---
name: cold-outreach
description: Use this for first messages to strangers. DMs, email, LinkedIn, WhatsApp.
---

# Cold Outreach

## The Big Idea

Your first message has one job: earn a second message.

No price. No pitch. No links.
The stranger owes you nothing.

Everyone scans. Line one decides everything.

## The Moves

1. **Prove you looked.**
   "Noticed your shop has a 1-star right under your phone number."
   Real attention stops thumbs. Templates are invisible.

2. **Open a loop.**
   "Something about your listing makes this fixable. Most owners never
   hear what."
   A gap begs one reply to close it.

3. **Give value in message one.**
   One true, useful fact. Costs nothing. Flips you from taker to giver.

4. **Run a sequence, not spam.**
   Touch 1: what you noticed.
   Touch 2: teach one thing.
   Touch 3: show proof.
   Touch 4: apply it to them. Mention limited spots once, only if true.
   Touch 5: short offer.
   Every touch carries something new. "Just bumping this" is dead air.

5. **Know when to stop.**
   Two silent touches after the offer means park it. Come back in weeks.

6. **Copy their speed.**
   They answer in hours? You wait at least an hour.
   Never double-text the same day.

7. **Exit with an open door.**
   "Done, won't bother you. If it ever matters, reply AUDIT and I check
   your listing free."

## When It Backfires

- Links in message one. Reads like mass marketing. Gets reported.
- Fake deadlines anywhere. One lie poisons all five touches.
- Personal stuff (family, health). Talk business only.

## One-Line Memory

People ignore pitches. They remember someone who understood their situation
before asking for anything.