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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.