Fardeen KarimAgencies use cold email two ways: to win their own clients, and as a service they run for those clients. I've done both for years, through my own agency, Web Makeer, which has served more than 200 clients since 2023. Both work, and both go wrong the same way: everything ends up on one domain and one tool, and a problem with one client's campaign spreads to everyone. This playbook keeps them apart.
The short version: win your own clients with a narrow niche, one real result and a small first step; run clients' outreach on their own domains, mailboxes and lists; agree what counts as a result before launch; and answer interested replies within the hour.
Part 1: winning your own clients
Pick a narrow audience
"Businesses that need marketing" isn't an audience. "Dental groups with 3 to 10 clinics in Texas" is. A narrow audience lets you write an email that sounds like you understand their week, and lets you show one result that's relevant to all of them. It also makes your list cheaper to build and easier to verify.
Lead with a result, not a service list
Prospects don't buy SEO, ads or cold email; they buy more patients, more booked calls or more pipeline. Open with what you noticed about them, name the problem, and give one result for a company like theirs. The marketing agency template and the case-study opener are good starting points.
Offer a small first step
A free, specific piece of work, such as a short audit or three ideas for their campaigns, is easier to say yes to than a call. Make it genuinely useful and quick to deliver; it's a sample of how you work.
If you're an agency outside the US or Europe
Many agencies I work with are in Bangladesh, selling to American and European clients. The two things that hold them back are trust from foreign buyers and English that reads as natural to them. Both are fixable: show real results with real numbers, keep emails short and plain (short sentences hide less), and have a native speaker read your templates once.
Part 2: running cold email for clients
A real example
One of my best campaigns was for a German SEO and marketing agency. We emailed local trades and home-services businesses in Germany, in German, from 168 mailboxes. Over two to three months, about 121,000 emails booked more than 30 meetings, and several became paying clients. What made it work was a tight niche list, a strong offer (a performance guarantee) and steady follow-ups. We supplied the mailboxes and domains, the lead list, warm-up and sending, and wrote and ran the copy.
Separate everything per client
- Domains and mailboxes: each client gets their own, named for their brand, never shared with another client.
- Lists and suppression: each client's leads and do-not-contact list stay theirs.
- Reporting: each client sees only their own figures.
Separation protects your clients from each other: one client's poor list can't damage another's domain.
Set expectations in week one
Explain the timeline before you start: about two weeks of warm-up, a third week ramping up, and results judged after the follow-ups have run, around week five or six. Clients who expect meetings in week one become unhappy clients by week two.
Agree what counts as a result
Positive replies, meetings booked and pipeline are what clients care about. Opens are unreliable and sends are effort, not results. Agree on the number before launch, and report it every week. A reply rate around 1 to 3% on a good campaign is realistic; promise less than that and deliver more.
Handle replies quickly
A positive reply answered within the hour has a much better chance of becoming a meeting than one answered the next day. Decide who answers, you or the client, and make the handover instant.
Pricing your outreach service
- Setup fee for domains, mailboxes, warm-up and the first list. It covers your cost and the four weeks before results.
- Monthly retainer for running campaigns, replies and reporting.
- Performance element (per meeting or a guarantee), once you trust your process in that niche. A guarantee is a strong offer, as the German campaign showed, but only make one you can keep.
Running both without chaos
- One inbox for every reply, labelled by intent, so nothing waits.
- Weekly figures per client, shared as a read-only link.
- A domain health check on every client domain each week.
- Warm-up running on every mailbox, always.
Mistakes agencies make
- Sharing domains or mailboxes between clients.
- Promising meetings in the first two weeks.
- Letting interested replies sit for a day.
- Reporting opens instead of replies and meetings.
- Running their own outreach from the same domains as their clients'.
Questions people ask
How many mailboxes does one client need?
Work back from their goal: about 30 emails per mailbox per day and four emails per person. A client reaching 2,500 people a month needs around 17 mailboxes on 6 domains. The mailbox calculator does the sum.
Should clients own their domains?
Yes, ideally registered in their name, so they keep them if you part ways. It also makes the brand on the emails clearly theirs.
mailzy is built for this: unlimited mailboxes on every plan, every reply in one inbox, interested replies on a deal board, and results you can share with a client as a read-only link. See cold email for agencies.