I started sending cold emails and got zero leads from 2 K companies. What pain point or automation should I focus on first? Should I consider targeting the English‑speaking market?
Focus on an automation pain point that resonates with your target market. Since you’re French, you can still target English‑speaking markets; translating your successful French campaign takes about 20 minutes. Try copying the exact same campaign, translate it to a comfortable fluency level, and send it out. I’ve seen similar campaigns generate eight positive responses out of 300 contacts. For niche ideas, check out the three best AI automation agency niches for 2025 and pick one with willing‑to‑pay problems.
Yes, the business model is absolutely viable in France. In fact, it's a competitive advantage because you have an intrinsic understanding of the market and the language. You can take the English email templates I've developed and run the exact same campaign in French instead of English. By doing so, you will get significantly higher response rates on all your campaigns because the market is far less saturated—there are far fewer people doing this in France compared to the English market. So you should definitely jump on this, especially if you're a forward thinker willing to experiment. My recommendation: set up a campaign to pitch to French people. You can copy one of my campaigns, but don't just use Google Translate; sit down and translate the concepts and ideas, paying attention to tone of voice and cultural differences. Then launch it and report back—let me know when you book meetings, for example. There are already many people doing this in French, as well as in Dutch and German. After that, I shift to discussing brand stats and brainstorming. I note that we've had a rough day with slow growth, likely sub‑1K subscribers now, and the massive boost we received is declining. I wonder if I'm no longer ranking for certain terms or if my current strategy is causing stagnation—I'm still gaining watch time and revenue, but audience growth feels limited. I feel the need to create new content that pushes further than most people think. I also mention being called smart and sexy, looking at automation tools, checking out Jay in my community, exploring YouTube automation videos, noting the prevalence of sponsored posts, and observing that YouTube automation is popping off. I consider making more YouTube automation videos, eliminating shorts from my feed, and looking into AI automation. I comment on competitors like Liam Molly crushing it with high views, and note that getting a 19x return is rare for a channel this size. I also browse other creators, see thumbnail styles, and conclude that I should make some YouTube automation videos, perhaps revisiting an early Redditology channel that scraped Reddit and used AI voiceovers. I think YouTube automation could be a tangential side niche alongside general automation. I also mention agents—while I don't yet believe in agents, I acknowledge others are crushing it with agent videos and maybe we should explore that. Finally, I decide to stop brainstorming because it's getting boring and the lights are coming off, wishing everyone a lovely rest of the day.
Even if many people are doing cold email outreach, it doesn’t matter how many are in the space as long as the overall market for AI and automation services is large. The niche is growing, and demand for AI‑automation services will always outpace the supply of agencies. You don’t need to worry about competition; instead focus on narrowing your sub‑niche—be a specific type of AI automation agency serving a particular audience. That specialization makes you one of a few thousand rather than a generic agency. So don’t sweat the fact that everyone is reaching out to the same leads; concentrate on a unique angle and you’ll stand out.
First, revisit your cold‑email fundamentals. Make sure your emails actually land in the inbox, get opened, and are compelling enough to earn a reply. Test deliverability, subject lines, and copy. A good cold‑email sequence should: 1) land in the primary inbox, 2) achieve a decent open rate, 3) get clicks, and 4) provoke a reply. If you’re not seeing any replies, you likely have a problem at one of those earlier steps. Start by creating a simple campaign that feels personal—e.g., “Hey [Name], how’s it going? I’m working on …”—and iterate until you see engagement. Once you have a working email framework, you can begin gathering case studies by offering free or low‑cost pilots, which will later strengthen your outreach.
Cold email isn't really automation; you can easily build an AI‑enabled cold‑email agency, which is a top solo‑freelancer model right now. But the simplest, highest‑leveraged system you can build for a client is a 'speedtole' system—a glorified autoresponder. You watch a mailbox for incoming mail from a filter (e.g., Facebook lead ads sending an email), then using Make.com, n8n, or cloud routines you scan the mailbox, get the trigger, and immediately reply via email. Then you send a Twilio SMS, and a team member calls the prospect. This cuts response time from minutes to under a minute, boosting pickup and conversion rates because of the perceived professionalism of your system. I’ve seen this system add over a million dollars in revenue for clients and improve existing funnels by 10‑20%, easily generating an easy $500k per year.