effective way I've used to grow a business, and if you want to try but are unsure where to start - reply to this email.

I can help.

Finding Facts Fast With AI

KP here.

Rhys stole the top slot for this week’s newsletter. Please reply and tell us which slot you liked better. I won’t be offended if you say Rhys's cold email info was better -I’ll just be hurt.

On to more important topics.

Two weeks ago, I joined the board of an NZX-listed company with very strict advertising guidelines for its products.

I tasked myself with finding ways to promote these products within these guidelines.

To do this, I needed to find some academic research that backed up the impact of the company’s products.

This process used to be a basic search and find exercise for academic research via Google Scholar.

It would take me hours to scour the right content.

ChatGPT (Premium -$19.99) now does this with one query - here’s how:

1. Go to ChatGPT 

2. Go to “Explore GPTs”

   

3. In the search bar, type “Consensus”

4. Enter the prompt you need to solve in the “Message Consensus” - in my case, this was “What is the effectiveness in relieving anxiety using CBD and cannabis-based products?”

5. You’ll get a list of studies and hyperlinks to academic research that answers your prompt

This is only the tip of the iceberg for its application, but I’ve saved hours finding the right academic literature to enrich the company’s advertising.

We’re now using this tool to enrich blogs, write ad copy, and improve creative for clients.

If you can’t find a use case for your business, you can at least use it to win more arguments or sound smart when pontificating.

Please reply and let me know if you’ve found any new tools this week - I love feeding my shiny object syndrome obsession.