Cold Email That Works: Breaking Into Foreign Markets in 2 Months

Stages of Cold Email Outreach Execution

• Stage 1: ICP Preparation
  • Identified cold email outreach as the primary market entry method
  • Developed an ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) for companies and contacts:
    • Geography: Turkey, UAE, Israel, Korea, China, CIS
    • Industries: Medical clinics, equipment, services, hotels
    • Job titles: Senior and mid-level managers
  • Took into account cultural specifics of each country:
    • For Asian countries — references to family and weather
    • For Arab countries — emphasis on respect
    • For the US — short, informative emails

• Stage 2: Offer Formulation
  • Created personalised offers for each audience segment
  • The team tested various versions, including the offer: “Let us grow your business, and you share the profit”

• Stage 3: Contact Collection

  Contact collection was carried out in three steps:

  Step 1. Contact Search

  The team used:

  • Apollo.io — to identify foreign companies
  • Контур.Компас and ДаДата — to find Russian companies

  Searches were conducted both automatically and manually. Automation allowed rapid collection of large data volumes, but came with risks: many outdated contacts, bugs, and difficulties with precise segmentation.

  Step 2. Contact Verification

  Database validation was performed using:

  • Free validators: LetsExtract and Globo
  • Paid validator: Hunter

  Between 20% and 50% of contacts were invalidated after verification.

  Step 3. Uploading Data to the Email Outreach Platform

  Data was uploaded to lemlist for email dispatch

• Stage 4: Setting Up and Launching Cold Email Outreach

  Key aspects of email execution:

  1. Email Deliverability

     To prevent emails from landing in spam, technical best practices were followed:

     • Domain certificate configuration
     • Email warm-up
     • Personalisation
     • Careful subject line crafting

     It was noted that 100% deliverability is unattainable: corporate clients often have strict filters, and access is only possible via whitelists.

  2. Personalisation and Offer-Focused Subject Lines

     Each audience segment received a tailored offer, accounting for cultural differences in offer perception.

  3. Multiple Touchpoints with the Client

     A sequence was used consisting of:

     • First email
     • Follow-up email
     • Reminder (follow-up message)