How to Write a (Successful) Cold DM

Today I want to show you how to write a valuable cold DM to someone online.

Cold DMs have a bad reputation because they’re a popular tactic in the “Hustle Bro 24/7” playbook.

So they get skewered pretty frequently online:

There are numerous reasons these cold DM strategies don’t work:

• “Love the shit you’re doing” is not personal (or professional).
• Selling your service in your first outreach attempt almost never works.
• Most adults (women especially) don’t appreciate being called “bro”.

These are lazy attempts to generate business. And for every one time it actually works, you make a terrible first impression 99 times. How short-sighted.

In today’s busy world, you’d better come with a more unique, valuable, and personalized strategy when you reach out to potential customers.

And that’s why I like the ‘3-touch with value approach’.

This approach will show you how to network, and ultimately work with, top people in your field by providing value through DMs.

Let’s dive in.

First touch: Share something extremely useful

Most people running their own business (who I’ve met) are kind, friendly, and genuine.

They’re also busy.

So when you don’t hear back from them, it’s not because they’re mean. You just haven’t given them a compelling enough reason to respond. And that’s where the first touch comes in.

With a personalized and useful first touch, you can offer them a ton of value by standing out in the sea of lazy marketers.

Check out how Andy Kennedy hit me up on DM back in March of 2022.

“Loved the tweet about the simple landing page…” ← Personal

“Writing to suggest you improve the contrast of the buttons…” ← Useful

That’s all. Cheers, friend. ← Zero ask

While this tip might seem simple, it was very useful for me. And Andy was right. It was tough to see the buttons.

Andy didn’t just tell me about my problem. He offered a solution, and didn’t ask me to jump on a call, or let him pitch his business. He just offered a helpful suggestion, and I implemented it.

Second touch: Opportunity Spotlight + Continued Value

Part of a good DM strategy should be to be on the lookout for, and to pay attention to conversations that are relevant to your business.

A simple way to do this is to set up TweetDeck (now called X Pro). You can set it to show you Tweets or replies with certain keywords or phrases.

So, if I Tweet about redoing my personal website, and you’re a web designer who has Tweetdeck set up to capture “redoing website” - you’ll see my Tweet and know about my plans.

This is what helped Andy out. Not only did he show up at the right time (important), but he continued to add value through a custom Google sheet he created for me, which acts similarly to a lead magnet.

I’d posted about wanting to refresh my website, and Andy popped back up again. I was able to scroll up and see his previous message (where he helped me), so I instantly paid attention.

At the end of this simple message, he did some more educating, shared another resource  I found valuable, and told me WHY he shared it.

Third touch: Show Off Your Expertise

With that second DM, I wrote back to Andy and asked some clarifying questions about what platform he builds on (a sort of silly newbie question).

Rather than say something like “Webflow” or “WordPress”, he saw this as an opportunity to educate me and show off his expertise.

This is just a small part of a very long DM Andy sent, explaining how I should think about making my next branding move strategically - not by picking a particular platform or simply creating a beautiful design.

When he sent this to me, I felt like I was talking to someone who was smart, thoughtful, had deep expertise, and was invested in my success.

He wasn’t selling. He was helping.

What happened next?

Compare this exchange with those “bro” DMs.

It’s easy to see the difference.

Andy was all personal. All custom. All helpful. All professional.

I ended up signing a $50,000 contract with Andy, and his work was phenomenal.

Sure, he spent more time being personal, custom, and thoughtful.

And maybe you can’t necessarily do what Andy did “at scale”.

But, with $50,000 wins, do you really need to?

See you next week.

P.S. This is a small sneak preview of my flagship course, The Creator MBA. 14 Chapters and 111 Lessons of instructional video that will teach you how to build a lean, profitable internet business (even if you're just starting or don't have an idea).

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