How Oglesby Media gets 10% lead-to-meeting rate with Ecommerce Leads
Written by Diogo Matos 
|
Published on 25 July 2025
Oglesby Media is an SEO agency based out of Ireland and serving clients across the world. Their focus is in helping ecommerce businesses acquire new customers through Google Search so they can increase organic sales.
Their focus on ecommerce made them keen in trying out E-commerce Leads. In this case study, we'll walk through how they took advantage of Ecommerce Leads to find new opportunities and get meetings with decision makers.
Firstly, Oglesby Media used to get client referrals or inbound leads from LinkedIn, but they weren't consistent. That's why they don't wait for leads to come to them. Their cold outreach process is what fills their pipeline consistently with qualified ecom businesses that are an ideal fit for their services.
If you're selling high-value digital marketing services to ecommerce businesses, especially CRO, SEO, or social marketing, below is an example of how they structure their cold outreach workflow so it's clear, repeatable, and results-driven.
Know Who You're Targeting
Everything starts with a clearly defined Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). For them, that means Shopify stores with at least 2 years in business and minimum €500k+ gross annual revenue - ideally €1m+. They look for businesses already investing in marketing channels like email, social ads (Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn for B2B), Google Ads, and influencer partnerships. Their brand presence is also important - people should be searching for them on Google, they should have an engaged social following, and demonstrate they care about their brand. Since SEO amplifies existing momentum rather than building from scratch, this profile indicates they value marketing, have budget, and will truly benefit from strategic SEO.
Source Leads Efficiently
Oglesby Media uses Ecommerce Leads to receive every week leads in their ICP facing SEO issues. Much of their qualification process was automated through Ecommerce Leads:
| Signal | Automated? | How? |
|---|---|---|
| Is it on Shopify? | Yes ✅ | They filtered their reports to receive only Shopify stores |
| 2+ years running? | Yes ✅ | Ecommerce Leads filters by the Date Founded field |
| Good design/navigation? | No ❌ | A quick manual scan of key money pages & site architecture |
| Quality Branding & Visuals | No ❌ | A quick manual scan of key money pages & site architecture |
| Active social accounts? | Yes ✅ | They filtered their report to receive only stores with active social media accounts |
| Running ads? | Yes ✅ | They filtered their report to receive only stores running ads |
| Site getting traffic/backlinks? | Yes ✅ | Ecommerce Leads provides traffic data. They still do a more in-depth analysis using Ahrefs or Semrush |
| Decision maker name & contact details | Yes ✅ | Ecommerce Leads provides full contact details |
This process takes 3 to 5 minutes per lead and is crucial to avoid wasting time on poor quality opportunities. Once a store is qualified, they move straight to cold calling outreach.
Cold Calling
Unlike many agencies, they pick up the phone before they hit send on an email. It's easier to establish rapport by calling and it's usually faster for a confirmed yes/no response.
How They Approach the Call
After qualification, the BDR (Business Development Rep) makes the call, aiming to speak directly to the decision-maker. They quickly validate two things:
- Is the ecommerce store a priority right now? (Sometimes ecommerce is only a portion of a larger business)
- Are they interested in growth through SEO? If yes, they introduce a short case study: "We helped a Shopify store grow from €550k to €1.2M in 24 months - mainly by overhauling their site navigation and on-page SEO and launch into the German market."
After this, they ask if they'd be open to a further conversation. If the answer is yes, they book a discovery call with a strategist. Their goal is for a quick answer. They don't try to handle objections at this stage, they prefer to move on to the next prospect instead of wasting their time.
What Happens If They Don't Reach the Decision-Maker
It may happen they hit a gatekeeper. If that's the case, they follow 3 steps:
- They ask for / confirm the best email contact
- They log it for follow-up
- Then they move the lead into their email sequence instead
And does this work? Yes! They typically convert 10% of cold calls into discovery calls, and close 25% of those conversations into clients. High close rate is determined by their ICP pre-qualification process and lead list - where Ecommerce Leads plays a big role by sending only relevant, problem-aware leads.
Send Personalised Cold Emails
Now, if they can't reach the decision-maker, they drop them into a 2–3 email sequence personalised to their market and business type.
Email 1: The Icebreaker
Each cold email includes:
- A personalized intro (based on the site or their product)
- A brief pain point
- A case study example
- A clear, casual CTA
Being pushy is not nice, and they avoid it. They don't like false flattery for their intro. They're not trying to sell, they're trying to help.
Email 2–3: Light Follow-Ups
- Short reminders that recap their offer
- Another angle or benefit
- A repeat CTA
If there's no response after 2–3 emails, they move them to a follow-up sequence for next quarter or next year. Their conversion rate for emails to discovery calls is much less than cold calls. More or less around 3% - 4%.
Track, Hand Off, and Repeat
Every lead and activity is tracked in a shared CRM. For each lead, they log:
- Pipeline stage
- Email sequence status
- Call attempts, outcomes and call notes
- Discovery Calls booked or not
As I said before, once a call is booked by the BDR, it's handed over to the sales lead (or Ciaran directly) for discovery.
They don't spray and pray. They focus on quality over quantity, and tight ICP fit over volume. That's what gives them higher reply rates, better calls, and more deals closed.
What Makes This Work
This process works because it's designed around a specific audience: their ICP. They focus on stores that are ready for growth, have clear SEO problems, and already value marketing.
By qualifying tightly and personalising outreach, whether that's by phone or email, we can build trust quickly and open the door to high-value SEO partnerships. The tools (like Ecommerce Leads) speed things up. That's what turns cold outreach into real conversations for us at Oglesby Media.
"What sets them apart are the detailed data points and decision-maker contacts. They made our outreach efforts much more focused."
Ciarán Oglesby, CEO of Oglesby Media
About
Ciarán Oglesby is the founder of Oglesby Media, an SEO agency that helps Shopify stores grow traffic and revenue through smart technical and on-page SEO. He’s worked with ecommerce brands across Europe and North America, helping them scale through search. Connect with Ciarán on LinkedIn.
If you too want to diversify your pipeline and generate more leads, check out Ecommerce Leads and start generating leads today.