ToolGuyd has been around for more than 13 years now, and so my contact info has inevitably made it to a lot of PR and marketing lists.
I tend to use different public-facing email addresses, but my attempts to preserve the privacy of my direct email address has failed.
I’d say that half of the non-tool-related companies that cold-email me are looking to manage ToolGuyd advertising, and the other half offer some other obscure marketing services.
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My direct email address still isn’t publicly available, but I somehow get a lot of cold marketing emails. A TON. Some of the worst companies auto-subscribe me to newsletters, and many send persistent and increasingly annoying auto emails.
The worst-ever marketer somehow found my personal mobile number in a paid directory service and calls me every other month. After initially learning about their services, I said I’d contact them if I had any questions or interest. And yet he calls again and again. As soon as he says “Hi, Stuey?” I hang up. Sometimes his colleagues cold-call me too.
Anyway, here is the BEST cold-email I have ever received:
Hi Stuart,
You should know, my husband has been all over your site recently, especially the reviews – his latest project is to build a free-standing pergola in our backyard and he’s got a lot of research to do!
It looks like you run both operations and content for Toolguyd.com, and I do see Google AdSense running. With the advertising world constantly evolving, we can actually give you a more powerful setup that maintains the simplicity of AdSense but will give you a nice uplift in revenue while not changing much visually.
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Think of Google AdSense like a hammer, and we can give you a power drill. They do the same thing, but one is much more effective.
Would you be open to learning more?
I was impressed, and we spoke after two other reasonably tactful emails.
The initial email piqued my interest, and it worked because they tried to understand what ToolGuyd is about. Maybe this was formulaic and completely fabricated, but it worked.
It is incredibly rare for non-tool industry-related companies to cold-contact me with this level of care.
That person left their company, and I’ve spoken to their successor a couple of times. I might someday be interested, but not at this time.
Here’s one of the recent emails I received from their successor:
Hi Stuart,
I’ve sent a couple notes your way already chatting high level about AMP and how [REDACTED] can help. But since I found this email address, I’m not sure if it’s getting to a human person (I’ve been told that cats stacked on top of each other hiding in a trenchcoat are posing as human employees at your company). Can you let me know if a human gets this, and if it’s the person I should talk to?
If you are, keep reading because our ability to truly monetize AMP, which historically has been a challenging portion for most publishers, is something we are uniquely excelling at via our [NEW DIVISION].
Honestly, we are seeing 20-50% revenue increases in just using our AMP solution. Ignoring all of the other amazing things [REDACTED] can help with, just AMP alone.
That number is impressive. And doable. We provide the team, the code, the data and the dashboard. Let’s connect and test this out!
“But since I found this email address”?? I called them out on this, as we had exchanged words before, and they said it was an attempt to be funny.
Do they think these auto emails will wear me down? Zero-effort emails do nothing but clog up my inbox.
I’m contacted by similar companies all the time. Everyone wants to “boost” our advertising. They all claim to be able to increase ad revenue, but things fall apart when I look at example implementations. All of the live samples I’ve seen so far have more ads than content, leading to a terrible reader experience. “We can work with you on that.”
I understand, it’s easy to throw a bunch of email addresses into a list and send them automatic misc. newsletter-type marketing messages, but does that really work?
Here’s how another cold marketing email chain went:
Email 1: Newsletter-Type, 4 Ways to Supercharge Your Supply Chain
Email 2: Simplify Product Creation
Hey Stuart,
When I talk to leaders and peers in the Amazon world, many of them are focused on how there isn’t enough space in the market to sell products because of the massive amount of competition out there.
That’s why at [REDACTED], we streamline the process from concept to production to sale. We also help you to avoid costly pitfalls by providing a heads-up view of upcoming trends.
If there’s any way I can help, i would be free for a quick 15-minute call?
Email 3: Wrong person?
I haven’t heard back from you yet, so I have a feeling I might be barking up the wrong tree at your company. If that’s the case, do you mind referring me along to the most appropriate contact to speak with?
Did this company simply buy a bunch of email addresses, thinking maybe some of them were somehow related to whatever services this company provides?
I received a PR/Influencer-type email yesterday. The email came from an agency I’ve never talked with before, about a restaurant group I’ve never heard of, and with meat-related Father’s Day gift suggestions.
A PR or influencer marketing email focused on very expensive mail-order meat? Maybe that ties into tool user demographics – I can see loose connections there. Maybe not, but this is far closer to tool user audience interests than many of the other affiliate and influencer-type emails I get.
Meat pitches I can understand. How could anyone think that ToolGuyd is in need of supply chain streamlining?
And then there’s this person who has sent me 8 separate messages in the past week:
Email 1: a new idea for ToolGuyd
Stuey, I really like that you combine both video and written content – this is really taking off at the moment and I expect a huge uptick in the usage of video over written content in the months and years to come, so you are already ahead of that curve in my opinion! I am writing from [REDACTED], where we use artificial intelligence to maximize advertisement earnings by auto-adjusting ad combinations for each visitor. I have an opportunity for you to seek an earnings uplift with a test running [REDACTED]’s technology. I came across ToolGuyd and it seems a perfect fit based on the hundreds of sites I have worked with in my 4 years here at [REDACTED].
What’s more, we can link your existing AdSense account to [REDACTED] (since [REDACTED] is a Google Certified Publishing Partner) and allow [REDACTED] to make the guesswork for you on the ad placements, sizes etc.
Last year, the average improvement from prior partners to [REDACTED] was 236%, so the potential uplift here is significant, alongside user experience improvements, which I can explain in more detail later.
Are you open to learning more?
Email 6 (Day 7): Hey, sorry to keep bothering you – but I really believe that your site is a great fit for [REDACTED]….
(Email 6 contents removed for brevity.)
Linkedin Message 1:
Hey Stuey, I reached out to you about ToolGuyd a few times via email, but I didn’t get a response yet so I just wanted to check if [my social media email] is still the best way to reach you, or would here be easier for me to send my message?
Email 7 (Day 8):
ultimately, as a publisher, it’s becoming more and more difficult to stay on top of the daily tasks of running a website.
[REDACTED] is free & tells you the best possible advertisement setup for each one of your users. Whilst also offering free tools to help with things like site security, site speed, ads.txt, core web vitals and much more.
quick question- aside from all the technical stuff – if you could improve your revenue and user experience at the same time, would you consider that a good investment of your time?
I haven’t responded to this person, and at the start of email number 6 they apologized for bothering me with so many emails. But then they kept messaging and emailing me more?
I’m probably not the best at crafting cold emails myself, but I shake my head at many of the cold emails I receive on a daily basis. The emails tend to mix into regular cold PR and marketing emails, and so there’s no easy way to avoid them.
And, while I don’t expect strict adherence to grammatical conventions, certain errors or violations make it hard to take someone seriously.
I don’t even want to tell you about the meme emails I get – they’re thankfully less frequent, but disturbingly inappropriate for cold email business outreach.
Outreach via social media direct messaging is a relatively new (but not really) practice. But email? There’s no reason for marketing professionals and companies to be so bad at this.
Or am I just overly sensitive?
Patrick
I think what’s missing is tact. The pure lack of situational awareness of who their current target market is and addressing them in the same manner as they address “influencers”. “Influencers” are not typically professionals, and many have little background in professional environments.
Target market in mind, you treat someone who likely served many years in a few different professions with a different approach. I haven’t followed long enough to know your background(s), but I would figure, someone who may have served as a General Contractor, Machinist or Engineer. Most of those aren’t as much enthralled by the shouting “LOOK AT ME!!!!” methods that might appeal to someone who does makeup tutorials that’s never held a position as a proper makeup artist.
But again, just my perspective. Regard a professional as such and in such a way. A little levity helps, but has to be context sensitive.
MM
I suspect a great deal of this is automated. The reason I say so is that with the businesses I’ve been involved with I would often get emails that obviously had no human involvement otherwise they’d never have been sent in the first place.
In college I was involved with a small business which offered IT services. We built and repaired computers, ran an awful lot of cat5, and offered website design and hosting services–we built and maintained our own servers. I’d get cold calls or emails from people who would offer to “help design and host our website”, or offered tech support services, etc–in other words, they thought we needed help doing exactly what our company did for a living. Website design and hosting services? No, we don’t need to pay you for that, people paid *us* for that.
Much later when I had my machining business I’d get the expected calls and emails: machine tool dealers, MRO, tooling, and metals vendors, people involved with recycling, etc. After I bought a mini-excavator for moving heavy things around the workshop I started getting solicitations for heavy equipment parts like replacement tracks. That all made sense. But then we’d get the obvious auto-generated ones with no thought at all. People offering assistance to “get started selling on Ebay”, even though that’s where the business began years before. People offering to “get your products on Amazon”….even though we were already selling on Amazon. There were countless solicitations for web store and hosting services when it would have been obvious to any IT professional that we already had no need for their services whatsoever. None of these people even bothered to research even the most basic things about the company before contacting us. It was clear they hadn’t even spent one minute looking at our website or reading a product description. One of the things we prided ourselves on, made obvious in our advertising, and were loved by customers for, was that we made all our parts in the USA with USA materials and US labor. 100% Made in USA. And yet every week I’d have the same goons from China offering to make parts for us.
Robert
It’s scary that our economic system has these economic niches. The glory of the industrial and green revolutions is that not everyone has to work. The misery of the industrial and green revolutions is that not everyone has work.
Nathan
which moron billionaire was talking about how companies that don’t understand and embrace AI and it’s wonder won’t be around 10 years from now and he won’t invest in anything not AI?
I think the glut of your fake E-mails is the result of AI which despite some claims doesn’t work all that well and is shown to have significant programic bias.
Saddest thing I see about this is that you are getting that shotgun approach to advertising programs. IE that same logic of ask out 100 girls at the club and eventually one of them will say yes.
Hope it gets better and I hope you have methods of hiding your actual e-mail and phone number. I started looking into a private e-mail server system so I could give out specific e-mails to marketing promos and see who else they sell my info too.
Example NHAT @ ____ – tiregiveway.com. This way other e-mails I get with that address I know were sold by the people running the tire givieway I signed up for.
Yes I know it’s more work that necessary but I also am odd that way and I get upset with the shotgun spaming and lies about who’s selling your info.
Stuart
Some of these bad marketers (and good ones) harvest my email from Instagram, or maybe aggregated lists of people who cater to certain demographics.
The strange part is the cold emails to my personal @toolguyd email. Some of the agencies I’ve talked to in the past might have sold their lists, or input contacts into services that sold the lists.
Ben had a ToolGuyd email that he only used with one or two companies, and then he started getting cold emails by a firm that has since engaged in remarkably bad practices. (https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/influencers-home-depot-lowes-fake-reviews/%3C/a%3E%29%3C/p%3E
Some of the PR/journalistic services use algorithms to harvest and update email addresses, and this resulted in a lot of emails being redirected from my direct email to social emails and the such.
All that is to say that my direct email doesn’t have any public exposure. Whether the cold emails are to that email or my social email (which is simpler as it’s only 5 characters instead of 13), the bad practices are often comparable.
If I enter giveaways, which is rare these days, it’s to known brands whose goal is to increase their direct newsletter list.
For newsletters, I sometimes use name+tag@gmail to see who’s selling my name.
After ordering from Rockler and Woodcraft, I started getting a whole lot of Woodworkers Guild of America spam.
Overspammed
It is just too cheap to communicate electronically these days. Rather than spend the time to understand anything about you, they lose essentially nothing by just sending message to a broad list of anyone that might be remotely interested.
I am probably not the only one receiving daily calls about my expired car warranty. There can’t be many companies with that exact business model. We should be able to charge reasonable fees to allow emails to be deposited in our accounts. Calls should be charged similar fees, and automatic calling should be prohibited. If a human is going to be bothered to receive a call, it is only fair that a human is making the call. Spoofing a phone number should be traceable and heavily fined.
Bob
I’d be interested in the meat of the month club 🙂
It’s so annoying that we have to go through all this baloney just to keep our sanity from robots and imbeciles contacting us.
I’ve resorted to making a bunch of burner email addresses. It can be kind of fun. [email protected]
Stuart
Their gift ideas included $9 thick cut bacon, $65 tenderloins, $75 strip steaks, and minimum order amounts.
I don’t know if they were looking for press, review, or sponsor coverage, but it seemed way too pricey to consider in any regard.
In case I wasn’t clear, I’m talking about business solicitations, emails where companies are trying to sell ToolGuyd on their services.
These used to mainly come through our contact form, but now a lot of solicitors seem to use automated contact lists that shouldn’t have access to my shielded email addresses.
It wouldn’t be so bad if their efforts weren’t so mindbogglingly lazy.
MM
I will never understand purchasing meat or produce sight-unseen unless it’s something that I honestly cannot get any other way. This applies to grocery delivery or curbside pickup as well. I don’t want a random steak, I want to pick the one(s) with the best marbling. I don’t want a random potato or onion, I want to pick the ones with the fewest blemishes and a shape which minimizes waste. I’m not going to order cod fillets for curbside pickup just because they show up on a supermarket’s website–I want to see them first to determine if they’re fresh enough to be worth buying.
When a mail-order subscription service gets involved–especially if it’s one that’s asking me for my business rather than the other way around–I get even more worried because that sounds like the perfect situation to foist off overstocks or things that are about to expire on unsuspecting customers.
You certainly can get good ingredients online, but in my experience it’s rarely from the people pushing those programs, it’s the other way around–you have to go looking for it, because the real good stuff is rarely advertised as it doesn’t need to be.
Stuart
I wouldn’t be completely opposed to mail-order meat or perishables, but as you said you never know what you’re going to get.
In this case it seemed to be a famous-in-parts steakhouse that offers an “at home” experience. But $75/steak with minimum of 2, that’s something I’d never buy online, and so I could never recommend or promote it.
I recently ordered a 24 pack of sparkling juice from Amazon (IZZE lemonade blackberry). I cannot find this anywhere locally. I have had isolated problems ordering canned juice from Amazon before.
When it arrived, part of the box was wet. I looked inside, and one of the cans had leaked. The case comes with 6x 4-packs, so I took a look. Everything smelled foul. There was a thick layer of blue/green bold inside the box with the burst can. Some of the cans in other boxes were also damaged. All the boxes were soaked. The empty can looked like it had a gash, but the box wasn’t damaged. With how much mold there was, I’d say the damage happened at the Amazon warehouse and the packager wasn’t being paid enough to care and they shipped it off anyway.
Shipping delays happen all the time.
So, in addition to the “I like to see it before I choose and buy” preference that we share about meat and produce, I don’t think I would be fully trusting of mail-order perishables, and certainly not when a meal for 2 would start at $130-$150.
MM
Yeesh, with that mold it sounds like the can(s) had leaked long before they were shipped to you.
I’ve mail-ordered foods many times but it’s usually processed things where there’s no need to be picky beyond the brand name. Items like sauces, seasonings, preserves, etc. I buy Asier, a type of Danish pickle, from Amazon because I can’t get them locally. Twice I’ve received a broken jar but Amazon was always happy to take care of it….and yet they always mail the next one with the same lack of padding in the package.
As far as perishables like meat, etc. I’ve bought things like that a handful of times but you really have to be prepared to pay because the shipping cost is high due to the need for overnight service plus cold packs or dry ice in the box.
TonyT
@MM, for a lot of things (including specialty foods), I think you’re better off buying from specialty stores on line or (if possible) locally than Amazon.
To give two examples:
1) Beauvais Asier pickles are $5.49 for 560g at Marina Market in Paulsbo, plus shipping. Maybe the service is worth than Amazon, but it’s an alternative worth considering. https://www.marinamarket.com/groceries/beauvais-asier-pickle-560g/
2) Cafe Legal Mexican 6.3 oz instant coffee is >$10 at Amazon, $4 at Smart & Final.
3) I prefer to buy 3D printer filament from specialty stores rather than sort through the flavors of the month at Amazon.
Stuart
Yes. But Amazon is sometimes by far the easiest and cheapest source.
But for a lot of other things, such as wood stain or finish, specialty stores are better options than Amazon.
MM
@Tony T
Oh, I agree completely, I try and support local and small businesses first. I’ve been there myself so I know what it’s like to compete with the big boys. But when the local shops or the smaller shops don’t have what I need or are sold out then I will shop at Amazon. I’ve bought from Marina Market before, and also from Eva at Nordisk Import.
TonyT
@MM, another good store for specialty food is La Española Meats, for Spanish food. I’m lucky because I’m in NorCal & they’re in SoCal, so overnighting perishables is (relatively) affordable using GSO (Golden State Overnight) shipping.
https://laespanolameats.com/
MM
Thanks for that suggestion TonyT. I’ve bought Spanish goods from La Tienda before but it’s always nice to have another source.
TonyT
I’ve bought from La Tienda, too. I prefer La Española, but neither one has everything (e.g. right now, only La Tienda has Horchata de Chufa).
Bonnie
I’ve gotten produce delivered before, but mostly as part of a CSA/farm-share thing, where I’m getting fresher and more local than even most farmers markets. I’ve also done mail-order baked goods, but again, from a bakery that I know well and of a local delicacy from my hometown that I didn’t have a good alternative for.
MM
I like CSAs, I view them a bit differently than buying cucumbers from the local supermarket. I see CSA as a community service, and also in my experience you get so much produce for your money that even if some are questionable there’s still plenty of good ones!
I also try and grow as much as possible, my tomato plants are currently over 6 feet high and I have a variety of peppers coming in too.
Steven L
After getting a spam call you can block that number forever. And you can identify spam emails so they go straight to your spam folder.
No need for auto-anything to keep ringing your phone or reaching your inbox.
Sadly, I have resorted to not answering incoming calls which are not listed in my contacts. If I don’t know you odds are it is spam, valid callers will leave a voice message and I return the call
Stuart
Blocking spam calls is pointless, as a lot of times they spoof numbers.
But you can block individual numbers, until or unless they call from another line.
Blocking B2B spam doesn’t do much when the more ambitious ones chase you down on social media and LinkedIn as well.
I have to open emails, as subject lines can be obscure from bad-mannered B2B services and press distributions alike.
And with calls, my UPS account manager called me today via an 800 number. I occasionally get calls from PR/marketing folks whose numbers aren’t in my contacts list, especially with some people still working from home.
98% of calls originating from my same mobile area code, and who aren’t in my contacts list, are spam. 1% of calls are people who think I called them, presumably due to number spoofing. The remaining 1% of the other calls are wrong numbers.
Kilroy
I have found that it really, REALLY helps to have an (old) cell phone number that starts with an area code that I have had no connection to (and done no business with) in over 10 years.
So many junk calls are neighbor spoofing, where they try to call you while showing a phone number similar to yours, in the hopes that you’ll answer because you think it’s your doctor/contractor/mechanic/etc…
I rarely answer calls from unknown numbers (anyone who matters will be in my contacts or be willing to leave a message, or I’ll recognize the number from having dialed it recently), but when I get a call from the same area code as my number, I know it’s junk.
If I ever have to get a new phone number I’ll try to request an area code for a rural area in (for example) Montana or something like that, some place I have zero connection to, for precisely the same reason.
JoeM
No, you’re not being over-sensitive, Stuart. That was some pretty awful stuff.
If it helps, you do have my real E-Mail address. I’m old-school, and don’t care enough about who wants to send me whatever scam. I’m well educated on right and wrong E-Mail etiquette, and formal communications.
*You can delete this next part if you feel the need at all. But I will say, if you ever get overwhelmed, I am happy to lend my linguistic help in crafting more direct dismissal of these spam-style E-Mails. You have my E-Mail, we’ve talked there several times before, so you know how I am with it. Plus, unlike these solicitors, I’m offering this on your terms, zero obligation, and FREE. Not because I want something from you, but because ToolGuyd has helped me many times in the past, and I am happy to help you if you need it.
Stuart
I completely ignore the uninteresting ones, but the volume clog things up, and it’s worse when they chase me around the internet. Sometimes when I get “you’re a great fit for our affiliate program,” and the store or product type is way off-topic (such as makeup, decorative pillows, or women’s sportwear), I’ll fire off a “what makes you think we’re a good fit?!” email to get my point across.
When I get offensively bad B2B spam from a firm or agency representing a familiar brand or company, I’ll forward it up the chain so that the company sees what they’ve been paying for.
JoeM
Totally understand, Stuart. I offer out of Empathy. I know you have your own ways of dealing with things, and I respect it fully. I just offer if you ever get overwhelmed, and no other reason. Out of respect for you, and all the other stuff you have to deal with. I am happy to write something formal, and official, delicately wording it so that they are aware of how badly they’ve messed up.
As long as you have it covered, no need to worry about me on this topic. The second you have had too much, and just can’t think of how to say it, toss me an E-Mail with all the redactions you want, I’ll type something up in my reply, and you can replace your redactions as necessary. If, at any point in our current discussion of this topic, you feel the need to delete what I’ve said, please do so. As long as you’ve read it, and all is resolved, then I am content with all choices you make.
Adam
Think of Google AdSense like a hammer, and we can give you a power drill. They do the same thing, but one is much more effective.
Funny they they told a tool reviewer that drills and hammers are basically the same functionally.
Stuart
That wasn’t lost on me, but the important thing was that they tried.
Jbongo
Thanks for keeping it real Stuart. I always find these non-tool / thoughts on running a business / website interesting. My two cents is that I don’t think you’re being overly sensitive. I didn’t even know meme cold emails were a thing, but that would definitely turn me away.
Stuart
Thank you, I appreciate it!
Sometimes I get meme emails the first time, other times they follow when I ignore an uninteresting cold outreach email.
Boyd
Sales used to be like deer stalking. You found the lay of the land, put in the work, elbowed your way up through the freezing cold stream then eventually took your shot.
Now it’s like battery farming chickens. Just how much can you put out there.
Jared
It is certainly not limited to one industry. This approach is pervasive.
I emailed the dealer I bought my SUV from recently because I was out of town, needed an oil change, and wondered if there were any dealers nearby that were part of their dealer network (it’s not that I’m so crazy loyal, I have a service package with my SUV so it’s much cheaper to just take it back to the dealer).
I got the answer I needed, but now going on 8 months later, I also get a sales email every week, or more. Not a newsletter, but a pretend “personalized” message.
I say it’s “pretend” because it includes lines like “Hey! We just got a vehicle in that has the exact features you were looking for. It’s a great price too!” – which makes no sense since I’m not looking to buy any vehicles, I literally just did.
Then after a few weeks of non-response to these ploys, I get an email from the “manager” to say they notice I haven’t replied, they are worried something is wrong and just want to make sure I get the help I need to find a new vehicle… 🙄
I assume these strategies are part of a system being taught to salespeople – and it must be working for them for it to saturate the industry. I think it’s too bad though – a salesperson who listens can actually be helpful, but clearly it’s a move to quantity over quality.
MM
I’d call up the “”manager”” and ask him what’s wrong with the SUV they already sold me.
No? There’s nothing wrong with it? Then why are you trying to sell me another one?
Jared
Ha. Probably should! I assumed if I ignored it long enough they would give up – but apparently not.