Getting replies only matters if the campaign makes sense for your business. In this 78-second video, Ali runs the five checks that answer “should I run cold email?” before you spend on it, whether you’d run it yourself or hire a done-for-you cold email service.
Is cold email right for my business?
Run five checks: return on investment, total addressable market, who you sell to, who follows up, and your offer. Each one can rule cold email out on its own, so it’s worth going through all five.
| Check | The question | What passes |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Return on investment | How many deals a month justify the retainer? | Enough value per customer to cover it |
| 2. Total addressable market | How many companies could buy from you? | At least 30,000 in your primary market |
| 3. Who you sell to | SMB, mid-market or enterprise? | SMB or mid-market |
| 4. Who follows up | Who replies to the leads? | A sales function that’s ready to |
| 5. The offer | Has it worked through cold email? | Tested, or ready to be tested |
1. Does the return justify the retainer?
Work out how many opportunities you’d need to close each month to justify what a done-for-you service costs. Which number to measure depends on your price point:
- Low-ticket products, say $100 a month: look at the lifetime value of a customer, not the first payment.
- High-ticket products, where an average contract is $5,000 to $10,000: look at average contract value.
Then divide the monthly retainer by that value. The answer is how many deals a month it takes to pay for itself.
2. Is your total addressable market big enough?
You need a TAM of at least 30,000 companies in your primary market. That market can be the United States or any other country. How to build a TAM list for free shows how to count yours, with lookalikes of your best customers or with filters.
3. Do you sell to SMB or mid-market companies?
Cold email works best when you’re selling to SMBs or mid-market companies. Ali’s example: a bookkeeping service selling to businesses across the United States. For teams selling to enterprise, our other service is an agentic GTM system, usually starting with call-ready leads for your SDRs: researched decision makers your team can call.
4. Is someone ready to reply and follow up?
If you have a sales function that’s ready to reply to and follow up with these leads, there’s a higher chance of converting through cold email. Every interested reply needs someone on your side to answer it.
5. Has your offer been tested through cold email?
If it has and you’re looking to scale, the checks above are what’s left to confirm. If you don’t know yet whether your offer will work through cold email, we can run a test campaign for you for an entire week, complimentary: apply below. Before you hire anyone, Ali’s four things to prepare before hiring a cold email agency covers the ICP, pain points, lead magnet and call to action an offer is built on.
Questions
How do I work out the ROI of cold email?
Start from how many opportunities you need to close each month to justify the retainer. For a low-ticket product, say $100 a month, value each customer by lifetime value; for high-ticket contracts of $5,000 to $10,000, use average contract value. Divide the monthly retainer by that value to see how many deals pay for it.
Who is cold email best for?
Teams selling to SMB and mid-market companies, with at least 30,000 of them in their primary market, a sales function ready to follow up, and enough customer value to justify the cost. Ali's example is a bookkeeping service selling to businesses across the United States.
Does cold email work for enterprise sales?
Ali's check is that cold email works best when you're selling to SMBs or mid-market companies. For teams selling to enterprise, we build an agentic GTM system instead, usually starting with call-ready leads: the right decision makers, found and researched, delivered to your SDRs to call.
Do I need a sales team for cold email?
You need someone ready to reply to and follow up with the leads it brings in. With a sales function in place, Ali says, there's a higher chance of converting through cold email.
How can I test whether my offer works through cold email?
Run a test campaign before committing. If your TAM is over 30,000 companies in your primary market and your offer hasn't been tested through cold email yet, we can run a campaign for you for an entire week, free. Apply through the booking page.
Read the video transcript
Should I run cold email for my business? Here are five checks to help you answer that question.
Check number one, return on investment. […] So if you're selling a product or service that has low tickets, say $100 per month, you need to focus on the lifetime value of a customer. If you're selling a product or service that is high ticket, where an average contract is anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000, you need to focus on average contract value. And then sort of ask yourself, how many opportunities do I need to close in a month to justify the retainer that I'm paying for this done-for-you cold email service?
Check number two, total addressable market. You need to have at least a TAM of 30,000 companies in your primary market. Your primary market can be the United States or any other country in the world.
Check number three, who do you sell to? Cold email works best if you're selling to SMBs or mid-market companies. Think bookkeeping services selling to businesses across the United States.
Check number four, who would respond to these opportunities? If you have a sales function inside of your company that is ready to reply and follow up with these leads, there's a higher chance for you to convert via cold email.
And last but not the least, the offer. If you already have an offer that you've tested via cold email and you're just looking to scale, you should definitely reach out. But if you don't know for sure whether or not your offer is going to work via cold email, we can run a test campaign for you for an entire week, complimentary. DM or comment "offer" to know more, or simply click on the first link in the comment section to book a meeting.
Lightly edited for clarity.