Introduction

Cold outreach is by far the best, easiest and cost-effective way to land clients consistently. It’s one of the most powerful strategies you can do when you want to sign your first few clients and multiple clients for your business later on. It’s a great beginner strategy that can work and works for many other big companies and businesses as well. I say it’s a beginner strategy because anyone can get started with it. The only thing you need is a mobile phone, laptop and a WI-FI, that’s all. 

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Most people and businesses fail at generating leads and clients for themselves because they don’t know how to attract clients in the right way. In this in depth blog article, I will show you exactly how to find clients, what type of message to send to them, how to keep them replying and how you can sign them as a client. The most important part here is to get them on the call, you need to sell a call, nothing else.

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Why Should You Listen to Me?

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I have been in the digital marketing space for 10+ years and with my business partners I have built two successful agencies, one of the agencies that we are currently running is a creative agency. In this blog article I will show you our exact script and how we landed 50+ clients with that same script. I will not only show you the script but I will also show you how you can land clients with multiple different outreach strategies. 

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These outreach strategies can be implemented in really any scenario or platform. Whether that’s Instagram Cold DM or Twitter Cold DM, it’s still a COLD approach which means it can be implemented the same way on different platforms. Don’t reinvent the wheel, focus on what is working for you and just refine the message over time if it’s not working that good, that’s what I’ve learned over the years. Let’s get straight into the “secrets” of Instagram Cold DM outreach.

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Why Choose Instagram Cold DM?

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Instagram is great because you can literally jump into anyone's DMs and reach out to them, it’s really easy to do so because again there are billions of people on Instagram and millions of them are business owners that are desperate for a solution that you might have or offer. When it comes to the platform, Instagram is not anything special, you can apply this strategy on other platforms that have DM features such as Twitter, TikTok or even Cold Email.

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Again as I said previously the most important part of the strategy is the strategy not the platform where you’re performing the strategy, that means that you can apply the same strategy on multiple different platforms. So don’t just focus solely on Instagram as it can limit the amount of messages you can send per day. Right now you can send from 50-70 messages per day on Instagram which is not too bad. That means you can get into the DM of 50-70 potential customers daily. That is between 1500-2100 potential clients you could reach out on a monthly basis. If you have a 1% conversion rate which is modest, that means that you can at least get 10-20 people on the call with you.

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Now notice that I didn’t say that you could sign those clients, NO because you need to first qualify them on the call. After you qualify them, you can get at least 5-7 clients on a monthly basis which is really awesome. If your service fee costs $1000, that means you could potentially get $7K monthly revenue which is amazing again. This is just something to think about. Instagram is not the only platform but it’s definitely one of the best platforms for cold outreach especially if your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) is on it which in most cases are coaches, influencers, real estate agents, content creators and others (You can do your own research on that).

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First Line Is What Matters

The most important part of the message is your first line. This is what people see when you send them an initial message. It’s very important to catch their attention with that first message so it needs to be something strong. The first line needs to be catchy and it needs to be personalized. There are so many people that sound robotic and use ChatGPT that you really need to use something unique to generate attention in the DMs.

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You need to be yourself. Not only that but you need to think about what they want and not what you want. It’s about providing as much value to them as you can through that specific message. 

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There are two different approaches when doing cold DM outreach:

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• Personalized first line
• Direct offer proposition

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Personalized First Line Approach

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When you’re sending a message with a personalized line, you are specifically changing the first line so that it’s customized or personalized for the prospect that you’re reaching out to. If a prospect has an achievement or something that you can highlight in the first message so that it catches other people’s attention.

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Other people love to hear about themselves so make sure you are focusing on that specifically. This will help you get more open messages. Below you can see an image (template) of what that would look like when writing an email. Keep in mind that you can apply the same structure to your Instagram direct messages, nothing changes, you just don’t include the subject line since this isn’t an email. 

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You can see that this message is super personalized, results driven and it’s also very short, you must keep these messages short. People usually don’t have time to read through it all, that’s why the hook (the first line) is the most important part because it catches attention. It’s very simple and effective template which you can model by, don’t just blindly copy it as it won’t work, you need to adjust it to your service that you’re selling.

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Direct Offer Proposition Approach

If you already have an offer that you want to propose and it’s valuable to your ICP (ideal customer profile) then go for it, just pitch the offer directly in the initial message. This works in some cases while in others it won’t work as well. It’s all about framing a message in the right direction. Again, you can see the template that you can follow for this particular approach below.

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As you can see it’s a very simple approach. It’s also framed like you are giving something away for free, at least that’s what it looks like, actually you want to get them on a call with you so that you can show them exactly how you can generate leads for them (in this specific case). This can be done with other business owners because business owners are usually busy individuals and being direct is a great way to break through the wall and become unique as most people will not be as direct as this message.

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Engagement After Initial Message

After the first message is sent you now have to engage with that profile that you reached out to. Sending the first initial message is simply not enough in this busy world where people don’t open messages daily. Engagement after an initial message is crucial if you want to hook people and get their attention. You need to understand how people are getting these messages and how that system works. Most people get 10+ messages from different people per day. Now Imagine if you’re an influencer, 100+ messages a day are a normal day in the influencer’s life.

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So, how should you engage with those people?

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Here’s how you should do it:

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• Once the initial message has been sent, go on their profile.
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• Visit their most recent post.
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• Comment on their post something about a post and then tell them that you’ve been trying to reach out to them and if they can check their DMs.
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• After that like one of their comments on that most recent post as well.

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That will give you enough attention and show them that you exist that they will go and open your message to see it. If they don’t you can simply go and do that 3 more times. I personally don’t do that more than 3 times since it’s just enough for this particular strategy. You just need to be persistent and consistent with this approach in order to work.

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Also, don’t expect to generate any substantial results within the first week. You need to be doing this entire strategy at least 1 month and that is bare minimum to see any good results from your strategy. This is all about consistency and volume. Think of this like cold calling, if you call 3 people and all 3 say NO will you quit? Of course not, you will keep sending more and more messages until someone says YES, that’s how simple it is.

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Follow Ups

Ah, good old follow ups. This might sound salesy but the money really is in the follow up. It’s a part of sales process that will generate you the most money just because you are giving people another opportunity to hear from you and in some way you are also telling them that you are here and that your message is not yet replied to. Follow ups are essential in order to push people back in the sales cycle and give them an opportunity to book a call with you.

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Here are some follow ups that I did that resulted in signing a client:

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First Follow Up

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Hey, ____ just checking to see if you had a chance to look at this.

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Also, to cut to the chase you can check out our past work here: (my website)

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Second Follow Up

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Hey ____

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I noticed you didn’t get back to me, would love to see how we can help you out with your YouTube channel. I hope everything is okay on your end!

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Don’t hesitate to look at our previous work here: (my website)

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Let me know when is the best time to talk with you!

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Third Follow Up

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____?

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You must be really busy these days

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Let me know when you can answer!

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Fourth Follow Up

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Hey ____, tried to reach you a few times but didn’t hear back…

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Where should we go from here?

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I mainly do 3-4 follow ups after the first initial message. You can follow up with people every 3-4 days. Personally I do it every Monday since it's a non-intrusive way of reminding the prospects about the message. I would also recommend you to do it like I am doing it because you will not be considered a spammer but just a normal typical business person that wants to sell something which is still not bad if you frame it in the right way.

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Why Sending Volume Matters

First off, think about fishing. If you only throw in one line, you’re relying on that single chance to catch a fish. But if you cast several lines, your chances of catching something increase significantly. It's the same concept when you're reaching out with cold DMs or emails. The more messages you send out, the higher the likelihood of getting responses.

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It's a Numbers Game

The truth is, not everyone is going to respond to your first message, or any message at all. That’s just part of the game. Some people might miss your email, others might be too busy to reply, and some might not be interested. By increasing the number of messages you send, you spread your net wider and improve your chances of catching the attention of those who are interested and ready to engage.

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Managing High Volume Responsibly

Now, I'm not suggesting you spam people. There’s a right way to handle high-volume sending:

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Target the Right Audience: Make sure you're reaching out to people who are likely to be interested in what you have to offer. This isn’t just about sending as many messages as possible; it’s about sending the right messages to the right people.

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Personalize Your Messages: Even if you're sending hundreds of messages, try to add a personal touch to each one. Mention something specific about their business or a recent post they made. This shows you’ve done your homework and aren’t just sending a generic blast.

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Track and Optimize: Keep track of which types of messages get the best responses. Use this data to refine your approach and improve the effectiveness of your campaigns.

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Be Patient and Persistent: Understand that results won’t happen overnight. Persistence pays off, and maintaining a steady flow of outreach can lead to better connections and more business opportunities.

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Being Persistent

To all of you who are just starting with cold outreach or who have been trying without much success, I urge you not to lose heart. Being persistent is essential, not just in outreach but in everything in business. It’s all about staying the course, refining your strategy, and continuing to reach out even when it seems tough. Remember, every successful marketer has faced these challenges. What set them apart was their willingness to keep going, learn from their experiences, and remain steadfast in their goals.

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Stick with it, keep refining your approach, and stay persistent. Your efforts will pay off, and soon enough, you’ll start to see the results of your hard work in the form of new clients and growing business opportunities. Keep pushing forward, and don’t give up!