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‍Daria Zwiefka: Hi Przemek, so good to have you at the interview today. Thanks for taking the time. Let’s jump straight to the topic. What do you think? What value can cold-mailing have in terms of sales strategy?

Simon Stanisz: Hi Daria, thanks for having me. Looking at the broad strategy and the approach to business in general, many people focus too much on a single channel.

The problem is that even with specific results, one channel does not give us enough access to different groups, to people who can potentially buy our service or our product. So, from the very beginning, we can look at the perspective of a multi-channel approach. Not only cold-mailing, but of course all kinds of contacts, via LinkedIn, various groups like Telegram or others, plus even cold-calling or meetings at conferences. 

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Daria: Do you have any experience of which channel is better for which target group?

Simon: Every channel has its advantages, but the key is to use it correctly. Not every channel is right for every audience, so we need to think about whether cold mailing is the best fit for our target group and what type of content will resonate with them. 

If a prospect is already aware of their problem, knows the possible solutions, and is actively looking for one, then cold mailing might not be the best choice. In such cases, ads, branding, or inbound strategies might work better. But this is just a small fraction of the total market.

Expanding our reach means reaching those who are unaware or indifferent. Increasing conversions isn’t always possible, and lowering prices isn't a sustainable strategy. The best option is to widen the funnel, and adding channels like cold mailing helps achieve that.

But many people are not fully aware of the problem. They literally think it is life, it has always been like this and it will always be like this, no matter if we are talking about cloud solutions, AI tools for writing emails or solving problems, or we just want to sell a car to someone. So, if someone has been driving a tram to the city center all his life, because that was his life, he doesn't even think about changing it. And now, if we want to expand our reach it would mean reaching those who are unaware or indifferent and maybe add a new channel. 

And then we move to this less conscious group, which we may not fully educate. It will be easier for us to draw the attention of a specific group and attract them to a meeting, if we are able to give context in good news more easily, or at least invite them to an educational session, webinar, or attract them to an e-book. And of course, now many people may say, yes, yes, yes, but I could do the same with ads.

Yes - you could. But not everyone will react to ads. Some people may have them blocked, like me. Not everyone will read feeds on LinkedIn. Personally, I lack time for this and I don't want to spend my time like this. I am also not a person who looks for webinars unless I am aware and feel the need. So, without a cold channel like email, LinkedIn or phone, it would be hard to get my attention. And we are trying to reach these people.

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Daria: Why do some email campaigns convert and others don't? From your perspective, which aspects matter the most? 

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Simon: Many people treat email campaigns as zero one process. Either I used email or I didn't. In fact, you can use email in many different ways. I can have an email that's more generic. I can have an email with a specific value. An email can be sent at different times of the day. So, there are many factors that affect whether a certain campaign is effective or not. 

First of all, the most important thing for me is that we shouldn't treat email as another channel of direct sales. Some people think I'll send an email, I'll say we have a great product and people will start buying right away. No, we don't make decisions based on email. And that's why an email should attract my attention.‍

It should have a specific value that will invite a conversation, to an action. So, I can arrange a conversation, but I can also come to a webinar, I can read an article, I can sign up for a podcast, I can come to an event. There are many elements to activate a person.

Why don't many emails convert? Because they are made in one go and they are sent through a transaction. So, we have a product, please buy it, because we're great.

Daria: Sure. So, we're getting to the topic of value. Why should an email affect what we want to offer, give some value? 

Simon: Value has to be both appropriately written and appropriately defined. Let's say I'm selling AI to marketing, then the value will be different for the marketing director, for the company's president, and for the employee of the marketing department.

Even though it's still the same product. So, we need to know who we're writing to and what the next steps may be. Because sooner or later, we will be able to bring an employee or a director to a webinar, but certainly not a president, because he has slightly different priorities. 

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Daria: So, there's always a step back in the context of looking at who we're writing to and what we're writing for. What other elements should include a well-described value? Or what are the mistakes in how people define this value? 

Simon: Here's another thing. It's a bit technical, but for many people the value seems to be very sweet - I can help you, we'll reduce your reach to clients or tasks X, Y, Z. This can be defined as a value since there are different schools of building communication values.

But what's important is that the value has to be understandable. It has to be short, a maximum of 10 to 12 words. Why? Because if we're talking about a cold message, whether it's an email, LinkedIn or even a phone call, we have to quickly catch someone's attention. We have to explain in five sentences what we’re doing and what value we bring. That’s the first challenge: how to build a message that is actually short and simple?

And the second one is that in a good message we should have two elements. The first one is the sugar value. What's the benefit that we get from this job? But the second one is the grounding part of the message. For example, what's the logical way to deliver it? And at this point, I'll give you a good example. We do social projects with big companies in our foundation, but we don't say that we do great social projects and we make a social impact. It would be rejected if we say that we run a foundation and we help children in education -  it doesn't mean much.

Besides the value itself, we also need to have social proof. It’s good to show that we are not fresh, that we have specific organisations, specific companies that use this value and thanks to that, it will be easier for someone to trust us.

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Daria: So, we have a value proposition, we have social proof, is something else you think is crucial from the point of view of a successful campaign or whether it ends successfully or not?

Simon: These are the technical elements of a good campaign or good message, but of course it's also a matter of frequency and scale, so we can send one message, which I don't recommend. I would rather send two or three messages. I would maybe mix the channels a bit, so I have two or three channels.

On one hand I want these messages to be a bit different. On the other we need to communicate a similar value or a similar direction. And this is the hard thing, this paradox, because I have to send five touchpoints to someone, but at the same time I shouldn’t build pressure.

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Daria: That’s a great insight. Any final thoughts?

Simon: Cold mailing is a powerful tool, but it works best when it’s part of a well-thought-out, multi-channel strategy. The key is to focus on delivering value, building trust, and maintaining persistence without being intrusive. When done right, it can significantly expand reach and drive meaningful business conversations.

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