Leadbird | Superpowers For Lead Generation

Booking 500+ meetings per month for over 100 clients on a pay-per-meeting-ready lead basis, and using our in-house tech stack to do it.

Partner

Scrubby | Complete email validation

Quicklines.ai | Personalization At Scale

Quicklines can hyper personalize your cold emails. Our AI will take your lead list and write individual personalized intro lines that is unique to each lead for you to include in your cold emails. This has increased our response rate by 150%.

Lead generation is broken.

Too many companies:

- Try to generate leads themselves, but fail
- Hire a lead gen agency with bloated retainers who can’t deliver

Lead generation as a whole is always changing, so unless you’ve got a dedicated team
on it (that knows what they’re doing) — you can expect to overpay for underwhelming
results.

That said, in 2024 — you don’t need to try to generate leads yourself, or pay an
outsized retainers for subpar work.

With Leadbird, you:

- Don’t pay for overpriced retainers
- Only pay per meeting-ready-lead we deliver
- Get the expertise of career outbound salespeople

We achieve this for you through:

- Targeted lead list building
- Domain + inbox set-up and warm-up
- Proven cold email copywriting principles
- Done-for-you cold email campaign management

Book a free demo from the link in my bio to join over 115 active clients getting
high-quality, meeting-ready-leads every single month.

Talk soon,
Nick

My SaaS made $60,000 before we built the product. Here's how we validated demand by faking automation:

When we were building Scrubby (our catch-all email verification tool), I had zero clue if people would actually pay for it.

So instead of spending months building the backend automation, we built just the frontend.

Users would upload their catch-all lists thinking we had this sophisticated system running in the background.

In reality, we were doing everything manually. It was pretty much an agency service.

We'd take their lists, manually send test emails to each catch-all address, see which ones bounced, and send back the verified results.

It was tedious as hell. But it worked. And we saved thousands in development costs that we didn't know if we should spend.

And, after promoting the "SaaS" to outbound marketers, we made $60,000 in revenue – before we automated a single thing.

The best part was users had no idea. They thought they were using a fully automated SaaS platform.

This taught me that validation isn't about building the perfect product first. It's about proving people will pay for the solution.

Once we hit $60K, then we knew it was worth investing in the real automation.

Validate, then build.

Nick Abraham

Founder @ Leadbird.io | B2B Lead Gen | Pay-Per-Meeting-Ready-Leads

This cold email screams "SCAM" from a mile away. Yet people still use these tactics daily. Here's why it fails:

1. Fake forwarded message in the subject line.

Using "FW:" to make it appear like an internal conversation is a cheap trick. This immediately sets off alarm bells for anyone who thinks critically.

2. The "my boss and I were chatting" opener is pure fiction.

No, they weren't. This classic "false familiarity" approach attempts to create an impression of legitimacy and urgency that simply doesn't exist. It's manipulation 101.

3. Company name formatting is completely wrong.

They pulled the LinkedIn headline rather than the actual company name. This shows they're using poor scraping techniques and didn't even bother with basic verification.

4. Hard CTA after minimal value demonstration.

After barely establishing any credibility, they jump straight to "let's grab 30 minutes" - showing their true priority is getting on my calendar, not solving my problems.

Relevance and value are pillars of good cold email – but I guess honesty is, too. This example demonstrates none of those qualities.

Do not do this.

Google and Microsoft are cracking down. Cold variance is more important than ever. A simple hack to vary your cold emails more:

Adding Spintax to your email signature. 

Most people leave their email signature as is:

1. Sign-off
2. Name
3. Title, Company

Except when you're sending 10,000+ cold emails per month. This can get finger-printed extremely easily. 

And most people don't realize how much opportunity for variance there is in each part of the signature. Vary them enough, and you will get fingerprinted less.

- For sign-off, you can say: Best, Regards, Kindly, Warm Regards, All the best, Take care, Cheers, Best Wishes, Be Well, Many thanks, Sincerely.

- For your name, you can vary as follows: Nick Abraham, Nick MIDDLE NAME Abraham, Nick, Nick A., Nicky, Nicky Abraham, Nicky A., Abraham, Nick (I don't love "Nicky", but you get the point).

For your title, you can vary as follows:

- [Founder, Leadbird]
- [Founder, Company Name]
- [Founder / CEO, Company Name]
- [Founder + CEO, Company Name]
- [Founder, Shortened Company Name]
- [Chief Executive Officer, Company Name]
- [CEO, Shortened Company Name]
- [CEO, Company Name]
- [President, Company Name]
- [President, Shortened Company Name]
- [Company Name Leadership]
- [Company Name Founder]
- [Company Name CEO]

I put together the diagram below so you can save this and have access to it whenever you need. I strongly recommend starting this if you are sending any type of scaled cold email volume. 

Let me know if you have any questions.

We send cold emails for over 200 active clients. Please, never hire a lead gen agency if these 5 things are true about your business:

(1) Your offer isn't cold-traffic-ready.

Offers that are ready for cold traffic solve one massive pain point for one clear ICP and are as low risk as humanly possible. 

If that is not true about your offer, the first step before you buy any domains or write any campaigns is to figure that out.

Comment if you want help with that.  

(2) You have no budget to test.

Lead gen agencies are not charities. You should not be hiring one with the expectation that you're going to generate ROI from them on day one. Excuse the typical agency line, but these things take time. 

Yes, your agency must provide tangible results, but you should never hire them if you are hanging on to your last dollar. 

(3) You're not willing to wait 60+ days for a "winner".

Sort of along the lines of our last point. The win does not come on day one. The winning campaign comes after rigorous testing and ideation, which does not happen in 24 hours. 

If you're not willing to wait up to 60 days to find a true winning campaign, you shouldn't hire the lead gen agency to begin with. 

(4) You aren't willing to listen to or carry out their ideas. 

Your lead gen agency is likely incentivized to generate you as many qualified leads as possible. Their ideas will come as a result of that. 

You don't have to love every idea, but you cannot be vetoing each one either. At a certain point, you're harming everyone's ability to work together.

(5) You're handling sales solo / aren't set up to sell to these leads.

If you aren't set up to run a proper sales motion, hiring a lead generation agency probably doesn't make sense for you. 

You might think you'll be able to handle proper discovery, follow-ups, etc., but in reality, you get busy.

And that's fine – but hiring a lead gen agency in this case is a waste of time and money. The leads don't mean anything if you can't close them.

Let me know if you have any other reasons that come to mind. Let's make a list.

This 100% automated cold email looks perfectly human. It's crushing it for our clients in the digital marketing space. Here's why:

1. Subject line looks conversational, not promotional.

Instead of screaming "DEMO REQUEST" or "QUICK QUESTION," we use a simple "growth question" that feels authentic and gets opens. 

The casualness gets past spam filters and prospect skepticism.

2. First line uses the colleague mention variable.

Opening with uncertainty about who to contact (you or Melissa) instantly makes this look like a thoughtful human email, not a blast. 

This elevates your open rate and gets your email past the "delete immediately" reflex.

3. Specific data observation creates incredible relevance.

Mentioning the exact number of active ads in their library looks hyper-personalized but can be automated with scraping tools. 

This level of specificity makes it nearly impossible to identify as automated.

4. Value prop with social proof baked in.

Notice how we combine benefits (cheaper, less time with creators) with specific metrics from a case study (21% CAC reduction). 

This builds credibility without being pushy.

5. No-risk CTA that leads with value.

Instead of asking for a meeting, we offer to create a sample video specifically for their company. 

This low-friction offer is much more likely to get a positive response than asking for their time.

6. PS line with website-specific personalization.

This final touch references something specific from their site that can be pulled with Clay or similar tools. It's the cherry on top that makes the email feel researched and personalized.

Try this template with your next lead list if it fits. 

The key, as always, is making automated outreach feel like it came from a thoughtful human who did their research.

This hybrid business model hit $800,000 MRR in under 2 years. It's the perfect combination of agency + SaaS:

My friend Daniel Fazio runs ListKit.They've cracked something most of us miss.

Instead of just selling monthly subscriptions, they run ads to a completely different offer that basically lets them acquire customers for free.

Here's their playbook:

They run ads to a landing page with a cold emails et-up offer: The company charges $1,500 upfront to set up your entire cold email infrastructure. 

Then, once everything's built, you pay $500-1,000/month to use their data platform.

Why this works so well:

1. Immediate cash flow: That $1,500 covers acquisition costs (maybe and then some). Traditional acquisition costs are negated, in this sense.

2. Sticky customers: Once your infrastructure is set up, switching becomes painful

3. Recurring revenue: The monthly subscription creates predictable income (like most SaaS businesses).

4. Better unit economics: You're not trying to recover acquisition costs over 12+ months. In fact, you do it in a few days.

Compare this to traditional PLG – where you're spending $200+ to acquire a user paying $97/month. You need them to stick around for 3+ months just to break even.

With the hybrid model, you're profitable on day one.

It's the best of both worlds - you get the scalability of SaaS with the cash flow of services.

If you're running a B2B SaaS and struggling with unit economics, consider adding a high-ticket setup component.

Your cash flow will thank you.

We have 2,000,000 cold emails per month of data to completely disprove the "money is in the follow-up" phrase everyone loves to throw around.

I'm actually fairly anti follow-ups for most cold email campaigns.

Our data shows across 200+ clients sending 2M+ emails monthly is the reason why:

Over 80% of all positive replies happen on email 1. Every follow-up after that just keeps dropping off.

Think about it from your own perspective. When someone follows up with you 4 times in the same email thread, it starts getting annoying. Most people start thinking about hitting the spam button. I know I do.

So, instead, send 2 emails max to each contact. Then move on to new people.

You'll generate way more leads by reaching out to 5,000 net new contacts with 2 emails each than following up with 1,000 contacts 5 times each.

The math is simple. More people equals more opportunities.

Now, there are exceptions. If your TAM is extremely small, like 500 accounts total, then yeah, you need to follow up more. But do it right:

1. Use different email threads. Don't pile onto the original email. 

2. Hit other channels like LinkedIn and phone calls, not just email. 

3. Change your approach with a different angle or different value prop.

Most B2B companies have a large enough TAM that you don't need to hammer the same people over and over.

Focus on volume and fresh contacts over aggressive follow-ups. It's less annoying for prospects and way more effective for you.

How to make sure your agency never grows:

1. Sell custom work to each client.
2. Remain involved in each area of biz.
3. Rely on referrals and inbound.
4. Do nothing with AI.
5. Do everything with AI.
6. Automate nothing.
7. Automate everything.
8. Track nothing.
9. Track everything.
10. Don't post content.
11. Accept clients with bad offers.
12. Allow scope creep to "keep clients happy".
13. Throw new hires right into the fire.
14. Overcomplicate fulfillment.
15. Outsource work without documentation.
16. Don't make your offer cold-ready.
17. Add tools to your stack constantly.

What am I missing?

We have 200+ clients while most lead gen agencies can't get past 20.

I don't say that to brag.

I say it to show you it's possible.

And when I look at agencies stuck below 20 clients, I always see these 7 bottlenecks (fix these):

1. Custom packages for each client.
2. Over-reliance on vendors.
3. No back-ups.
4. Reliance on lots of tech.
5. Lack of clear way for clients to review campaigns.
6. Lack of ability to scale sales.
7. Personal involvement in each area.

I dive deeper into each point below. Let me know if you have any questions.

Lead Gen Mistakes

I haven't talked about this very much, but it's worth addressing: We tested switching inbox management to be fully AI-powered and it completely failed.

In the past, we've had humans handle the entire inbox management process:

- Scanning for replies
- Categorizing replies
- Sometimes drafting replies back

With the proper training, the error rate was very low, but as we scaled past 100 and then 200 clients, human labor became an extreme constraint. Our inbox managers can only handle so many emails in a given time period. 

So we got curious. There's lots of AI-powered inbox management solutions on the market. Though skeptical, we tried anyway. 

At first, the results were promising. Our team was able to handle a lot more inboxes because AI was doing most of the work.

And that, if that sounds too good to be true, it’s because it was. It was more efficient, but the error rate shot up to 10-20% of emails. If 1 in every 5 replies for clients was being misclassified, we're in trouble.

We pulled the plug. We can't risk that type of error rate with clients. 

But I'm not going to act like it didn't open my eyes. There is certainly a system to be built pairing AI with human labor so that the process becomes more efficient without the error rate increasing. 

And that's exactly what we did. Now, we use AI to categorize everything automatically, but our inbox manager is able to go in and scan to ensure it was done right. The inbox manager can also make edits to what's needed. 

Once the replies are in a good spot, our inbox manager has a bulk confirm button to push all replies where they need to get.

It isn't fully AI-powered, and it isn't fully human-powered. It's a happy medium, and it's working.

The same can probably be true for a lot of processes people are trying to replace with AI right now. Having a human in the loop, even though partially less efficient, is likely the right option.

Let me know if you want to see a video on how this works.

You can write extremely personal cold emails without personalizing a thing at all. The key is in how you filter the list.

This is a real example of how tightening up search filters gets you a more relevant email without you having to personalize anything at all. 

For this example, let's say you're trying to sell bookkeeping services. 

If you went with a big list and broad targeting:

- CEO
- Company in US
- <20 headcount

You'd end up with the email on the left. You can't call a ton of specific stuff out because there's so much variance between these businesses that it won't make sense. 

But if you narrow the list down with further filters, something like:

- CEO
- First-time founder
- Company in US
- <20 headcount
- No Accounting/Finance staff
- Business founded less than two years ago

...then you can write an email like you see on the right side of this graphic. It looks a lot more personalized, although it's not actually. 

This is exactly the point I'm trying to make. Tighten up how you filter for your list, and you can layer on personalization far easier. 

Credit to 🦾Eric Nowoslawski for sharing this on our pod!

This cold email template is 100% automated but looks completely human. Here's why it consistently generates meetings:

1. Subject line cuts through the noise.

"Quick question" is simple, non-threatening, and gets opened because it sounds like internal communication. It doesn't scream "sales email" like most subject lines do.

2. First line shows you did research.

Opening with a specific observation about their hiring creates immediate relevance. This can be automated by scraping job boards or LinkedIn, but it feels personal to the recipient.

3. Curiosity-driven transition question.

Instead of launching into a pitch, we ask if they've considered our solution. This approach feels consultative rather than pushy and naturally leads into our value proposition.

4. Social proof with specific metrics.

We reference a similar company and provide concrete results (14 qualified calls). This builds credibility while showing we understand their exact situation and challenges.

5. Soft, low-pressure CTA.

"Worth a chat?" is much less intimidating than "book a 30-minute demo." It feels casual and gives prospects an easy way to engage without committing to a formal sales call.

6. PS adds human touch with colleague variable.

This final line can be automated using org chart data but makes the email feel like it came from someone who actually researched their team structure.

The key is balancing automation with personalization that feels genuine. Each variable can be pulled at scale while maintaining the human feel prospects respond to.

Them: cold email doesn't work.

Me: Why do you say that?

Them: Well, we tried it for our business and got 0 leads!

Me: That's odd. Mind if we break down your strategy?

Them: Sure, but you aren't convincing me otherwise.

Me: OK, let's start. How targeted was your lead list?

Them: Very solid. We only reached out to our ICP.

Me: Hmmm...what about your copy?

Them: Spam-tested, short, valuable, and with a soft CTA.

Me: Wow, so you're doing the right stuff. Infra?

Them: Warmed domains, 2 emails per day per inbox.

Me: Nice – most people starting off get that wrong.

Them: Thanks...it's not a deliverability issue.

Me: Definitely not...how about your offer?

Them: Very low-risk for the prospect.

Me: That's good...I wonder what the issue was.

Them: Cold email just doesn't work for us!

Me: Oh...hold on.

Them: What?

Me: Your lead list was good. How many people were on it?

Them: 143!

Me: Stop talking and send 10,000 more cold emails before you even think about saying "cold email doesn't work" again.

Them: But I—

Me: Stop talking. Start sending.

The client isn't always right. 

We have over 200 clients and are grateful for each, but there are 5 things we'll never let them do with cold email:

If it isn't clear by reading these points, we don't let them do these things because of the negative impact on performance that they have. No other reason.

(1) Add links or attachments to their emails. 

This sounds obvious to 95% of people reading this post, but you'd be surprised at how many people want to do this. This is an obvious no-no because of the deliverability impacts it has. 

(2) Track opens. 

Again, I know most people reading this know this already, but you'd be surprised at the amount of people who don't. 

A lot of people still index on open rates as a good barometer for cold email performance but fail to recognize the deliverability problems it causes. 

(3) Add a single account to a lead list. 

We are built to find, scrape, verify, and send to lists of thousands of people. The operational complexity to add a single prospect to a lead list isn't worth it. 

In fact, the client is better off just handwriting a cold email to that person instead. 

(4) Write a novel in their email. 

Again, probably self-explanatory, but people just want to give as much context as possible without understanding the harm of lengthy copy. We ensure all copy is under 75 words unless there is a very special case. 

(5) Dress up their offer to sound fancier. 

We've had local cleaning businesses try to tie in AI with their messaging; it's just not worth it. Tell the prospect what you do, prove that you're good at it, and see if they're interested. Nothing more. 

All in all, doing these things are a great way to nuke your performance, which I don't think you want to do, and which we don't let clients do. 

H/t to 🦾Eric Nowoslawski for the post inspo.

When you hit 90,000+ inboxes like we have at Leadbird, you need systems for deliverability. Here's exactly what we've built:

1. Domain rotation: Buy 2x the inboxes you need and rotate monthly. While Set A is active, Set B sits on ice in warm-up for 45 days, healing any reputation issues. Next month, swap them.

2. Bounce message monitoring: Every deliverability issue shows up in bounce codes. We track each domain's bounces separately (sender vs hard vs soft). If sender bounces exceed 1-3%, that domain is cooked - kill it immediately.

3. Lead list scoring: Put your best-fit accounts at the TOP of your lead list, worst at the bottom. Why? Initial engagement improves sender reputation, increasing delivery rates for the rest of the campaign.

4. MX record analysis: Scan your lead list for prospects using Barracuda, Proofpoint, or Mimecast. Don't remove them - put them at the BOTTOM of your list. By the time your campaign reaches them, your domain has more age, increasing delivery chances.

5. Clean your "From" names: "Leadbird LLC" or "Ramp Incorporated" in your sender name = people instantly know it's automated and mark as spam. Keep it clean and human.

6. Keep emails under 100 words: Copy fatigue happens much quicker above 120 words. Under 100 is ideal.

7. Skip the tracking pixels: Open tracking hurts deliverability. Just don't.

Unless you're trying to be the next Ramp (who sends 1M+ emails monthly), you probably don't need all these systems. 

But if cold email is your primary channel, this is how you protect it.

Let me know if you have any questions on this.

If someone you've never met came up to you right now and asked you for 30 minutes of your time to sell you something, what would you say? 

Unless you're extremely bored, you'd say no. And while that sounds obvious, when it comes to cold emails, people completely forget this. 

The majority of cold emails in your prospects' inboxes are asking for their time off the bat. And if yours is too, you're in trouble. You'll never stand out from the crowd. 

The right way to do this, and the way that expert cold emailers are handling this, is by using extremely soft CTAs to make the ask sound more conversational and less salesy. 

Not to mention if you're pitching some sort of sales asset (whether it be a case study, document, resource, or whitepaper), a soft CTA is a great way to ask permission to give value instead of asking for 30 minutes of the prospect's time. 

With all of that, the below image should make it so that you never ask for 30 minutes for someone's time on the first touch again. 

There are 27 soft CTAs in here, with varying degrees of humor, seriousness, and curiosity. 

Depending on what you're offering and how you're positioning it, pick one from here to use instead of pitching a 30-minute call. 

More than that, feel free to A/B test these against each other, as I'm sure it would produce some interesting results. 

If you have any questions on this, let me know.

Tell her "quick question" is still the best cold email subject line.

This signal-based cold email template converts like crazy because it feels perfectly timed. Here's the breakdown:

1. Subject line leverages recent news for relevance. 

"Series B" immediately catches attention because it references something that just happened at their company. It looks like industry news or internal communication, not a sales email.

2. Opening line shows you're paying attention. 

Mentioning their specific funding round proves you're tracking their company's progress. This can be automated with tools like Clay or Apollo but feels like personal research to the recipient.

3. Curiosity question ties funding to their likely needs. 

Companies that just raised money are typically looking to scale, so asking about pipeline acceleration hits at the exact moment they're thinking about it. Perfect timing creates perfect relevance.

4. Social proof with hyper-specific metrics. 

Instead of generic case studies, we reference a company in a similar situation (recent Series B) with exact results (47 qualified demos in 60 days). This specificity makes it incredibly relevant to their current moment.

5. Low-pressure exploration CTA. 

"Worth exploring?" feels consultative rather than pushy. You're not asking for their time, just gauging interest, which removes friction from responding positively.

6. PS adds strategic insight. 

The 3-4 month hiring lag insight positions you as someone who understands their business cycle. This value-add knowledge makes you seem like a strategic partner, not just another vendor.

Timing your outreach to company triggers creates natural relevance that's impossible to ignore.

Taplio

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