Hit a wall with cold emails until a friend in Portland showed me a new approach

I spent the last 3 months sending out cold emails and getting almost no replies. A buddy of mine who runs a small ad agency in Portland told me to stop selling and start asking questions instead. I rewrote my emails to just offer a free tip or ask about their biggest problem, and my reply rate went from 2% to nearly 15% in two weeks. Has anyone else tried flipping their cold email strategy like this, or do you stick with a more direct pitch?

2 comments

2 Comments

miles5811mo agoMost Upvoted

Wait hold up, 2% to 15% in TWO WEEKS? That's crazy. I've been stuck at like a 3% reply rate for months sending polished pitch emails and honestly thought that was just normal. Your Portland buddy might be onto something though, most people I email probably get 50 pitch emails a day so asking a real question probably stands out like crazy. Did you change anything else in your subject lines too or just the body copy?

uma_baker881mo ago

Gotta admit I was the same way for like a year. I had this whole polished template with stats and social proof and thought that's what you're supposed to do. But after seeing zero growth for months I finally tried just asking a dumb question about their process in the first sentence. Subject line stayed the same. Body went from three paragraphs to two sentences. First week my reply rate hit 8% and I almost fell out of my chair. Now I basically write emails like I'm texting a friend who might actually know something I don't.