How to Use Cold Emailing for Better Engagement and Sales ft. Conrad Zolman | Content Lessons with Justin
February 12, 2025
In this episode, Justin and Conrad Zolman delve into the intricacies of content marketing, particularly focusing on cold emailing as a powerful tool for engagement. They discuss the evolution of email strategies, the importance of crafting engaging content, and the innovative 'hands-up shoulder shrug' approach to connect with audiences. The conversation emphasizes the significance of humility in marketing, the acceptance of failure as a learning process, and the need for marketers to adapt their strategies based on audience responses.
To access our Free Video Mini Course on getting leads with video on LinkedIn: https://www.dialogwith.us/intro
Here are several topics we cover in this episode:
- Content marketing requires understanding what works behind the scenes.
- Cold emailing can be an effective way to engage potential clients.
- Crafting engaging content is crucial for capturing attention.
- The 'hands-up shoulder shrug' approach fosters humble curiosity.
- Failure in marketing is a learning opportunity, not a reflection of ability.
- Shorter emails often yield better engagement, but context matters.
- Humor in content must be carefully considered to avoid misinterpretation.
- Engagement strategies should evolve with audience preferences.
- Collaboration with non-marketers can lead to innovative ideas.
- Being humble and curious can enhance marketing effectiveness.
Enjoy and thanks for watching!
About Justin
Justin is a marketing nerd. His gateway drug was in middle school when he and his buddies would make up brand names and draw logos for fun. He graduated with a B.A. in Graphic Design from UW Eau Claire. He then cut his teeth leading the marketing for a $4 million non-profit, moving them into the digital age with new channels and systems. He joined a $60M healthcare manufacturer as marketing team of 1, helping grow them to $90M in three years. Justin became a full-time marketing entrepreneur in 2018. He now enables founders to grow their pipeline and thought leadership through social media videos. Follow him on Linkedin here.
Justin sits down with Justin Starbird to unpack why your audience is more than a number. A strong audience can become a real business asset that supports sales, marketing, credibility, and long-term growth. They also discuss why founder-led companies need to build a community around their solution instead of making the founder the center of every deal. - Justin Starbird is the CEO and Founder of The Aebli Group (TAG), a growth strategy agency designed for the high-stakes worlds of MedTech, manufacturing, and innovation-driven sectors. A veteran strategist with an operator mindset, Justin helps B2B leaders stop relying on vague marketing guesses and start building scalable, measurable business development systems. Justin specializes in the intersection of capital formation and credibility. He is a leading expert in Regulation CF (Equity Crowdfunding), helping founders bridge the gap between technical genius and investor psychology. By creating investor-ready narratives and building momentum mechanics on platforms like Wefunder, Justin turns community-driven fundraising into a repeatable growth engine. His deep-sector expertise in B2B, MedTech, and Healthcare is further cemented by his founding of the TAG Awards, a high-signal recognition platform that spotlights meaningful innovation across technical and regulated industries. Background & Philosophy Before founding TAG in 2014, Justin served as Vice President of Strategic Sales at 48forty Solutions, where he engineered supply chain logistics for Fortune 500 companies. This background in high-level operations informs his no-fluff approach to marketing: if growth cannot be benchmarked, quantified, and repeated, it isn't a strategy, it’s a hope. Justin is also the host of TAGLine Podcast, where he interviews industry leaders on innovation and leadership. He is a frequent speaker on human-first storytelling in an AI-driven world and on extracting a company’s unique intellectual property to establish undisputed market authority. Target Conversation Topics The Capital-Readiness Blueprint: How to leverage Reg CF and community rounds to fuel innovation. The Credibility Stack: Using strategic awards, podcasts, and IP to shorten the B2B sales cycle. The Operator’s Marketing Framework: Aligning marketing with business development to prove ROI. MedTech Momentum: Navigating compliance, trust, and digital transformation in healthcare. Personal & Community A recipient of the prestigious Spirit of America and Local Hero awards for his philanthropy, Justin lives in Maine with his wife, two daughters, and two dogs. His agency, The Aebli Group, is named in honor of his friend Jim Aebli and his daughters, reflecting a business philosophy built on transparency, trust, and long-term legacy. Connect with Justin Starbird: https://www.aebligroup.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-aebli-group https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinstarbird/ - Free Video Mini Course on getting leads with video on LinkedIn: https://www.dialogwith.us/intro Justin Vajko runs Dialog Video Marketing, a video agency for busy entrepreneurs who want to be visible online. To learn more: https://www.dialogwith.us
Justin sits down with Will Rico to unpack what it really takes for brands to show up in AI-driven search. They examine how AI visibility differs from traditional SEO, what LLMs actually trust, and why optimizing your website is no longer enough in the modern internet age. If you'd like to understand how AI is changing search and what your brand can do about it, this discussion is a practical place to start learning. - Will Rico is the Founder & CEO of CommonMind, a 25 year strong agency that helps clients go from hidden gems to market leaders with AEO and SEO strategies. Will is also an Endless Certified Coach, a philosophy that he feels is perfect of building trust in the AI age. Connect with Will Rico: https://www.commonmind.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/willrico/ https://www.youtube.com/@commonmind-llc - Free Video Mini Course on getting leads with video on LinkedIn: https://www.dialogwith.us/intro Justin Vajko runs Dialog Video Marketing, a video agency for busy entrepreneurs who want to be visible online. To learn more: https://www.dialogwith.us
Justin takes a seat with RC Victorino to deconstruct why so much B2B content feels the same in this day and age and what it takes to create something people actually want to pay attention to. They dig into how editorial judgment, internal data, and AI can work together without turning your content into another version of what everyone else is already saying. ----- RC Victorino is a brand and content leader at BuildOps who started his career covering small towns for weekly newspapers in New Hampshire — the day before 9/11. That journalism instinct eventually pulled him into B2B tech, where he's spent nearly twenty years trying to get marketers to stop overengineering everything. He believes the best marketing should make someone feel something, not just click something. He writes about the tension between creative instinct and corporate reality at https://rcvictorino.com/ Connect with RC Victorino: http://rcvictorino.com/ https://calendly.com/url? ----- Free Video Mini Course on getting leads with video on LinkedIn: https://www.dialogwith.us/intro Justin Vajko runs Dialog Video Marketing, a video agency for busy entrepreneurs who want to be visible online. To learn more: https://www.dialogwith.us
