In the modern sales/marketing world, capturing someone's attention in mere seconds is crucial. Whether you're promoting a product, service, or seeking new leads, a well-crafted email can make all the difference.
The info in this blog has been derived from personal experience in sending over 100,000 cold emails across varying B2B and B2C industries.
In this blog, we'll reveal 10 practical and proven tips to elevate your cold emailing and ensure your messages stand out in crowded inboxes and get the responses you need. From being empathetic to keeping it concise, we'll show you how to engage prospects and boost response rates.
1. Always politely introduce yourself
Remember you are interrupting their day - never forget that. They have a busy schedule already, and you are interrupting them to show them awareness of something exciting (i.e. your service or product) - so act like it. Think about what you might someone to say to you if you were them...
2. Less content the better
People will subconsciously assess the amount of text on an email in <1 second, and decide if it is even worth reading at all - too much will appear overwhelming, and if they don't have a reason to sustain engagement, they won't. Best to keep this to a minimum of 3-5 lines/sentences (excluding Hi {name} + finishing sign off). Add spaces between each line to emphasis minimalism and appear easily consumable.
3. Be Fast & to the point
On average, people will give a sales/marketing email 0.3 to 3 seconds of their attention before they decided to delete it or continue reading. This means you need to get their attention and interest with the subject line, and (at most) the first line of the email. The first question they will ask is "who is this and what do you want" - if you have a valid or enticing reason, then lead with it clearly.
4. Make sure you are speaking to the right person first
(This one is mainly focused at B2B, however, has relevance to B2C) Your first email should always aim to be polite, show value, and ask if you are speaking to the right person, or else they will ignore and delete it. To help navigate this, your call-to-action (CTA) could be "Who would be the right person to speak to about this?". That way you can get a warm intro into the right person. (this surprisingly has a huge success rate for Larger Enterprise sales).
5. Don't talk about how amazing you are (no one cares)
Think about the last conversation you had with someone who only spoke about themselves and how great they were... Focus on why they should want to talk to you and the value you can give them. When writing your copy, keep asking yourself "what's in it for them".
Here are the results of a 400+ cadence that uses all 10 tips in this blog
6. This email is about them
If you are lucky enough to get someone's attention, make sure your words/language is focused on them and the reasons they would care about (e.g. "we are helping X similar companies to solve this common problem, and are seeing if it might also be relevant to you?"). Be careful of how many times you use the word "I"... It has it's place, but if you notice you keen referring to what "I" think and what "I" want - you will lose them.
7. Stop talking about your product's/service's functionality
Stop telling people about all the 'nuts and bolts' of your product/service. For example, don't say "we have messaging software, notification alerts, customisable formats, etc." - why would they care about that? Focus on WHY these nuts and bolts are important to them, and how it will help. What will all of this ultimately enable them to do?
8. If you can't be personable, be authentic
You are far more likely to gain a response from a prospect if it shows you have taken the time to be genuine and understand them. We all know when someone has sent a "generic" email/message to us, and we all know how disengaging and annoying it can be. If you can, take the time to read a bit about your prospect (e.g. blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, twitter, YouTube), so it creates a REAL and authentic engagement (which is what all sales should feel like - we all want to feel special!). However, when emailing (say) 100 people, this can be tricky. If you can't be personable, be authentic. Be open about saying "you are reaching out to a number of companies" - authenticity and honesty will always prevail.
9. Always use a simple and easy to achieve Call-To-Action (CTA)
Always make sure you end with a CTA to validate their interest and generate a response. However, keep in mind you will have a better chance of a response if the question softer is easy for them to execute. For example "I can put an hour in our diary next week for a call?" is much more commitment and hard for them to answer than "Is this of interest to you?". For the first step, we just want to know if this person might be interested and if it is worthwhile continuing the convo. Stop trying to book meetings straight away - their diaries are already full and they won't change them without a good reason.
10. Stay on track with a single-sales-objective (SSO)
This means stops asking multiple questions, or trying to get their interest, and the details of the buyer, and their commitment to purchase, all at once! Start simple and focus on what you want their next step to be. For example, do you want them to sign up to a newsletter? See if they're interested? Ask for the right person to speak with? Choose 1 and focus on it. If you ask too much upfront, they will ignore it and move on (or 'get to it later'). Keep it simple and very easily actionable.