Thought cold emailing was spam until I tried it right

I was running a small landscaping business in Denver and hated the idea of cold emails. Felt like I'd just be bothering people. But then I read a post about targeting specific neighborhoods with a local offer. I sent 50 emails to homeowners mentioning free mulch delivery and got 8 responses in one week. Still feels weird to send cold emails but the numbers don't lie. Anyone else have a tactic they thought was garbage until it actually worked?

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fiona_johnson823mo ago

Man that's a great example right there. I had the same kind of turnaround with cold emails for my pressure washing side gig. Used to think it was all junk mail until I tried sending just 30 emails to people who had posted on Nextdoor about dirty driveways. Offered a "first wash free" deal and got 5 jobs out of it. The trick is making it feel less like a sales pitch and more like a neighborly heads up. Kept it short, mentioned I was working in their area anyway, and that got way more replies than any fancy template I tried.

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irishenderson3mo ago

Honestly I used to think that whole "neighborly heads up" thing was just a gimmick people put in sales books. But reading your story with the Nextdoor posts and the "working in your area anyway" line... yeah, you just completely changed my mind. That approach makes it feel like a real favor, not a spammy pitch. I can see how mentioning you're already nearby takes away that desperate call center vibe. It's like you're offering help instead of hunting for work. Makes me wonder why more guys don't think to tie it to something local and specific like that.

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