colind

tired of cold email

[colind @dorensaas]

Digital distribution is dying.

Rising CPMs, low response rates to cold emails, fierce competition, and endless tools that solve 99% of the same “problem”

all while intense competition erodes profits, are shrinking the pie, yet the number of players keeps growing.

A cycle driven by geopolitical tensions, the mass production of content via AI, and the democratization of coding and app development.

It’s time for other channels. Digital products aren’t products; physical methods of marketing and distribution will be on the rise (hear me out 2027)

That’s why William Lindholm is so successful, because he realized this early on and is still almost the only one who does.

(The stickers for camphire say “We’ll get you off,” a provocative German phrase that has already landed us a client :))

[colind @dorensaas]

$400M YRR, building apps over a weekend, a guy making $100k a month with cakes...

That’s all cool, and I don’t need to explain to anyone why Lovable is such a big deal.

Now here’s the uncomfortable truth:

No one. Needs. More apps.

Because in the end, it’s never about the product itself, but about spreading an idea

distribution.

Everyone is fighting for the same pie, in the truest sense of the word.

Everyone builds apps over a weekend and gets a quick dopamine hit.

I get it, it feels good to build an app that (somewhat) works.

But that’s not the point.

Visibility, attention, interaction, and reach are what 99% of these apps lack, and Lovable doesn’t seriously address any of them.

To be honest, they’re doing it very smartly: They provide the toolbox, but no results.

It’s the same thing Meta does with paid ads, or Shopify with e-com stores.

They’re the surface, not the ecosystem. And that works damn well.

But true quality doesn’t show up when you quickly build a nice app. You create true quality when your app gets users.

And that’s where 99% of them fail.

And honestly, I don’t see any player right now who has really solved that problem. No one who can build a good app and handle distribution effectively.

Understandable, given the 123+ different methods out there. Cold emails, paid ads, handing out stickers around town? Who’s going to teach them how to do it, if not the platforms themselves?

[colind @dorensaas]

There are 123 distribution methods, but you still stick to meta ads or organic content.

And you are where everyone else is: social media. But there’s so much more that could set you apart if you were just a little more open-minded.

My challenge for you: Instead of limiting yourself to purely digital distribution channels, why not try an analog model for 7 days?

Continue to run your paid ads if you want, but what I’ve listed below are models that go beyond that.

That’s exactly what we’re testing right now: Instead of cold emails, we’re running a campaign with physical letters. More expensive, but tangible, with less competition.

Stay tuned to see the results!

(hot take: Try sticking stickers with your company’s website in your town, it has the best CPM)

[colind @dorensaas]

Reply rates for cold emails are steadily declining, from approximately 8.5% in 2019 to around 2.5% in 2026.

This is a drastic drop, and you've probably experienced it yourself: when your campaigns simply aren't getting through. You hear a lot about deliverability and personalization to avoid this, but nobody seems to really know what actually works anymore.

As the owner of a cold email agency, I deal with this daily. I set up campaigns for my clients, analyze them, improve them, and monitor their performance. But what I was missing was a layer that cleanses, qualifies, personalizes, and optimizes my lead list, in other words, takes all the data from the campaign, ICP, and replies, and improves the system itself.

So I built an internal solution for this. First for my clients, then for myself, it had to be as easy to use as possible.

Specifically, the system allows you to take a lead list, simply pull your company data from your website, and then it runs automatically:

It disqualifies bad leads, writes personalized messages for the most suitable ones (based on current signals and tier scoring, deep research with 10+ data points), and iterates through all conceivable campaign data with the corresponding personalization scripts. It seamlessly integrates with instantly, smartleads coming soon.

It's essentially the vibe of cold emailing that I was missing.

We're achieving an average reply rate of 9.6% (previously around 6%) for 20 test accounts, and 50% more meetings booked, because it optimizes itself. The more data, the better it gets.

try it here: https://t.co/6Tz26pIZSy

(PS: for the full pipeline we also have free tools such as ICP parameter generator for apollo, followup generator and a response handler.)

[colind @dorensaas]

Mfs are building apps nobody wants

[colind @dorensaas]

Cold email reply rates have dropped 60% in 7 years, and most senders are making it worse.

There's increased competition, poor reply rates overall, and AI is making everything worse by learning from bad data. It simply doesn't create good emails.

Not to mention that lead quality itself has suffered, since everyone on Apollo is contacting the same person (it must be a nightmare being a marketing agency owner in the US with 10-50 employees; every AI identifies that as the average lead).

The problem isn't that cold email has more or less arrived in the mass market; the problem is the poor lead quality and filtering, the right, engaging, converting emails themselves, and the feedback loop, in other words, the learnings.

These are the three levers we need to pull.

And when I still get emails like: "Hi Colin, To give you more context, companies building sales tools choose us for three reasons...". Then I'm optimistic. Because with mass AI, the bar for being good seems to be lowered even further. Quality suffers, and so do reply rates.

Cold email isn't an end in itself, but a vehicle for closing B2B contracts. But even that shouldn't be correct.

Cold emails should NOT be:
- Pitching for a meeting (no one wants that)
- Mentioning random benefits
- Following up with "just checking in"
- Superficial research with AI "saw your post..."

A cold email SHOULD be:
- A friendly contact request
- Addressing something current that REALLY interests you
- Casually mentioning a relevant detail you solve (deep research + scoring, filter bad leads that doesnt show real intent patterns)
- No pressure to sell anything

Of course: That's what it's all about in the end. But it isn't built by simply listing blind benefits; it's built by establishing rapport and making contact, and THEN figuring out where and how to collaborate.

It's always a mutually beneficial partnership. Don't forget that.

[colind @dorensaas]

Vibe coding is gaming and Lovable makes billions from it

Sometimes you win (feature works),

sometimes you lose (hours of debugging)

Dopamine hit when you run a large prompt

Cortisol hit when you run the same prompt and get the same bugs

Super simple UI so even children can start with it

Don’t get me wrong, they democratized coding which is a good thing

But between running a prompt and building something truly unique are worlds.

Don’t fall for that

[colind @dorensaas]

Mfs played Minecraft back then are now addicted to Claude Code

[colind @dorensaas]

Here's our exact outbound setup. No Clay. No n8n.

1. Upload lead list csv
2. Every lead gets auto-researched, 10+ data sources
3. Tier scoring: does this company actually fit our offer + timing?
4. Bad fits get cut before a single email is written
5. Good fits get a unique email generated from the research
6. Pushed straight into Instantly
7. Multiple agents ready campaign data + prompts for the body + subject
8. Self iterates, activates/ deactivates prompts
9. daily + weekly reports with changes it made

Total human input: uploading the CSV and pressing start.

We run this for our own agency. Reply rates are between 10-20%.

The interesting part: disqualifying the bottom 50-75% of leads raised our reply rates more than improving the copy ever did.

Less sends. Better results. Healthier domains.

(meme generated with claude 🤣)

[colind @dorensaas]

cold email cult or something like that, it's about time for a fraud

[colind @dorensaas]

I still can't believe that ads and stuff like that actually work. I would never buy anything from them.

[colind @dorensaas]

People hate cold emails.

Who wants to get an email from a stranger trying to sell them something?

I get that stuff every day.

It's not that deep. Keep your targeting in mind, write relevant things, and you'll see.

[colind @dorensaas]

16% reply rate, 54 replies, 4 new clients (web design)
Run for a web design agency. This proves, quality over quantity. This was made using our own created qualification and personalization system (no clay).

[colind @dorensaas]

Not life changing but i feel so happy in the first month

[colind @dorensaas]

@Amank1412 Damn they really try

[colind @dorensaas]

Thoughts?
https://t.co/Lpk72V10ZR

[colind @dorensaas]

Haven‘t posted much lately because of life. What happend in three words?

[colind @dorensaas]

Sleep is king (Tier list)

8 hours - perfect
7 hours - good
6 hours - day will be fucked up
5 hours - good
4 hours - …
3 hours - today will be my last
2 hours - there is a city to safe
1 hour - finally start with sales
0 hours - trump is a good president

[colind @dorensaas]

good morning europe, ready to outrank the US today?