I'm not a pro at Cold Outreach, but I get an 80% response rate
Context:
I'm not a fan of cold outreach, and I don't use it to sell my products or services directly. I just don't like this approach.
My cold outreach chain is more complex.
I have paid products around marketing → I launched a Free weekly newsletter in the same niche: marketing case studies from Indie Founders → I outreach Founders to write a guest article for my newsletter.
It's much easier to grow a free product. And then, you can mention your paid product there & get traffic.
Here's how I write cold DMs for Founders:
1. Focus on quality instead of quantity.
I'm not trying to reach 100 people. Instead, I reach out to 10 people & make the messages personalized.
2. Write straight to the point.
I'm not small talking or making a connection before sending the offer. I don't want to steal the time.
3. Clear offer.
I describe what I need & what I'll give in return.
4. Focus on stats instead of shiny words.
Nothing is more persuasive than numbers. They instantly catch the attention.
5. Know the main objection.
If you close the main objection, your offer instantly becomes better.
6. End with one question.
If you want to get an answer, add an easy-to-answer question at the end.
No wonder you have a high response rate: you're not selling anything, you invite people for an interview.
For a sales cold email it's too long and not catchy enough.
Try selling ads in your newsletter using the same email text and your conversion rate will drop. Also, with "easy-to-answer" question like that, the response rate will be close to zero.
If people have to pay you to be included in the newsletter, please share the actual conversion rate.
OP is talking response rate, not conversion rate. Regardless of what metrics we use, looks like OP is getting good engagement, and perhaps we can learn from the elements being used.
I described my case using cold emails. You can describe yours if you sell anything :)
Hate to break it to yah, but, asking people to talk about them selves and telling them it will be shared 2,000+ people is not really secret sauce. haha
I am shocked you are only getting 80% reply rate.
super helpful! thanks for sharing, Sveta!
Thank you, Andrei!
80% is wow!!!
Think its right
Short and simple. I'm going to try this out soon. I'm really excited to see what happens. Thanks for sharing the hack, Sveta!
really helpful. writing straight is too difficult to Korean. i'll share it :)
Cold outreach is the best imo. Just go straight to your target customers, no fluff, no games.
80% response rate is incredible! Thanks for sharing Sveta, will try it out on my next outreach!
Quick and easy is the most effective way
Very helpful writing. I think an 80% response rate is great in cold outreach.
So essentially, you cold emailing founders to grow your newsletter right? You're not actually selling anything to those founders.
Thanks for the post! This feels very timely for me as I've just started cold outreach. I was wondering what your channel is here? I'm using linkedin and I'm try to work out what the best way is to get the initial connection, the first message and then getting the pitch in.
Do you have any thoughts on this?
@sveta_bay Such a refreshing email for anyone's inbox!
The format is simple and doesn't feel salesy at all. I really liked the way you make the email about them, not you. And, that is exactly why you get such good response.
I really like this. I'm converting a video series on our YouTube channel from a "solo show" where we breakdown SaaS approaches for customer education to a show where guests come on and talk about how Customer Education and training are benefiting their company and customers.
This is a simple format to reach out to those folks and not seem overly salesy. Just give value, nurture the relationship and play a longer game.
Agreed
Nice learnings here. I think the part I'm struggling here is "Focus on stats instead of shiny words.". If I don't have numbers yet, what do you recommend to do instead?
Context: I'm just starting so I effectively don't have any customers to back my numbers up
It might be worth owning up to that, yes you’ll get less response, but it won’t seem like you’re hiding anything. And if you couch it as “I’m just launching, but my initial list is 50 highly relevant people” that certainly seems better than avoiding it entirely and waiting for them to ask.
Love it. You’re right, getting the most common objection upfront. I’ll make sure to do that. Thanks
You are giving a freebie away which is really likely to get a yes from most people, you're not necessarily "asking" for anything.
Now that's smart outreaching, give value first and then ask later.
The real question is how effective is your sequence at converting people into customers? Or does this just essentially gives free advertising to indie hackers for a very small/no ROI?
Oh, thank you, I planning to start a web agency and it will be helpfulf for me!
Thanks I will try it with my app.
Amazing, but I wish you could do it at scale with the same level of personalisation. So I built reachowl.com, do check it out.
How much time do you spend on personalizing the message?
around 5 minutes
I think the interesting part of this technique is you don't mention cost. You really aren't selling anything here, despite your "offer" section (which describes your service but doesn't mention it comes at a fee). Evidently, this translates into high response rate, but how does it convert into customer rate? When do you bring up cost? I'd love to hear more!
I didn't say anything about costs cause it's free
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