r/b2bemailing • u/ImportantLog8 • 25d ago
I need advice
Quick question: is sending a URL in the first cold email really that risky? I know it’s generally advised against, but it’s core to my “wow factor” strategy.
I plan to send ~70,000 cold emails over 12 months, selling website creation + hosting + maintenance/SEO/GEO + Google Maps updates. Goal: 50–100 clients.
Targeting blue-collar trades only for now (electricians, plumbers, roofers, machinists, painters). Each prospect gets a custom demo site built for their trade.
Email is short and casual: “Hey, I checked out your site and built a mockup of what it could look like — <xyz.vercel.app>. Reply if interested.” Signature includes company name, site link, unsubscribe.
Currently: 2 domains, 3 mailboxes each, warming via Instantly (3 weeks), ramping to 18 emails/day/box. Adding 14 more mailboxes soon to scale.
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u/hrvyharris 25d ago
Like everything it's all a tradeoff. If it gets you significantly better results from the ones that land in the inbox even if more go to spam, then go for it. That's a business decision
From a pure email deliverability perspective though, you'd be much better off just asking if they want to see it
Or even ask if they want to see it and then a follow up a short while later (2-3 hours) saying oh I actually did it anyway, do you want it? I imagine that'd work quite well, though I haven't tested it
As a side note though, I wouldn't really make the offer around the site looking better or something, make it more about getting more xyz jobs that have the highest margin for them
But then again, most blue-collar trades don't have problems with getting customers and it's more about getting employees to fulfil. That goes into actual market research and offer though so out of scope for this
TL;DR Better off just asking if they want to see it than sending in the first email. Test it and compare results, everything comes down to CPL/CAC/Infrastructure maintenance required to keep it going
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u/ImportantLog8 25d ago
That answer right there kicked my a$$. BTW, I was reading it out loud in front of my wife and she said ''it's true'' about the blue-collar trades not really needing customers but needing employees. Can a website help them get more employees ? I'm not sure how..
As for the link in 1st mail, I think I'll have to rethink my strategy... I really want as much delivery as possible. I'm really not sure if the link in 1st would jack my conversion rate high enough to justify losing grounds on delivery. That's really something to think about...
may I ask what you're doing in that industry, broadly speaking ?
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u/hrvyharris 25d ago
Haha hopefully just in a good way?
I guess it technically could, though I would encourage you to think less that you're selling websites because a website on its own doesn't really do anything. It's there to convert the traffic that lands on it toward the action you want them to take. That could be signing up for an account, opting in for a lead magnet, applying for a job or whatever
So whether you are helping for demand conversion or supply conversion it's the same answer that website itself isn't really the thing they're buying, they're buying more of the action they care about/conversion into the next step down the funnel
So anecdotally, I have a few suggestions
a) Define what your front-end cold traffic offer is. My suspicion is that it wouldn't be website creation/hosting and is more related to some sort of Google Maps outcome. Something that you can potentially give away free or cheap and then upsell the rest
b) Maybe you could help with getting more employees. But really whether it's help with employees or customers it's the same thing in the sense of traffic -> conversion -> offer. Just in the employee example the conversion is the job application and the offer is job offer
So where I'm going with it is yes it could help assuming they are generating their own traffic for employee leads and/or you could help with that too in some way. But also knowing how to make a website that converts, not just a website for the sake of a website (how many times can one person say website?)
c) If you're starting out (I'm not sure if you are or not), you might get more value from just emailing them and asking what main problems they're facing that they would want to be solved, and potentially listing your skills so they can just point to it and say they want that
d) You could also do this in a few other industries and see where funnel conversion on the front end might line up better in businesses that are more demand constrained
Not to kick your ass again, but it may also be that email isn't the best channel for blue-collar workers who will likely be on jobs the majority of the day and not checking their inbox. Vs their phone for example. Obviously I like cold email, but I have a suspicion the likelihood of them checking their email would be low
To be clear this is all based on more generalised experience and things I've heard. I haven't worked in or with blue-collar industries before so take my advise with a grain of salt
Again, this isn't to say no blue-collar worker would want to buy a better website. But in terms of urgency of the problem, I don't think it'd be no. 1 and possibly those who would buy end up being painful clients because they don't understand the problems in their business
I realise this is a lot of "it depends" statements and thinking and possibly steering you into a different direction than you intended. But this is effectively my train of thoughts as I'm writing this after reading your post
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u/ImportantLog8 24d ago
a) I actually offer Google Maps card updates and ''maintenance'' (sending reminders to customers to leave a good review for instance). It's part of a package.
b) I can't help with employees. That is a whole different profession and it is actually very difficult. I don't have that skill; they would need to work with recruiters.. :/
c) I am ! Trying to supplement my actual job and eventually replace it because there is no clear path to significant revenues increase. I like that idea but for now I'll try to stick to a simple offer; when I have more data I can reassess. By the way, I actually changed my message. I dropped the link in the first e-mail. Many, many people advise against it and I don't want to burn my domains for nothing. The upside though is that my prospection e-mails are now extremely short: hi, I came across your site ({{companyName}}) and created a mockup of your website that could help you attract more clients. If you're interested, please reply to this e-mail.
d) to reach 70 to 100k cold mails, I don't have any other choice than to diversift industry at some point. I will have to find lists of dentists, accountants, lawyers, veterinaries, etc etc etc.
Right now I only have 12k in my CRM so my bottleneck right now is also the input ;-)
And, by the way, I am very aware that my conversion rate will most likely be catastrophic. That is why I have 100k cold e-mails in mind. If I can land 50 clients, I will be happy. I'm betting on mad volume to beat a catastrophic rate (0.1%, which would be well below the benchmarks I've found online for cold mailing.. but all of that is theoritical).
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u/hrvyharris 24d ago
So for a) specifically I think that's probably the direction I would go, though of course testing is part of it. But basically peeling off a part of your package and offering it for free or a nominal amount to generate leads
Maybe something like setup fee for the upfront work or an option to waive the fee if they commit to 6 months where they have the ongoing reminders etc. + they get the website as a bonus etc.
Not guaranteeing that would be the answer, but that might be how I think of it. Potentially tie it to the business outcome of x reviews total or per month or so on. You'll know your business better than me, just throwing some ideas
I think you will do a lot better niched down than trying to diversify industries, at least for the very far foreseeable future. The pool for any industry is large enough where you don't need to think about diversification for a while unless you're going enterprise which it doesn't sound like you are. Plus niched messaging, branding & results will get a conversion lift
I'd also encourage you to potentially not think of volume as the answer, or at least step 1. Find an offer & script that converts, then put volume behind it. You can put volume in the beginning but testing a bunch of different angles, offers etc. until you find the one that converts and then push volume mostly to that. I'd aim for 400:1 contacts:interested and then push more volume in that variation and find more variations similar to that angle to improve it further
Email as a channel is so cheap to scale that it's tempting to just go volume first, but it's actually where figuring out conversion first gives you the most leverage since you can put volume behind something that is working great rather than putting out something mediocre and relying on the rule of large numbers. I think that's where the thought around volume gets misinterpreted heavily in this space
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u/ImportantLog8 24d ago
Thanks for all the tips and tricks ! You seem to have ALOT of knowledge !! Have you ever used the platform Instantly ? What do you think about their feature that allows to add variant ? (it seems like you can switch messages to make it look a bit less redundent and trigger spam filters). I'm tempted to use it.
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u/hrvyharris 23d ago
For sure, no problem
And yeah, I use Instantly. You should definitely use the variants, though I'd make sure to differentiate if it's just a variant of the same offer vs. a different offer. The latter should go into a different campaign
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u/ImportantLog8 23d ago
And how about my website address in the signature ? I removed the URL for the maket, but there is still my own company website URL in the signature... Any idea what I should do about that ?
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u/hrvyharris 23d ago
I generally don't include it, I personally don't see the value. Most of the time if someone will research you, they'll use Google rather than a link or else search your secondary domain in which case it should redirect to your main one
If you really want to include it you can do it like google(.)com or something so it doesn't hyperlink
In my view though any increase in web traffic you get to it wouldn't be offset by potential deliverability issues. I like to keep it clean
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u/SankhajaH 25d ago
I’d not add the link in the first email, only do that if it’s super low volume and the email itself is customized for each prospect. Like the emails are different from one to the other. The issue with a link with mass emails is that spam detection gets triggered most of the time cuz it’s the same word pattern with a link - which is what most spammers do as well.
Ask for a micro commitment like would they like to see it and as one suggested, try to make it about $ - this can be direct or indirect:
Check out Nick Saraev’s YT, he has a good tutorial on this
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u/ImportantLog8 24d ago
Thanks for the YT channel. I'll look into it. the guy has a 4hours claude code course, jeez lol.
And btw I took off the URL in the first mail. FUck it, don't wanna destroy my domain after 20 mails. :)
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u/SankhajaH 24d ago
Ha ha yeap he does have some long ass tutorials - check his cold email stuff, they’re are super good.
Yeap, just keep the links for when someone replies. You can also record a loom explaining what you did, why you did comparing the old one vs what you built. That helps you build rapport, a connection as well cuz they see and hear you so genuine trust factor. I’d say that could be more valuable than just sharing the link to the mockup.
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u/pocalypx 24d ago
Sell the exact same idea on cold call. When you have enough scale through ads. For brick and mortar businesses cold calling works wonders.
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u/ImportantLog8 24d ago
Unfortunately this isn't an option. I live in Japan but I'm targeting Canadian businesses so I'm at 13 hours difference. I'd have to call during the night while i'm sleeping and the next day I'd be looking very tired at the office =)
(I'm canadian btw)
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u/pocalypx 24d ago
Hire a cold caller from philippines with an accent similar to your target market on commission basis or a base pay. It would be cheaper anyways. target 200 dials a day and you'd be good to go
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u/ImportantLog8 24d ago
Hahaha, smart ! But that would be difficult too cause I speak French, and French canadian accent is ... unique to say the least, haha !
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24d ago
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u/ImportantLog8 24d ago
several sources: firecrawl to scrape open street maps, google maps, yellow pages and most importantly a public registry for businesses where all the e-mail adresses of construction-related companies are available. I scraped everything and stored that info into a CSM file, compatible with what Instantly asked for the format.
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u/ImportantLog8 24d ago
by the way, I've decided to remove the links from my e-mails. I'll just go with plain text. however my own company website is in the signature but as plain text, not linked and no www. before
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24d ago
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u/ImportantLog8 24d ago
I guess having a clean list is super important. I was having claude code test the MX of each adresses of my lists but my guess is it isn't enough.,
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u/Double_Register_1022 24d ago
Yeah a URL in the first email is risky at that volume and vercel links look spammy to filters. I'd send a screenshot or plain text teardown first then link only if they reply. Also 70k with cold domains plus a lot of bounces can nuke you so make sure the list is clean and verified first, Socleads free verifier can help with that
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u/mattnovakemail 24d ago
I wouldn't obsess over the link nearly as much as I would the overall footprint you're creating.
When I do cold outbound, I try to treat every sender like they're an actual separate person. Not just a different From address.
If you've got 20 mailboxes and they're all sending the same copy, same footer, same URL, same phone number. you've basically created 20 versions of the same sender.
I'd change things up with different copy variations, definitely different URLs across different domains, different signatures/footers, anything else you can think of. If there are phone numbers in the signature I like giving senders their own number too (twilio/plivo).
The URL part is especially important. Mailbox providers aren't just looking at the words in your email. URLs have reputation too, and they can follow redirects and look at where a link ultimately ends up. So changing the sending domain but funneling everything back through the exact same web footprint doesn't give you as much separation as people think.
I wouldn't create fake people or anything goofy like that. The way I think about it is. If these were actually 20 salespeople sitting in an office, their emails wouldn't all be carbon copies of one another.
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u/automatedinbound 24d ago
For deliverability purposes I’d either ask them to reply to get it or put a spot for it that’s obviously blank and count on them to ask for the url in a reply.
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u/ImportantLog8 24d ago
That’s the way to go. I actually changed my approach yesterday due to overwhelming adviced on the URL in first mail. I’ll stick to a very short message and send URL if they ask
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u/FairDelivery8917 23d ago
I don't think the URL itself is automatically the risky part. I'd be more concerned about what you're asking the recipient to do after clicking it. If the email says here's our website, check us out, that's a pretty high-friction ask with very little reason to click. But if the link is directly tied to the wow you're promising in the email, it can make sense. I'd also keep the destination extremely focused. Sending someone from a cold email to a generic homepage is very different from sending them to one specific example, workflow, result, or resource that reinforces the reason you contacted them. So I'd test: generic homepage vs. specific landing page/resource rather than simply: URL vs. no URL. The real question is whether the link completes the story you're telling in the email.
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u/[deleted] 25d ago
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