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Ethical Cold Outreach

blog.val.town

51–57 of 57 posts

Re: Ethical Cold Outreach

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's still not cool. Don't do it. So nobody is allowed to try to contact you about any product or service they genuinely think you might be interested in?

Yes! Finally you get it! Not once in my entire 40 years on this planet has a single ad or cold outreach been welcome. Every single one is full of lies and partial information that is vastly inferior to me going out and researching products that I want. I don't care what you think I'll be interested in. I might be, but you're too biased for me to trust you to give me reliable information about the product. Leave me al…

That’s fine for you but if you’re extrapolating that to everyone then… well you’re wrong. Otherwise people wouldn’t still be doing it.

Otherwise you’re just stating your preferences to internet strangers who have no idea who you are. What else don’t you like, pineapple on pizza?

Re: Ethical Cold Outreach

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about if I'm interested in going out and getting something I look it up on my own time? Just don't tell me about it.

Congratulations, you just confirmed the need for SEO in all its forms.

Lmao “if I need it I’ll just Google it and give my business to whoever paid the most to show up on the first page, thankfully those people don’t also spend tons on advertising too”

Re: Ethical Cold Outreach

#54
post #23

The comments on cold outreach on HN are always going to be negative. I assume the majority of us here are developers and go to insane lengths to block "spammers". That said, even YC (can't find the exact Dalton + Michael episode) encourages cold outreach. If it didn't work, people wouldn't still be doing it.

Yeah, wish I’d ignored them sooner. “Spammers” don’t care if they bother people with offers that have no potential to benefit them. But actual entrepreneurs wanting to serve people with their products need to know that cold outreach is essential to get off the ground, and that they should fiercely ignore the people that call it spamming.

Re: Ethical Cold Outreach

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well unless you disconnect from the internet, sign off of every social platform, run your email off a whitelist, there's no way for you to actually enforce this. The best you will ever be able to do is (try to) ignore unwanted communication.

No, the best I will ever be able to do is get someone fined or fired for their actions. The more common scenario is that I waste more of their time than my own.

His bio checks out.

Re: Ethical Cold Outreach

#56
post #45
post #23

The comments on cold outreach on HN are always going to be negative. I assume the majority of us here are developers and go to insane lengths to block "spammers". That said, even YC (can't find the exact Dalton + Michael episode) encourages cold outreach. If it didn't work, people wouldn't still be doing it.

Cold outreach is the only way I found to actually find users early on. No amount of blogs or social media stuff will get you users. I had a product that got thousands of views from a Reddit post. Out of those, literally 0 clicked anywhere besides the page they landed on. I've been #2 on Product Hunt, 0 have actually used the product after clicking into it the first time. Most products have a very tiny customer base,…

[flagged]

Re: Ethical Cold Outreach

#57
post #45
post #23

The comments on cold outreach on HN are always going to be negative. I assume the majority of us here are developers and go to insane lengths to block "spammers". That said, even YC (can't find the exact Dalton + Michael episode) encourages cold outreach. If it didn't work, people wouldn't still be doing it.

Cold outreach is the only way I found to actually find users early on. No amount of blogs or social media stuff will get you users. I had a product that got thousands of views from a Reddit post. Out of those, literally 0 clicked anywhere besides the page they landed on. I've been #2 on Product Hunt, 0 have actually used the product after clicking into it the first time. Most products have a very tiny customer base,…

You are on point with what you have just said, and I agree with that as well. Other than that, the most important part, if you have to get the right users, is the right targeting, which is not in most of our control. If you are doing it on Reddit, product, and/or even news hacker as well, right now hyper-targeting is really important so that people can relate to it. Everywhere, they are already seeing the marketing. That is why ads work the best, because you can target the exact audience you want.

Even with the AI thing, I think YouTube and Instagram models are improved so much that they are now taking your content to the right audience, unlike before. They used to serve it to random 10 people, then used to see the engagement, and then improve on that. Now they are on different paths where they are doing psychology- and interest-based targeting, and cold outreach does exactly the same. Even if it is the slowest, it is the most powerful as well, one of the most powerful.

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