Why Most Cold Email Lists Are Garbage And What the Pros Are Doing Instead

Why Most Cold Email Lists Are Garbage And What the Pros Are Doing Instead

If you have ever sent a cold email campaign that flopped, you know the pain:

Written by

Hashir Khurram

Published on

October 2, 2025

13

min

  • Open rates under 10%

  • Replies that go nowhere

  • Worse you are flagged as spam

But heres the real reason most cold outreach fails: bad data

Not bad copy, Not bad timing, Just bad leads

Lets fix that

What Most People Do Wrong

The average cold emailer opens Apollo, types in some filters and exports a list

It feels easy, But its flawed:

  • Everyones using the same filters (saturated)

  • The datas often outdated or missing info

  • You are guessing the intent behind the list

So you waste time on:

  • Companies that are out of business

  • Leads with no buying power

  • People who have already seen 100 cold emails that week

How Pros Do It Differently

Top outbound teams do not start with people they start with context

They ask:

  • What industry?

  • What tech do they use?

  • Are they growing, hiring, funded?

  • Do they have customers and reviews?

Once they define the right companies, then they find the people

The Hidden Data Sources No One Talks About

Most of your competitors are stuck inside Apollo and SalesNav

Heres where smart teams are sourcing company level data:

  • Google Maps (GMB), For local businesses like dentists, clinics, lawyers, HVAC, etc

  • BuiltWith, To find companies using specific tools (Stripe, Shopify, Calendly, HubSpot, etc)

  • Crunchbase , To filter startups by funding round, hiring signals and categories

  • Clutch / GoodFirms / Agency Vista, For scraping service providers like SEO agencies, dev shops and more

  • Store Leads, For ecommerce brands based on platform, products, revenue, etc

  • Trustpilot / BBB / Yellow Pages, To find legit companies with real customer signals

So How Do You Use All These?

Most tools do not let you extract this data easily, Or they limit your exports to 500 rows/month and charge $200+ just for access

Thats where Scrapeamax comes in

You simply:

  • Choose your source (GMB, Crunchbase, BuiltWith, etc)

  • Share your filters or URLs in our private Slack

  • We scrape the data, clean it, dedupe it and deliver it in 60 to 180 minutes

No monthly caps, No login needed, Just fast, accurate data

Then plug it into:

  • Clay to enrich contacts

  • Findymail to get work emails

  • MillionVerifier to validate

  • Smartlead to launch campaigns

Example Prompts You Can Run Today

  • All dentists in Toronto with over 100 Google reviews

  • SaaS companies using Stripe + Calendly + HubSpot

  • Webflow agencies on Clutch with $25K+ minimum projects

  • Shopify stores in pet niche using Klaviyo

Ready to Try It?

If your company does $250K+/year and you’ are not in crypto, adult or gambling niches

- We’ll build your first lead list for free.

- Book a Call + Get Slack Access

https://calendly.com/hashir-khurram/scrapeamax-unlimited-lead-lists

No strings, No hidden fees

Just smarter lists, Better targeting, More replies

Scrapeamax helps you start from context not guesses

Hashir Khurram

🏆 Winner SaaS Bootstrapper of the year 2024 Award by Tekpon | Growing Expandi towards $10M ARR | Prioritizing health -9% body fat year-round 🏋️‍♂️ | Sharing Real Stories in Public


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