Cold outreach to competitor's customers?
I've gotten to the point with Jamform where I'm trying to start advertising and getting some customers. One thought that I had, is that with my particular niche my competitor's customers are fairly easy to find since they have to include a specific piece of code on their sites action="competitors.com" in a form. It also provides a simple way to contact those customers by just using the form on their site.
I'm wondering if cold outreach to these customers is a good idea. I could just give them the reasons why I think my service is better for them and offer them a discount to switch.
Sourcing technographic info is pretty easy. There are sites like builtwith.com that might be able to do this for you. Salespeople use it as a way to build a list of targets so you're on the right track.
I'd be skeptical of your messaging unless your competition has a bad product that's expensive. People are rarely motivated by cost savings if they're happy. It's worth testing as an outbound message but simply emailing them with reasons to switch and say your service is better + a discount is not going to be that compelling. Why? Every vendor who emails them thinks their service/product is better. Discounts actually cheapen your value prop, imo. If your product is definitely better, they shouldn't need a discount to switch.
Instead, I was create an insecurity or message them with a question that highlights a problem your product solves that your competition doesn't.
Hey [name] - Noticed you're using X. How are you making sure Y isn't being missed? If you miss Y, a, b, and c could happen.
-Justin
Trying to get people to switch it a tough sell. You don't just have to convince your prospect that your solution is better, you have to convince them that it's so much better that it's worth the risk and hassle of switching. People fear the unknown, and they know the solutions they are already using.
You're certainly welcome to give it a shot, especially since it seems like you could do it pretty easily and inexpensively. It's possible you could get a few people who are unhappy with their current solution to switch. I'd just temper your expectations.
I'd also be careful about how you go about it. The last thing you want to do is get flagged as a spammer and banned from your email service provider.
@StartupHacker gives a pretty compelling answer and a great email to use at the end.
Couple things I'd add: