Cold emailing can be a great way to reach out to potential customers or business partners. It’s also a common practice to cold email for job opportunities. However, writing a cold email can be difficult mainly in terms of coming up with an effective subject line and getting your message across without sounding like a sales pitch.
It is the alternative to what they do in sales, which is cold calling, but a lot more effective than that due to the conversion rate lying between 15-25% compared to 2% for cold calling. Even PPC campaigns have a conversion of about 7%, which is nowhere close to that of cold emailing.
Your investment of time in this blog is meant towards learning to create an effective cold email campaign targeted to increase your response rates significantly. Find out how your emails can stand out in a flooded inbox by understanding your targeted audience to craft attractive email subjects. This is how you generate more leads and eventually more sales by having an effective cold email campaign meant to improve cold email outreach.
What is Cold Emailing, and Why Should You do it?
Cold email is when you introduce yourself or your product/service to potential customers with whom you have no previous contact. Used by brands as a strategy to generate leads, form partnerships, or expand their networks, cold emailing is very helpful in contacting the influencers and thought-leaders of your niche to strengthen relationships with potential customers whom they make aware of your services or products.
Cold Emailing Examples:
While cold emailing may have several purposes some of the examples are listed below:
- Applying to jobs to offer your services through cold emails
- Cold emailing for internships to get hired to learn and apply
- Reaching out to an executive to emphasize the use of product/service and how it can help them with their goals through cold emailing
- For collaboration purposes cold emailing can be used.
- Sending a cold email to your potential customer to see if your product fits in for their needs
- Writing cold emails for professional or academic purposes
- Cold emailing your ex-employer to find out opportunities they might have
Reasons to Consider Cold Emails
A well-planned marketing strategy may have cold emailing because of the following:
- Branding: Build your brand and become an industry thought leader just through cold emailing. Sharing useful information and insights builds credibility and demonstrates your expertise.
- Lead Generation: Cold emailing generates leads and, thus potential customers, increasing your chances of making a sale or establishing a business relationship by finding people likely interested in what you offer.
- Cost-effective: It is relatively reasonable in terms of costs compared to other forms of marketing, such as advertising and so you can reach a large audience without spending a lot through cold emailing.
A Guide to Design a Cold Email Campaign for Beginners
A successful cold emailing campaign can be quite stressful and challenging to develop if email marketing is something relatively new to you. We have defined a step-by-step guide to setup cold email campaigns for beginners:
- Define Your Target Audience
Defining your target audience is the first step in cold email marketing. Who are your preferred readers? What are the pain points you are addressing for them? If you understand your audience, your message will be more effective.
- Crafting a Compelling Subject Line
Subject line will be the first thing your recipients see. Consider your subject line’s attention-grabbing qualities as well as relevance. Avoiding clickbait and deceptive tactics to improve response rates would be the best approach.
- Writing Effective Email Content
They probably have no time to read your long talk, with several hundred cold emails flooding their inbox daily so make sure that you are concise, engaging and to the point. Your ideal cold email body should be in a range of 50-125 words with a personal greeting. About 80% of the people prefer sales professionals to reach them via email.
- Personalizing Your Email
You can build relationships and increase engagement by personalizing your email. Ensure you include the recipient’s name, their industry or company, and elaborate that you have researched them thoroughly. Be ready to have a positive response in your inbox if your message establishes trust and credibility.
- Having A Clear Call-to-Action
Clearly specify of what action you want the reader to take with the next CTA. Keep your CTA simple and easy to find. Be it to sign up for a demo, download a whitepaper, or schedule a call.
- Optimizing Email Layout and Design
Make your email easily read and engage the recipient with a visually appealing design. Break up the text with short paragraphs, bullet points, and images.
- Testing and Measuring Your Success
Testing and measuring your cold email campaign is crucial. Make sure to track conversions and response rates by A/B testing subject lines, email content, and CTAs on a regular basis. As you improve your results, you can refine your approach.
Following these steps to design a cold email campaign can help you increase your reply rate. Cold email campaigns can generate leads, build relationships, and grow your business.
How Are Cold Emails Usually Written?
You may start your cold emails by capturing the reader’s attention and establishing a connection. Here are a few things you should keep in mind when cold emailing. First thing is to make sure your emails address the reader, that is, they are most relevant to them. Personalize your emails, so they are solving the reader’s problems.
Other than that, make sure your emails are short. The other person is not waiting for your long, wordy emails, especially when they don’t know you. Whatever you request, it must be clear and in a nutshell. Finally, try being respectful and professional when addressing them and not be too assertive since this is all about building relationships.
For your target audience, imagine you’re targeting small business owners who can use your services for digital marketing. The following steps can help your draft effective cold emails:
- Crafting A Compelling Subject Line
Grab the reader’s attention and make them want just to open your email.
Example:
“Revolutionize Your Online Marketing Efforts Today.”
- Write A Personalized Opening
Personalize your greeting by including the recipient’s name. Introduce yourself or your company and write the purpose of your email.
Example:
“Hi Joseph, I hope this email finds you well. My name is Bill, and I’m a 360 marketer trying to help businesses like yours.”
- Focus On The Benefits You Offer
Make sure your product or service offers benefits. Let them know of how your offer is helpful to them.
Example:
“My services can enable your business to increase web traffic, enhance social media presence and thus generate more leads.”
- Make Sure To Include Social Proof
You can build credibility and trust by adding social proof.
Example:
“With my experience helping several businesses crush their marketing goals, I’d love to do the same for yours. Here’s what one of the business owners has to say about me: [Insert a quote from a satisfied client].”
- End It With A Call-to-Action
Towards the end of your email, remember to be clear about what you want them to do next.
Example:
“If this is something you might be interested in learning more about, I can help transform your digital marketing efforts. Please do not hesitate to reply to this email to schedule a free consultation.”
Your emails should be short, engaging and in a personalized format. Follow these steps so your cold emails
Keep your emails concise, focused, and personalized. You can write cold emails more effectively by following these steps and using examples like these.
Common Cold Email Mistakes
Getting started with cold emailing involves making a few common mistakes. Avoid these mistakes:
- Avoid sending mass emails
- Don’t buy email addresses lists
- Avoid generic cold email templates
- Avoid being too salesy
- Don’t be too quick to give up
How to Follow Up on a Cold Email?
A cold email follow-up can be tricky since you want to avoid appearing aggressive or pushy. Here are three important tips for effective follow-up:
- Wait a Few Days
Let the recipient read and consider your initial email. It is better to wait 3-5 business days before following up. According to Yesware, the first follow-up has a chance of being replied to by 30% and the second follow-up has by 21%. This shows that out of 100 people you followed up with, 30 would probably reply back with the first follow-up and 21 would probably be replying by the second follow-up.
- Initial Email Reference
Provide context for your follow-up email by referring to the email you sent earlier.
- Keep it Brief and to the Point
Keep your follow-up emails brief and to the point. Keep your paragraphs short.
What Type of Cold Emails Do People Like?
Here are some general tips on the type of cold emails that tend to perform well:
- Personalized Emails - address the recipient by name and relevant details.
- Short Emails - to-the-point emails with a clear message.
- Value-Driven Emails - Emails that offer value to the recipient.
- Attractive Subject Lines - Subject Lines that Create Urgency or Curiosity.
- Emails Sent at the Right Time - Sending emails during weekday business hours may be more effective than sending them over the weekend or during holidays.
Is Cold Emailing Effective?
Yes, cold emailing can be an effective marketing strategy when done correctly. It is practical method to reach out to your potential customers at scale, generating new leads for your business. You can create concise, to the point campaigns that relate with your audience by easily segmenting your email lists and personalizing messages for each recipient.
The effectiveness of your campaigns can be judged through analytic metrics like conversion or open rates, and click-through rates or CTR. You need to be testing, measuring and adjusting according to the results you get from the campaigns to be better every time.
However, it’s essential to remember that cold emailing requires a thoughtful and strategic approach. It would be best to provide value to your recipients, personalize your messages, and follow up promptly and professionally.
What is the Open Rate for Cold Emails?
Your open rate for cold emails would vary hugely on the factors like email list quality, niche, the body content of your email, and the time at which you send out emails. Anyhow, the industry’s average open rate for cold hovers at around 15-25%. This means that out of 100 cold emails sent, 15-25 recipients will open the email.
Nonetheless, it is crucial for you to know that open rates are just the count of the number of recipients who opened your email rather than reading it or responding to it which can often be misleading. The most important metric for every email marketer or sales professional is the count of the amount of people who take action after reading your email which considers the success or failure of the campaign.
Cold Email Templates
- Template for reaching out to a potential client:
Subject: Interested in partnering with [Company Name]?
Dear [First Name],
I came across [Company Name] and was impressed by your [product/service/mission]. As a [your job title] at [your company], we share a common goal of [common goal/mission].
I would love to discuss the possibility of partnering with [Company Name] to [offer a specific value proposition]. Our [product/service/technology] could help [Company Name] achieve [specific goal or benefit].
Are you open to scheduling a quick call next week to discuss this further?
Best regards,
[Your Name]
- Template for reaching out to a potential employer:
Subject: Interested in learning more about opportunities at [Company Name]?
Dear [First Name],
I came across [Company Name] and was impressed by your [product/service/mission]. As a [your job title] with [number of years] of experience in [specific skills or industry], I am excited about the possibility of joining your team.
I am particularly interested in the [specific position or department] and would love to learn more about available opportunities. My experience in [specific skills or industry] could contribute to [Company Name]’s success.
Can we schedule a quick call or meeting to discuss potential opportunities and how I could fit into your team?
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Best regards,
[Your Name]
How to Measure Success with Cold Emailing?
A few factors that consider the success of your cold emailing campaigns are:
- Open Rates is the measure of how many recipients opened your email. A low open rate may indicate that your subject line might need to be changed.
- Click-through Rates (CTR) is the measure of how many recipients clicked on a link or your CTAs in the email. A low CTR may indicate your email content or offer needs to be more compelling. A low CTR may indicate your email content or offer needs to be more compelling.
- Response Rates is the measure of how many recipients responded to your cold emails.
Are My Cold Emails Ending Up As Spam?
Spam emails are the ones that are unwanted and sent in bulk by someone, probably unknown without the recipient’s permission. In contrast, a cold email is a targeted email sent to a specific individual or company to initiate a business conversation. To make sure your cold emailing does not end up in spam, follow specific guidelines and regulations.
To ensure that your cold email does not end as spam, you are obliged to follow the following guidelines:
- Contact only those companies or individuals that have allowed you to contact them.
- Providing value like industry-specific information, insights or maybe a solution to the problem they might be facing to the reader or recipient of your cold email.
- Ensure all your emails are personalized to the recipients and have their name, company, designation and maybe something they like or value the most.
- Be within the legal limits and regulations of your country or region. Watch out for the CAN-SPAM Act and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the US and the EU respectively.
Identifying Genuine Cold Emails
A few details can help you quickly determine if a cold email is genuine or spam:
- A personalized email that has your name, company name, designation, and maybe some other details that show that the email is not spam and generic and sen in bulk.
- Sender’s name and email address, especially the domain name speak a ton about who the sender might be.
- Read and see of why the sender has proposed for their product or service. This would sum up of what they have to offer and their purpose of reaching out to you.
Summing Up
The process of planning, setting up and sending cold emails can make an impact in reaching out to potential customers, clients or collaborators. But most importantly, it is to tackle it correctly and effectively. This blog is a guide to help you get successful at cold emailing.
Don’t forget to track your response rate which is an important factor to improving your overall strategy. Experiment with multiple creative and engaging subject lines, content types like with or without visuals and so on. Different approaches would give you different results and the right.
Finally, if you got the response rates you worked for, we are more than happy for you! Good luck on your path to cold emailing. Ensure that you always track your statistics to make continuous improvements over time.
