There are so many cold emails landing in your inbox. Just go and observe them. Why haven’t you opened most of them? Think about why did you open the ones that you did. You would come to a conclusion that either they were personalized messages from known entities and individuals, or the email subject line was intriguing. A creative and catchy email subject line is non-negotiable for successful cold sales email campaigns. There are plenty of other cold email tips that you need to take care of. To start, you can think about email body customization to tailor the email content down to the personal level of the recipient i.e., the email body can cater to what the audience needs, their likes, or their industry. Similarly, you can sanitize your sales cold email content for
- Conciseness— by being brief and straightforward.
- Clarity— by sticking to using plain and easily understandable language.
- Value— by sieving off the fluff and providing a product benefit or value.
Constant follow-up is equally good to embrace in your cold email campaign planning. Follow-up sequences increase the overall email reply rates and visibility.
These cold sales email tips are just for starters, let’s dive a little deeper and go through some of the best tips for better performance of cold emails.
1. Know the Audience
Do your homework. You must know who it is you’re reaching out to, what his pain points are, what kind of industry jargon gets him rolling, and what’s keeping him up at night (no, no, I’m not talking about that. I only mean to refer to business stressors, not the soccer matches or Netflix). Show that you understand their problems and their industry, and you become more than just another email in their inbox. The more you know your audience, the better your chances to win their attention in one way or another. There are a lot of tools out there to do lead prospection these days. Try them.
2. Use Your Audience Intel To Hyper-personalization All Throughout Your Email
You definitely don’t want to write a generic email that goes directly to the trash bin. Use the name of the recipient, mention their company, or point out something unique about the role or recent achievements. Personal touches indicate you aren’t just mass-emailing some list, but took some real time to learn about them specifically. Again, demonstrate that you have an intent to help, not just to sell. That’s how you will differentiate your email from the rest.
3. Nail The Subject Line
Your subject line is your first impression. Make it count. First, personalize it. Next, you need to understand that it needs to be interesting, but not clickbait-y. Make it relevant without becoming boring. Think of it as the headline to an article—it’s gotta get that subscriber to open. Posing a question or highlighting a benefit can often work well.
4. Be Human
Nobody enjoys speaking to robots. Also, use normal, everyday language. Act as though you’re speaking to a friend or a colleague. Don’t be too formal in your wording. Do you have an affinity for using corporate jargon? Well, in email marketing, it’s better to avoid it. Instead, add elements that make cold outreach close to how normal human beings engage in the real world. Add elements of personal touch that make you unique. Be real. Don’t project something you are not. Be personalized and warm in your choices of words. This will help make your email relatable and not be thrown in the bin.
5. Provide Value
Start with something that will snap their attention. This could be an interesting statistic, a provocative question, a compliment regarding something in their recent work that they might not be expecting, or a common problem they might be experiencing. Show that you are not talking blind shots, and approaching only after thorough research. Demonstrate you are acquainted with the ecosystem they work in, understand their world, and have something valuable to offer.
6. Keep It Short and Sweet
Not everyone is a reader. Most of us are not. Some executives may be introverts and might be a readers at the core. But let’s acknowledge that time is valuable and in short supply. Especially for executives. They are always juggling multiple things at once. So, as a rule of thumb, do not waste the time of your readers; get to the point quickly. Generally speaking, a few short paragraphs are cool. Be concise, and let them know what you are offering and why it is important to them.
7. Focus on The Benefits, Not the Features
Never list just what your product or service can do. You will want to explain how it will make their life easier, how it will solve their problem, or how it will enable them to meet their goals. The benefits sell, not the features. They can easily forget the features because, in the copycat SaaS economy, almost everyone has every other feature. It’s tough to differentiate. However, when you write emails with a narrative of how your product solves certain problems, wherein the problem is the villain, whilst your product is the savior, with a touch of storytelling, it’s going to definitely work magic.
PS- There are many writing frameworks that you can try to compose a stellar cold email body.
8. Use Social Proof
If you have amazing case studies, testimonials, or big-name clients, include them. People are much more likely to trust you when they can see that others—especially others they know—have had a positive experience with your product or service. Social proof works; it’s all about influence and winning trust. Executives get paid to make quick and correct decisions. So, when there is a trust factor involved, and that too when someone from their own network can vouch for your product/service, it is going to work like a charm for you. Again, use lead research tools, and your own client database to get the referrals and automate the process of reaching out via cold (warm) emails.
9. End with a Clear Call to Action
Subject lines are good to get started, but it is how strong is your CTA that decides the leads and the revenue you generate. Don’t leave it vague on what the next steps would be. This may be to schedule a call, sign up for a demo, or simply reply to this very email; it should all be very clear. And one of the most effective things is to ask directly—some assertiveness does help in being persuasive.
10. Follow-Up Email
Everybody’s busy, emails get lost. If you don’t hear back, follow up a few days later. Keep it polite and professional. Sometimes, a gentle nudge is all it takes to get your foot in the door. Just ensure that in the name of follow-ups, you are not spamming the recipient. If you think you are sending them emails way too frequently, most probably you are doing that. The point is to believe in your intuition and send follow-up emails with a proper plan, not out of desperation.
11. Test and Iterate, maybe A/B?
There’s no silver bullet when it comes to cold email. You have got to experiment a lot. Play with your subject line, your opening lines, and your calls to action. A/B testing will show you what works best for high response or engagement rates. Maximize on the best-performing options. Content marketing in general is less of a sprint and more of a marathon. So, give it some time. Over time, you will refine your approach and get better results.
12. Add an Endearing Personal Touch Towards The End
Sometimes, a brief P.S. that is personal goes a long way. So, maybe consider mentioning something like a recent article they wrote or a fun update about the shared connection; this lets them know you are paying attention and lends credibility to your reach-out.
To Sum It All Up!
Okay, cool. That was a quickie, right? Did you expect to read 12 cold email tips in less than 5 minutes? Anyway, the intent behind all these tips is to make you get good business results. While working these tips into your cold emails, you’ll appear more authentic, relevant, and interesting. And that’s what’s going to get you the responses and results you’re looking for.
If you are an early-stage business looking to get help with email marketing, SEO, or content marketing in general, feel free to reach out to GrowthRomeo.
