Sending cold email is a challenging sales and marketing tactic.
You have neither a solid relationship with your audience nor verbal feedback. Therefore, open and click thru rates will likely be appreciably lower than campaigns to “warm” leads. Although luck plays a sizable role, there are ways to increase the success rates.
Here are ten cold email tips you can use to foster feedback.
- Create a List of Prospects
The first step is to ensure that your target list is as fresh and targeted to your message as possible. Old and inaccurate data (e.g., email addresses) is the leading cause of high bounce rates. Bounce rates result in significant issues, including potentially even getting your domain blacklisted. The most efficient way of avoiding this is to stop being lazy. Don’t waste your money and time sending emails to an un-targeted list of recipients.
Careless selection of recipients and emailing has another negative impact. It means that the copy will typically not be relevant to the recipient. It also says that your email is irrelevant to the majority of the recipients, which will affect click thru rates initially and lower open rates in the future. Tailor the emails to the audience according to their roles, levels, and priorities.
- Do Your Research
Tailoring the message to the recipient is the first and most important factor to having this message read and subsequent messages opened. Personalization involves thinking about the audience and how they respond to the world around them. What do they want? Ask yourself this question as part of developing a theory of mind. Make it clear from the start why you are emailing him or her.
For cold email campaigns to be successful, find things common between the two of you.
For example, are you in the same LinkedIn group? Did you attend same college? These types of relationships will make it much harder for them to ignore the email. However, don’t sound too robotic by using email templates that a reader will be inclined to ignore. Send individual emails and not one to hundreds of people. Simply Googling their names, work content, social profiles among other things that will benefit you.
- Keep it Short
Don’t riddle your paragraphs with jargon and abbreviations. It makes the email dull. It doesn’t matter whether you are emailing for sales, recruitment or sign ups. Keep the cold email content readable for the recipient. It enables them to digest the information easily and take the appropriate action. Make it clear enough that even the reader who’s in a hurry can understand. While at it, the preferred actions and main points should be conspicuous. You can highlight or even make them bold. Nonetheless, don’t sound too smart, use simple words.
Unless abbreviations are universally known in the industry, don’t use them. Go against most writing principles or the in-house style and add more spacing in your emails. Imagine an eight-year-old test. Use it in your writing to simplify the message to a busy client. The easier it is to read on a smartphone, the better. Also, don’t sound desperate or cram ideas or cover numerous tangential points in one email. It is also important to keep away from the rules of email templates. They will complicate things for you.
- Validate Who You Are
Recipients are frequently curious when they receive emails from someone unfamiliar to them. They want to know who the person is and if they matter at all. Extensive research about your audience doesn’t tell them who you are. This is the reason why establishing credibility and showing that you are trustworthy is mandatory. Again, establishing what the two of you have in common is the first form of social proof. Mention any direct connections the two of you have. For example, show the mutual friend(s) you have to indicate that you are no stranger.
However, if you lack anything you share in common, utilize any social status, credibility, or authority. This should be aligned in relevance to the potential audience. Capturing this in a line or two will increase the chances of a response. A real status should be ideal, so is being a part of the same group with the target audience. It allows the two of you to stand out and fit in at the same time.
- Give the Audience What They Want
What’s in it for the audience? Why should they consider your email? Why should they take a minute of their time to read and respond to your email? Valid research will entail something that the recipient desires or a gap in their lives. If you can meet the desire or fill the gap, make it a part of the highlight. Sometimes when you can’t solve a problem, the next best thing is to give them what they want. For example, if they seek an audience with a prominent person or an established connection, use it.
Focus on delivering value by stating your offer as well as the benefits.
- Consider the Time
There are specific times and days to send a successful email. During these periods, the recipient is focused and will dedicate undivided attention to the email. Several studies back the email response rates and the time they are sent. Before you do this, make sure that the email is relevant. Don’t send an email someone else sent yesterday, ensure it is unique. Double check the recipient’s time zone and schedule your email to reach them at the right moment.
Morning hours are the best; however, it shouldn’t be too early. At this time, one is too busy getting ready for what the day holds. Aim your delivery at around 7 or 8 am. Here are some metrics detailing the right time to send your messages.
- Ask a Question
Make questions a part of your email. By questions, it means one or two, not the whole content. It should capture the audience’s interests. This is a better way of making the email more personal apart from soliciting an appropriate response. Give an invitation to more information about what the recipient is interested in. Use this as a tactical trick to get them to contact you. However, the question shouldn’t be too obvious.
Don’t ask a question that can be easily answered by Google. Such a question is a guarantee of failure. Ensure that the query’s solution cannot be obtained by other less intrusive means. Even better, incorporate the fourth cold email tip to show how valuable the recipient is to you. It will encourage them to give you feedback. This tip is the most efficient in pitching content.
- Customize the Headline and the Subject Line
There are various reasons why you should do this. One is that most people open their emails on their smartphones. Customize your headline to fit even the small screens. It should be about five to seven words. This ensures that the small screens accommodate the content. However, it won’t be effective if the content is irrelevant. Precision and a pair with the incredibly personalized body is king.
The subject line also plays a huge role. Keep it at most 50 words. The content should spark curiosity, directly include a targeted benefit or even possibly rouse a chuckle. You don’t want to sound selfish. Try as much as possible to include the company’s name in the subject line. If you can’t do this, ensure that it captures the name of the potential customer.
- Acknowledge the Email and Be Appreciative
This doesn’t mean groveling before the recipient like he or she is a feudal lord. Remember, the recipient is under no obligation to give you feedback. In short, you are asking a stranger for a favor. People are smart; they often know how a cold-email looks like. Therefore, acknowledge that even though it is such an email, there is a catch. Tell them also that you genuinely value their feedback.
In the end, express your gratitude to give them a feeling that they matter should they choose to help. Tell them that it is fine if they are too busy. A little reverse psychology may initiate the feedback you want.
- Do a Follow-up
Follow-ups have greater response rates. If you notice that the recipient has read or opened your email and didn’t reply, send them another. The second shouldn’t be the same as the first. Make it quick and emphasize politely on why they should look at your email one more time. Personalize the follow up so as not to annoy the recipient.
There are lots of reasons why your potential target ignored the email. Perhaps it sounded too generic, they were busy or they forgot to answer. Others are simply not interested. A follow up mostly takes care of these issues.
These cold email tips will only be beneficial if you actually implement them. Using email tracking software aids in determining whether they are read or not. The tool will also enable you schedule emails as well as follow ups for increased response rates.