I'm looking into starting a small agency on the side where I help local contractors (plumbers, roofers, etc.) get more leads using AI-driven outreach. I've heard you can use AI to scrape data and then personalize cold emails at scale. Does anyone have a workflow for this that doesn't get your email marked as spam? What tools are best for finding verified business contacts?
3 answers
I've been doing this since mid-2023 for local HVAC companies. My stack is Apollo.io for finding the leads and Instantly.ai for the email warm-up and sending. I use a custom GPT to analyze the business's website and write a "first line" for the email that is hyper-personalized, mentioning a specific project they did or a review they received. This makes it look like I spent 20 minutes researching them personally. Local businesses appreciate the effort, and I usually get a 5-8% response rate, which is huge.
Rebecca, how do you handle the "pitch" once they reply? Are you selling them the leads directly, or are you charging a monthly management fee to run the whole automated system for them?
Automation is great, but don't forget the phone! I use AI to transcribe my discovery calls and highlight the pain points, which helps me close the deal faster.
Great point, Cheryl. Using AI for the "back-end" admin stuff like transcription saves so much time. Jordan, definitely focus on the personalization part of the outreach first!
Nathan, I prefer a hybrid model. I charge a small monthly "tech fee" to cover my software costs and then a commission for every qualified lead that books a consultation. It keeps me motivated to ensure the AI is actually finding high-quality prospects instead of just blasting thousands of random emails.