Growth idea action plan
Cold email as retargeting feeder (awareness-first volume outbound)
Send 2,000+ cold emails per day optimized for clicks rather than replies, using those clicks to trigger retargeting ads across Meta, LinkedIn, and Google.
Why this can grow a startup
Most founders treat cold email as a standalone reply-generation channel, but replies alone undercount its impact. When a recipient clicks a link, they hit your site and enter retargeting audiences on Meta, LinkedIn, and Google. Now every subsequent ad impression feels familiar instead of cold. This turns email from a single-touch channel into the entry point of a multi-touch system where each channel reinforces the others, dramatically increasing overall conversion without increasing per-channel spend.
Ian's take
From scaling consumer platforms across MENA and Southeast Asia, my default is to distrust growth work that only looks good in a slide. Email still works when it reads like one person noticed one real thing. If the message could be sent to anyone, it usually works on nobody. I would make the first line specific enough that the right reader knows it was meant for them. I would run it small enough to learn quickly, then only scale the parts that real users repeat, save, reply to, or buy from. For this tactic, I would watch 50% open rates and ~3% click-through rates before putting more time or budget behind it.
Action plan
- Define one narrow startup segment where cold email as retargeting feeder (awareness-first volume outbound) can create a measurable lift.
- Turn the tactic into one offer, page, campaign, or workflow for the Ads and Email channel.
- Use the evidence from linkedin.com to set the first version of the message, format, and audience.
- Launch a small test for 7 to 14 days with one success metric: 50% open rates and ~3% click-through rates.
- Review the result, keep the winning message, remove weak variants, and turn the learning into a repeatable growth playbook.
Source-backed example
SaasRise (Ryan Allis, 2026, data from 500+ SaaS founders) — B2B SaaS companies running 40,000+ emails per month to ABM lists are seeing ~50% open rates and ~3% click-through rates; when clicks feed retargeting pixels, the compounding effect across channels generates pipeline that neither cold email nor ads could produce alone.
Source: linkedin.com
Last checked: March 22, 2026
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