Help with client outreach

Hello, I'm new to the agency space and looking to start a small outsourcing agency focused on programming, graphic design, and web development. My plan is to handle client communication and project management while working with a small team of freelancers.

Right now, I'm trying to figure out how to do client outreach effectively – cold emailing, LinkedIn DMs, lead scraping, or any other methods.

I'd love some guidance from people who’ve done this successfully:
What's working for you in 2025?
Any tools you recommend for scraping leads or sending emails?
Should I start with a niche or offer general services at first?
What kind of outreach messages actually get replies?

Any feedback or advice would be super appreciated. I’m here to learn. Thanks in advance!

In general, it is best to start with a niche because you'll be able to tweak and adjust all your methods, tools, messaging easier for a specific audience than to throw a wide net then hope and pray that something works. You can instead later expand to other niches.

Other than that, many of the answers really depend on just that - what niche you target. For example, if I were to target boutique hotel owners, I would start with scraping leads from LinkedIn because they'll be easiest to find there.

In terms of setup:

• GETTING LEADS - find out on what platform you'll easiest find your target niche and scrape for leads. For example:
  • If plumbers, other home-service providers, florists, etc., I'd say that Google (business listings, maps, search results) and Yellow Pages are your best bet. Research BHW/Google on how to scrape those leads. Fairly easy!
  • If coaches, almost all have an Instagram (IG) presence. There are many tools to target and scrape accounts on IG, based on hashtags, followers of specific accounts, and more. Again, do a search for what tools. A word of caution, don't use your own/main IG account when scraping IG because there is always a risk of getting flagged. Instead, use throw-away accounts or a cloud-based service that doesn't require any of your own IG accounts.
  • If professionals (lawyers, doctors, etc), then LinkedIn will be your best bet.
• DOING OUTREACH - if you've extracted emails for the leads, there are plenty of email marketing services. Search for them. If instead your targets are on IG, it will be a bit trickier to do outreach to them. In the Marketplace section here on BHW, you'll find some listings for services that will do IG DMs for you. Start there. As for your messaging, you can honestly use chatgpt to generate examples for you (give it prompts for who you are, what your are trying to do, and your target), then test and tweak to see what works.
• MANAGING INBOUND - find a sales CRM solution specifically for agencies. Search and research e.g. "sales & marketing platform for agencies" and decide on what works best for you. My advice - stay away from the bigger, legacy platforms.

Those are my 2 cents. As for specific tools, BHW does generally not allow for specific external tools to be promoted, but the above guideline should put you on the right path. Good luck!

Pick one niche and use LinkedIn to find leads. Send a quick, personal note offering a free mini audit. Follow up twice.