The weak-site email lane can't reach businesses with no website — because they usually have no findable email either (Oliver's "egg or hen paradox"). This lane finds them off-web and gets a phone number, then makes them reach out to us — a QR-to-claim, a public comment, a scan. That single design choice keeps consent inherent and every market 🟢.
However we source a number, we use it for one postal touch that ends in the prospect self-initiating — scanning the <slug>.ozdreamsites.de QR, commenting on a public post, or phoning us. No cold call, no cold SMS.
That sidesteps PECR (UK) and UWG §7 (DE) entirely — the number funds a letter, never a call.
Sourcing a no-site lead is cheap (~£0.59). The real metric is claim-rate — how many scan the QR and convert. So we prove the claim-flow with free channels before paying to source at scale.
No-site trades live in town buy/sell, "recommendations", trades & mums groups. A post with a flyer image + number and no URL is the qualifying signal.
Play: public "comment for a free preview website" post → they comment = they initiated. Flyer images → OCR → postal only.
🟢 inbound posts & ads · 🔴 no cold DMs, no logged-in scraping (Meta ToS + GDPR).
Pre-qualified no-site lists with numbers already printed: Gumtree, Marketplace, Kleinanzeigen.de, Nextdoor, local-paper back pages, parish mags, DE Wochenblatt.
Play: human-browse → parse numbers → postal A-pile + QR.
🟢 → postal (UK) · 🟠 DE postal-only — a listed number is not phone-consent (Saarland OVG).
The richest data is off-web entirely: newsagent windows, supermarket boards, "white van man" cards. Pay a local "teen with a bike" (v1: adults 18+) per photo / per verified lead; AI OCRs name + number → CRM.
v1: WhatsApp intake → n8n → Google Vision + GPT-4o → dedupe → CRM → Stannp postcard + QR.
🟢 → postal · unique, un-competed data — the scalable moat.
Whoever painted the number on every local van holds a de-facto contact list of our exact target.
Play: approach 1–2 as referral partners (fee / rev-share; their customer opts in). Automated twin = Street View / shopfront OCR (v2).
🟢 referral · 🔴 no raw list-buying without a full data-sharing agreement.
Sole traders = individual subscribers under PECR → cold e-mail/SMS needs consent. DE B2B calls need presumed consent; a listed number doesn't count. A phone number is personal data (GDPR) — basis = legitimate interest + LIA + minimisation + erasure.
Everything funnels to postal + QR-to-claim, which is 🟢 in both markets on Oliver's compliance.ts.
| Step | Assumption | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Bike round | 40 photos in ~2 hrs | 40 × £0.25 base = £10.00 |
| Extraction | ~5 usable leads/photo → 200 raw → 120 unique new | Vision £0.05 + LLM £0.15 ≈ £1 |
| Lead bonus | 120 new verified leads | 120 × £0.50 = £60.00 |
| Postal touch | 1 Stannp A-pile postcard + QR each | 120 × £0.50 = £60.00 |
| Total | 120 targeted no-site, QR-to-claim prospects | ≈ £131 |
| Cost / verified lead | £71 sourcing ÷ 120 | ≈ £0.59 |
| Convert @ 3% claim | ~3.6 paying customers | CAC ≈ £36 |
Even against the £300–500/mo rank-and-rent anchor, acquiring a subscriber for ~£36 prints money — and we can pay bike-round workers generously. The economics work comfortably; claim-rate is the constraint, not sourcing cost.
| Action | UK (PECR + GDPR) | DE / DACH (UWG §7) | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Postal A-pile + QR-to-claim | Not covered by PECR; legit interest | Post 🟢; UWG is e-/phone ads | 🟢 primary |
| Inbound FB post → they comment/DM us | They initiate = consent | They initiate = consent | 🟢 |
| Boosted / lead-form ads | Opt-in enquiry | Opt-in enquiry | 🟢 |
| Sourced number → postal touch | Legit interest (published no.) | Postal only; listed ≠ consent | 🟠 postal-only |
| Sign-writer referral (customer opts in) | Consent via partner | Consent via partner | 🟢 |
| Cold call to sourced number | TPS/CTPS + consent | Presumed consent; listed ≠ consent | 🔴 avoid |
| Cold SMS / email to sourced number | Sole traders = individuals → consent | Prior express consent | 🔴 avoid |
| Logged-in scraping of Meta / Google | ToS breach + GDPR | ToS breach + GDPR | 🔴 avoid |
| Paying under-16s to photograph | Council permit, hour caps, safeguarding | Jugendarbeitsschutz | 🔴 v1: 18+ only |
£0, 🟢, testable today in one town. "Comment for a free preview website." Proves demand + the claim-flow at zero sourcing cost. Start here.
Gumtree / Kleinanzeigen / Nextdoor / paper back-pages. Near-£0, numbers already published, 🟢-postal. Fills the postcard pipeline fast.
~£131 pilot, 2 adult workers, one town. 🟢-postal. Unique un-competed data — the moat. Turn on once the claim-flow is proven.
£0 upfront, 🟢, but relationship-paced. Run in parallel as a warm channel.
£5–10/day, 🟢, optional amplifier once the messaging is proven.
Build cost + GDPR care, 🟠. v2 experiment — lowest priority; official APIs / manual capture, no bots.
Sequencing: prove the claim-flow free (① + ②) → turn on the paid sourcing moat (③) and warm partner (④) → amplify with ads (⑤) → automate with OCR at scale (⑥).
outreach/lead-sourcing-strategy.md · research draft v1