Why Cold Email is the Wildest Art Project in Modern Marketing
The other day, I got an email from a guy in Bucharest offering to 'growth hack' my personal brand using voice AI and e-wallets. It was deranged, clearly mass sent, and signed off with a photo of him with a falcon. I loved it.
Not because I want an AI falcon consultant (I’m good), but because cold email has gone from pest control to performance art, and no one’s talking about it. Let's be honest, cold email used to be the spammy underbelly of B2B. Delete, delete, block. But lately? The truly out-of-pocket ones are mini masterpieces. There’s a new wave of marketers treating the inbox like a stage. Weird subject lines, memes in the footer, existential questions in the call-to-action. It’s not even about getting a reply anymore. These people are chasing cult status.
And it’s working. I know founders who forward these things like trading cards. I’ve seen entire Slack threads dissecting the tone of a rogue outreach from an Estonian HR SaaS. Best part? It’s all trackable. These mini mailers are A/B tested chaos. That falcon guy? He probably analysed heat maps when I hovered over the bird. Unnervingly brilliant.
I’m not saying you should launch your next campaign with a pigeon and a pyramid scheme. But if you’re in marketing and not experimenting boldly with cold outreach, you might be sleeping on the last legal form of theatrical direct mail. Just don’t send me anything about dental software. I’ve got a filter for that.
Not because I want an AI falcon consultant (I’m good), but because cold email has gone from pest control to performance art, and no one’s talking about it. Let's be honest, cold email used to be the spammy underbelly of B2B. Delete, delete, block. But lately? The truly out-of-pocket ones are mini masterpieces. There’s a new wave of marketers treating the inbox like a stage. Weird subject lines, memes in the footer, existential questions in the call-to-action. It’s not even about getting a reply anymore. These people are chasing cult status.
And it’s working. I know founders who forward these things like trading cards. I’ve seen entire Slack threads dissecting the tone of a rogue outreach from an Estonian HR SaaS. Best part? It’s all trackable. These mini mailers are A/B tested chaos. That falcon guy? He probably analysed heat maps when I hovered over the bird. Unnervingly brilliant.
I’m not saying you should launch your next campaign with a pigeon and a pyramid scheme. But if you’re in marketing and not experimenting boldly with cold outreach, you might be sleeping on the last legal form of theatrical direct mail. Just don’t send me anything about dental software. I’ve got a filter for that.