Cold emailing is a strategy businesses use to reach out to prospective consumers and generate business leads. It’s not easy to master this strategy, however, since the potential leads to whom you send the messages to are likely overloaded with emails and may be wary of unwanted communications. Also, they may get upset and move your messages to their spam folder if it all gets overbearing.
If you want your cold emails to be seen and get a good reaction from your intended recipients, adhering to the best practice is essential. This paper covers the top practices of cold email, which include tailoring your message to the recipient, stating your value proposition explicitly, providing a clear call to action, keeping your messages short and sweet, and following up effectively.
1. Tailor your messages to the recipient
When sending cold emails, you must add a personal touch to your messages so you don’t seem like a robot. Email personalization is learning about and catering to the specific wants, requirements, and interests of your specific recipient of the message. You could achieve this feat by highlighting the name of the individual receiving the message, tailoring messages specific to the client’s faith, like during Christmas and Ramadan, or even referencing their line of work are all great ways to add a personal touch.
Making the conscious effort to tailor your message to the needs of your audience increases the likelihood that they will engage with what you have to say. Now, making your cold emails more engaging by addressing the receiver by name is one of the best ways to get the lead to open the message you send to them. Taking this one little action can significantly impact how well your message is received. According to research conducted by Epsilon in 2019, the open rate of emails is 29%, so there is a need to utilize this practice of cold emailing properly.
Here are the tips that help you achieve only the best with customizing your cold emails:
- To avoid appearing inconsiderate or negligent, check that you have correctly spelled and formatted the recipient’s name.
- Referring to a shared relationship or interest is a different way to put a human touch on your cold emails. For example, you may write an email mentioning your LinkedIn relationship. On the other hand, you might make a connection to a recent event or trend related to your service or good.
- Put a human touch on your cold emails by referring to the recipient’s line of work. Everyone loves to feel important, so make them feel good by showing you are interested in them as individuals and genuinely interested in their line of work. Take the extra effort to refer to their social media page, talk show, and more.
Fun Fact!
Do you know that HubSpot, a market leader in inbound marketing and sales tools, advocates that marketers use personalized emails? Jump on this trend so you can improve the performance of your cold emails by adding a human touch.
2. State your value proposition explicitly
When sending cold emails, creating a convincing value proposition is necessary so there’s no confusion about the importance of your good or service. Remember that a value proposition is a claim about the benefits your good or service provides to the customer, so you need to be specific about the benefits of using your products.
You need to understand your intended market to create and develop a compelling value offer to achieve this feat. You must explain how buying your product or using your service would assist the customer. For example, if the potential customer you’re targeting is a blogger or YouTuber, you can tell them that your product might help them generate more leads or boost website traffic.
Your distinctive selling point should also be clear and straightforward to digest. Don’t use buzzwords or technical jargon that only confuses or turns off your readers. Remember that your goal is to communicate, not win a grammar competition. Instead, you should use clear, uncomplicated language to emphasize the advantages of your offering.
Also, back up your value proposition with proof like case studies, testimonials, or statistics. People are naturally drawn to the experiences of others and are more likely o patronize your brand when they get positive reviews from others.
Fun fact!
Do you know that LinkedIn has a brilliant value proposition strategy? LinkedIn’s cold email marketing is successful because it includes a clear value proposition that resonates with its target audience. They created an email advertising the service’s premium features and offering free trials. With this direct and alluring offer, LinkedIn gives you a feel of what you will get if you subscribe to a premium plan when using the free plan, attracting more users to their platform.
3. Provide clear Call-To-Actions (CTAs)
Your cold email should include crystal-clear CTAs that explain what action you want the reader to perform. Your call to action (CTA) must be clear and concise to be effective. The goal of the email is to get the reader to do something, whether it’s setting up a call, registering on your platform, downloading a resource, or signing up for a newsletter.
Consider the recipient’s situation and objectives when you craft your call to action. Then, be definite with effective CTAs like:
- Subscribe, Join, Sign Up, Refer, and more.
- Download, Get, Grab, Claim, Take advantage of this offer, and more.
- Learn More, See More, See How, Start, Click Here, Continue, Swipe Up, and more.
Your email’s call to action (CTA) should be displayed clearly so readers can quickly discover and comprehend it. Use a short, to-the-point message to clarify what the receiver must do, and think about including visual cues like arrows, buttons, or hyperlinks to help them along.
Fun fact!
Do you know that Dropbox, a widely used cloud storage and file-sharing service, employs specific call-to-actions like “Find Your Plan” in its cold emails to increase user interaction and sign-ups? In addition, they make it simple for interested receivers to take action and test their platform by including a prominent button in their emails that links straight to a sign-up page.
4. Keep your messages short and sweet
The people you’re communicating with are probably busy, so your messages must go to the point. Keep your writing focused on conveying the most vital facts while leaving out any extraneous or distracting material.
- Start by establishing the essential points you want to make in your email before writing the actual message.
- Pay close attention to the significant advantages of your product or service and how they solve the recipient’s problems.
- Don’t alienate or confuse your readers with technical jargon; stick to clear, primary language.
- Make your information more scannable by breaking it into bullet points or numbered lists.
- Incorporate more white spaces into your cold emails and use easy-to-read words and phrases in your email so that readers can get the gist of what you’ve written fast.
Fun fact!
Do you know that Apple, a significant technology business, employs concise and clear wording in its cold emails to convey crucial information and boost responses? Their pitches are straight to the point, stressing the advantages of their products. They have succeeded in the cutthroat technology business by adopting this strategy and using it to cultivate a loyal consumer base.
5. Follow-up leads effectively
Finally, a practical follow-up approach is the key to turning cold email leads into clients. It’s essential to have a process in place for following up with receivers who don’t react to your original email. Just like your original email, your follow-up plan should be specific and tailored to the individual.
To keep the conversation exciting and relevant, address the receiver by name, reference any prior discussions or shared information, and try a new message tack or call to action. When sending a follow-up email, timing is also crucial. It’s essential to balance being overly aggressive or forceful, waiting too long, and losing the other person’s attention. Send a follow-up email 3–5 working days after the original one and once every 1–2 weeks.
Fun fact!
Do you know that As the market leader in customer relationship management (CRM) software, Salesforce understands the importance of following up with prospective customers? Follow-up emails, including helpful links and information about the product, are sent out automatically. They have found success with some of the top firms globally because of their focused and engaging strategy.
Conclusion
Throughout this article, you have been exposed to real-life cases of how popular brands have used cold emailing to their advantage while also considering the top practices. Sending out cold emails may be a challenging but fruitful way to find new leads and contact prospective clients.
You can boost the efficiency of your cold emails and the likelihood of turning leads into customers by adhering to these five best practices: tailor your messages to the recipient, state your value proposition explicitly, provide clear call-to-actions, keep your messages short and sweet, and follow leads effectively.