There are numerous kinds of outbound marketing; none is especially easy. Cold emailing, or sending semi-personalized emails to targeted recipients, presents some special challenges. While it can be extraordinarily effective at reaching new customers and developing leads, you need to convince the recipient of your credibility straight away: capture the recipient's interest in the first paragraph, or risk losing them forever.
Let’s take a brief yet deep dive into the subject of cold emailing. Done correctly, this marketing technique works wonders. Done poorly, though, it’s nothing but a waste of time and resources.
This article will cover the following topics:
As you read the following, keep in mind that the goal is to persuade the recipient to consider your proposal, not just throw information at them without any attempt at personalization or connecting with the recipient on a professional level. This means that, if you convey your message with clarity and confidence, you’ll do well. If you can’t compose a clear and concise cold email, however, they’re likely to unsubscribe from the email list you’ve worked so hard to build.
In the world of digital marketing, you can either wait for customers to find you (the inbound approach) or reach out to them (outbound marketing). Now, you probably have plenty of competitors, so it makes sense to directly introduce your company or services, effectively offering to address the recipient's needs or challenges in return for a few minutes of their attention.
It sounds so simple when it’s put like that, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, it’s pretty hard to formulate a strategy for cold email outreach. If you can’t engage the recipient with a compelling subject line, they’re going to hit “delete” without a second thought. If you don’t take the time to craft a professional and appealing email (formatting matters!), you’re won’t get the chance to highlight the benefits of your product or service.
In addition, unless your messaging is strategically aimed at different audiences, they may simply see your message as spam. Everything starts with a targeted recipient approach.
Very few digital marketing professionals advise quantity over quality. The days when you could simply send out thousands of bulk emails, more or less at random, and wait for sales leads to generate themselves are long gone. In fact, it’s debatable whether this approach ever yielded success.
What you should do instead is personalize email content according to recipient. This way, there’s a much bigger chance they’ll see reading your message as a good use of their time. You can even start a conversation with somebody who didn’t know your company’s name yesterday.
If the initial cold email piques their interest, they’ll be more inclined to look at follow-up messages on the same subject. This allows you to build a persuasive and convincing argument for your business, coaxing prospects into your sales funnel. Eventually, they may even request a meeting or further discussion.
One thing you may be sure of, however, is that none of this happens by accident. Over time, marketers have developed a kind of workflow for reaching out to potential clients with relevant information in the form of cold emails. It works; you can adjust it depending on your industry but you should spend time on each of the following steps:
Much of cold emailing (and cold calling, for that matter) is a balancing act. On the one hand, you want to be somewhat insistent in showcasing your expertise or unique selling point. On the other, it’s very important to maintain a professional tone, stick to brand-aligned messaging, and not go overboard with confident and assertive language.
There’s a lot to be said for the DIY philosophy. Most people are indeed capable of drafting a clear and concise message if they put their minds to it. Still, it may be a good idea to employ a professional copywriter in order to obtain the best possible click-through rate. Alternatively, If your budget doesn’t allow for this, you can learn the basics of persuasive writing in a weekend.
In fact, any copywriting book or course you consult is likely to have a section on writing cold emails and will probably walk you through the following steps, perhaps even including a cold email template you can follow:
So, you’ve committed to using personalized content to engage promising prospects. You’ve decided to target specific industries or roles with your email instead of just talking about your value proposition as if it’s something everybody wants. This is a good start, but you may also want to create a firm picture of your ideal customer before you start writing. Explore the following aspects:
While relevant information inclusion remains a key aspect of any cold email, it also has to gain the reader’s interest. If you can connect with them, you’re that much closer to making a sale – the starting point for this kind of engagement is understanding who you’re talking to.
While any well-written cold email should be customized for the audience, neglecting to draft an attention-grabbing opening sentence will scupper your best efforts at personalization. As the saying goes: first impressions matter. An email that’s left unread or instantly deleted by 99% of recipients does you no good at all.
There are a few techniques you can try to come up with subject lines that strike just the right note. You could, for instance, ask a question that’s already on your intended audience’s mind, like: “How can you make your company’s XYZ more efficient?” You can also elicit curiosity by placing a value-oriented proposition front and center: “More efficient XYZ is within your reach.” Finally, you can also try to capture a sense of urgency: “Is inefficient XYZ costing you money?”
Whichever approach you use, brevity and conciseness are your friends! It’s best to assume that your recipients are busy people. Your subject line has to convince them to open your email, and this is more likely to happen if it’s short and explains the purpose of your email succinctly.
Even worse than an overly wordy subject line is one that leaves your recipient confused about what it’s about. In particular, anything that looks like spam, for example: “Quick question” or: “Can we connect?” will sink your cold email response rate. If you do feel like using such generic phrases, at least try to include the recipient’s or company’s name.
Aside from establishing some familiarity by calling the recipient by name, reminding them of where you met or how you got their email address isn’t a bad idea. For best results, though, you have to create an interest-provoking introduction that’s tailored to their values, desires, and pain points.
Instead of immediately emphazising your unique selling proposition, highlight specific ways in which you can add value to the customer. Let’s say you’re selling a piece of software to streamline shipping and logistics: a company’s IT, operations, and financial directors will each be interested in different aspects. In this case, personalization means being responsive to potential questions even before they’re asked, like on compatibility, functionality, and pricing options depending on the role of the recipient.
Personalization also means showing that your value proposition aligns with their company’s ambitions and challenges. Meticulous research is the only way to demonstrate that your product or service targets exactly those problems they need solutions for. For instance, you could talk about a contract they’ve recently won or an achievement their company has recently celebrated; good sources for this kind of information include press releases and case studies on their website.
Doing your homework pays serious dividends when creating a customized cold email. Your prospect probably receives dozens of messages each week from people hoping to introduce themselves, so yours needs to stand out. Clearly articulate the benefits and value you can provide, tailoring your value offering to their industry, and use confident and assertive language.
“Social proof”, in marketing, means engaging the customer’s interest by showing that similar users have had good experiences with your product or service. It doesn’t take much to create an aura of authority in a cold email. You could:
The key to establishing social proof is to be as specific and relevant as possible. Mention the names of well-known companies you’ve worked with and briefly explain how you added value to their operations.
These kinds of examples should be applicable to the recipient, meaning from the same industry or at least companies that face challenges similar to those of your prospect. You should be as definite as possible. “We helped XYZ increase web traffic by 123%” sounds a lot more convincing than: “We improved XYZ’s SEO.”
The thing about cold outreach is that, in effect, your prospect is doing you a favor by consuming it. If you don’t structure emails for easy readability, the recipient is quickly going to lose interest.
Fine-tuning your message’s format and design is always time well spent. A visually appealing email will capture your prospect’s attention and engage their interest by providing the information they need in easily digestible chunks.
There are several templates and techniques you can use to optimize your email's readability and structure, such as the inverse pyramid framework. Whichever you choose, make sure each email is easy to scan. Use short paragraphs, bold and italicized highlighting, and bullet points to break up text blocks and emphasize your main points. Assume that your prospects will be short of time and likely to skim emails rather than read them word for word.
Don’t, however, go nuts with different fonts and other formatting options. If you include images, make sure they support the message and aren’t just decorative. An email that appears cluttered and overwhelming only decreases the chance that anyone who reads it will request further information.
There’s no shame in going through several drafts of each cold email until you feel that it’s as close to perfect as you’re going to get. Read through it again: does it guide prospects’ attention to the most critical aspects of your message? Is it enjoyable to read? Does it generate interest and desire on the part of the recipient? If you’re not sure it hits the mark, you can always send out a few dozen cold emails to a portion of your prospect list as a test and monitor metrics like the click-through rate.
It is possible to send, maybe, several hundred cold emails per day the old-fashioned way. Typing in or copy-and-pasting the subject lines and email addresses by hand also gives you a final chance to check that each is personalized. On the other hand, this is extremely time-consuming and tedious. One of the main advantages of cold email campaigns is that they’re easy to scale up: why wouldn’t you make use of this?
The right software streamlines the whole cold emailing process, from actually sending the messages to tracking responses and ensuring that each gets delivered. Compared to packages like Mailshake and Woodpecker, regular email clients such as Gmail or MS Outlook just don’t have the features and benefits a digital marketer relies on.
Aside from affordability, you should look for the ability to easily personalize bulk emails, perhaps by incorporating prospect-specific information or using dynamic tags. Other desirable features include real-time tracking and analytics, so you can see who’s opening your emails and engaging with your content.
It is also wise to look for software that integrates with your existing CRM or sales tools, allowing you to follow up on promising leads. Some software also incorporates deliverability features, such as automatic domain authentication and reputation monitoring, to ensure your emails reach your prospects’ inboxes instead of being relegated to their spam folders.
By now, you have a pretty good idea of what cold email is, what it can do for you, and how to go about it. Still, actually getting started can seem daunting.
Indeed, there are many things that can go wrong and numerous mistakes you need to avoid. Don’t worry, though: we’ll walk you through developing and launching your first cold email campaign. Though trying to do it all at once seems impossible, taking things step by step simplifies the process considerably.
Jumping right into anything you’re not familiar with is usually a bad idea – you should spend at least a little time planning. Right now, you probably have only a vague goal in mind, like “increasing sales” or “getting more customer inquiries”. A more granular, detailed set of objectives you can refer back to in subsequent stages (choosing an email marketing platform, crafting email content, selecting a unique selling proposition to highlight, and scheduling outreach) of your cold email campaign will help to keep you on the right track later.
At a minimum, you’ll want to spend a few minutes defining your audience. What companies do they work for, what are their roles, and what demographic and personal characteristics might they have? This bare-bones information can be fleshed out and put in context by detailed research, allowing you to better customize your email and choose action-oriented wording that will appeal to your chosen market segment.
Then, think about your goals, like what percentage of recipients you expect to open your message and how many you want to contact you afterward. Cold email software tracks these metrics automatically so you can use data-driven insights to refine your campaign and monitor your progress.
Once this information has been nailed down, you’re in a good position to structure a campaign. The next step is to choose an email marketing platform. Options include Mailchimp, Woodpecker, and Mailshake, each of which has its own list of pros and cons. For your first campaign, a clear, easy-to-use interface is probably a priority. While you’re searching, though, you’ll also want to pay attention to the features each offers, how well they integrate with other software tools, and (of course) how much each costs.
It’s very likely that you’ll soon be running multiple campaigns concurrently. Naming each not only helps you keep track of what is happening in different areas, it also focuses your and your colleagues’ attention on what matters most.
For this reason, it’s best to avoid using vague names like: “Campaign 1” or “Email Blast Thingy.” Instead, try to find phrases that reflect the purpose or target audience of each campaign. This leads to more meaningful names, for example: “Q1 Lead Generation” or “Webinar Attendees Follow-Up.”
When a hot lead is passed on to your sales team, they’ll then immediately know where the prospect is coming from and be able to clarify any queries the recipient might have. Clear, concise names also make performance-tracking meetings run more smoothly. Both you and your manager would, for instance, expect a higher response rate from customers you’ve done business with in the past than from random prospects you scraped from LinkedIn.
In the bad old days of email outreach, sending more than 20 messages at once would often cause the server to crash. In today’s cloud-based environment, this is less of a concern; however, each email service provider still has a maximum number of emails you can send per day or hour.
While thoughtful cold outreach in line with accepted email etiquette is allowed, spamming is not. Flooding the internet with messages, especially identical and un-personalized emails, harms your email server’s reputation. More importantly, the receiving mail service uses this information to determine which emails land in recipients’ spam folders.
The sending limit you enter into your cold outreach software has to be lower than your email service’s maximum. However, you should also glance at their other guidelines before deciding on a number. Your account’s age, sending history, message type, and overall sender reputation can all influence your present capabilities and future efforts.
In general, it’s best to start with fewer emails and gradually increase the volume once you’ve gained a good sending reputation. This process can be accelerated by, for instance, reducing your campaign’s bounce rate, so make sure your email list is as up-to-date as possible. For a digital marketer, a long-established relationship with an email service provider that’s spam regulation compliant, plus a low incidence of recipient complaints, can be a very valuable asset, so don’t neglect this step.
The perfect cold email needs to be inviting for further communication with prospects to be a possibility. It has to be easy to read, somewhat memorable, attract attention with a compelling opening line, and finish strong with a call to action (abbreviated as CTA, for example: “Schedule a free consultation today”).
All of this is a tall order, especially since you will ideally cram some indication of knowing your stuff, a personalized greeting to the recipient, a comprehensive explanation of your company’s unique selling point, and some form of appeal to the prospect’s emotions into an email that’s still as brief as possible. Still, there are some guidelines and templates that can set you on the right path. In particular:
Exactly when a cold email pops up in somebody’s inbox affects whether they’ll click on it and respond positively to what they find inside. If you can, you want to reach prospects when they’re alert and receptive to new ideas. Fortunately, most cold email platforms have the ability to schedule batches of messages in advance.
Data suggests that mid-week mornings between 9 a.m. and 12 a.m. yield the highest open and response rates. In addition, Mondays and Tuesdays seem to generate the best results. In general, the less tired and frustrated the recipient is, the more likely a cold email is to start a conversation.
There are a few other things to keep in mind to optimize the timing of your email delivery, of course. For starters, there’s a good chance that your marketing efforts straddle multiple time zones. Office hours also vary from country to country and by industry. Publically accessible statistics on different demographics’ online engagement patterns may help you ensure timely delivery, or you can try different scheduling options as a test and note down the results.
Aside from serving your messages to prospects when they’re less likely to be distracted by other matters, scheduling batches of emails for different dates and times also helps you organize your own workload. Potential clients who follow your email’s call to action have a right to expect a prompt response, so spreading out this task contributes to your cold outreach campaign’s success.
Marketing is often described as a journey, a pathway, or a funnel. These metaphors imply that it’s fairly rare, especially for more complex products and services, to take a customer all the way from awareness of your offering to eagerness to spend money on it.
In other words, while your initial email may pique the recipient’s interest, you’ll achieve more if you continue to water the seed you planted. Thoughtfully designed follow-up messages often spark important conversations with potential clients who would otherwise simply have forgotten all about you.
However, there is an art to gradually building engagement in this way. If you’re careful to nurture promising leads and address questions as they arise in the mind of the recipient, follow-up messages will help to convert prospects into customers. If you simply continue to bombard them with information they have no use for, though, you risk terminating the relationship before it’s even gotten started.
As a rule, the more important a prospect is in their organization, the busier and more decisive they will be. When trying to connect with the right people, the line between persistence and intrusiveness can be a fine one. The following checklist may be helpful when deciding how hard to push:
Cold outreach magic happens only when you find the correct intersection between message and audience. Sending the perfect cold email to the wrong people isn’t exactly a recipe for success.
Building and maintaining a well-researched and segmented contact list guarantees that you’re communicating with the individuals most likely to respond positively. Most email marketing tools can import contacts according to various criteria. You may, for instance, automatically eliminate any addresses that result in bounced emails.
To streamline the process of building a reliable and targeted prospect list, consider using BookYourData. This platform offers access to a vast database of accurate and verified B2B contact information, making it easy to create a highly targeted prospect list tailored to your ideal customer profile.
BookYourData provides data that can assist you in creating the ideal prospect list.
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Creating such a contact list from scratch is a formidable undertaking. It’s no wonder that databases of verified, up-to-date email addresses for different market segments sell for considerable sums.
Don’t let this difficulty put you off, though. Anyone can start a list and, by expanding and tweaking it over time, bolster their future cold email campaigns.
It’s important to understand that slapping together a bunch of random contacts doesn’t help you very much. Including too many email addresses that aren’t relevant to your campaign risks your emails being marked as spam, which harms your sender reputation and deliverability rates.
When you compile email addresses of individuals or businesses aligned with your ideal customer profile, on the other hand, you automatically improve engagement and conversion. You’ll also waste less time and resources on uninterested or irrelevant recipients. Rounding out this list with additional research lets you tailor your messaging toward specific pain points, needs, or interests, making your emails more personalized and impactful.
Your business may already have a mailing list you can use as a starting point. Other sources of qualified email addresses include internet searches, business directories, platforms such as LinkedIn, and email finder tools.
You also need to check that you’re not sending emails to invalid, outdated, or non-existent addresses, causing higher bounce rates. Email verification services allow you to confirm the validity of each address, ensuring that your emails reach actual, active inboxes.
You also want to take steps to avoid your messages getting marked as spam, like:
BookYourData can simplify this process with its built-in real-time email verification. Their platform ensures every email address is valid and deliverable, eliminating the need for additional verification tools and saving you valuable time.
You can use BookYourData’s email verification to ensure your emails will land.
Keeping track of the number of sent messages that are considered unsolicited commercial emails (UCE) relies on the effectiveness and integrity of your cold email list. Not keeping this figure under control means your sender reputation will suffer. You may also run afoul of anti-spam regulations such as CAN-SPAM, GDPR, and CCPA, which help protect recipients from unwanted messages.
Keep a close eye on bounce, open, and complaint rates. High bounce rates indicate poor list quality, while low open rates suggest your content isn’t resonating with your audience. These metrics aren’t just about staying spam regulation compliant but improving your cold emailing efficiency and getting more replies.
Sending your emails when your best prospects are most likely to check their inboxes isn’t difficult, yet has a significant effect on conversion rates. To determine the best times, you can:
Consider Industry Norms: Knowing when similar businesses send or reply to emails gives you a good approximation of the most efficient times.
As you gain experience, doing all the above will come more naturally and your campaigns will become more effective. You can shorten this learning curve by paying attention to the most critical aspects of cold email strategy and bearing the following tips in mind:
Capturing your prospects’ attention by speaking to the issues they find important automatically increases engagement. Tweaking messages for different market segments ensures that:
Very few people have the patience or inclination to read long, meandering emails, especially from an unknown sender. They appreciate messages that respect their time, get to the point right away, and suggest a logical next step they can take if interested.
Avoid lengthy introductions and confusing language. Highlight the main benefits of what you’re offering early on. Remember to address issues from the customer’s perspective and try to capture their interest as quickly as possible.
Dividing your prospects according to demographic data, industry, etc. is useful, but have you considered categorizing them by how close each is to making a purchase? Some will only just have heard about your company and need more information. Others may be seriously considering their options; they’d appreciate having any lingering issues cleared up.
In each case, you should adapt your communications to their level of interest. Someone who’s already opened your prior emails will benefit from more specific advice and exclusive offers. By contrast, shorter, more attention-grabbing emails are more effective for less interested individuals. In time, they’ll migrate from one engagement segment to another and be receptive to more detailed information.
The right tools can significantly improve your digital marketing efforts. Specifically, email marketing software can automate a lot of drudge work like managing email lists and tracking campaign performance. In addition, many packages include features like:
Once you’ve learned to use these capabilities correctly, fewer potential leads will slip through the cracks. You’ll also gain more detailed insights into what makes a campaign work and where you can improve.
You don’t have to position yourself as the Warren Buffet or Bill Gates of your industry, but you do have to convince your audience that you know what you’re talking about. If you can’t establish yourself as an experienced, trustworthy, and informed source, why should anyone listen to you?
Though nobody likes hearing outright bragging, you should find ways to present yourself as an expert in your field. (In fact, this applies to all forms of content marketing, not just cold emails.) Touch on qualifications, awards, and practical successes that show you in a good light and are relevant to each message.
Really, there’s no excuse for letting spelling or grammar mistakes slip by you. In the concise text of an otherwise well-drafted cold email, even small errors stand out. Just one can ruin what would have been a compelling message and make you look sloppy and unprofessional. Ask yourself: would you buy anything from somebody who can’t take the time to check their own work?
Your chosen email marketing software should tell you whether or not the first emails you sent were opened. If a prospect has deleted two or three unread, it may be best to place them on the back burner. On the other hand, you can create trust, display persistence, and boost the likelihood of a response if they’ve displayed some interest in your value proposition.
Determining the best follow-up strategy requires some judgment and experience. In general, though:
Monitor and analyze response data: Metrics for follow-up emails, such as open rates, click-through rates, and response rates, often tell an interesting story. Use this data to identify patterns and adjust your follow-up strategy accordingly.
Sad but true: something as simple as a grammatical error can derail a cold email campaign even when 99% of it is flawless. Fortunately, knowing what kinds of blunders to watch out for makes you more likely to catch them. Be on your guard for:
Cold emailing is different from advertising: you’re addressing specific people, and each wants to feel like a valued individual whose unique needs and interests matter to the sender. In other words: messages that incorporate personal details or specific information about the recipient’s company work better.
Generic emails seem lazy and insincere, lacking the authenticity and engagement necessary to capture anyone’s attention. Taking time to research your recipient and hand-write a compelling introduction is well worth it.
While you need to be upfront about what you’re offering, phrasing that’s too pushy or sales-oriented will reduce your response rate. There are plenty of people asking for each potential client’s money, so focus on the value you can provide rather than trying hard-sell techniques.
Even worse, overly aggressive language makes your emails look like spam. This damages your reputation and limits your future opportunities for engaging prospects through cold email campaigns.
When you manage to build up some interest but don’t suggest a way forward, all that momentum is simply lost. Every cold email should be clear about what you want prospects to do and provide cogent reasons why.
The nature of each call to action (CTA) varies depending on what you want an email to achieve. Potential customers who you’re contacting for the first time may be offered link to an article about your product. If they’re further down the sales funnel, you could inquire about the recipient's availability for a call or meeting.
Your initial message may spark some interest but not quite enough to get prospects to execute your CTA. Don’t assume that the recipient isn't interested if they don’t respond immediately.
There’s a good chance that your first email has just been overlooked. Following up shows that you’re persistent and serious about starting a conversation. Don’t overdo it, though: limit yourself to one or two additional messages.
Cold emailing can be a powerful tool for reaching new customers and generating leads. If you don’t pay attention to the finer points, though, it may turn out to be nothing but a waste of your resources and a source of annoyance to potential clients.
To do it effectively, research your target audience so you can personalize each message. Pay attention to the subject line, avoid common pitfalls, and keep your emails concise while still confirming your expertise and unique selling point.
Remember, the key to successful outreach is understanding your audience, providing genuine value, and building relationships based on trust and credibility. In that sense, cold emailing is the opposite of bombarding prospects with spam.
To further enhance your cold emailing efforts, consider using tools like BookYourData. This tool offers a comprehensive database of accurate and verified B2B contacts, ensuring you always connect with the right prospects.
Most high-performing cold emails are around 100-200 words. Aim to capture the recipient’s attention quickly, deliver your message effectively, and include a clear call-to-action, all while respecting their time.
A cold email should include a compelling subject line, a personalized introduction, a brief explanation of why you’re reaching out, a description of the value you offer, and a clear call to action.
Yes, people open cold emails, but the open rates depend on the subject line, topic relevance, and timing. Personalization based on company research can significantly improve the chances of your cold email being opened.
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