By Dan Cerceo, CISO, and BizDev Wannabe
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Starting a company is a leap of faith. Growing it? That’s where things get tricky – especially with our cold email strategy. At Assumed, a startup focused on information security, privacy and compliance, we weren’t strangers to technology, software development, sales or marketing. But marketing a modern B2B SaaS product in today’s world of hyper-targeting, influencers and social outreach? That was a different beast altogether. Here’s a humbling story of our cold email marketing failure.
The “Experts” Said Cold Email Was the Answer
Like any diligent startup founders, we researched extensively. We found consensus among marketing gurus: cold emailing was a great first step. The idea of sending hundreds of thousands of outreach emails and reeling in thousands of leads sounded almost too good to be true. And, spoiler alert, it was.
Of course, we weren’t about to unleash a tsunami of spam and hope for the best. We will always approach everything we do in an ethical manner and full compliance with all relevant regulations governing email outreach. We chose instantly.ai as our lead source and campaign manager, verified leads with ZeroBounce and Scrubby, and carefully set up our email infrastructure. Instantly recommended throwaway domains, multiple email addresses and bulk outreach methods, but we opted for authenticity instead.
Just Dan, Scott, and Taylor, using real assumed.com addresses. No aliases. No burner accounts. It’s just real people reaching out.
Oops, Google Said “Not So Fast”
We kept things reasonable, staying under 150 emails per day per account. Despite our careful approach, Google flagged Taylor’s account and suspended it for suspected spamming. Even 400 emails per day from real accounts can still raise red flags. Lesson learned.
Our first big marketing experiment was officially a failure but a valuable one.
Is cold email marketing worth it?
Cold email marketing campaigns are deceptively intricate. At first glance, they offer an enticingly low barrier to entry—just a list, an email address, and a message. But beneath the surface lies a mess of deliverability landmines, privacy regulations, sender reputation management, and human psychology. It’s not just about reaching inboxes—it’s about earning attention, building trust, and avoiding the ever-watchful eye of spam filters and mail service algorithms. For B2B SaaS companies, especially in high-trust industries like cybersecurity, cold email is a high-risk, high-friction endeavor.
Pros:
- Low cost compared to paid ads or influencer campaigns
- Direct line to potential decision-makers
- Scalable with the right tools and data hygiene
Cons:
- High chance of being flagged as spam, even when done ethically
- Risk of damaging domain reputation and trust
- Time-intensive when personalization is prioritized over automation
- Limited feedback loops, was it the message or the audience mismatch?
So, is it worth it? That depends on your tolerance for volatility and your team’s bandwidth to test, iterate, and recover from inevitable missteps. Cold email can open doors, but it can also get them slammed shut.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Despite the setback, we know Assumed has a great cybersecurity product. We’ve built something that can bring real value to companies across industries. The challenge now is finding the right audience and the best way to connect with them.
So here we are at a crossroads:
- Do we refine our cold email strategy?
- Should we pivot to social marketing, influencers and content-driven engagement?
- Would outside expertise help us navigate the complexities of modern B2B marketing?
Building a startup isn’t easy. We embrace mistakes because they teach us how to be better. We may have stumbled, but we aren’t giving up because we believe in security, privacy, transparency and genuine connections with our customers.
We’d love to hear from fellow founders and marketers about what strategies have worked for you. Any insights or lessons learned? Let’s talk.
So what is Assumed anyway?
We’re glad you asked. Assumed is built for security-minded professionals, including CISOs, compliance officers, privacy staff, lawyers, auditors, marketing managers, call center customers, business owners and everyone who has a vested interest in protecting the sensitive data under their care.
Using Assumed Seeds is easy, just sign up, purchase contacts and start monitoring for data leaks, vetting your vendors or partners or any other ways Assumed Seeds can be used in minutes!
We provide artificial contacts – Assumed Seeds – as honey tokens for simple, effective data leak monitoring, vetting data partners, and validating consumer experiences. With Assumed, you can ensure that your partners handle their data as they claim, validate your lead/sales processes, and monitor your databases for unauthorized access or theft. Don’t just assume; verify with Assumed.
