Finally, into my inbox came the email I’d been waiting for.  

It was late summer of 2015. 

Four months ago, I had quit my safe full time job to start my own business.

That email I was waiting for was a reply to a cold sales email I’d sent a few days before to Selena Soo, founder of Impacting Millions. 

She had said yes. 

We were getting on a sales call the next day. 

Over the next year, I worked on Selena’s team as a copywriter. It was the best education on writing copy and running an online business. 

All because of a cold email. 

Cold emails can be your business’ best growth strategy. I’d know. 

Over the last 8 years, cold emails have been my #1 marketing strategy and have connected me with cool folks like Copyhackers, Noah Kagan, and Brooke Scott. 

Before we dive in, let’s start off with a definition, shall we? 

Cold Emails: What They Are And The 7 Types

Cold email: an email sent to a stranger asking them to take the specific action you want them to take.

There are two broad categories of cold emails: 

1. Cold sales email: pitch a prospect to work with you 1:1
2. Partnership pitch email: pitch someone to gain access to their audience

Hang tight, we’ll get to partnership pitch emails in a second. 

The 7 types of cold emails are:

• Swap, like a lead magnet swap
• Webinar or workshop pitch
• Podcast guest pitch
• Asking an expert for a quote or input
• Guest blog post
• Affiliate, referral, or revenue-based partnership cold email
• And of course, the cold sales email

Why You Should Use Cold Emails In Your Business (Or Why They’re Da Bomb)

There are two big reasons why cold emails grow your business quickly:

1. Control over your lead generation
2. 1:many exposure of borrowing someone else’s audience

Reason #1: Control Over Your Lead Generation

Simply put, a cold email gives you control over who you’re working with and on what project. 

Here’s what a cold sales email looks like:

This cold sales email was one that I wrote for a client that got a 33% uplift in positive replies, the conversion metric we were aiming for. 

Notice how this email nudges the reader towards the next step in the sales process: getting on a call. 

When you send a cold sales email to sign a new 1:1 client, you’re hand-picking that client and pre-qualifying them long before a sales call.

This strategy has a twofold advantage: 

1. You get to work with clients that fire you up vs settling for any client that happens across your website and 
2. Increase your prices and know your new client can afford you vs crossing your fingers you won’t get a lead with a super low budget.

Suddenly you’re captaining your own ship instead of being tossed about by the waves, prone to any fancy the winds choose to blow down upon you.

You pick a client. You decide if they’re right for you. 

And with those actions, you feel in charge and confident.

As Dale Carneige said, “Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage.”

Clients are immensely attracted to confidence and courage. Because they’re looking to you to solve their problem.

Reason #2: 1:Many Exposure With Partnerships

Borrowing someone else’s audience is the door to big growth. 

What unlocks that door is a cold email.

More specifically, a cold partnership pitch email where you’re asking a potential partner if they’d like to partner with you.

Here’s an example of a partnership pitch where I asked Kaleigh Moore, an ecommerce writer, to do a lead magnet swap with me:

Partnerships are the secret of 7 and 8-figure entrepreneurs. Because they are more bang for your one cold email. 

Instead of sending a 1:1 cold email and getting one new client, you’re sending a 1:1 cold email and getting access to their audience which is a room full of people — ahem, potential new clients — who could use your help.

For example, let me take you back to the summer of 2021. 

Over those three months, I had a 39% increase in revenue and a 237% increase in my email subscribers…

… all from partnerships I was doing that summer. 

The time investment you spent in crafting and sending that cold email gets you recurring clients. 

Think of a partnership as opening a window into your business that new leads enter into. Each new partnership is throwing open a new window that never closes. 

Partnerships Get You More ROI For Your Time Investment

The heyday of ads is past.

Now it’s more expensive to run Facebook ads. According to Revealbot, the average Cost per Lead (CPL) is about $9. 

With cold emails, the story is different. 

In 2022, I got an average of 20.5 new email subscribers per partnership. For $0. 

Social media is also in a bad state. 

Twitter is on the rumored brink of bankruptcy. Organic reach of posts on Instagram and LinkedIn are declining. 

Smart business owners are looking for new ways of lead generation. 

For example, one of my mentorship clients had been posting consistently on LinkedIn for the past three years. Lately, he’s seen the reach decline on his posts.

Thanks to using cold emails and partnership pitches, he’s made $12,000+ from cold emails. 

He’s opened up 3 new referral relationships, and signed one repeat client who can’t get enough of working with him.

Now he has a reliable method of getting new clients that’s not dependent on an algorithm or another CEO’s faulty decision making.

How To Use Cold Emails In Your Business

There are two ways to use cold emails in your business:

1. Send cold sales emails to sign new 1:1 clients
2. Send cold emails to pitch partnerships with fellow entrepreneurs who aren’t competitors and serve your audience in a different way.

Brooke and I connected because she helps my audience — solo entrepreneurs and service providers — with the systems and processes side of running a business. And I help with lead generation and getting clients. 

We’re solving different problems for the same audience.

A natural win-win partnership. 

How Cold Emails Fit Into Your Marketing Strategy

Sure, you can use cold emails in conjunction with other types of marketing (i.e., content marketing, social media, podcasting, blogging, YouTube channel).

Or you can skip those methods — they can be huge time sucks and lead to burnout — and just use cold emails and win-win partnerships as your only marketing method, like I do.

This featured article is brought to you by Laura Lopuch, Cold Email & Pitch Expert.

Laura Lopuch is a cold email maverick. She helps service providers and solopreneurs send cold and pitch emails that get new clients without the sleaze or big-time suck.  

Four months after launching her business, she grew it by 1400% and signed a $20,000 client from just cold emails. She has since helped her clients get their next big $10k or $25k client with cold emails, using her powerful ‘The Relevancy Method.’ 

Laura wrote a viral article for Copyhackers and has been featured on highly-ranked outlets like The Fizzle Show, Copy Chief Radio, CrazyEgg, and Unbounce. She has also spoken at conferences like MicroConf and Shine Bootcamp. 

>>> Get her FREE two pitch email templates here.

>>> Grab the Cold Email Toolkit for $27 here. Book new freelancing or consulting 1-1 clients with non-sleazy cold emails using the proven Cold Email Toolkit system. This resource is great for folks who have never sent a cold email before… or are working under a tight budget.

>>> Join the Cold Email Cash Flow Method here. Laura’s proven on-demand, self-paced signature course to help solopreneurs get new clients using cold sales emails. This is the exact system Laura used to grow her business 14x in 4 months and sign a $20,000 client. This is designed strictly towards service providers and includes in-depth training on how to find the person to cold email.

>> Join the Growth Multiplie Mentorship here. This is Laura’s mentorship where you will work closely together to get you using cold emails to consistently get new clients… in a way you love. The goal is to get you $3-6k/month in new clients in the first 90 days. Inside the mentorship, you get direct 1:1 asynchronous access to Laura and 2x group coaching calls a month with the other cool folks inside.

Connect with Laura on Instagram here.

Head to Laura’s website here to learn more.