Using cold email outreach AND cold calling to pull in more leads

Using cold email outreach AND cold calling to pull in more leads

Cold lead generation isn't something a novice will jump into and get right the first time.  This type of marketing takes plenty of effort and failure to get the right combination of tasks that will turn your cold leads into paying clients.

There have been plenty of times in my early years where I thought I had the perfect plan of attack but quickly got foiled by one or two things.  This was usually my email service banning me for "spamming" or because I didn't know what I was doing lol.  Well, fast forward 10+ years, and now I know what to do when to do it, and how to approach each person I contact.  

The best part about this is that you can learn now and not have to fail as much!  Yes, you'll still fail, but at least you'll leapfrog yourself ahead of the curve and be able to bring on clients quicker than I ever did!


Start with cold email outreach
If you're going to do this, you need to do it right, and that means you need to start with cold email outreach to get into the inbox of the decision-makers.  These are the founders, CEOs, CFOs, Presidents, etc.

You'll need to get past the gatekeepers who are the secretaries, front desk people, and assistants, but that's not difficult to do if your email list contains the higher-up's contact information.  

Now then, get your email out and make sure it's short and sweet, so the decision-maker doesn't have to take 20 minutes reading your novel of an email.  Say hello, mention their name, talk about their website (or whatever it is that's related to what you're selling), and mention a flaw or two that you can easily fix.  If you're selling SEO, Web Design, Online Marketing, etc. then you're going to have to convince these people you know you're stuff before they even respond.

Add some credentials into your signature like "Adwords Certified" or "Top 10 SEOs in 2020" to give yourself some credibility in the eyes of the reader.  Do that, and you should get a few more responses

Set up calls with anyone that shows interest
If you're getting some responses, and you should be if you weren't too spammy, you will now need to set up calls in the next three days.  You don't want to set anything up for next week or longer than five days because the person could lose interest and decide to not pick up the phone.

This is now a warm lead, and you can start to convert them into a paying customer after you go over everything you can do for their website.  Be sure to talk about all the things you can do, not just what they were interested in, and be sure to talk about some websites that you have worked on that are similar to the one owned by the person you're currently talking to.  You don't need to have proof that you did work for these websites, you need to say "Yeah, we've worked on a few websites in this industry before, but we currently do not have any clients in it, which is why we reached out to you and your company to see if you'd be interested."

Begin your cold calling AFTER your email sequence finishes
When you get a bunch of people not responding, and you will, if your list is large, you will now want to reach out with a phone call to see if someone picks up.  If you know the phone number of the person you emailed, then you can call them directly.  If you don't, no worries, now you have to call the gatekeepers and say something like, "I emailed (decision-makers name here) last week but never heard back from him/her, which is why I'm calling today.  Would it be possible to talk to him/her today and go over a few things about your web design/marketing/SEO/Whatever you're selling?"

After that, move onto the next step below.

Get rejected 100's of times over the phone
Yes, you're now going to be rejected 95% of the time, but you need to learn from this.  Tweak your approach, edit your pitch, and be sure to read as much as you can about how to seal the deal over the phone by getting past the gatekeepers and talking with the decision-makers.

Some of you are probably thinking, "How is this a step?  We're getting rejected, and that's it!" but it is a step since you have to learn from it!  You'll need to overcome the rejection because it can kill your morale and drive, but you need to push through.  If your pitch is perfect and your services are great then there is someone out there that is willing to pay you for them; you have to put in the time to find them!

Stay in touch with anyone that seemed interested
When you're talking to interested parties, there will always be more rejection, and that could be for various reasons.  Most of the time, they will show interest and then reject you because they think your pricing is too high or they don't need your services right now but could in the future and needed more information.

No worries!

All you need to do is take note of the people who were warmed up yet rejected you and call them in a month.  Talk to the same person you did last time, go over what you can do for them again, and ask if they'd still be interested in working together.  Most of them will say no, or they'll let you know when they'd be ready.  You can always say, "Would it be ok if I called you back next month to see if you're ready to move forward on this?" and a majority of the time, they will say yes and mark it on their schedule.

Set up sequencing!
If you don't have a sequence of at least six cold emails scheduled to go out to every recipient, are you even email marketing?  It takes, on average, six emails before someone responds to an email you sent them that they didn't sign up for.  This means you could send out all six and never hear from someone until a week after the last email went out, and that person decided to check and see what you've said.

You'd be amazed at how many people have said "I admire your persistence!" after my 6th email went out lol


Final Thoughts,
When it comes to cold lead generation, you shouldn't worry too much because there are hundreds of thousands of companies doing this every single day.  You're not alone, you're actually in a large group of marketers trying to bring in their next client, and that means you shouldn't be afraid.  You should protect yourself by setting up email servers away from your money site, sending through a different domain, and never linking directly to your main site unless it's in an email you can deny if anyone complains.  Other than that, you're golden


Thanks for reading

- Tommy Carey
https://www.seoclerks.com/user/TommyCarey