I'm starting an AI service agency and need to land a few clients for testimonials. What's the best way to find good emails for cold outreach? Also, how do you track down direct phone numbers for the actual decision maker? Appreciate any tips you have.
I feel like I've already answered this, but to be clear, I would use Apify's 1.5 per 1k scraper, which gets you about 1,000 leads for roughly $1.50 to $2. Then I'd run them through Million Verifier to validate emails—I'm not affiliated with them. That would give me about 60-70% valid emails, meaning you'd spend around $3 to $4 per thousand leads on average. That includes phone numbers too, though they're sparser than emails. You could also enrich with something like Lead Magic for phone enrichment if needed, but I wouldn't worry about that right now. [gasps and sighs]
A cost‑effective way is to use cheap lead‑scraping services like Appify, Lead Finder, or Pipeline Labs. They charge roughly $1‑2 per 1,000 leads, so you can scrape 6‑7 k leads for about $10, then verify and end up with 3‑4 k usable contacts. For phone numbers, use enrichment platforms that add phone data to company records; many of the scraped leads already include numbers. Once you have the list, you can email everyone, then run a follow‑up call campaign—send the email first, then call to reference the email and increase perceived effort compared to typical cold‑call teams.
Focus on niches that have money and are digital—think B2B SaaS, PR agencies, or any service that can be delivered online. Avoid low‑ticket, brick‑and‑mortar niches like dog walking because lead sourcing is hard and expensive. To test, scrape lead lists (e.g., 2,000 contacts per niche across three or four niches) using a service like Leads Rapidly; that costs about $5 per thousand leads, so roughly $30 for 6,000 leads. You’ll also need about 12‑13 mailboxes at around $3.50 each, adding another $40‑$50, for a first‑month total of around $100‑$110. Send your cold emails, then compare which niches give the highest response rates, deepest funnel progress, and most revenue. Also look for mid‑ to high‑ticket offers, as they’re more likely to need automation.
Use a done-for-you mailbox provider; I recommend Zapmail (with affiliate code Nyx for 10% off). Get 9-12 mailboxes at about $3.50 each per month; with the discount that's roughly $33 total. Buy domains—one domain per three mailboxes—so about 3-4 domains at ~$10 each, adding ~$35. Set up Instantly: the $37 plan works if you're bottlenecked, bringing the total to about $105, leaving $15 for Make.com (or n8n) for personalization. You can also scrape leads for free using Apollo or Apify, then personalize them for a few dollars per thousand. Overall you can start with around $70.
He outlines a low‑cost cold‑email stack for a landing‑page agency. First, scrape leads on Appify (or similar) – a typical scraper costs about $150 for ~3,000 leads, though many are old or low quality, so expect roughly half to be usable. Next, run those leads through a verification service such as Million Verifier to weed out bad addresses; verifying ~10,000 emails costs around $20. Then set up mailboxes with a service like Airmail at $4 per mailbox; for ten mailboxes that’s $40/month, plus a growth/warm‑up tool (~$40/month). You’ll also need to warm up domains for about 21 days. Overall, you can expect to spend roughly $100 per month to run the outreach stack. The process is: acquire leads, verify them, configure mailboxes, send cold emails daily, and monitor deliverability.