Every successful business partnership or deal begins with two strangers finding something in common. Whether you’re in B2B marketing or selling directly to customers, your results will depend on making your pitch in a convincing manner. While it’s easy to set up a meeting with an existing contact, you still need a way to initiate a conversation with new prospects. A time-tested and reliable way of reaching out to business leads is the humble cold email.
What is a Cold Email?
Internet users of a certain vintage will remember the email provider Hotmail, which was extremely popular in the early 2000s. Well, cold emails have been around since before Hotmail was launched, and are still in use today, some two decades later! The reason for this longevity is simple — cold emails are an inexpensive, easy, and convenient way to reach out to people.
Cold emails are a method of outbound lead generation. Businesses use them to reach out to prospective clients to strike up a conversation. What sets cold emails apart from newsletters or other forms of corporate communication is that the sender always initiates the dialog. There is no subscription or invitation to chat from the recipient.
This is why having a quality mailing list of high-value leads is so important when starting a cold email campaign. Flooding people who are not interested in the contents of your email could lower your response rate and, unfortunately, send a majority of your emails to the recipients’ deleted folder.
There are various tips, tricks, and pointers to remember when crafting cold emails. In this article, we take a look at how you can use them to boost your business’ growth through cold email campaigns.
Best Practices for Writing Cold Emails
No cold email ever sent has had a 100% success rate. Sometimes, recipients aren’t able to distinguish between a genuine cold email and annoying spam, so they delete your message. Another possibility is that they might have opened the email, read it, and developed an interest but have been too busy to respond on time. The number of recipients who respond to your cold email compared to the number it was initially sent to is called your response rate. Response rates differ from open rates, but both are worth tracking during a cold email campaign.
If you want to raise your response rate, it’s time to start paying attention to the composition of your cold emails. This means ensuring every element of the cold email is tailored to hook the prospect’s interest and make them curious about your business. The elements that should be present in every cold email are:
- From line
- Subject line
- Email opening
- Email body
- Call to action
Let’s look at writing strategies that make every element of your cold email stand out and boost your campaign’s response rate.
1. From Line
While often overlooked by the senders, the “From” line in your cold email is central to how the recipient perceives it. Most people are wary of messages from strangers in their email inboxes, and for good reason. That’s why you should always edit your “From” line before an email campaign. Using your company name up front in the “From” line also conveys more trustworthiness than the name of a random employee.
2. Subject Line
This is arguably the most important part of your cold email. Readers will see the subject line even before they open an email, and their reaction will determine whether that email gets read or moved to the trash. Make sure your subject line is compelling, and try personalizing it for each recipient to catch their attention.
3. Email Opening
Once readers click on your mail, your opening statements are crucial to convincing them that you are offering a service, product, or solution that could be useful to them. These lines also help set the tone for the rest of the message, be it formal, friendly, technical, or whatever suits your brand best.
4. Email Body
People who open your cold emails are doing you a service, not the other way around. That’s why you should be very respectful of their time and keep your cold email’s body text short and sweet. Stick to under 300 words, and try not to sound like you’re making a sales pitch. The goal of cold emails is not to make a sale but to forge a connection, so a personalized message with a human touch is more likely to get a response.
5. Call to Action
Sometimes, readers are interested in the contents of a cold email but are confused about how to follow up. You can prevent potential leads from slipping through the cracks by placing a clear and emphatic call to action at the end of your cold email. It can include a link to a website or online store, an invitation to an event, or any other form of supporting your business. This will keep readers on the hook so that you can take the conversation further.
Find the Best Leads for Your Cold Email Campaign
It’s not enough to just write a compelling cold email. There’s no point in composing an exciting and inviting email only to send it to a person who has no interest in its contents. What’s much more effective is conducting market research and going over consumer information to find those most likely to be interested in your business and its offerings. Your mailing list should be composed of high-quality leads who have a good chance of being converted into paying customers.
While it is possible to build your mailing list in-house, it is both time-consuming and labor-intensive. Sometimes, it’s better to trust your outbound lead generation needs to a specialist. Lead generation agencies like LevelUp Leads are experts in delivering high-quality leads that are relevant to your organization’s area of operations. With a list of contacts tailor-made for your business and an email written using the strategies mentioned above, your cold email campaign will get much more traction.
Links & References
- https://www.levelupleads.io/
- https://startuptalky.com/cold-emailing-strategies/
- https://zapier.com/blog/how-to-write-a-cold-email/
- https://woodpecker.co/blog/how-to-write-a-cold-email-that-actually-works-six-step-tutorial/
- https://www.flowrite.com/blog/how-to-write-a-cold-email
- https://mailchimp.com/resources/how-to-write-a-cold-email/
