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Sketchief builds your targeted lead list and generates the exact filters for your ICP automatically — so every email goes to someone who actually needs what you sell. Check it out here →
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Hey, I'm Ollie — founder of Sketchief.
Before I built Sketchief, I spent 7 months going deep on cold email — going from a 2–3% reply rate all the way up to consistently hitting 11–16%. And one of the biggest lessons I learned along the way had nothing to do with copy or deliverability. It had to do with the list.
We live in a world where AI and automation have made it easier than ever to build a list of 10,000 people in an afternoon. And so that's exactly what everyone does. The problem is that everyone's using AI to go bigger — not better. Quantity over quality. Volume over relevance.
Here's the reality: if you build a list of 10,000 people, I'd bet that 95% of them genuinely don't need what you're selling. They fit a loose job title, maybe a rough company size, and that's it. So you send 10,000 emails, get a 7% reply rate — that's 700 replies. But if only 10% of those are positive, you've generated 70 actual opportunities from 10,000 emails. That's not a metric worth flexing.
Compare that to a list of 200 people who actually, genuinely need what you sell. A 10% reply rate gives you 20 replies — and because these people were targeted properly, the vast majority of those are positive. More booked calls. Better quality conversations. Less time wasted on people who were never going to buy.
Smaller and targeted beats bigger and broad. Every single time. This guide shows you exactly how to do it.
🚫 The Mistakes Most People Make
⚡ What Actually Makes a Great Lead List
🎯 Part 1: Niche Down Properly
🌍 The Continent → Country → City → Town Model
📡 Part 2: Use Signals to Find Buyers