Brain-hurt scale = 9/10. SEO is dead. Email is dead. Facebook is dead. It's all about inbound not outbound now. If I had a dollar for everyone saying something is dead, I'd be a rich man. Unfortunately, many will follow this advice based on the assumed credibility of the brand saying it. Most of the time, they are just positioning themselves as an alternative to the 'dead' thing, and pushing their own agenda. Smart operators don't fall for this hubris. 
Cold email isn't dead. It just needs to be done properly. It has to be done in a particular way so your emails bypass junk filters which are as sophisticated as ever. Do you want to learn how to do this? Jesse Ouellette will teach you the basics in this episode. 
In the current atmosphere of marketing budget crunches - email remains the cheapest, most scalable, most automated and most effective ways to generate revenue - especially for B2B companies.
But, you've got to do it right. Get your copywriting right. Get your infrastructure right. And then build a test-learn-optimize system which supports the effort with constant oversight. 
Just a warning though - it's best if you have some kind of technical understanding of how email works (even at a basic level) otherwise, portions of this interview may go over your head. So make sure you know what a domain is. Know what a junk mail filter is. Know what a server and host is...etc. 
When you listen to the whole thing, you'll quickly discover, there are far more people who pretend to know how this works, but very few who actually do underneath. 
Jesse is one of the latter.
Interested in his craft? Go here https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jesseoue_the-cold-e-mail-master-inbox-strategy-activity-6954125572365021184-RYIw?utm_source=linkedin_share&utm_medium=member_desktop_web