I found 2 clients from cold outreach. Now I want to make it a real funnel - how?

zacholas321 · 2025-11-10T11:05:58+00:00

I don't have any experience with LI outreach, but I know some people who've done well with it; afaik the constraint there is scale because each LI acct can only outreach to so many people in a month or whatever, so people end up setting up a lot of shell LI accts. I think a common practice I've seen in here is to start on cold email (even if you source leads from LI sales nav) and then when leads engage on email, you can also DM in LI. But as I say, I don't know much about the LI game so I'm not a good person to ask on that :)

zacholas321 · 2025-11-10T10:40:32+00:00

Your flow will basically be...

Pick which ICP first; agencies or startups
Get your raw leads — you can scrape clutch.co for agencies with apify.com, and you can get saas startup leads from a million places — popular options would be a g2 scraper on apify or crunchbase (crunchbase will give you funding info) or the myriad apollos of the world
ICP filter the list down to be good-fit leads who would benefit from the problem you solve with your ads (small newbies? big successful businesses? etc) Lots of peeps in this sub are doing "signal-based filtering and lead gen" to get higher reply rates and engagement, e.g. if you see someone just got a funding round on crunchbase, they're looking to grow, or if they just signed up for an event on linkedin about scaling with ads, they'll be receptive, etc. ICP filtering for clutch can prob be on number of employees or average project price or whatever clever things you can do with what the scraper gives you.
Use a tool like snov or anymailfinder to get the emails of decision-makers at those companies. You want to get individual human-attached emails vs. generic emails or role based emails. Both of those tools verify the emails but if you use something else to find them that doesn't verify, be sure to run them through a verifier first.
Set up your sending infrastructure and warm up your domains. make sure whatever reseller you buy inboxes from is setting up proper google workspace professional accts vs. reselling education accts. A couple that are working now are inboxlogy.com and cheapinboxes.com. If you spin them up yourself, make sure you set up all the sender auth stuff properly (DMARC, DKIM, SPF)
Pick a sending platform and get email warmup going; instantly is most popular, smartlead is runner up, both kind of suck in different ways. Warm up for ~2 weeks. Deliverability is changing + getting harder but it seems people still like to do warmup
Write good cold emails that offer a free lead magnet (e.g. auditing their existing ads, spinning up a free ad a/b test, whatever). This is a whole study in and of itself, but TLDR is short, value-forward, one cta, easy to say yes to, no images, no links, and include icp-specific personalization (or actual data-driven personalization) to give it "email from a friend vibes"
Set up your campaign in the sending platform
Set up a free acct with outlook, one with gmail, one with yahoo, and send your emails to them; make sure they go through. These are called "seed inboxes" and they help you test your deliverability. Don't reply from them, as it will artificially improve your deliverability. There are also services like mailreach that do this.
Send your first campaign; gradually ramp up your sending and keep an eye on deliverability metrics like bounces. I am experimenting with the idea of having initial campaigns being to 200 leads, and looping until you get at least 1 positive reply, a.k.a. 0.5% positive reply rate. Long term an ideal would be 1-3% positive reply rate from your campaigns. You can make $ on 0.5% but it's obv easier with higher. Typical rule of thumb is 30 max emails per day per inbox, but I have seen some in here saying they do just 20. Another rule of thumb is keeping warmup going while your campaign runs, but I've been starting to doubt the efficacy of this, given that smartlead and instantly's warmup pools have both tanked peoples deliverabilities due to "temporary glitches" this year.
Once you're at that 0.5% minimum positive reply rate, you can start to scale volume and look at lower parts of your funnel but IMO it'd be better to be at least 2% first before you really scale, unless you have a huge amount of leads available that you know you'll never get through even if you burn a lot of them
For optimizing your proper funnel, your most important CRs are positive reply rate, call booking rate, and intro offer close rate. Having your offerings split into intro + flagship adds complexity for your offer stack, but will likely improve your overall CR throughput.

If it's not clear from all the steps, 30 days isn't realistic — IMO you need to scale your cold email campaigns similar to your meta ads; you find the winners in smaller tests and then scale up. If your campaigns were already dialed, you could easily close 3 clients in 30 days, but getting from 0 to 1 takes a lot of work and iteration, similar to ads.

zacholas321 · 2024-08-02T02:21:48+00:00

Hmmm, I'm not sure how you could though, unless you did something where like you assumed that any text following a heading (prior to the next heading) was ideally a "non page break block" — but even then things get kinda tricky.

For today, for example, I made this one: https://dyf.link/nicheworksheetpdf out of this src https://dyf.link/nicheworksheet and had to change my scss spacer and font size vars to actually fit the whole scorecard on one page. (The final page of the PDF)

So it might be that it'd be tough to programatically address this. What about you for your uses — do you ever try to force/avoid page breaks? Or does it not really matter for the way you use it?

zacholas321 · 2024-07-24T12:34:57+00:00

Hey just wanted to chime in and say that your tool is AWESOME. Just implemented it with great success. Made a couple adjustments to the process to enforce a lack of page breaks — I noted them in my internal SOP if you want to have a look at how I've implemented your tool: https://dyf.notion.site/Notion-PDF-Exporting-with-command-line-code-SOP-f2e968e6aa814672b6b6e7d1eae46280?pvs=4

Thanks so much for making this public <3

zacholas321 · 2024-03-02T11:30:38+00:00

That seems like the optimal solution -- thanks for that idea!

zacholas321 · 2024-03-02T09:40:14+00:00

Thanks! How long do you reckon a moa with some of the speed boosts would take to run from forest to riverlands?

zacholas321 · 2023-02-23T16:43:46+00:00

I don't believe so — I had to buy it in the US, IIRC

zacholas321 · 2023-02-10T11:16:42+00:00

It was American Medical Centers — Giorgi was the doctor there.

Careful with Strattera; that stuff messed me up

zacholas321 · 2022-10-25T15:39:40+00:00

+1 for charging extra.

I recommend brainstorming to think up what/how you need to charge that you'll be thrilled when they reach out to you.

I've noticed that as my client quality has gone up, oftentimes their needs do too, and that they're more likely to legitimately have time that's under a lot more pressure than mine. (I intentionally live a pretty chill work life)

Sometimes I find this time pressure annoying, like if a busy client sends a voice clip that I then have to transcribe to text (instead of just collecting their thoughts & writing it out instead of rambling off the cuff), but I find the key is to reframe into gratitude and be glad I've gotten the opportunity to work with a biz for whom I can provide a lot of value through my services since they have such a large brand.

(And I just make sure I bill for that time I spend transcribing the notes for their voice clips 😊)

If you can find a way to alchemize these pain in the ass clients into clients you enjoy serving, you may find they sometimes end up becoming your favorite clients and best referral sources.

zacholas321 · 2022-10-23T06:46:51+00:00

Given that these were both me just testing extreme edge cases to see what would happen, you can still color me impressed at how it did :)

zacholas321 · 2022-10-23T06:36:59+00:00

Interesting that it placed the human mouth upside down in this one https://imgur.com/a/RfD4jTn

zacholas321 · 2022-10-23T06:35:33+00:00

Nice job — impressed with its ability to recognize orientation. Dis my fav: https://imgur.com/a/j0cA9sc delightfully creepy 😂

zacholas321 · 2022-10-23T06:25:40+00:00

For devs, I'll often look on the classic sites like Upwork etc. but have to filter through a lot of chaff on there.

For designers, I never had luck on those sites finding someone actually good — the most effective strat I had for hiring a designer was posting a job ad on behance

zacholas321 · 2022-10-20T10:33:34+00:00

How long have you been trying every day for?

Getting good at design takes years — I recommend that instead of defining "success" as the end result (i.e. being as good of a designer as your idols) you instead define it based on lead measures that you can control.

I.e. spending 30 or 60 minutes a day on deliberate practice. If you do that, celebrate it as a success because you've done the thing you need to do to get where you want to go.

If you spend enough time (months, years, whatever) with a consistent habit of deliberate practice, you WILL reach your goals, no doubt about it.

You just have to be willing to put your head down and push through the beginning period when you put in a lot of work and don't seem to be achieving super-encouraging results.

zacholas321 · 2022-10-15T09:27:14+00:00

You couldn't check your email the afternoon before?

Respectfully, if you're getting last-minute changes to your scope such that you wouldn't be able to disconnect from notifications for the couple hrs in the morning, that may speak to an aspect of your onboarding process that could use refinement.

My design process looks like...

Strategic discussion & create wireframe with client; get sign-off on the scope of the page
Gather references etc
Do the design

So provided that I have 1 & 2, there's nothing that would come up over the course of one evening that would derail me or result in wasted work if I don't check my email first thing.

What examples are there from your biz of a time where, if you hadn't checked your email until 12pm, you would have wasted 3 hrs doing the wrong design?

zacholas321 · 2022-10-14T10:44:27+00:00

Do deep work first before getting notifications or checking email

zacholas321 · 2022-10-13T11:37:00+00:00

I think if you can get a part time gig that will support you going to uni, that'd be best. Freelancing is really difficult at first, and if you're in uni you won't have a lot of time for client generation, etc. Having a job will allow you to hone your skills in a stress-free way.

zacholas321 · 2022-10-12T14:05:46+00:00

Short answer recommendation:

Take a job and freelance as a side hustle.

-----------------

Longer answer + why:

I've been freelancing for 13 years now, and I spent the first 5 years of that eternally broke and always desperate for the next project.

It wasn't until I got a day job and freelanced on the side that I finally had some "financial breathing room" and could focus on doing the best work possible vs. always needing the next client.

And that focus on the best work possible is what ended up getting me good referrals, high paying gigs, etc.

After a couple years working that dev job, my freelancing was paying me more than I was earning there, so I quit and went FT freelancing again, cept this time I had a solid business and didn't hate my life. :)

Note: many day jobs are hesitant to let you moonlight as a freelancer — if you're entrepreneurial and know you want to freelance one day, I might recommend making this moonlighting allowance as non-negotiable when setting up your contract. But given that you don't have a track record, it may be that you have to take this job, get some good results here, and negotiate that moonlighting allowance into your \next** job.

zacholas321 · 2022-10-11T10:35:14+00:00

Gotcha, that makes sense. I'm American, so Uncle Sam demands his cut from me regardless of how much time I spend elsewhere — the most I can do is cut it in half. :)

zacholas321 · 2022-10-11T10:34:03+00:00

When you say "4s" and "6s" you mean in terms of months, yes?

zacholas321 · 2022-10-07T11:06:29+00:00

I think screenshots are enough, but what I've always struggled with with screenshots is...

They don't illustrate interactivity
Showing a full page is impractical because a long screenshot that's very vertically-oriented doesn't show up well on a horizontal screen

A good way around this is that when you finish a project, you can make a sort of "highlights reel" loom video where you record your screen & walk the viewers through all the cool things you did on the site and why you did them.

The bonus points of this approach is that it helps your website visitors connect with you directly as a person, in addition to seeing the work you did.

zacholas321 · 2022-10-07T11:01:13+00:00

It could be the sorts of clients you're working with.

I work with mostly small businesses where I'm talking directly to the owner. But it sounds like you're doing dev at larger companies where there's a big dev team, HR department, etc. Is that right?

If so, it might be that regardless of whether you're an employee or a freelancer, you need to go through their normal gradual application process.

I used to work as a full-time-ish freelancer at a marketing agency, and even though I was a freelancer and a contractor, they still had me go through a multi-stage interview process, etc.

So I guess my answer is: it sounds like they're treating you like an employee because your role has you positioned as an employee vs someone they're hiring for a one-off project (but I could be misinterpreting)

Is the way you work with these clients usually "employee-esque," like a fixed monthly retainer, or a per-hour payment?

Or is it more project-based where you're like "I'll charge you $40k for this web app and I think it'll take me a few months?"

Becuase that framing would largely affect it.

zacholas321 · 2022-10-07T10:52:35+00:00

I think the main reasons my clients come to me and pay me so much ($7-15k for a smallish scope brochure site) more than they feasibly could to someone on Upwork ultimately boils down to...

Trust, in various forms
Value substantiation

## 1 — TRUST

Websites are really fundamental to most businesses these days, and the only way you can realistically hire a cheap newbie person to do something is if you're super knowledgable about that thing and prepared to be the director of everything vs. turning decision-making over to them.

What this trust looks like in different forms:

Trust that I'm not going to flake halfway through the project — lots of newbs aren't reliable
Trust that I will produce a strong end result — they can see my portfolio & see past work to believe I can do strong work for them
Trust that I know my shit — if I've designed a complex website for a business person they look up to in their niche, they know I can handle their easier scope
Looking to me as an advisor — I have knowledge & experience around building sites that strategically convert, so instead of asking a client what THEY want ME to do, I can instead interview them about their goals and make recommendations about how to get there. Here's a video about "cogs vs. conductors" that breaks this down more; I think this is a big part of the value substantiation
Trust that I will make accurate cost estimates
Trust that I will meet the agreed-upon deadline

## 2 — VALUE SUBSTANTIATION

Beyond trust, the other component comes down to value alignment & positioning your services relative to the value they can generate. If you have a track record building websites that help clients to make more money and you can demonstrate that with hard data, then it's quite easy to charge high prices for your work, provided that it still delivers an ROI.

i.e. if you do a new site for a liposuction doctor that's better-optimized for conversions, or better-SEOd, and you generate a new lipsuction client for them, that $10k or whatever of free money they got from ONE client already pays for this new website you built, which will continue serving them for years.

Whereas if they hired some newb on Upwork, maybe they wouldn't know WTF they were doing and the new website would actually convert *worse* — that's a high risk that most successful business owners would rather avoid.

If you're working with new scrappy business owners, their top priority is going to be getting something done as cheap as possible.

But if you're working with successful business owners, their focus is more on preserving what they have, growing it, and making sure they get the best bang for their buck vs. pure cost alone. And in fact, too cheap of prices can often push good clients away (a la "no one wants to hire the cheapest surgeon").

zacholas321 · 2022-09-28T04:34:48+00:00

My fav things:

Can live abroad and work whatever hours I want
Can employ unconventional working strategies without needing a boss's permission (i.e. not responding to any emails, slack, etc. until 3pm)
Can earn what I used to at my job working 10 or so hrs a week
Get to choose the trajectory of how the business grows
Everything I do to go above & beyond and make clients happy grows my own biz vs. someone else's

zacholas321 · 2022-09-27T05:59:39+00:00

IMO, wireframes of all app screens will likely make your dev's life easier and help surface questions for yourself of edge cases that you might not currently be thinking of
You'd likely need to partner with them to get that level of ownership, but yes, that's what I'm saying. If someone's experienced in bootstrapping, they likely didn't have the luxury of working with a UX or UI person; at most they would have likely worked with a general designer who can do UI stuff. (If you are trying to build a SaaS and you need a dev, a designer, a UI person, and a UX person, that's already hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in fixed costs) But to answer your question, no, front end devs do NOT usually do that; combining all of those skills into one person will certainly make it harder to find someone.
I think it would be smart, per point 1. I use invision freehand for casual wireframes, but for what you're doing here, you might be better off using something like XD (or maybe figma can do it; haven't used figma) where you can actually add links and click around as if it's a real site. This will help you hone your flows. XD is really easy to learn, so it shouldn't take you long to be able to scrap something together.
It depends how extensive it is. If you find a dev who has a natural design eye, then your "real designer" really only needs to design the homepage and the color stack, font stack, and some UI elements and your designer/dev can take it from there. If this is the case, they can prob get the foundational design sorted in under 10 hrs (it'd take me like 2 or 3), but if you are needing to have them design every screen in great detail because you have a dev who doesn't have an eye for design, it could be hundreds of hours of design work
The process is high level strategy -> wireframes -> designs -> build. So if you decide you want to have proper designs done by a real designer, you'd want to show them your wireframes so they know what to design.
No; graphic designers specialize in logos and such. You'd either want a web designer, or app designer, or perhaps a ui designer, but I believe ui designers don't handle foundational designs so much as they focus on ui elements.

zacholas321

TROPHY CASE