🧲 Cold emails that work

3 practical ways to convert leads through cold outreach

Author

Yannick Veys
March 01, 2025

The Lead Magnet

Supported by Inboxs.io

Cold messages can work

But most of the time, they don’t.

Salespeople hear things like:

❝

Cold outreach is a numbers game.

Alex Hormozi, $100M Leads

And they take it to mean wasting people’s time with messages like these:

At the opposite end of the spectrum, you’ll find people like Amanda, who got her first 100 customers with just 2,000 cold emails.

Amanda Zhu on LinkedIn

I got our first 100 paying customers by sending 2,000 cold emails.

It worked because I picked the right people to send it to.

1. I only emailed people who were already in motion
Most cold emails fail because they hit the right person at the wrong time.
I only emailed people who had a clear reason to care right now.

2. I cut the list down to people who would actually respond
I didn’t just blast emails at 10,000 random prospects.


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www.linkedin.com/posts/zhu-amanda_i-get-30-dms-a-day-asking-how-we-got-our-activity-7298372161528811521-Yu07/?utm_source=tldrmarketing

The difference lies in a simple (not easy) tactic: showing value first. Keep reading to see how three different kinds of agencies can implement it.

The Lead Magnet is supported by Inboxs.io

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Ad agency

Before sending a cold email to a potential client, analyze their niche and find out who their main competitors are.

Check Meta’s Ad Library to see what ads they’re running. Include the best-performing one in your message.

Go the extra mile and share one or two ad templates you plan to run for this client. Make it clear these are free, but you’d love to discuss further customization.

Here’s a subject line idea for you:

Every entrepreneur wants a bigger market share. You just need a serious solution to help them achieve that.

Recruitment agency

Check when the companies you want to work with post their openings on LinkedIn or other platforms.

Then reach out to them with a potential candidate matching their ideal profile.

Of course, don’t share their direct contact information—just make it clear you’ve already done the research. Check out how a friend of mine does it:

Your cold email shifts from annoying to ‘Oh, this actually helps!’ 👇

Ghostwriting agency

Make a list of the ideal customers you’d like to work with (remember: great deals start with great leads).

Don’t text them on X saying how cool they are and how much you’d like to help them and blah blah blah.

Just help them.

Prepare 3-5 tweets or threads. Show them you’ve already analyzed their business and writing style.

Tell them they’re free to use your posts. And if they like them, you’d be happy to discuss working together on a call.

Final Note → Even when you show value first, cold outreach is still a numbers game. Optimize your efforts by repurposing your research into public content. It’s an easy way to showcase your expertise and increase your conversion rate.

That’s it for now, everyone! We’ll meet again next week to discuss some more of this!

Feel free to reply to this email. It goes directly to me.

Cheers,

Yannick