Anyone can whip out their laptop or smartphone and send out an email. However, it takes a special kind of skilled sales and marketing experts to write a cold email to someone who knows nothing of your business and get them to respond.
Cold marketing in general can sound scary to a lot of business owners, but it does provide a positive impact to their ROI. Research suggests that for every $1 spent on cold email marketing, the company receives an average of $36, or a 3600% ROI.
However, to get this kind of impact from your cold email marketing efforts, it’s essential that your sales and marketing teams follow the best practices for cold emailing in the digital age and use the best tools to help them maximize their ROI.
In this blog, we’ll cover the following topics regarding cold email marketing:
What Is a Cold Email?
A cold email is an unsolicited email communication sent to someone with whom the sender has no prior relationship or connection. The term “cold” refers to the lack of any prior warm introduction or prior contact between the sender and the recipient. In other words, the recipient is not expecting to receive an email from the sender. While similar to cold calling, cold email works as the same concept but serves as an alternative approach to outbound lead generation and B2B appointment setting.
Cold emails are often used for various purposes, such as business development, marketing, sales, networking, or job inquiries. The goal of a cold email is typically to establish initial contact, generate interest, and potentially initiate a conversation or business relationship with the recipient.
Crafting effective cold emails requires careful consideration of the recipient’s interests, needs, and preferences, as well as adherence to email etiquette and anti-spam regulations. Successful cold emails are personalized, concise, relevant, and respectful, increasing the chances of eliciting a positive response from the recipient. However, it’s essential to be mindful of potential privacy concerns and to avoid spamming or unsolicited messages that may lead to negative perceptions of the sender’s brand or reputation.
How Long Should a Cold Email Be?
A cold email is an unsolicited email communication sent to someone with whom the sender has no prior relationship or connection. The term “cold” refers to the lack of any prior warm introduction or prior contact between the sender and the recipient. In other words, the recipient is not expecting to receive an email from the sender. While similar to cold calling, cold email works as the same concept but serves as an alternative approach to outbound lead generation and B2B appointment setting.
Cold emails are often used for various purposes, such as business development, marketing, sales, networking, or job inquiries. The goal of a cold email is typically to establish initial contact, generate interest, and potentially initiate a conversation or business relationship with the recipient.
Crafting effective cold emails requires careful consideration of the recipient’s interests, needs, and preferences, as well as adherence to email etiquette and anti-spam regulations. Successful cold emails are personalized, concise, relevant, and respectful, increasing the chances of eliciting a positive response from the recipient. However, it’s essential to be mindful of potential privacy concerns and to avoid spamming or unsolicited messages that may lead to negative perceptions of the sender’s brand or reputation.
Is Cold Email Marketing an Outbound or Inbound Lead Generation Strategy?
While email marketing itself can be considered both outbound and inbound email marketing, cold email marketing is considered an outbound lead generation strategy. This is because businesses are proactively reaching out to potential customers without any prior engagement or interaction.
However, email marketing can be considered an inbound lead generation strategy if an individual finds your business on their own terms, and signs up for your company newsletter or requests more information regarding your product or service, giving you to “go ahead” to receive more emails from your business. They can do this by finding your business online through search engine marketing or social media marketing efforts.
How Has Cold Emailing Changed Over the Last Decade?
Over the last decade, cold email marketing has undergone significant changes due to technological advancements, shifting consumer behaviors, and evolving best practices.
Cold email marketing now has:
- Greater email personalization: There has been a stronger emphasis on personalization in cold emails. Marketers now use advanced tools and data to tailor emails based on recipient information, such as name, company, industry, and past interactions.
- Better list segmentation: Rather than sending generic emails to a large list, marketers now focus on segmenting their audience based on various criteria. Segmented campaigns are more targeted and relevant, leading to higher engagement rates.
- More automation tools: Automation tools have revolutionized cold email marketing. Marketers can set up email sequences, schedule follow-ups, and trigger emails based on specific actions, making the process more efficient and scalable.
- Stricter data protection regulations: Stricter data protection laws, like GDPR and CCPA, have forced marketers to be more cautious about cold emailing. Compliance with these regulations and obtaining proper consent has become crucial.
- Need for mobile optimization: With the rise of mobile device usage, cold emails are now optimized for mobile screens to ensure a seamless user experience.
- More interactive elements: Cold emails may include interactive features like surveys, quizzes, and polls, encouraging recipient engagement and interaction.
Cold email marketing has evolved to become more sophisticated, personalized, and focused on building meaningful connections with recipients. Marketers are increasingly adopting ethical and data-driven strategies to deliver value to their audiences while adhering to strict regulations.
Best Practices for Writing Cold Emails That Convert Prospects Into Sales
Decision-makers receive a ton of cold emails a day from businesses looking to build a partnership. With the constant stream of sales emails rolling through their inboxes, how can you help your business stand out from all the different sales emails they get?
If you want to get responses from your cold outreach emails, you should:
- Write Subject Lines That Look Like They’re From a Person—Not a Marketing Department
- State the Purpose of Your Message From the Start of the Cold Email
- Follow the Four Cs of Writing Sales Email Copy: Clear, Concise, Compelling, Clever
- Keep It Simple—Don’t Overwhelm the Prospect With Too Much Information
- Close the Cold Outreach Email With a Call to Action
Write Subject Lines That Look Like They’re From a Person—Not a Marketing Department
One of the biggest downfalls marketing teams make with their email campaigns is writing subject lines that look like they’re from a business, not a person. When crafting your cold outreach campaigns, personalize them for the prospect and don’t come off too salesy. A personalized cold email subject line should be quick, catchy, and immediately resonate with the prospect that receives it.
Effective prospecting email subject lines are engaging and leave the decision-maker eager to read more. They also aren’t spammy, either. While clickbait-y subject lines may boost open rates, they negatively impact response rates. After all, if a prospect doesn’t see the value from your email content after they open it, they might unsubscribe—which could potentially blacklist your campaigns.
While you may want to be out-of-the-box with your subject lines, remember that unclear subject lines are less likely to get those emails opened. Good prospecting email subject lines are much simpler than you think, so don’t overthink them.
Here’s an example of a good cold email subject line we use to personalize messaging while encouraging prospects to read our emails:
State the Purpose of Your Message From the Start of the Cold Email
To have an effective cold email campaign, don’t beat around the bush about your message. Cold emails that convert state the purpose of the email from the get-go.
Many marketing teams think they need to tiptoe around the subject matter regarding their offerings. But the most effective cold email campaigns immediately state what your company does and why you’ve made it in their inbox.
If you aren’t direct in the beginning of your sales email, you risk turning prospects away because they’re not sure what the point of the message is and they feel like they’re wasting time.
Here’s an intro example we use to immediately engage potential buyers in our target market:
Follow the Four Cs of Writing Sales Email Copy: Clear, Concise, Compelling, Clever
If you know and follow the rules to writing good marketing copy, then this next section shouldn’t be knew to you because it follows the same concept. When writing cold emails, it’s important to follow the four Cs: clear, concise, compelling, and clever.
Here’s what we mean by each:
Clear
If your product or service offering is unique and complex compared to other solutions, make it as easy to understand as possible. While this may be difficult to do without getting straight into the pitch, it quickly shows the impact of what you have to offer.
One way we like to look at the clarity of your sales emails is by following the mother-in-law principle. Most people will tell you to write email copy that can be understood by a third grader. While this may be a good concept in theory, a third grader probably won’t understand what your business does no matter how many times you explain it to them. Your mother-in-law, on the other hand, is likely well-versed in life already—you don’t need to break down your business to the bare bones with her, but you still need to explain it in layman’s terms.
For example, as a B2B lead generation company, it can be hard to explain what we do to decision-makers who may not know “lead generation” terminology. We explain that we help B2B businesses generate more revenue through sales development and marketing efforts. Using industry jargon in email copy makes it difficult for potential buyers to follow what you’re trying to say. So, keep your content clear for the prospect so they have a solid understanding of what your business does.
Concise
As earlier discussed, you need to get to the point of the email from the start. While you may have a lot you want to share with the prospect, spread out content and don’t get too in depth with the first email you send. Keeping it short and sweet is the best way to pique the interest of prospects and encourage them to read the whole email. To keep email copy concise, it’s important that you follow the 90, 4, 3, 2, 1 formula.
“But wait, what’s 90, 4, 3, 2, 1 formula?” We’re so glad you asked!
Here’s the breakdown:
*per prospect
**including use of emojis
Compelling
Decision-makers get sales emails from similar businesses every day, so what makes your company stand out from competitors? When you write cold emails to prospects in the sales pipeline, make them compelling and leave prospects wanting more.
When you think of your company differentiators, what makes your business unique from the rest? If your first response is “excellent customer service,” think again and put some proof behind your claim. Differentiators could include a new product or service offering in your industry, statistical proof of your company’s impact, the number of growing businesses you’ve supported, client testimonials, etc.
Clever
And the last (but not least) important component of the four Cs is cleverness. If the copy and content within your sales email is boring, decision-makers aren’t going to want to read more and they’ll more than likely send your email right to their junk folder. Don’t go overboard with your cleverness and leave the prospect confused—it’s best to find a happy medium to keep them both entertained and eager to learn more.
Keep It Simple—Don’t Overwhelm the Prospect With Too Much Information
When sending a cold email, don’t give the prospect too much information. More often than not, cold emails don’t convert into sales opportunities after the first email is sent. It requires consistent effort to establish brand awareness and build trust with the decision-maker.
Start the conversation by acknowledging your target market’s common pain points about their current solution and showcasing how your company’s product or service will reduce or eliminate their concerns. If the prospect wants to learn more, great! You can direct them to your website to learn more or suggest that they schedule a sales meeting to learn how your offerings can directly impact their everyday business functions.
But if they don’t respond, your following sales emails should encourage them to want to learn more. This could include sending them relevant blog posts or sharing case studies of clients in similar markets or industries so they can picture themselves in the shoes of your customers.
Close the Cold Outreach Email With a Call to Action
Last but not least, what do you want the cold prospect to do with the information you’ve just given them? Closing your cold outreach emails with a strong call to action (CTA) helps the decision-maker understand what you want them to do from here.
When sending your first cold email to a prospect, make sure the email’s tone isn’t too forward or too hands off. As a cold emailing best practice, we often suggest a closing CTA to be a question to get the prospect thinking, such as:
- Would you be open to learning more?
- Are you interested in starting a free trial?
- When would you be available to chat more?
Ending a cold email with a CTA (specifically a question CTA) encourages the prospect to open up the conversation without them feeling too much pressure to make a purchase. If the CTA is too focused on making a sale, this could scare them off from wanting to respond, putting your email marketing efforts at stake. Additionally, remember to mix it up for each email to see if one CTA approach is more effective than another. Keep the prospect’s best interest at heart without giving off the impression you need something from them right then and there.
For more insight into how to write good CTAs for all your sales and marketing materials, read our blog here.
Best Marketing Tools to Use for Your Cold Email Marketing Strategy
Effective cold email marketing relies on using the right tools to streamline the process, improve personalization, and increase engagement. Here are some of the best marketing tools to consider for your cold email marketing strategy:
- Email Marketing Automation Platform: Tools like HubSpot, Outreach.io, and Smartlead offer automation features that enable you to set up email sequences, schedule follow-ups, and segment your audience based on various criteria.
- CRM Software: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software like Salesforce or HubSpot helps manage and organize your contacts, track interactions, and ensure timely follow-ups.
- Email Prospect Database Software: Tools like ZoomInfo or D&B Hoovers assist in finding email addresses for potential leads and verifying the deliverability of email addresses to avoid bounced emails. Additionally, contact list verification software like ListCertified gives you the chance to upload a list of contact data and cleanse it to remove outdated, inaccurate, or bad email addresses and contact data.
- Email Tracking and Analytics: Tools like Yesware or Mixmax provide insights into email open rates, click-through rates, and other metrics to help you measure the effectiveness of your cold email campaigns.
- Email Testing and Deliverability Tools: Services like GlockApps or Email on Acid allow you to test your cold emails across various email clients and ensure optimal deliverability.
- Social Proof and Review Tools: Incorporate social proof and testimonials in your emails using tools like Trustpilot or Yotpo to build trust and credibility with recipients.
- Interactive Content Tools: Tools like Typeform or SurveyMonkey enable you to add interactive elements like surveys, quizzes, or polls to your cold emails, encouraging engagement.
- AI-Powered Copywriting Tools: Leveraging AI-powered writing tools like ChatGPT or Regie.ai can help you generate compelling email subject lines and body content.
- Compliance and Consent Tools: To ensure compliance with data protection laws, consider using tools like Termly or OneTrust to manage privacy policies and consent preferences.
Remember that while these tools can enhance your cold email marketing strategy, success ultimately relies on providing value to recipients, personalizing messages, and adhering to ethical practices and anti-spam regulations. Choose the tools that best fit your needs and align with your marketing objectives to maximize the effectiveness of your cold email campaigns.
Key Takeaways
Starting cold emails isn’t easy. Many businesses make the same mistakes over and over again, reducing the impact of their business growth efforts. But if you follow the cold emailing best practices and use the right marketing tools for your cold email strategy, you increase the likelihood of getting responses and generating more significant sales opportunities.
At Abstrakt Marketing Group, our sales development and marketing teams are cold emailing experts. We do more than send sales emails to random email addresses—we craft messaging that aligns with the wants and needs of potential buyers in your target market.
When you’re ready to see the impact cold emailing campaigns can have on your lead generation efforts, contact the business growth specialists at Abstrakt!
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