Email Outreach that Works with Laura Lopuch

Danyel McLellan [00:00:01]:
Running an agency can be a lonely proposition, but it doesn’t have to be. We can learn how to be better faster if we learn together. Welcome to Agency Management Institute’s Build a Better Agency podcast presented by White Label iq. Tune in every week for insights on how small to mid sized agencies are surviving and thriving in today’s market. With 25 plus years of experience as both an agency owner and agency consultant, please welcome, welcome your host, Drew McLellan.

Drew McLellan [00:00:37]:
Hey everybody, Drew McLellan here with another episode of Build a Better Agency. Super excited to have you with me today. As always, I love that we get to spend this time together and I am super grateful that you keep showing up every week because it gives me a reason to show up every week. And we are both going to be excited about this week and that we got here because I’ve got a great guest who’s going to talk to us about email marketing. But before we get into that, I want to give a shout out and a thank you to our friends at White Label iq. As I have been telling you for years, they are the generous presenting sponsors of this podcast and they make it possible for us to hang out together every week. One of the things, if you’re not familiar with White Label, yes, they support agencies with design, dev and paid media, but the other thing they do is they really invest in and believe in agencies and, and they’ve actually put their energy, their time and their money where their mouth is. So they helped found a nonprofit organization called Agency Core, which is basically a research arm built to better understand agencies and share back what’s really going on in our world. And Susan and I talked about Agency Core a little bit when we were talking about the Agency Edge study and we released the Agency Core data at the Build a Better Agency Summit. And so if you’re looking for their 2026 research, head over to agencycorps.org and you’ll be able to download that research. But that’s White Label. They are, they believe in agencies, they support agencies, they serve agencies. And the insights that they’re chasing by doing this research are the same that matter to all of us. Things are moving so crazy and they recognize that good information is part of being a great partner. And so that’s one of the other ways that they serve agencies all over the world. They want to know agencies better, they want agencies to understand themselves better and they want to help agencies get better. So all of that to say is they are a great partner for us and they could be a great partner for you. So check out whitelabeliq.comami to find out that they have a special deal just for our podcast listeners. And if nothing else, and you know, I ask you to do this, so I’m hoping you are. Please just send them a quick note and thank them for sponsoring the podcast. We make me super happy if you did that. Okay. All right, so let me tell you a little bit about our guest. So our guest has a long career history in writing sales emails. And when I talked to her before we got on the, before we started recording the show, it was really fascinating to hear kind of her background. But she has a very interesting view about cold email, which I think for many of us, we think, oh, that doesn’t work. We know that we get a bunch of them in the inbox every day that we ignore. But she’s got a different point of view about that that I think you’re going to find super valuable for you as an agency, but also for your clients. So please help me welcome Laura Lopuch to the show and we’re going to talk about email. Laura, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for joining us.

Laura Lopuch [00:03:45]:
Thank you so much for having me. Drew. I’m really excited to be here.

Drew McLellan [00:03:48]:
Me too. Tell everybody a little bit about you and your background and how you came to have this expertise.

Laura Lopuch [00:03:55]:
Yeah. So I am a client and partner acquisition expert and I started business off as a copywriter. Started off like from a full time job, burned all the bridges and then here I was with this business and I had no way of getting clients. And so I fell back on this skill that I had developed working at the law firm, which was my last like gainfully salary job. And it was sending cold emails. Actually I did a lot of work inside of emails because as you know, with lawyers, it’s not documented, it doesn’t exist and they will argue it till kingdom come. So I did a lot with emails. And so I actually started sending cold emails. And within about four months of starting my business, I had signed a $20,000 client and grew my business 1400%. And so I realized through that experience that the way I approached cold emails was vastly different from everybody. EL this was like a decade ago. So even then it was very, very different. And along the way, I have taught over 2,000 agency owners and solo service providers how to send cold emails that actually feel good to both the recipient, the person you’re sending to, and the person that you are like the sender. So both sender and recipient. And so yeah, and now I have developed the system So a course plus execution software so that you don’t have to do all the heavy parts of cold emailing, like the research and the finding of the leads, and sometimes even the writing of the cold email itself can feel really heavy. And so the execution software helps you do those heavier parts.

Drew McLellan [00:05:37]:
So I think everybody listening is like cold email, right?

Laura Lopuch [00:05:41]:
Yep.

Drew McLellan [00:05:41]:
I get a million of them. I delete them if one more person tells me that they can fill, fill my inbox with, you know, qualified leads, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So I think for a lot of agency owners, not only because they are the recipient of so many bad cold emails, but also in our industry, we have learned over time that in air quotes, cold email doesn’t work. So I suspect you hear that all of the time. So I’m curious, back when you were gainfully employed, what prompted you to think that cold emails would work? That kind of flies against the common belief about cold emails. What made you think that it could be different?

Laura Lopuch [00:06:24]:
Well, that’s a really good question. So the biggest thing that I kind of took from working at a law firm was you had to document everything. And so I started thinking of one email as kind of a start to end argument, if you will. So almost like if you remember back in college, you wrote like a thesis or a paper where you had like a hypothesis and then you kind of had to prove it through the entire paper. So I started thinking about email in that form. So how can I kind of lay out my whole argument so that it’s a really easy yes. So it feels like effortless for the other person to just kind of be like, okay, cool, nodding along, we’re good, like, let’s do this. They’ve already agreed to me by the time we get to the end of the email. So I started kind of working on that skill when I worked at the law firm. And then when I transitioned and started my own business, I started sending cold emails the way everybody says that you have to. Like I bet if I say cold email, you have a very particular email in mind. Right. It’s templated. The formatting is probably hokey pokey. There’s like missing, missing things, missing fields. Maybe it says company name instead of your actual agency name.

Drew McLellan [00:07:39]:
Right, right.

Laura Lopuch [00:07:41]:
It’s horrible. Like it’s got like all the red flags going everywhere and you’re like, I would not touch this with like a ten foot pole. You know, like, no way.

Drew McLellan [00:07:49]:
Right.

Laura Lopuch [00:07:50]:
Please get me out of here. And so I sent some cold emails that way and I realized like Very quickly that people were opening, but that was just my subject line, doing this job. And then nobody was ever replying. And I was like, I can’t keep spinning hours on trying to get people to reply when I know that I can solve this problem for them that I’m pitching them to solve. Like, who in their right mind would say no to a solution? But all these people were saying no to this solution. And I realized, like, I was not applying that lesson I learned from the law firm. Like, how do I make this email like a full standing argument? How can I make it super easy for them to say yes? How can I make it so that they’re like, I’d be an idiot if I said no. Like, I feel safe saying yes because you clearly see that I have this problem and you clearly understand my problem, so you must be able to solve it. So when I started writing emails from that kind of perspective, things shifted. And my emails started not looking like cold emails. Like cold emails. Right? Those kind of templated, you know that you’re one in like 10,000 people who are getting this exact same email. Like, but they started sounding more like a human was writing them with a lot more recognition of the human who was actually reading it on the other side. And as soon as I started leaning into that perspective and that methodology of writing an email, that’s when I started getting replies and I knew I was on the right path when I actually got this email in my inbox from someone I’d never emailed. And this was about 2ish months, 3 months into sending these cold emails. And she said, some. My colleague forwarded me your email and I’d love to chat. And I was like, oh my gosh, like someone’s forwarding my emails around and I have no idea about this. Like, this must be working. And so once I started, like, really thinking about who’s the person I’m emailing, why would they want this thing? And how can I really make the email 75%, 80% about them, about their goals, about what they want? And then I just kind of come in as like, hey, I can help you accomplish that. Let’s chat. It felt a lot more natural. It felt a lot easier to write the email too. I didn’t end up feeling like it was like an emotional burden, which is what it typically feels like when you’re writing these very transactional spray and pray emails where that are super templated.

Drew McLellan [00:10:25]:
Yeah, I think people feel kind of dirty. I mean, you feel sort of spammy about it, right?

Laura Lopuch [00:10:32]:
Very. Yeah. I hear that often, like, I need a shower. Like, I feel so disgusted, and, like, how could I stoop to this level? And it’s like, you don’t actually have to send a cold email that way. I always think of a cold email as you’re sending an email to a stranger. That’s what makes it cold. But then you’re asking them to take a specific action. And so that looks like a lot of different emails. Like, it even looks like the email I sent you to pitch coming onto your podcast. Right? Yeah.

Drew McLellan [00:11:00]:
So when you think about the. So I’m. I suspect the listeners are going, okay, so talk to me about the construction of this email. Are there parts and pieces to the way you write email that are different than if I sat down to write a cold email today?

Laura Lopuch [00:11:19]:
Yes. And I follow the WARM methodology. So it’s an acronym, warm, and that W stands for welcoming. So you’re really making a connection. And that’s like, the first chunk of the email. So a lot of times I’m giving someone a compliment. I’m think of it like cocktail party chitchat. You’re trying to make a connection with someone. You’re trying to find common ground. Sometimes I’ll talk about, like, oh, you live in the same city as I do, or you have a black lab. I have a black lab. You know, like commonalities. And then the A stands for addressing the what’s in it for me? And this really plays a big part in it because you’re answering your cold email reader’s question, which is, what’s in it for me? Or like, why should I care? And it’s just a natural human question. Everybody filters every request we get through this filter. Like, for sure, why should I empty the dishwasher? You know, to make my spouse happy.

Drew McLellan [00:12:14]:
Right.

Laura Lopuch [00:12:15]:
That kind of thing. But you need to answer it for your cold email reader. Otherwise they can’t make a decision. They can’t understand how this fits into their existing goals. And they have goals in their. In their business. And so if you answer that question, it’ll help them decide, is this for me? Is this not for me? And then the R is revealing yourself as the solution. And so this is the first time in the email, like, we’re what, 50, 60% through? This is the time time when you say, hey, I’m Laura. I’m a client and partner acquisition expert for agencies, and I can help you and then accomplish your goal, whatever the goal is that you think is true for your cold email reader. And then the M is just Moving the conversation forward. And a lot of times that looks like, are you interested? Engaging interests? Because sometimes people are like, no, I’m not interested. And you’re like, okay, cool. And sometimes they are. And then you can nudge them to that next step.

Drew McLellan [00:13:14]:
So I know some of the examples you gave. Like, you don’t know what, what kind of dog I have. You may have seen, right, because we’re on video. You may have seen a dog walk behind me, but. Right. Otherwise you wouldn’t know. So when you’re sent, if I’m building a list of prospects, how do I know what we have in common? Or how do I know how to make them feel like I’m not just the guy going, I can get you 12 leads a day, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right? The kind of emails that we all get 10 of every single day, right?

Laura Lopuch [00:13:47]:
So that’s where the research comes in. And that’s, this is a lot of where I hear people go, okay, that’s great. Research sounds amazing. But it’s so time intensive. Like, how do I find all those little details? It’s like hunting for needles in a haystack, right? And so what you’re really looking for is you’re looking for something cool that they’ve done. Like something that you can pay a legitimate, genuine compliment on. So for example, I would probably say to you, like, congrats on being like an OG in the agency world. Like, you’ve survived where many agencies only last like three to five years and you’ve like outlasted all of them. That’s an amazing accomplishment. Or you can accomplish like compliment them on something recent that they did something cool that they did. Another way is one of my favorite ways is to actually go onto their LinkedIn and look at your like first or second degree connections and say, hey, like, it looks like we know a lot of the same cool people, like this person, this person, this person. But we’ve never had a chance to meet. So I’m reaching out because it’s awesome to meet you. Really. If you’ve been in the business for a while, you probably have a lot of those kind of untapped connections for sure, right? Like hooks that you can use. Otherwise you’d be amazed at the stuff that people put out online. You can, you can pick up a lot of little details from like social media and looking through a couple recently posts or Instagram and stuff like that.

Drew McLellan [00:15:21]:
Yeah, you actually would be able to tell the breeds of my dogs if you took three minutes to look. So yeah, you’re Right.

Laura Lopuch [00:15:27]:
Same here.

Drew McLellan [00:15:27]:
For sure. Right? Yeah.

Laura Lopuch [00:15:28]:
Yeah.

Drew McLellan [00:15:29]:
Okay, so. And then, I mean, obviously, you what. When you start to talk about addressing the need in terms of what their problem is, what you’re really saying is, look, I, the agency owner, work with a ton of rural health systems. And. And I know one of the problems is that, you know, you have a hard time getting specialists to commit to being a doctor in your facility, and we’ve solved that problem for other people. Is that kind of the. So I don’t really know what your problem is, but I know what. I know enough about you and what you do for a living that I do know what your problem is for the most part.

Laura Lopuch [00:16:07]:
Exactly. Exactly. Because after a while, you start to see similar people in similar problems and you start to, like, basically make educated hypothesis about each one of them, and you’re like, oh, I’ve helped someone that looks a lot like you, and I’ve helped someone who looks a lot like you, and I can probably help you do this. But, like, a lot of it is really framing it around who that person, your recipient is. So if I were pitching, say, a podcast booking agency to come in and help them, you know, with whatever, maybe setting up partnerships for them to get client acquisition, I would say, hey, I’m Laura, partner acquisition expert for podcast booking agencies. But if I was pitching an SEO marketing agency, I would change my job title. Air quotes.

Drew McLellan [00:16:59]:
Sure.

Laura Lopuch [00:16:59]:
To be a specialist for SEO agencies. So you’re almost like, shifting it so you’re saying their problem through their lens, through their viewpoint, instead of, hey, I help all of these agencies, and now suddenly you’re a generalist, not a specialist. Yeah, Right.

Drew McLellan [00:17:19]:
So. And I’m assuming as I’m listening to you talk, I’m like, okay, well, the other advantage of that is, as an agency, you have probably solved the same problem for several similar clients in the past. And if the problem you guess that they have isn’t actually their problem, then maybe they’re not a great client for you anyway. Right. Because you know how to solve the problem that they don’t have.

Laura Lopuch [00:17:45]:
Right, Right. Yeah. You could take it that way. And if someone does reply, and sometimes you get replies that are like, no, I’m not interested, it also, you can start a conversation around, that’s cool. Tell me where my research went wrong, and then you can use that information to either shift what you’re researching, like, oh, I actually need to be looking at someone with this minimum revenue threshold or this amount of employees, or this because I made some incorrect assumptions, or you Also realize maybe I wasn’t actually clear. And like I said marketing and growth and they thought like hiring a sales team and I actually meant outsourcing marketing to an agency and we had conflicting ideas.

Drew McLellan [00:18:34]:
Right.

Laura Lopuch [00:18:34]:
So it also, I always just think of like cold emails as a conversation starter email. You are out there, you know, interacting with the world and you see all of these different people who have the problem that you can solve. And so it’s your responsibility as an agency owner to go out and be like, hey, I can help you solve that.

Drew McLellan [00:18:54]:
Right?

Laura Lopuch [00:18:55]:
Would you like my help? And if they’re like, no, then you’re like, oh, that’s really interesting. I’m now really curious, like, why do you think you don’t need my help? Not like judgmental, but what makes you

Drew McLellan [00:19:05]:
say, have you solved that problem already or do you have a different problem? Right.

Laura Lopuch [00:19:09]:
Yeah. Or you focus on something different. Or maybe they’re, you know, a couple problems up or a couple problems down from the problem that you pitch them and that just starts up a conversation which at the end of the day could mean a sale for you because you’re. That’s the whole name of the game. Like the more conversations you get, the more sales you’ll get.

Drew McLellan [00:19:31]:
So I’m curious and I know I’m asking you to guess or you know, sort of crystal ball this a little bit probably, but I think most people listening would be like, I have never written back to a cold email in my life. I just delete them, I ignore them, or I, you know, report them as spam if they’re really awful. But I don’t like chit chat back with somebody who sent me a cold email as a general rule. So my question to you is, what do you think is different? Why. Why would someone respond back to your cold email even though they normally don’t respond back to cold emails? What, what is it like you knowing that I have a black lab, which I don’t, but you know, you knowing that I have a cattle dog pit bull mix, which I do.

Laura Lopuch [00:20:15]:
There you go.

Drew McLellan [00:20:15]:
Right. Probably is not enough for me to go, I’m going to take five minutes and write back to this stranger. So what is it that you think you, that you do that makes someone actually take the time to go, Nope, that’s not actually my problem. My problem is this.

Laura Lopuch [00:20:34]:
Yeah, that’s a really good question. And it is, you’re right. It’s not on like those surface level, like research details of like, oh, you’ve got the same dog as me. Doesn’t really matter or even that we

Drew McLellan [00:20:45]:
know the same people. Right?

Laura Lopuch [00:20:47]:
No, that’s, that’s really kind of like surface level. We’re talking more like, this is more on the relevance level. So that’s more. Those details are more like personalization, first name, company name, dog type, right?

Drew McLellan [00:21:00]:
Yep.

Laura Lopuch [00:21:00]:
But we’re talking more relevance. And so this is more, this is really connected to how people will make decisions as well. Because if I can do enough research and accurately diagnose where you’re at in your business and my best guess on what the problem is that you have that I can probably solve for you, and then I tie that into your existing goal, like your three or five year goal. So, for example, I want to sell my agency one day and I email you and say, hey, if I help you get controllable, predictable clients in the door, you know you’re going to get five clients every month and that will help you sell, sell your agency in three to five years. That’s like way more compelling and persuasive than me saying, hey, you’ve got a cattle dog and so do I. And they’re crazy, aren’t they? You got to keep them, blah, blah. But if I tap into, I call them a driving motivator. So you’re tapping into an existing goal that your recipient already has and you’re showing them that this, this problem that you have is the blocker to you getting that existing goal accomplished. And I have the unlock to help you get past that blocker. Of course they’re going to say yes because they’re already on that journey. You’re just basically like Lord of the Rings. You’re Gandalf coming in to help the hobbits get to Mordor. Right. My son’s reading Lord of the Rings. So it’s all like bringing all this stuff back for me. But, but that’s, that’s ultimately how you come in. You come in as the guide to help them get past this obstacle in their path to unlock that goal that they already have.

Drew McLellan [00:22:41]:
Okay, so I’m picturing this email and I want to ask you, I want to ask you about like, length, because this sounds like a longer email. But let’s take a quick break and then when we come back, we’ll talk about like the actual physical, you know, presence of this email. So we’ll be right back. Your account people are fine. They get the job done. And yet, you know, they are capable of so much more for you, your clients and your agency. AMI’s advanced AE bootcamp is built for seasoned Account staff who already know the basics and are ready to step into true trusted advisor territory. We will push them beyond order taking into strategy growth and real C suite conversations, strengthening client relationships, expanding existing revenue and protecting your margins by having smarter, more confident AES at the table. If you want your mid to senior level account team to drive bigger, more profitable engagements, send them to our advanced a bootcamp on September 23rd and 24th and find all the details and register at the Agency Management Institute website. All right, we are back and we are chatting with Laura about the power of cold email if it’s done differently. So right before the break I was saying to you, as you were describing, like, you know, I’m, I’m attaching my, myself to understanding what their goal is and what they’re trying to accomplish and all of that. I’m in my head, I’m like starting to picture this email. How long are these emails? Because this sounds like it’s pretty detailed.

Laura Lopuch [00:24:21]:
They are detailed. And more than detailed, they’re specific.

Drew McLellan [00:24:24]:
Yeah, right, right.

Laura Lopuch [00:24:26]:
Which can get wordy. You’re right. And all of us have heard like that common, I don’t know, myth about a length of an email, less than 50 words, more than 10 words, like this unachievable standard that you can’t ever, you can never convince anyone to do anything in that length, honestly. So usually the email is about 200 to 500 to 600 words. And the key to making them, it is pretty meaty. But if you think about it again, like 60 to 75% of it is all about the recipient, your reader. So we’re talking a compliment. We’re talking about what, what their goal is. We’re talking about what we’re seeing as data to support our hypothesis about what their goal is and how it’s probably blocking them. So at the end of the day they’re not going to be looking away from the email because we’re all, we’re talking about them. And that’s pretty irresistible to someone.

Drew McLellan [00:25:28]:
So at some point in time, obviously you have to kind of flip the switch and say, okay, here, here’s who you are, here’s what your problem is, here’s why that’s in the way of you getting to your goal. And then you do at some point have to flip and go and I have the key to unlock that, that solution. So when you are talking about now yourself and your ability to solve their problem, what are the proof points that you include so that they don’t just go. This is a generic email, but they’re like, oh, this person actually has done this before or knows their stuff or understands my world. How are you proving that in the email?

Laura Lopuch [00:26:09]:
Yeah, it depends on what you’re pitching. And it also depends on if you’ve got, say, a previous client who got a believable but not crazy spectacular result that you can kind of name drop that’s in a adjacent or the same industry as the person you’re pitching.

Drew McLellan [00:26:27]:
Yep.

Laura Lopuch [00:26:27]:
Right. It also helps if you have, say, worked with someone who’s industry famous. Like, I’ve partnered with, you know, Joanna Weeb of Copy Hackers and Sujet, Sujan Patel of Mailshake and Rob Walling. Right. So those kind of, those names kind of COVID all my bases. So if you’ve got like names like that, you can use them in every email because they’re, they’re the rising, they’re the top stars in the industry. Everybody knows their names. Okay. So you don’t really have to have like industry specific proof. Or you can say like, I’ve done it in a couple emails where it’s like, I can see this solution working really well for you because of. And then these details that you’ve noticed about their business because you like, for example, I said this in one email to an email marketing agency and I said, you know, I can see warm, cold emails working really well for you because you’re already into email marketing. You understand the mechanics of marketing via email and copywriting. And they’re like, yeah, actually that makes a lot of sense. So it’s more about, you don’t have to have a lot of proof. It’s more like one sentence. Like, I’m trying to come up with another example. Like if you had a client that got, you know, I helped them increase revenue by 20% last year. But if you can translate that 20% to an actual dollar figure.

Drew McLellan [00:27:53]:
Right.

Laura Lopuch [00:27:53]:
That’s a way more concrete win. Like I help them get, make $15,000 more a month over six months for a total of whatever that math would be.

Drew McLellan [00:28:04]:
Right.

Laura Lopuch [00:28:05]:
That’s now I can feel it now I can like taste it. It’s way juicier. So try to avoid percentages if you can, when you’re dropping proof or if you can’t like actually drop name, drop actual names of clients. You can say, I’ve worked with other top rated companies in your industry and help them and then you can kind of hedge the, hedge the testimonial a little bit and say like, and help them, you know, get $10,000 more, whatever, and ballpark it so you can kind of see why a little bit. You can see the lawyeries comes out efficaciously, of course.

Drew McLellan [00:28:42]:
Yeah, yeah. And then let’s talk a little bit about the wrap up, the, the m in the warm. So moving things forward. Am I trying to get them to just respond? Am I trying to get them, you know, I think for a lot of people, they think of a cold email and then you’re going to drive them to an asset like download a PDF or get the checklist or do whatever. Do you recommend driving them to something of value like that or do you recommend trying to get them to answer a question or to set up a meeting? What, what do you find is most effective? You know, I mean, think about it. When agencies are reaching out to clients, we’re not talking about selling, you know, a $5 toothbrush. We’re talking about, you know, probably at the low end a $50,000 a year investment to, you know, a couple million dollars. So clearly it’s, clearly it is. They’re not, in most cases they’re not going to get an email that says I want to hire you today. That’s probably not like we’re just trying to get them to the next step. So what do you find? Is this the next step that most people respond well to?

Laura Lopuch [00:29:53]:
Are you interested? Just gauge interest. Because as soon as you gauge the interest and they say yes, you have their consent to continue this conversation, which makes it compliant under can spam laws too. And now you’re not in spam territory, which is unsolicited, basically transactional emails. Okay, so you’re asking for money without their permission, without their consent. And across the board I see marketing moving more towards this consent based marketing, either sending emails to subscribers, sending cold emails. We are all like looking for our, our buy in basically. So asking for consent is the quickest way to get a really quick pulse on the conversation. Then you know how to direct the conversation. Like if someone’s like, no, I’m not interested, that opens up like a host of all these other doors, all these other questions you could potentially ask. And if they don’t respond, they don’t respond. Like, not a problem.

Drew McLellan [00:30:57]:
Right?

Laura Lopuch [00:30:57]:
But if you don’t ask those questions of like, what makes this not a good fit? Why aren’t you interested? What are you pursuing now? You’ll never know the answers to those questions and they could reply and then if they say yes, then you nudge them towards a sales conversation. Or even just pre qualifying questions like I love to do the pre qualifying Questions via email. So that by the time we might get to a sales conversation, it might not even have to happen over zoom. Because we’ve been exchanging emails, right? They have a lot of the assets that I already need and we don’t actually need to have like a form, formal conversation.

Drew McLellan [00:31:35]:
So so far we’ve been talking really about the mechanics of an email, which obviously is part of a bigger whole. And I know you call it like a client acquisition system, so talk about what you mean by that. Like, just describe for us what, what is a client acquisition system and what are the parts and pieces of it.

Laura Lopuch [00:31:58]:
Yeah, that’s a really good question. So I think of a client acquisition system as a system where it’s not you being the engine continually pushing the machine up the hill. So a part of it, a good deal of it, is automated. It does it on its own, or it’s done in a very time efficient, effective way, and that you do it the same way every time. So you’re not trying to reinvent the wheel. I’ve worked with a lot of agency owners and a lot of times I hear, oh, I’m thinking about starting a podcast, or I’m thinking about starting YouTube, or I’m thinking about starting a blog. And then I talked to him a couple months later, I’m like, how’d that podcast go? And they’re like, oh, yeah, didn’t have a pin, we didn’t start it. And so there’s like a lot of these, these bright shiny objects that are always distracting us. And so for a client acquisition to work, it has to be something that you can show up and do consistently without your human side getting in the way and distracting you from doing the thing that gets you clients. And also, a system has to have a straight line from like, I do this action and I get this client out the other side. And so that’s the main reason of why I like cold emails so much, is I can send this email and I can get this outcome. I get a response, and then I know this person will become a client or this person won’t become a client. And so for me, inside my business, I’ve been sending cold emails for the past 10 years because I’ve designed a system that lets me show up in a predictable way consistently, week in, week out, regardless of the fires. And just recently, I put execution software alongside of it. So we’re not talking like a Claude artifact or a custom GPT, like custom software that’s designed and created around my proprietary IP that helps you do all that research on a lead so you can find those needles in the haystack so you can diagnose what their actual goal is. And so you know if someone’s a right fit for your services before you even reach out. And then it helps you draft the email and then sends the follow ups automatically. Which by the way is like one of the biggest parts that usually falls apart if we do even get around to sending a cold email. Now we have to send the follow ups. Like how boring, how mundane. Like shoot me first. Yeah, that’s usually where everything falls apart.

Drew McLellan [00:34:31]:
So I was just going to ask you that. So let’s talk about that. So I send the first email, I get no response. Yep. Then what follow up and what does that look like?

Laura Lopuch [00:34:41]:
Yeah, it is as simple as it sounds. I think a lot of people tend to complicate follow ups and kind of confuse them with nurture emails. And I need to send them a lead magnet and I need to have them. But all of that is homework that you’re actually assigning your reader. Read this, do this, look at this, pay attention to this, watch this. And what that person that you’re emailing actually needs to do is just make a decision. Is this right for me? Yes or no? Can I say yes or no to this one simple question? And that’s really what your follow up is supposed to do is to help your recipient make a decision and then send a very short answer and reply. So that’s why that are you interested? Question works so well is, hey, are you interested? And you have an immediate response like, yeah, I am. No, I’m not. And then that’s a very easy reply. And so your follow ups have to direct back to that decision. Hey, I’m still waiting on decision. Hey, following up on this, Are you interested in this? Still, still bumping this up. Are you interested? Is this a priority for you? Yeah.

Drew McLellan [00:35:51]:
So if I follow the warm methodology and let’s just say I send over the course of whatever the period of time is, I send a hundred emails. Okay, I know I’m doing it well. If I get how many responses, whether it’s a yes or no.

Laura Lopuch [00:36:10]:
Right, right, right. Provided you’re picking people, I have to kind of like asterisk this because provided you’re picking people that you know, have the problem that you can solve because that’s kind of where a lot of things tend to fall apart. Like I could pitch you on, you know, coming and writing emails to your list and you don’t have a list and you’re Like, I’m not interested. Right, right, right. So if you’re sending emails to people who have the problem, I would say typically you’re getting 30 to 40% of those people will open your emails and then anywhere from 10 to 30% will be replying. So typically when I’m sending emails like this, I have about a 48% open rate and then it’s an 80% end conversion rate out the other side.

Drew McLellan [00:36:59]:
So one of the things we haven’t talked about yet is subject line.

Laura Lopuch [00:37:02]:
Yeah.

Drew McLellan [00:37:02]:
So obviously if you, if you’ve got a 48% open rate, you’re doing something right with your subject line. So how do you think, how do you think about subject lines?

Laura Lopuch [00:37:12]:
I think of subject lines as open loops and so I think of them mostly in terms of like movie trailers, to be honest with you. So I will save the subject line till the end after I’ve written the email and then I’m looking back through the email to find something that feels like a question. Feels like a. Oh, like a lean in. Like a what? What do you mean by that? So for example, one of my subject lines was like, you had me laughing at Costco and you’re like, excuse me, what? Like that’s a lean in. That’s what I want out of that subject line. One of my favorites is like kudos, because then I can use kudos in the email body to give compliments and say, hey, kudos on building an agency or kudos on blah, blah, blah, whatever compliment I’ve chosen and it works really well. Also, I like to go shorter rather than longer because if you look at your inbox, typically people veer toward longer because they feel like they have to kind of stack the subject line like bigger is better and it’s not. So think more in terms of like, what subject line would you send an acquaintance or a colleague or a friend? You wouldn’t like type out most of your email in the subject line. You’d probably be like, check this out.

Drew McLellan [00:38:34]:
Right.

Laura Lopuch [00:38:34]:
And that’s your subject line. So I veer more towards that, like that curiosity inducing open loop.

Drew McLellan [00:38:41]:
So if I don’t get a response to my initial email, given the math given, you know, can spam laws and all of that, do I keep emailing or am I is it a one and done? Do I give them a couple follow ups? Like what’s your. At what point in time do you decide Drew McClellan is just not going to respond to me? So I’m done.

Laura Lopuch [00:39:08]:
It’s usually about the fifth follow up and I know that sounds like a lot, but if you think about what’s happening inside someone else’s inbox when they’re opening emails, what’s happening? What’s happening in the world, what’s happening in school schedules, what’s happening? Like holiday schedules. Yeah, there’s a lot of stuff competing for your person’s attention. And so I also like to think of follow ups as a really good spot to experiment. So for example, I was trying to get a hold of this one agency owner. I was like, man, I really want to work with this person. And I could see from the tracking software that I installed, he was opening my emails but never replying. So I was like, well, he must be interested. I must just be catching him at busy times. Maybe he just gets distracted. A lot happens to the best of us.

Drew McLellan [00:39:56]:
Yep.

Laura Lopuch [00:39:57]:
So I sent a follow up at like 8:30 on a Wednesday and he replied to me within five minutes and I was like, oh, you’re an 8:30 Wednesday guy. Totally cool. So I would say experiment with the, the times of day, the dates of the week that you’re sending the follow ups because granted there’s probably a really sweet spot for your particular person where they’re trying to clear out their inbox for the week or they’re catching up from the week and you’re, you’ve caught them in the right frame of mind that they’re ready and open to replying to emails.

Drew McLellan [00:40:30]:
Yeah, yeah, I’m sure that’s true. I’m sure all of us can think of when we are quicker to respond just based on our own life schedule.

Laura Lopuch [00:40:40]:
Yeah, exactly.

Drew McLellan [00:40:40]:
And our biorhythms and all that sort of stuff too. Right. When you have the energy to do it. And the attention span.

Laura Lopuch [00:40:46]:
Yeah, exactly. And sometimes just the mood or the weather of the day can impact all that.

Drew McLellan [00:40:51]:
Right?

Laura Lopuch [00:40:52]:
Yeah.

Drew McLellan [00:40:54]:
Are there words or phrases or styles in terms of the way you write? You know, is it fragments, is it certain words? Is it, is there anything that you’re like, boy, there are a couple tools in my toolbox that I go to almost all the time. Like the you had me laughing at Costco kind of a thing where, you know, it works. You know, certain words, certain phrases, certain styles just perform better.

Laura Lopuch [00:41:26]:
Yeah, I tend to return to like the James Patterson style where it’s short sentences, frequent paragraph breaks, looking for a spot, kind of almost like a cliffhanger where I can have one sentence and then use the next line to really hammer home the point. Using that paragraph break as kind of a added emphasis Point.

Drew McLellan [00:41:53]:
Yeah.

Laura Lopuch [00:41:53]:
I like to use the. What are they, ellipses? The three dots. Yeah. To really kind of. Yeah.

Drew McLellan [00:41:59]:
That’s my favorite punctuation, right?

Laura Lopuch [00:42:02]:
Yes. And the backslash. I love the backslash in subject lines, like one of my favorites. So I would say a lot of times I’m thinking James Patterson style, short, choppy. How do I get them moving down the page? Not James Joyce, not like huge chunks of text where your eye gets really tired. How do I keep them moving? How do I keep them short sentences? And oftentimes I’m thinking too, like, they’re probably reading this on their smartphone. So I’m writing it on my laptop and that screen is what, hundred times bigger than my smartphone? So how can I. How can I write and compose in a way that makes lots of white space and lots of ease for the eye to go down?

Drew McLellan [00:42:53]:
Yeah.

Laura Lopuch [00:42:53]:
And often that’s like putting paragraph breaks in where you wouldn’t normally and it feels weird, but if you’re in doubt, like, just put a paragraph break in. It’ll probably serve you well.

Drew McLellan [00:43:05]:
Yeah. Short, punchy.

Laura Lopuch [00:43:07]:
Yep.

Drew McLellan [00:43:07]:
Yeah.

Laura Lopuch [00:43:08]:
Yep.

Drew McLellan [00:43:08]:
Love it.

Laura Lopuch [00:43:09]:
Yeah.

Drew McLellan [00:43:09]:
This has been fascinating. I could probably ask you another hour’s worth of questions, but I want to wrap up by asking you. If folks want to learn more about the work you do or how to work with you, what is the best way for them to track you down and have a conversation? I mean, I know you’re going to email them, but how can they find you?

Laura Lopuch [00:43:30]:
Yeah, you can go to my website, lauralopesh.com and I also put together a free gift for all of you. It is the Feel Good Email Profit Kit. And I think you have the link, Drew. It really talks about a lot about this, but it goes deeper into kind of the mind trash that we all have around cold emails. I’ve heard a lot of it and it tends to keep you from. From moving forward with a really strong client acquisition strategy. And so I put that together for you. And inside of it I talk about the 7 cm model, which are the seven different types of cold emails. And I would wager a huge bet that you’re probably not using any of the six other types. So the cold sales email is the one that we’ve talked a lot about today, but there’s actually six other types of cold emails that you could be using for your agency. And I talk about that in that kit for you. Awesome.

Drew McLellan [00:44:25]:
And we will put that URL in the show notes so you guys can grab it there. So this has been really great, Laura. Thank you for. Thanks for being with us and sharing your expertise and your experience. I’m sure a lot of people were rapidly jotting down notes and thinking differently about how they approach emails, even. Even to people they’ve met somewhere briefly at a conference or something like that. I mean, in some ways the same structure you’re talking about works even if you have a tangential connection to someone. I think it, it, you know, probably works just as well. So it’s been super useful.

Laura Lopuch [00:45:00]:
Yeah, definitely. I’ve sent off many of those, hey, reconnecting type of cold emails, and they’ve gone really well because you’re right, they do follow this same framework and it works really well for even those kind of warmer, cold emails that you can send.

Drew McLellan [00:45:17]:
Yeah, yeah, this has been great. Thank you.

Laura Lopuch [00:45:20]:
Thank you so much for having me, Drew.

Drew McLellan [00:45:21]:
You bet. Okay, guys, so homework number one, go download the kit that Laura put together for you. Really great. I mean, really just great. Good copywriting lessons are going to be inside that kit that are going to help you construct emails. And by the way, I’m going to guess that your emails to even your existing clients could be better and stronger. And so you’re going to. Even if you’re, like, not doing cold email at all, which you may change your mind after you look at the kit, but let’s just say right now that’s your attitude. I promise you there’s still great tips in that kit for you to grab and for you to use in all of your communications. So, number one, that. Number two, why not experiment with it? I mean, really, what’s the harm in trying a new way of reaching out to prospects and to connecting with them. So I would love to hear what you experimented with and which, which of the seven methods in the kit you used and what the results were. So download the kit, use it liberally to get better at all of your written communication. But then why not try a little bit of cold email, even though you may think that it’s not right for you or it’s not right for your agency. We all know that the world is changing and how we’re selling is very different and how prospects are finding us. And I just want to. To remind you, sometimes if they’re not answering, it’s because they’re not ready to hire an agency now. But it doesn’t mean that if you don’t write, if you write a great email, doesn’t mean that in three months or six months when they’re ready to hire someone, they’re not going to remember your email or maybe they even kept it because it was so well done. And you’re going to be on the short list of agencies that they check out to potentially hire. So remember, sales is a long term game and anything we can do to soften up that prospect to make them feel a kinship with us, a connection with us is what works at the end of the day in being a subject matter expert and describing what their problem is and how you’ve solved it for other people. Again, that is, that’s right along the lines of selling with authority and all the things that we talk about all the time. So grab the kit, do an experiment, let me know how it goes. Okay, before I let you go again, quick shout out and thank you to our friends at White Label iq, the presenting sponsor of this podcast. We love them. White label iq.com backslash ami if you want to learn more about them. And you know what? I like doing this and I don’t get to do it if you don’t keep listening. So thank you for coming back. Thank you for hanging with me every week and meeting folks like Laura and learning from them and being open to new ideas. I am grateful that you get to do that because that means I get to do it too. All right, I’m coming back next week. I hope you will too. See you then

Danyel McLellan [00:48:00]:
That’s all for this episode of AMI’s builds a better agency podcast. Be sure to visit agencymanagementinstitute.com to learn more about our workshops, online courses and other ways we serve small to mid sized agencies. Don’t forget to subscribe today so you don’t miss an episode.