One hundred and fifty-three cold emails. Zero clients. That's my tally from several years of writing to companies that had never heard of me. Not a single meeting.
I'm Nico, a freelance digital marketing consultant in Seville. This autumn I'm launching my newsletter, Marcas Imprescindibles, with the list at zero. I'll tell you what I've set up, what the law says and what I'd do in your small business. Email is one of the parts of digital marketing that matters most and gets used least.
What does email have that social media doesn't?
Permission and ownership. An email reaches the people who gave you their address, when you decide. No algorithm chooses which part of your audience gets to see it. And you can export the list: if you switch tools tomorrow, you take it with you.
With social media it's the opposite. Years ago I built a real audience on Twitter and didn't make a single euro from it. I had no website collecting contacts and no list of my own. When I stopped posting, it evaporated. Google+, MySpace, Vine: overnight, your audience disappears.
The numbers back it up. In 2025, across 3.6 million campaigns, MailerLite measured a median open rate of 43.46% and a click rate of 2.09%. Mailchimp, with data up to December 2023, gives a 35.63% open rate and a 2.62% click rate. A warning: Apple Mail's privacy protection inflates opens. Clicks and replies are the figures I look at.
What the law says before you send anything
The LSSI makes it clear in Article 21. Sending advertising communications by email to anyone who has not requested or authorised them is prohibited. The exception: clients with whom there is already a contractual relationship, for similar products or services. And always with a simple, free way to unsubscribe in every send.
The AEPD repeats it on its page about unwanted advertising (April 2025). Consent is given through a clear affirmative act. A pre-ticked box doesn't count. A form with an empty box, a line saying what you're going to send and a link to your privacy policy does.
And since February 2024 Google has required three things from anyone sending to Gmail accounts. Authenticate the domain (SPF and DKIM; DMARC for bulk sends). Offer one-click unsubscribe. And keep the spam rate below 0.3%. Without that, your newsletter ends up in spam even if people asked for it.
Cold email, newsletter and automation: what each one is
| Cold email | Newsletter | Automation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Writing to people who don't know you | A regular send to people who signed up | Emails that go out on their own based on what the person does |
| Permission | None: LSSI Art. 21 | Consent on the form | The same consent |
| What it’s for | Next to useless for service businesses: in my case, 0 out of 153 | Trust that builds up; the sale comes late | Making sure nobody signs up and then hears nothing |
| What I see | Full inboxes and zero replies | Dropped by the third send for lack of a system | Set up once, works for years |
Choose a newsletter if you have something to say every fortnight. Choose automation if you want subscriber 300 to get the same first contact as subscriber 3. Both can be set up in an afternoon. Cold email: leave it.
How to start in one afternoon
- Tool and domain (one hour). An email tool with a free plan to start with. Your sends go out from your own domain; @gmail is fine for signing up, not for selling. Set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC in your hosting; the tool gives you the records.
- Form with consent (45 minutes). On the home page, at the end of every article and in the footer. An empty box, a line saying what you'll send and how often, a link to the privacy policy. Double opt-in: it saves you spam and gives you proof of consent.
- A gift worth the email address (two hours, separately). Whatever you check when a new client comes in. My gift is the twelve things I look at before touching a website: one page per point, showing how to check it. A PDF you can make in an afternoon that works for years.
- Welcome in four emails (one hour). Immediately: the gift and what's coming. Day 2: a real case with a source. Day 5: how you work. Day 9: prices, who it's not for, and a way to talk to you, with permission to ignore it. It's my sequence, and it's the one you can download below.
- Cadence (five minutes to decide). Every fortnight, same day, same time. A Thursday at 11:00, in my case. Any less and people forget. Any more and you burn out.
- Measure (30 minutes a month). Sign-ups, unsubscribes, clicks and replies. Opens, with caution. One row per send in a spreadsheet.
What I see with my clients
What I hear most: “I've got loads of followers and no subscribers.” The Instagram account has three thousand people and the mailing list, zero. Then an algorithm change cuts the reach and there's no way to let anyone know.
In my case, the list starts from zero this autumn. The subscribers already in the tool were spam and my own tests; they don't count. When it launches, I'll invite sixty of my business contacts one by one. No bulk list imports: every sign-up with its own consent. The cold emails stop at 153. Not one more.
Start with the list
Does your website get visits but no emails? In 30 minutes we'll look at where to put the form and what gift makes sense for your business. In the Diagnostic Session I review your website and your channels before the video call. Free, two slots a week. Book yours. Social media bringing nobody in? Here's how I approach social media management, always with a website of your own.
Sources
- BOE, Law 34/2002 on information society services (LSSI), Article 21, commercial communications by electronic means (consolidated text, 23 January 2025): https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-2002-13758#a21
- AEPD, Unwanted advertising (consent through a clear affirmative act; exception for a prior contractual relationship; 4 April 2025): https://www.aepd.es/areas-de-actuacion/publicidad-no-deseada
- Google, Email sender guidelines (SPF, DKIM, DMARC, one-click unsubscribe, spam rate below 0.3%; in force since 1 February 2024): https://support.google.com/mail/answer/81126?hl=es
- MailerLite, Email marketing benchmarks by industry and region (median open rate 43.46% and click rate 2.09% in 2025; 3.6 million campaigns; 3 December 2025): https://www.mailerlite.com/blog/compare-your-email-performance-metrics-industry-benchmarks
- Mailchimp, Email marketing benchmarks (open rate 35.63%, click rate 2.62%; data up to December 2023): https://mailchimp.com/resources/email-marketing-benchmarks/
- Own data: Auve Nico sales log (153 cold emails) and planning for the Marcas Imprescindibles newsletter (2026).
Freelance digital marketing consultant in Seville. I work on the digital presence of professionals and small businesses with one simple principle: your website as your operations hub. Building websites, doing SEO and running social media with my own hands since 2018.
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