How I booked our first meetings doing cold emailing

When we started cold emailing alongside cold calling, the goal wasn't to replace cold calls or magically generate millions of leads like some LinkedIn gurus claim. Rather, the aim was to complement our existing efforts and maybe add one or two more leads per week by leveraging cold emails.

Like many who begin with cold emailing, our initial attempts were far from perfect. We didn’t bombard 10,000 people with generic messages because we value quality over quantity. We knew that if the messaging was off, we’d be burning through potential prospects—making a bad impression at scale.

So, we started small, sending 100 outreach emails per week, targeting decision-makers at mid-size companies. Unfortunately, the first few weeks led to nothing but crickets.

The Turning Point: Adjusting the Strategy

After the initial lack of results, I spent a weekend binge-watching cold email best practices. When I started hearing the same advice over and over, I knew it was time to implement the most important changes:

1. Push Case Studies First: We led with case studies, showcasing how our clients had achieved tangible results using our product. This social proof helped establish trust quickly.
2. More Personalized Emails: Rather than relying on generic templates, we personalized our emails based on the prospect’s industry and specific pain points.
3. Narrower Targeting: We refined our targeting even further. Instead of just targeting mid-size companies in Belgium, we focused on hospitals in Belgium and used results from similar clients to agitate their pain points and present our solution.

The Results: Less is More

We launched this revised campaign in the middle of summer, targeting only 34 contacts instead of the usual 300. The results were surprising:

• 12.5% response rate (up from 1%)
• 3 interested prospects
• 1 booked meeting

This was a huge improvement from our earlier 0% response and meeting rate. We learned three key lessons:

• Scaling cold email requires effort: It’s not about sending mass emails. It's about crafting highly targeted, hyper-personalized emails that resonate with your audience.
• Less is more: Narrowing your focus allows for more specific messaging, which boosts engagement. However, automation still plays a role in follow-ups.
• Integration with Cold Calling: Cold calls become much more effective when reps have hyper-specific messaging from the email campaigns. Syncing the email system with the CRM ensures the team has a cohesive approach.

Challenges with New Vertical Campaigns

Naturally, we wanted to replicate this success in other verticals. However, the challenge came when our client didn’t have case studies to support these new niches. Without concrete results to showcase, we were left with vague claims, leading to zero conversions.

This taught us the importance of having strong case studies to drive conversions. Buyers are looking to transform their businesses, and they need proof that your product can help them achieve meaningful results. Case studies are that proof.

“Buyers want to transform their business in a meaningful way. Case studies are proof that you can help them transform. Sales helps put together projects prior to purchase, while marketing communicates these successes to the market, providing solutions to problems in a written form.”

Final Takeaways

Cold emailing, when combined with cold calling, remains a powerful channel to drive results—but only when done correctly. The key is to do the opposite of what most people do: focus on quality, not quantity, and make sure your messaging is precise.

Cold emailing is about more than just sending an email or making a call. It’s about conveying value in three lines or 30 seconds—and this assumes you’ve nailed your targeting.

This experience highlights the fundamentals of our approach:

• Targeting matters: You can’t convince someone in an email or call if you’re not reaching the right people.
• The message is everything: Your subject line, body copy, and CTA need to be clear and concise, providing value instantly.

Scaling your sales through cold emailing isn’t just about automation or mass outreach. It’s about strategy, precision, and constant iteration to get the messaging and targeting just right.

If you have any questions about our approach to cold emailing or want to learn more, feel free to reach out to alex@profitbl.com.

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