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So you're ready to give cold email a try, but don't know where to start. You've come to the right place. Today, we're going to explain the science behind winning cold email strategy.
You may have been led to believe that cold emails are a magic bullet solution to your sales woes. By simply firing off cold emails to decision-makers, you'll generate sales on autopilot. While cold emailing can be very simple, it's not that simple. You need to start with the foundation - your strategy.
There are so many things that go into this - from the prospects you find to your subject line and intro text, to your offer itself. With so many different moving parts, nailing down your cold email campaign can quickly become overwhelming.
It doesn't have to be, though. Just keep reading. In this quick guide, we're going to walk you through the cold email strategies we use to generate results. We'll go step by step to help you build your first campaign. Let's start with a quick definition.
What Is Cold Email?
First and foremost, what is cold email? The term "cold" dictates how familiar a prospect is with you. In this case, they have no previous contact with you. Emailing people you've never talked to and trying to sell them on your product or service sounds intimidating, right? It doesn't have to be.
When you shift your thinking with cold email, it is actually your duty to get your offer in front of potential clients. If you really believe you can help the person with a specific pain point then you are doing them a favor.
Why Do Most Marketers Get Cold Email Wrong?
The mistake most people make with cold email marketing is they try to sell their prospect on their offer directly in the email. Sometimes, they do so right in the first few lines.
Picture this: you're filtering through your inbox, deleting the typical spam. You see an email from someone you've never heard of, so you open it. They offer you a product or service right out the gate. How jarring is that? You'll probably react by scoffing at the sender, marking it as spam, and archiving the email.
Shift Your Cold Email Strategy For Better Results
It's incredibly rare to close a deal in the inbox. Sometimes you'll hit the jackpot and come across a cold email prospect who's ready to buy your product or sign up for your service right there on the spot. But more often, you'll need to use cold email to guide the prospect along your buying funnel.
Instead of trying to make sales in the inbox, shift your thinking. You aren't trying to sell anyone anything through cold email. Rather, you're using cold email as a way to sell the next step in the buying funnel.
Maybe you want to get them on a phone call to learn more. Or, perhaps you want them to book a demo for a cool new feature or service you're rolling out. Maybe you just want them to reply to your email so you can send them more information or gain some information from them.
Whatever the case, you just try to encourage the next step with a bold call to action. This next step doesn't guarantee that you'll close the deal, but it does increase your likelihood. Once you shift your strategy with cold email, you'll find much greater success.
Our Cold Email Strategy (That Gets Opens, Clicks, And Sales)
Now you have a better understanding of cold email, and the mindset you need to be successful. But how do you get started? Don't worry - we're going to share our cold emailing strategy with you now. We personally use this strategy to close deals and scale our business - and you can too. It starts with defining your offer.
What Is Your Offer?
What are you hoping to do with cold email? Obviously, you want to gain clients or customers. But, what is it you want to sell them? The best cold email marketers are able to define their offer in a way that sets them apart from similar products/services.
It's not enough to say "I sell SaaS." or "I do e-commerce SEO". You need to be able to communicate your offer in a way that shows your value. So, instead of selling SaaS, you could say "I help business owners gain back their free time while helping them scale through software". Or, if you're selling an SEO service, you could say something like "I help e-commerce brands earn digital real estate that brings in new customers on autopilot - without spending a dime on paid traffic".
See how much more enticing these offers are when you communicate your value more effectively? This is a crucial first step. If you don't have your offer nailed down, you'll be hard-pressed to find interested prospects. That's because they have a seemingly endless number of people offering the same services you are.
To take this even further, you can attach numbers to your offer. This is only possible if you have results to show for it, of course. For example, if you helped an e-commerce brand experience 300% traffic growth that brought in an extra $50K in revenue, use it to your advantage. Anyone can say that they increase traffic and revenue - few can attach real figures to these claims./
Find Qualified Prospects Before Setting Up Your Campaign
Once you've figured out how you're going to effectively communicate your value to your prospects, it's time to find them. Effective prospecting is about more than just finding decision-maker email addresses. These decision-makers need to be pre-qualified. Don't waste your time hunting down prospects that aren't a good fit for your business.
What do we mean by "qualified prospects"?
This simply means they're your ideal client. Think back to your offer - who exactly do you help? Is it the solopreneur who needs to free up some of his time? If so, you won't want to waste your time cold emailing someone who has a team of 100 employees under his belt. Instead, you'll go after agency owners who are still stuck working in the business rather than on the business.
Once you've defined your ideal client, it's time to find them. These days, prospecting can be automated through software. There are all kinds of awesome software out there that can help you find decision-maker email addresses with just a few clicks. Or, maybe you want to download a list of LinkedIn profiles to contact - there is software for that too. When it comes to prospecting, remember to work smarter - not harder.
Craft Creative, Enticing Subject Lines (And Don't Neglect Intro Text)
After finding your prospects comes the fun part: building your cold emails out. Your campaign will probably live inside some sort of email autoresponder software. This allows you to build email sequences and upload your prospects and send out the cold emails on a regular schedule with automated follow-ups. For a recommendation, check out our review of the best marketing tools for startups.
Perhaps the most important component of your cold emails will be the subject line you use. This sells your prospect on the first step - opening your email. We wrote a complete guide on cold email subject lines, and even wrote up a list of some creative subject lines you can try for yourself. We highly recommend you read through both of these guides before starting to form your own subject lines.
In the meantime, though, here are some quick tips and recommendations to craft creative, enticing subject lines.
- Use emojis (sparingly): Emojis will help you stand out in your recipient's inbox. Don't get carried away, though. And don't use emojis just for the sake of using them - only if they make sense.
- Personalize your subject lines: Personalization is everything when it comes to cold emailing. With text replacements, you can add a person's name or their business to the subject line. This will drastically increase your chances of getting high open rates.
- Keep subject lines short and sweet: The shorter the subject line, the better. Make sure that you keep them concise, and consistent with the email copy (don't promise one thing in the subject line and deliver another in the email copy).
- Don't neglect the intro text: The intro text is typically filled out in the same place you fill your subject line. If you don't fill out the intro text, it will pull from the first line of text in your email copy.
Write Short, Concise Email Copy (With A Strong Call To Action)
The cold email subject line sells your prospect on opening your email. But what comes next? The email copy itself, of course. This is where you'll then sell your prospect on the next step. If you're following our strategy for cold email, that next step will simply be booking a call or demonstration or replying to your email.
If you aren't sure where to start, take a look at our favorite cold email templates. You'll find plenty of examples you can draw inspiration from - just tweak them to fit your offer. In general though, here are some best practices and recommendations for the email body:
- Make the email copy about the recipient: we talked about personalizing your subject lines - and your cold emails themselves should be personalized, too. Moreover, make sure that the focus of your email copy is on the recipient. If you start off by talking about yourself and what you can do for the recipient, you'll struggle to get them to the next step. People only care about themselves - what is in it for them? Agitate pain points, describe a better vision for them and then pose your offer as the solution.
- Keep the email copy short and sweet, too: Just like with the cold email subject line, your email body should be concise. We recommend no more than a few lines of text in your first email - somewhere between 50-250 words.
- A strong call to action: You need to be bold in encouraging the prospect to take the next step. We described earlier that in the best cold email strategies, this is a click to appointment booking software or a calendar link. Or, it could be just replying to your email. Whatever the case, tell the prospect what you want them to do.
Don't Forget To Follow Up
Ok, you've sent out your cold email following our tips above. Why aren't the sales flowing in? It's because you'll rarely close deals after your first email. Sending follow-up emails is where the cash is. Fortunately, most email autoresponders make it easy to send follow-up emails. You can build out your sequence and dictate when you want the 2nd, 3rd, and even 4th cold emails to go out. We recommend waiting at least 2-3 days between sends.
Split Test, Tweak, And Split Test Again
Once you've got your cold email marketing sequence firing, you can continue to add prospects daily. A full pipeline is how you'll see success with cold email marketing. Try and add at least 10-20 prospects a day.
And, monitor your results over time. Even if you're booking calls and getting responses at a rate you're pleased with, there is always room for improvement. You can split-test subject line, sender names, quantity & timing of follow-up emails, the email copy itself, call to action - you name it.
Just remember that split testing is only effective if you test one thing at a time. Don't get carried away and completely revamp your cold email marketing campaign. Make small tweaks, split test, and then tweak again. Over time, you'll end up with campaigns that convert at a higher rate.
Final Thoughts On Cold Email Strategy
Cold email outreach is one of the most effective types of email marketing campaigns you can set up. And now that you understand a successful cold email strategy, there is just one thing left to do - get started! The sooner you begin, the sooner you'll close your first deal.
If you're struggling to write copy for your cold email campaigns, we're here to help. Our email AI writer is the best online for writing personalized cold email copy. We can help you automate this aspect of your cold email campaign so that you can spend less time writing, and more time closing deals. Give it a try today and experience higher open rates, higher response rates, and more booked meetings. You won't be disappointed.
