Cold Outreach Guide for E-commerce Agencies

Cold outreach isn’t dead. It just evolved.

For e-commerce agencies offering services to Amazon and Shopify sellers, cold outreach remains one of the most direct and scalable ways to land high-value clients. While inbound channels like content and referrals are helpful, they’re often inconsistent. Cold outreach gives you control.

But there’s a catch.

The old methods of blasting generic emails or scraping mass lists don’t work anymore. Brands are flooded with pitches. If you want their attention, you need strategy, precision, and relevance.

That’s where this guide comes in. Whether you run a small Amazon PPC agency or a full-service Shopify design studio, this is your no-fluff blueprint to build and scale an outreach system that gets replies, books calls, and closes clients.

Know Your Ideal Client Profile (ICP)

Before sending a single message, you need to know who you’re targeting.

Not every seller is a good fit. You might be great at growing FBA beauty brands but struggle with dropshipping apparel stores. That’s why defining your Ideal Client Profile is the foundation.

For Amazon-focused agencies, your ICP might include sellers who:

• Do at least $50k/month in revenue
• Use FBA and sponsor products
• Sell in categories like supplements, kitchenware, or home improvement

For Shopify-focused teams, your ICP could be:

• DTC brands with a custom site
• Average order value above $40
• Active Facebook or TikTok ad presence

The more focused you are, the more relevant your messaging becomes.

With a tool like Seller Contacts, you can filter and build lists based on:

• Marketplace (Amazon vs Shopify)
• Product category
• Revenue bracket
• Fulfillment model (FBA vs FBM)
• Number of listings or product types

It turns cold outreach into targeted outreach.

Building Your Outreach List: Clean, Verified, Intent-Driven

You can’t afford to reach out to the wrong people. Bad data kills deliverability, wastes time, and hurts your sender reputation.

Instead of scraping from random sources, use platforms that offer verified, up-to-date, and intent-based data.

Seller Contacts provides:

• Email addresses and roles (owners, marketers, founders)
• LinkedIn profiles
• Product-level insights
• Selling history on Amazon or Shopify
• Filters by marketplace, revenue, product count, etc.

Here’s how you might segment your outreach lists:

Segment	Description
Amazon Sellers – Beauty	FBA brands doing $50k-$200k/mo in beauty
Shopify Brands – Apparel	DTC clothing brands on Shopify with custom themes
Launch-Stage Sellers	New Amazon listings in the last 30 days

When your list is clean, cold outreach becomes a warm opportunity.

Writing Cold Emails That Actually Convert

The biggest mistake agencies make? Writing cold emails like brochures.

Sellers don’t care about your service list. They care about growth, pain points, and results.

A good cold email should read like a helpful nudge, not a sales pitch.

Let’s break down what works:

Subject Line: Needs to spark curiosity or relevance.

• “Saw your FBA launch in Kitchenware – quick idea”
• “You sell supplements on Amazon, right?”

First Line: Personal and relevant. Not fake personalization like “Hope you’re doing well.” Instead:

• “Just checked out your garlic press bundle on Amazon. Smart packaging!”

Body: Focus on them, not you.

• Mention what you noticed
• Tie it to a potential gain (more reviews, higher ACoS returns, better UX)
• Keep it short, plain, and human

CTA: Make it frictionless.

• “Worth a quick chat this week?”
• “Open to a 10-min call to bounce ideas?”

Bad Example: “Hi, we’re an award-winning Shopify CRO agency. We help brands scale using our 6-step conversion formula…”

Good Example: “Noticed you’re running Facebook traffic to a PDP with no reviews. We helped another supplement brand fix that and 2x their CVR. Can I show you the teardown we used?”

Cold outreach isn’t about being clever. It’s about being relevant.

Choosing Outreach Channels: Email, LinkedIn, and Beyond

Should you use email or LinkedIn DMs? The answer: it depends on the seller.

Email works better for Amazon-first brands. Founders and brand managers tend to check emails for supplier and service inquiries.

LinkedIn is stronger for DTC and Shopify brands, where decision-makers are active and easier to find.

The best strategy? Use both.

Here’s an example of a simple multi-touch sequence:

Day 1: Cold email Day 3: LinkedIn profile view + connect Day 5: Follow-up email with a case study Day 7: LinkedIn DM: “Sent something over via email – worth a look.”

When you use Seller Contacts, you can export both verified emails and LinkedIn URLs – making multichannel outreach effortless.

Tools & Systems: Scale Outreach Without Losing the Human Touch

Manual outreach doesn’t scale. But full automation feels spammy.

You need systems that help you scale smartly without sounding robotic.

Tools worth using:

• Mailreach or Warmbox: To warm up new email domains
• Instantly or Smartlead: To schedule, rotate inboxes, and personalize at scale
• Close CRM or HubSpot: For managing replies and pipeline
• Seller Contacts: For fresh, segmented lead lists every month

Pro Tip: Use dynamic fields like “{{brand_name}} just launched” or “{{product_title}} ranked #14” to make each email feel handcrafted.

Automation is fine. But the message should still feel human.

Personalization at Scale: Make It Feel Like a One-to-One

Personalization doesn’t need to take hours.

There are smart ways to make emails feel tailored without writing them one by one.

Use tiered personalization:

• Tier A: High-value prospects get custom Looms or deep personalization.
• Tier B: Mid-tier leads get dynamic intros (e.g. recent launch mention).
• Tier C: Light personalization with name, category, and brand notes.

Seller Contacts helps by giving you product data, brand URLs, and more. You can write lines like:

“Saw your new ceramic cookware line on Amazon – loved the packaging shot on image 4.”

Or:

“Looks like you’re scaling with FB Ads. Curious if CRO is on the roadmap.”

These touches don’t just stand out. They earn replies.

Outreach Metrics That Actually Matter

How do you know your outreach is working?

Don’t just track opens. Look deeper.

Metric	Healthy Range	Fix if Below
Open Rate	45%+	Subject line or deliverability issue
Reply Rate	8-15%	Weak copy or bad targeting
Bounce Rate	<5%	Bad data hygiene
Meeting Rate	3-5%	Weak CTA or slow follow-ups

Most important? Reply Quality – not all replies are wins, but they show you’re on the right track.

When using Seller Contacts, bounce rates are low because the emails are verified. That alone can improve deliverability and sender score.

Turning Replies Into Discovery Calls

Getting a reply is only step one. What matters next is moving the conversation forward.

When a prospect shows interest, don’t pitch your service deck. Ask questions.

You want to qualify their pain points, budget, and urgency. Good discovery questions include:

• “How are you currently handling Amazon PPC?”
• “What’s your biggest bottleneck with CRO or email marketing?”
• “What KPIs matter most to your growth this quarter?”

Don’t sell yet. Just dig.

Once the call is set, prepare:

• Their product listings or site
• Current ad spend or reviews
• Any gaps or mistakes they’re missing

The more context you bring, the more value the call offers.

Case Studies & Proof: The Secret Weapon

Nothing builds trust like proof.

During calls or follow-ups, showcase case studies from similar brands.

Instead of long PDFs, make them short and relevant:

• *”We helped an FBA kitchen brand reduce ACoS by 38% in 45 days using keyword isolation.”
• “We redesigned a Shopify apparel brand’s PDP and lifted CVR by 21% in 3 weeks.”

Better yet: show before-and-after screenshots. Share stats in the email thread itself.

Visual proof always beats a list of services.

Common Cold Outreach Mistakes to Avoid

Many agencies fail at outreach because of simple mistakes. Here are a few to dodge:

• Using generic lists: Don’t email everyone. Target sellers with clear signals.
• Mass templates: Personalization wins. Always.
• Over-pitching: Outreach is about curiosity, not pressure.
• Ignoring follow-ups: 80% of replies come after the second or third touch.

Avoiding these puts you ahead of 90% of your competition.

Scaling a Cold Outreach Engine

Once you have a process that works, scale it deliberately.

That means:

• Hiring a VA to help enrich leads using Seller Contacts
• Adding inboxes and rotating them to maintain sender reputation
• Standardizing your best-performing email copy
• Testing new segments each month (e.g., subscription brands, Shopify wellness, Amazon pet sellers)

You can start small – 30 emails/day – and ramp to 200+ across inboxes.

Cold outreach becomes a repeatable growth system – not just a tactic.

Final Takeaways: Cold Outreach That Feels Warm

Cold outreach doesn’t have to feel cold.

When you combine:

• Targeted, clean data
• Personalized, relevant messages
• Consistent follow-up
• Discovery-first mindset

…you build trust before ever hopping on a call.

Seller Contacts gives e-commerce agencies the data edge they need to do this at scale.

No more guesswork. No more scraping. Just real insights, real sellers, real replies.

Want to access verified seller emails, filtered by marketplace, revenue, and category?

Try Seller Contacts and start building your outreach pipeline today.