How I increase cold DM response rates

Since my following grew at the beginning of 2024, I’ve received hundreds upon hundreds of canned outreach DMs from spammy marketers (mostly copywriters, appointment setters, and video editors). I usually don’t respond to these folks, since I’m working in a different space. 

Simultaneously, I’ve worked on a few projects which had me reaching out to creators through the DMs for influencer campaigns. The response rates I get are much higher (about 50%) than the folks I respond to (about 5%). I think it’s because of one thing: I include my phone number in the cold DM. 

When you show openness, and put something on the table, people are more likely to respond in-kind. When you ask people to click on a link, or DM back a word, but don’t include any credibility, we’re not sure if you’re a real person. A phone number is great human credibility. I put my cards on the table first. If they were a spammer, they could spam me back. It shows I’m open and have nothing to hide. 

Try it out and let me know how it goes!