It’s Neville here, and I’m about to let my friend Sam Parr take over for a second to show you how to contact anybody…BUT…the reason Sam is such an interesting example is cause he’s a nobody…..
….yet he got the founders of all these companies to speak at his conference:
Pandora, NerdWallet, Coffee Meets Bagel, Teespring, Imgur, General Assembly, Getaround, Tilt, Udemy, Sprig, Mixergy, BackToTheRoots, 500 Startups and more.
He did this all through cold emails.
I’m going to let Sam Parr take over this post, and explain exactly how he used cold emails to reach out to major titans of industry and get them to do stuff.
Here’s Sam! Make sure to bookmark this post or share it with someone it can help, it has some kickass templates you should save for your personal swipe file.
— SAM STARTS TALKING HERE — SAM STARTS TALKING HERE —
What up friends? This is Sam, the founder of Hustle Con and TheHustle.
Last August, I wrote a post on Nev’s blog explaining how I hosted a conference made me $40,000 in 7 weeks. You people loved it. So, I thought I’d teach you another cool lesson:
How to get in touch with influencers.
In this post, I’ll explain step-by-step the four ways we convince big time founders to speak at Hustle Con. If you follow these steps you’ll be able to connect with pretty much anyone with an email address.
In fact, we got these founders to speak at HustleCon using these exact emails and methods:
….so let me show you exactly how I got all these big-wigs to show up to my conference just with just some cold emails.
You’ve got to cold email like a boss!
In 15 years our kids will be shocked when we say, “back then you could email anyone on earth…and they’d actually respond!”
A lot of people don’t realize this, but getting in touch with someone via cold email is shockingly easy. I’ve had email convos with Jeff Bezos (founder of Amazon), the founder of Twitter, even famous actors…all because of cold emails. Here’s how I do it…
I’m using Tim Westergren, the founder of Pandora, for this example. He’s agreed to speak at this year’s Hustle Con after a few cold emails.
Step 1: Find the person’s email:
Obviously we have to find the person’s email, right? Most email addresses are pretty simple, but there’s one tool that’ll make the guessing game super easy: Thrust.io
Thrust is super simple. Enter in your target’s name, what company they work for and watch the magic happen. Thrust uses wizardry and finds your your target’s email:
I just typed in “Tim Westergren, Pandora” and found his email in two seconds.
Step 2: Craft an irresistible email:
This is where the Hustle Con team and I really kick ass. We know how to make participating in our conference a no brainer.
It doesn’t matter what you’re selling, make sure your “ask” clearly shows how it benefits the receiver. If you’ve never studied copywriting before, take Neville’s Copywriting Course. It’s a game changer for cold emails. If you’re too lazy to take it, here’s the summary: no one cares about you…they only care about themselves.
Here’s what I sent Tim along with his response. If you wanna write your own, use the AIDA formula.
(Image opens in a new window)
Check out the gif we sent Tim. This is our secret touch. We made one for each speaker. They’re pretty easy to make. We took photos of us spelling out “Hey will you speak at Hustle Con?” Then, when we sent an email, we Photoshopped the person’s name on a blank photo:
People loved this photo because it was unique, funny, and showed we took extra time to personally reach out.
Step 3: Follow up and CLOSE THEM:
Here’s where winners emerge. Big shots get 100’s of emails a day, so they’ll most likely ignore you. Don’t take it personally. You must follow up. When I was a noob, I thought this was nagging. It’s not. Just make sure to add an easy out.
Something like “if you’re not interested in this, no sweat…I’m still a fan of your company.”
As long you’re tasteful, you can send 7 to 10 emails every 5 days without being annoying. Here’s how many emails I sent Tim Westergren:
See, it’s not nagging. Tim responded after three emails!
I can’t emphasize enough how important following up is. I’ve chatted with the founders of GoPro, Thrillist, Gilt, and Twitter all because I’m constantly following up. Sure, they may not always say yes, but they will remember me.
Hell, I’ve followed up so much that the founder of Legal Zoom and Honest Co. (aka Jessica Alba’s cofounder) offered me a job:
And finally, here are three emails that required tons of followup. In fact, I followed up with the founder of Imgur for literally 6 months before he said yes.
Use your current network for a warm intro:
Rick Marini, the founder of Branch Out and Tickle, was one of last year’s most accomplished speakers at Hustle Con. He sold Tickle for $100 million, founded one of the fastest growing social networks in the world, and is an extremely successful angel investor….so he gets literally 100’s of emails a day.
To contact Rick, I used a mutual connection using this 5-step process. Sure, it’s mostly common sense, but you’d be shocked at how many people fail after steps 3, 4, and 5.
Use your current network for a warm intro.
Method A: Find your target’s Linkedin account
Simple enough, right?
Use your current network for a warm intro:
Method B: Find mutual connections
Next, I scrolled to the bottom of Rick’s profile and see who we had in common. Sweet! Looks like my buddy Joey is LinkedIn buds with with Rick.
If you don’t have any mutual friends, use this same tactic but on Facebook or skip to the cold email step below:
Use your current network for a warm intro:
Method C: Write the email FOR your mutual connection
I asked Joey for the intro, but I made sure to write the majority of the email for him. (Here’s a link to the exact email I wrote for Joey. Feel free to copy)
Remember, he’s doing me the favor. I should make life as EASY as possible for the person doing the intro. That’s why I write the email for them. Otherwise it’ll never happen.
And if your friend decides to write a little message, like Joey did for me, your email with the important details is still at the bottom.
This was my initial email to Joey. Assume that your target will see this email, so include all the details:
Joey wrote his own message but kept our original email at the bottom.
Step 4: Create a powerful first impression:
Once you get the opening, respond FAST and hit your mark. I try and respond within 30 minutes, but ideally within 5. Rick is doing me a favor by even talking to me. He’s a successful and busy guy, so he most likely won’t respond first.
Think of networking or sales like hunting. This is your chance to make a fantastic first impression and get the kill. The goal of this hunt isn’t a deer, but a relationship. And you’re not using a bow and arrow, but kindness, sincerity, promptness, and salesmanship. So basically, be Cupid.
This is your opening…make it count!
I wanna point out two crucial parts of my message: specifics and writing style.
You’ll notice that I mentioned how I knew Rick worked at Fisher Scientific years ago. How did I know this?
Because I watched every YouTube video about Rick. I wanted to make sure he’d be a good fit for the event, but also to better understand my “customer.”
Before I talk to a potential customer, I read/watch everything about them so I know their wants and personality. If you’re trying to make a sale, make sure to comment about something very specific and meaningful to that person so they know you’re sincere.
The research isn’t hard to do, it just takes time. Google the person you’re contacting and read everything from pages 1 to 5.
Yes, some may think it’s strange to tell Rick how much I know about him, but in doing so I prove that I genuinely appreciate him. Basically, I want him to know I’m willing to work hard to get him to come. It’s called the rule of reciprocity.
The second thing to notice is my writing style. Always remember to write like you speak and know your audience. I wouldn’t say the word “badass” if I emailed a Stanford professor. If you wanna learn more about this, take the Copywriting Course (Nev also spoke at Hustle Con).
Step 5: Close:
The purpose of each step is to move closer and closer to a predetermined goal, which in this case is a phone call.
Never end an email with “so what time works for you?” Be as specific as possible. This is easier for your customer.
I suggest ending your ask email with 3 possible times so the person can simply say yes to one and not have search their calendar for a free space. Or, if you get lucky like I was with Rick, your customer will suggest a time:
Luckily Rick suggested a time. Our call was fantastic and Rick agreed to participate!
Step 6: Send thoughtful gifts:
Sending a thoughtful gift to a potential client is a pretty bold move, but it has the potential to work wonders.
My most recent gift-giving campaign was to Noah Kagan, Andrew Warner, and Neville. Neville and Andrew both said yes, but Noah couldn’t make it.
But who can you send gifts to??
To send gifts the right way (thoughtfully, tastefully, not creepily), you have to know your audience—even more so than sending cold emails. I suggest only sending gifts to someone you’ve spoken with before or someone who at least knows you exist. This includes:
- Clients in a similar industry as you.
- Someone you’ve shared an email exchange with.
- Mutual friends.
- Someone with a fun personality.
- Someone you know has heard of you or your company.
If your target fits into one of these categories, here’s how you send a gift.
Gift-Giving Step 1: Find out what they’re into:
90% of cold emails, calls, or gifts are completely thoughtless and bland. You’ll really stand out from the crowd if you just take 10 or 20 minutes and stalk your recipient. Find out what they like, want, and how they think. I go about this using a few different methods:
Constantly listening: Because I’m such a fan of gift-giving, I always keep my ears open for a good gift idea. For example, when Neville spoke at Bootstrap Live he told how much he loves Dave Matthews Band, specifically his live shows.
So when I asked Neville to speak, it was obvious what kind of gift I should send: a DMB live DVD:
Small gifts really show that you care.
Use Twitter, Facebook, or their personal blog: What’s amazing about the internet is that wants someone writes something, it’s there forever. This makes stalking crazy easy. I wasn’t personal buds with Noah when I asked him to speak, but I had emailed with him a few times.
Plus, Noah is super active on Twitter and his blog, so researching what gift to send him wasn’t difficult. I found a post where he wrote about eating healthy, which gave me the idea to send a Magic Bullet for smoothies. I then did a little Google-ing and found another post about how much he loves The Magic Bullet.
If you notice, the post is 2 years old, and if you’ve ever owned a Magic Bullet you know they don’t last very long. To me this meant that a Magic Bullet was the PERFECT gift…so it’s what I sent him!
Perfect.
Gift-Giving Step 2: Write a handwritten note:
I didn’t realize how powerful handwritten notes were until Andrew Warner of Mixergy sent me a handwritten thank-you card for introducing him to a buddy of mine. It was just a small note, but it made a huge impact on me.
Here’s the exact letter I wrote back to Andrew when I asked him to participate at Bootstrap Live. I’ve had a lot of success with that letter’s format, so feel free to copy it.
If you wanna learn more about how I snagged Andrew as a speaker, this post will answer your questions.
Gift-Giving Step 3: Find the address:
This step is obvious, but here’s one extra tip: make sure to send your package to the recipient’s office! Imagine yourself in your recipient’s shoes, opening a flattering handwritten letter and gift in front of coworkers. Feels good, doesn’t it?
Gift-Giving Step 4: Make sure it looks amazing:
You’ve picked out a gift, wrote an awesome handwritten letter, and know the end address. Now it’s time to ship it off! But before you do, make sure that your gift looks amazing.
Preparing and delivering the package for Andrew Warner of Mixergy.
I started to see the importance of packaging after reading Steve Job’s biography. I’m not saying you need to package your gift as meticulously as an iPod, but some nice gift wrap, a perfectly fitted box, and a fancy label will make a huge difference.
Free Cold Email Templates
| Cold Email For: | Email Template Description: |
|---|---|
| Freelancing | Looking for consulting gig |
| Freelancing | Looking For Freelance Writing Work |
| Freelancing | Looking For Freelance Writing Work |
| Freelancing | Looking For Freelance Writing Work |
| Sponsorship | Get sponsors for podcast |
| Sponsorship | Looking for podcast partnerships |
| Promotion | Promote your podcast |
| Partnership | Sell your product at local businesses |
| Partnership | Sell your training program to companies |
| Partnership | Sell leads to Real Estate agents |
Purpose: Cold email looking for consulting gig
Subject 1: Need any advice?
Subject 2: Your LinkedIn profile
Subject 3: Looking for a consult?
I came across your LinkedIn profile and saw that you run _____ (company).
If you don’t mind me asking, do you use presentations to close your sales?
I’m a consultant for (companies like yours/your industry) – I teach brands how to improve their sales with visual slide decks.
Recently worked with:
[Big name #1]
[Big name #2]
[Big name #3]
Results can include:________________
30+ hours saved per month (I teach a templatized process)
100-200% increase in sales.
50% increase in your prices.
If you’re interested, shoot me a reply to this message and we can book a time to talk!
All the best,
[Name].
Purpose: Cold Email Looking For Freelance Writing Work
Subject 1: Content Creation
Subject 2: A writer from your [home town].
Subject 3: Looking for writing help?
Hope you don’t mind the random outreach – I’m a writer from (your hometown).
Mind if I ask how your team handles content creation? I know many agencies look for reliable freelancers to plug potential gaps, and I’d love to throw my hat in the ring.
If that’s a possibility, could you connect me with the right person on your team? I can pitch a couple of ideas, take on a trial project, or I’m happy to fill in any way you might need.
Thanks!
[Name]
Purpose: Cold Email Looking For Freelance Writing Work
Subject 1: Can I write for your blog?
Subject 2: Some cool article ideas for you
Subject 3: You should write about this
Subject 4: Looking for writing help?
I just stumbled on [site name] and can’t stop binge-reading your content.
Are you looking for any writing help, by chance?
I thought these articles would be awesome on your site:
Title #1
Title #2
Title #3
If you’re interested, I’d be happy to write them for you (or anything else you need written).
I studied [course] at [school] and have written for [sites you’ve been featured on] Here’s a link to my website.
Shoot me a reply if you’d like to get started!
Cheers,
[Name]
Purpose: Cold Email Looking For Freelance Writing Work
Subject 1: Need writers?
Subject 2: Need writing help?
Subject 3: Need an outdoor freelance writer?
Subject 4: Can I write for Camping World?
Reaching out as it seems you oversee the content creation side of [Website].
Do you have any overflow content work you need handled?
I’m a freelance writer who specializes in writing copy, SEO posts, and anything else in the outdoor industry.
Email me back if you’d like some help with a specific project!
[Name] – – [phone]
Purpose: Get sponsors for podcast
Subject 1: partnership?
Subject 2: Promoting your brand
Subject 3: Our listeners would love your product
Subject 4: Let’s partner up.
I run , a podcast with roughly _____ downloads/month.
We’re all about helping people explore ___________ lifestyles without stigma. We’ve built a really positive community that extends beyond the podcast.
I’m writing because I’d love to promote ___ (their brand) and I’d like to see if you’d be interested in being a sponsor. I’m a big fan and use (specific products) all the time.
I’ve attached a slide deck with our basic info. If you can tell me a little about what you look for in podcasts that you sponsor, I can reply with more specific insights.
Thanks!
[Name]
Purpose: Looking for podcast partnerships
Subject 1: partnership?
Subject 2: Promoting your brand
Subject 3: Our listeners would love your product
Subject 4: Let’s partner up.
Hey [Name],
I run a podcast about [topic] and I’m reaching out to brands I love looking for potential partnerships.
Could you connect me with the right person to speak to at ____ (their brand)?
Thanks!
[Name]
Purpose: Cold email to promote your podcast
Subject 1: You’re audience would love this podcast
Subject 2: [Name of person interviewed]
Subject 3: [Podcast title]
We interviewed [podcast guest] on [topic] for [audience type]:
[link to podcast]
Here’s some of the learnings:
– This
– This
– This
– This
Think this would be an interesting story for you?
Sincerely,
[Name]
Purpose: Sell your product at local businesses
Subject 1: You’re customers would love this podcast
Subject 2: company name + product = $
Subject 3: Free sample
Hope you don’t mind the random outreach – I’m writing because I noticed you run _____ here in town.
I own [Company Name], a _______ company. We recently started selling [Product], including a [Product that connects you to the company] line.
I supply local [type of company] and [type of company] with the [Product], which they then sell on to their customers (we also do custom labeling under your brand name).
We’ve worked (numbers, big names, recognizable names, or something else tangible).
Company 1
Company 2
Company 3
Would you like to try the [Product]? Happy to send you a sample! Just reply with a good address I can send to!
Best,
[Name]
Purpose: Sell your training program to companies
Subject 1: Improve your sales
Subject 2: Sales training
Subject 3: Could your sales be higher?
I’m [Name] with [Company Name] – we work with ____ (business types) like yours to improve their sales.
We’ve got a 2 week training program for tech teams and I thought you might be interested in. In 2020, we used it to develop teams at:
company x, resulting in 50% more sales.
company y, resulting in _____
company z, resulting in _____
Would you like to learn a little more about it? Hit reply and let me know!
– [Name]
Purpose: Sell leads to Real Estate agents
Subject 1: Real Estate Leads
Subject 2: Save time use my leads
Subject 3: Need leads?
I’m [Name] – I run a lead gen service for real estate investors in NYC.
I specialize in under-market deals and all my leads come prequalified.
My clients typically get an additional 1-4 clients per month (and save a lot of time and energy on research and sales calls).
If you’re interested, here’s a link to my call scheduler: _____.
Speak soon!
[Name]
Welp, that’s it ladies and gents. That’s how you get in touch with anyone on earth!
Sincerely,
Sam Parr
P.S. Thanks Neville for letting us guest post! And signup for TheHustle.co to get updates from us!
This is absolutely I’m looking for, thank you! You’d introduce yourself, say something nice, connect with them over a shared friend or interest, and then make a request that makes sense.
Loved that. I really like the tried and tested content.
One thing, Was that Subject line appropriate?
I mean what was the relevancy “Dog saying Hey” (in the first example you’ve shared)
Neville or Sam, anyone of you can answer.
But great stuff, indeed!
Yo, this old dog having a blast learning new tricks. Thanks for the info and culture blast. Nicely done.
Thanks, Neville for a great post and the links that you attached! I’ll take some time to read them all :) Very informational.
Hey Sam. Excellent article.
Just wanted to bring you a notice about a broken link on https://thrust.io/.
Also, would like to emphasis on email attachment tracking while executing cold emailing campaigns. Tracking your email attachments will tell you if your attached collaterals are keeping the prospects engaged till the end or they drop out without going through them.
To know more about email attachment tracking, you can go through this must-read article.
https://www.saleshandy.com/blog/email-attachment-tracking/
Thank you for explaining this wonderful way of expressing. As I am looking for jobs and networking is the key to success, this information was much needed. Hope this works for me too. Thank you Sam and Neville. Really looking forward to read more and hopefully new fan of your writing.
These are all great tips on cold emailing, the post obviously rocks but the comments are also helpful.
I got 50% reply rate in a little cold email campaign I ran for experts whom I wanted to invite for an interview to talk about our start-up idea. Here’s what I did:
1. I did some research on Quora and company blogs looking for posts considering cold emails — I found people who said smart things on cold emailing.
2. I crafted a customizable email template, which sounded something like:
***
Subject: Your comment on cold emailing at Quora & a question
– or –
Subject: Your post at {{blog}} & a question
I’ve come across a question on Quora considering {{cold email subject lines}} and read your answer – love {{the two basic principles you mentioned}}, many thanks for these.
Looks like email marketing is still on top when it comes to getting new customers.
At Woodpecker.co, we’re currently developing a tool for outbound email automation. We’ve got some ideas, but I would love to verify those against the experiences of {{an email marketing}} expert like yourself.
Would you be able to chat on Skype for 10 minutes on Mon or Tue morning?
***
Yeah, cold email about cold emailing, that’s so meta..
(The double curly brackets mark the points that I customized for each of my prospects.)
3. Half of the people I reached to replied to me — and all of the responses were positive, no one got angry or offended. I should have send follow-ups to those who didn’t reply, then I would have probably got even higher score.
4. We scheduled a few interviews which brought us, as an early stage start-up, an amazing amount of priceless information.
I described the whole process in detail on our blog, so I guess if you want more info you’ll find it there.
And yes, the research part takes a lot of time but it’s sooo worth it in the long run. Personalized emails focused on the prospect work. And follow-ups. I always follow-up from then on and I preach on following-up to all those who send cold emails.
I found out that follow-ups should be even shorter than the opening message, but should be equally smart and valuable — plus they should be always sent within the same thread, as Sam also points out in his post, so that the addressee can easily refer to what we sent her before.
Thanks a lot for sharing the know-how, guys! I bet if this article had been posted a few months earlier, I would have reached out to Sam as well for an expert opinion on cold emailing. :)
Wow….a 50% response rate on that outreach email?? That’s amazing Cathy!
Thanks for sharing :)
Awesome method!
An easy way to get direct email addresses of any twitter account is a plugin of Google Chrome named “FindThatLead”. By this plugin we can get direct email addresses. Just want to share with the community.
Glad you liked it Gerard. Thanks for sharing that Chrome Extension, looks cool!
I’m assuming that when you follow up with your emails you are saying different things in each email. What are some things you should include in your follow up emails?
Hey Katie, we have an entire follow up email post here for you to use:
https://copywritingcourse.com/follow-up-email-template/
Dude – this post rocks! Thanks so much for sharing!
You’ve very welcome Walter, glad ya liked it!
Who won prize for best comment?
It was already sent out! You can search for best comments in the thread Kath!
Here’s an email I sent to get the owner of Galpin Auto Sports who worked on the cars for PimpMyRide to agree to a podcast interview (hint: lots of name dropping). Hope it helps some people with podcasts…
Hi Beau
I’m following up on the email I sent you 2 days ago about having a chat and interview with you for the high performance auto shop site I’m creating.
I handpicked you after doing online research because I saw you are running a professional shop, have long experience, and above all have PASSION and respect for the customers dream cars you work on!
Here is an ‘All-Star’ line-up of just some of the performance experts I’ve already spoken to:
– Dave Golder of Hennessey Performance (30,000 square ft facility)
– Loren Beggs of 911 Design in California (over 20,000 square ft facility)
– Chris Musante of Musante Motorsports in Connecticut (over 20,000 square ft facility)
– Dave Smith of Smith Motorworks in Florida (10,000 square ft facility)
– Frank Beck ‘the Daytona Racer’ of Beck’s European in Arizona
– Todd Trimble of Trophy Performance in Las Vegas (10,000 square ft facility)
I would love to have a chat with you regarding your business and feature you in the high performance auto shop interview series I’m creating. If it makes sense to talk, what does your calendar look like?
Keep up the great work,
Chris Von Wilpert
Great email Chris!
Name dropping is important in this case since the guy doesn’t know you. However if you’ve interviewed all these cool people and companies, he’s WAY more likely to agree.
Great job!
I sent this cold email to Noah, Seth Godin and James Altucher.
James and Noah said yes…
initially…
But, then some inexperience on my behalf most likely got me ignored in the long run…
If noah said it was a “great email” do I get brownie points..?
On Sun, Dec 14, 2014 at 3:41 PM, jordan flynn wrote:
Noah, would you consider coming to Australia to join James Altucher to perform a live talk at a tech/business/life skills conference?
I have listed 5 reasons why you should totally say yes and come out and have a great time!
1. We have super cool animals. Let’s face it.. Australia has some pretty cool wild life.. We have kangaroos, koala bears, emus and Julia guillards.
2. It’s clean. Australia is way under populated and smog doesn’t exist. If you came here even for a week who knows what wonders the great aussie air would do to add years onto his life.
3. I live here. Yeah I live here and who doesn’t want to travel 13 hours to visit me. But in all seriousness. I can totally arrange everything if you want to come here and holiday while your down here doing your talk. Being a local I can organise and give my opinion on some super fun things to do.
4. You will get paid and who doesn’t want to get paid while they check out a different country and do cool stuff.
5. We talk differently and let’s face it when we say the world “purple” we sound like 12 year old girls, this may make you laugh.
There you have it. 5 reasons why you should come here!
If I could build something and get you an audience would you consider it?
It will be a business/life/tech event.
Let me know!
Jordan
—————————————————-
If anyone wants to read what happened next and if Neville doesn’t mind me dropping a stinky linky. I could link to a blog post I wrote a few days ago about my emailing attempts to VIP’s for my currently failed tech event.
It has some good insights and some “not what do do’s”.
Any who, great article Sam! and thanks for sharing Nev. I’ve already forwarded this to my girlfriend to have a read!
Jordo
Aka Wanna be pro-cold emailer.
Nice!
However you’re asking these people for a MAJOR time and travel commitment, so I’m assuming A LOT is riding on their schedules also :)
Feel free to drop a link!
Oh yeah 100%.
Oh well.. Worth a shot and i guess you never know what the future holds!
http://notanotherstartupblog.com/how-to-get-reply-when-cold-emailing-seth-godin-james-altucher-noah-kagan/
Yeah definitely, 100%.
Oh well.. Worth a shot and i guess you never know what the future holds!
http://notanotherstartupblog.com/how-to-get-reply-when-cold-emailing-seth-godin-james-altucher-noah-kagan/
I have been through the problem of being frightened of repeating e-mails.
“If I keep e-mailing they will remember my name, how annoying I am, and blacklist me from the community” – what a great false sense of entitlement I have!
I’m definitely a believer in people don’t care about you, they care about them.
One of my success stories was when I wanted a job for an agency. I noticed they had no head of marketing.
So i decided to apply….
I sent my C.V and a cover letter explaining how they didn’t have a head of marketing and I how I think they could benefit from it. I then sent them a 10 page pdf with screen grabs from their website listing the a/b tests I would run, why, and what results we’d expect to see if they hired me.
Turns out they still weren’t looking for a head of marketing, but they did hire me on a freelance basis to implement all the A/B tests I suggested.
I’ve tried this for other companies as well and haven’t heard back, I guess it’s time to get over my fear of follow-up!
Thanks for this article, gave me the little kick I needed!
Yeah Jordie, just re-send the email as if it never happened!
I’ve frequently cleared out my inbox just by “Select All –> Delete”, and unless something gets re-sent I’ll never see it. Go ahead and do it :)
My brother and I got together this weekend for my mom’s birthday and got to talking about our individual projects (me=relationship business, and him=amazon and hardware development). The conversation turned to some new companies we’ve been watching and the one thing that came up was how everything these companies did was deliberate. EVERYTHING!!!
It’s easy to stand back and blame it on luck or timing, but just like Sam says in the post. You can make it happen as long as you do your homework (understanding your customer) and make it happen (meet the customers needs).
I am in the process of restructuring the way my “product” is presented (website) so that it meets the needs of my customers. I have been compiling a list of influencers that I can get a hold of so that when I launch I can be deliberate about who helps to push my business to the next level.
Thanks for the strategies. I’ll be sure to save and use them soon.
Awesome Wade, so glad ya learned something to apply right away :)
Loved this. One thing that has worked for me is making sure your subject line sounds like a human. Make it clunky. So that people don’t think it is automated.
And make the request REALLY clear, such as: could I have a Nelville box please ????
Nice try ;-)
Wow!!! Awesome post!
I just sent several hundred cold emails and … I did it all wrong!!! Wow!!!
Awesome! I shared it with my people!!
Thanks so much for the post Sam and Neville!!!!
Besos from a dirtish bus in NYC!!!
Laura
Nice, hope this technique helps increase your conversions!
Great post filled with tons of actionable advice. I’ve been cold emailing for years to people, mostly those with sites I love or great articles, it almost always works out well when you start with the research. That is the most important part that most people lazy out on. Don’t be lazy!
Same goes for when pitching businesses, like Jason said above, you have to go in with something that’s not only different from the masses of emails they get, but something that’s awesome too. Spend 10 minutes on their site and point out specific things you can improve. Also I’ve learned to end my email with a yes or no question to make it really simple for people to respond.
I also use Yesware right in my Gmail to track who’s opened my emails and who hasn’t and you can set a reminder to follow up. It makes it really easy.
Oh nice tips Liz!
In the past I’ve done something similar where I would point out obvious (and super-easy) SEO-fixes they could make to improve their ranking. Stuff like changing a WordPress title or something anyone could do.
Thanks Liz!
Another suggestion is to send this magic email to follow up when you’re being ignored. I first heard of it from Kurt of themagicemail.com. It goes: “Since I have not heard from you on this, I have to assume your priorities have changed.”
It’s simple, intentionally vague and Kurt gets a 50% response rate. You might think “I can’t say that, it’s so rude!” but it works because of the principle of loss aversion. Try it, what have you got to lose when you’ve already been ignored for weeks?
Hmmm…..that MIGHT work for some people, but I personally wouldn’t do it as it seems a little bitchy and might burn a bridge.
I know when people email me with stuff like, “OH I GUESS YOU’RE SUCH A BIG SHOT YOU CAN’T RESPOND” or something along those lines, I definitely will no longer engage with them.
If I’m the whale (I’m not) and I got that it would instantly communicate to me that you’re guessing. It says so right in the word “assume”. Use it if you like I guess. If I’m someone who gets pitched on a constant basis, a line like that would turn me away.
Oh yeah it would DEFINITELY turn me away. I like Sam’s method of keeping it friendly like:
“….and if not, no sweat, we still love your company!”
I’d like to think that I’m pretty good at getting responses from cold e-mails.
I’d like to think that my networking skills are pretty decent.
I’d like to think that my follow up is better than most people’s.
I have been humbled.
Sam Parr, you are a master of your craft, and I bow to thee in complete humility. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
And NeVille? Thank you for sharing Sam.
ha thanks friend. I’m sure you’re kickass as well.
No prob, this was a pretty cool method right!
I especially think it’s impressive that it’s literally thanks to this he got all these cool speakers to speak at a new conference.
LOVE this stuff. I’m such a big fan of out of the box GIFs, short value-add messages, endless followup, etc. I haven’t heard about HustleCon before this, I’m interested….
Checkout HustleCon, I loved it. ALSO Sam did a blog post about how he threw the first HustleCon (which for a 1st conference was like 450+ people)!!
http://nevblog.com/hustlecon-2014/
And Scott Britton’s cold email course has a ton of other tools to help with finding emails.
I know Scott!!
i do love the Sam/Neville style email format but Andrew’s IYH course has a nice simple template which works wonders also. I’m using a mixed approach to email guests for my podcast and i’m getting good results ( a fair bit of startup founders have agreed to come on the podcast and i’m a complete unknown :) .Hopefully, i’ll be able to connect with Africa’s richest man and interview him someday ). As always keep up the awesome work guys.
P.S. I use sellhack.com and find emails that work approx 80% of the time without the guess wrk
Awesome, thanks for the site recommendation Chi!
alwways a pleasure Nev.
Awesome Chi!
Which Podcast?
We should connect. I am recording the Growth Hacking podcast.
Email me pls at lauramorenocabanillas@gmail.com
Xxx
Laura
Sent you the email
I’ve used cold-emailing to build my business for about the last 10 years. It’s one of the easiest, most effective strategies that is the most underutilized, IMO.
I’d like to add a couple of things here… If I’m trying to break into a specific niche or make contacts in a specific niche then I create something of value that can be customized for them. Example: a short analysis of their website in PDF with graphics or even video.
Let’s say I want to add Accountants for my funnel creation service (yes, they can be used for service business!).
I create a very basic, boilerplate 3-minute video that talks about my services.
I go to http://www.limeleads.com and search for ‘Accountants’ and I buy all the leads (they come with SNAIL mail addresses as well as email and that’s good because sometimes I do a postcard follow-up).
Then, I write 5 emails. The first one is basically this: “I analyzed your site and pointed out a few places I thought could get you more leads for your service. Problem is… I don’t know exactly who to send the (video/PDF) to. Can you help?”
The other four are various creative follow-ups.
But… at this point I haven’t made any specific videos. I just have the basic one… If they respond THEN I do a short 2-minute walkthrough, combine the two pieces into one video and send it off. (Don’t let video freak you out… you could easily do the same with a short pdf and paste in screenshots).
By doing this, I can send out hundreds of emails per day to prospects and ONLY create custom videos (or PDFs) to those who show interest.
Jason
P.S. You can use http://www.limeleads.com and QuickMail.io as a pretty awesome combo… put the leads you get from LimeLeads into QuickMail and it’ll execute the initial email plus follow-ups on your schedule. If the person replies QuickMail is smart enough to stop the follow-up emails. Nifty, eh? Feel free to email me with questions.
Jason, that was awesome!!
The video idea is great, never thought of that!
Very NevBox-worthy comment ;)
-Nev
I want a NevBox!!!!! Give it to meeee (not scary, right?)
This was great. I think stalking and sending multiple follow up emails are under rated. Many people are too afraid to send multiple followups.
There’s been many times when I’ve cleared my inbox, basically EXPECTING that important emails will be re-sent more than once, so I agree!
Link to hustlecon at the end isn’t working. Need to add http://. You can delete comment after fixing.
FIXED! Thanks Robbie :)
Sam’s way of inviting guests is so powerful that not only did he get me say ‘yes’ to Hustle Con, but frankly, I would say ‘yes’ to pretty much anything he asked me to be a part of.
Andrew Warner and Sam Parr gay relationship: CONFIRMED!!
Hahahah
Haha. Yeezus. Freakin’ Nev, you crack me up.
Andrew – will you marry me?
Andrew – Not without at least 3 prenups when you’re dealing with Sam “Hustle-Muscle” Parr
I won’t marry you, but I will French kiss ideas like: http://www.hustlecon.com/boss/
BAHAHAHHA!!! That page is AMAZING!
I just got to second base with Andrew Warner.
You should take a look at the new conference he is putting together. It’s called “Con Con” lol.