How to Send the Warmest Cold Emails
How to Send the Warmest Cold Emails
Emails (cold emails or newsletters or transactional emails or whatever you use) are a medium that is as powerful as ever. With more than 3.8 million email users (the number is expected to surpass 4.2 million by 2023), and more than two email addresses per user — it’s safe to say that email is (or can be) a marketing goldmine. Here is how to send the warmest cold emails ever.
Nowadays, email has almost completely replaced your home address.
It hasn’t completely succeeded in the obliteration of a home address — only because physical orders cannot possibly appear in our inbox in digital form although that would be nice.
(Source)
Keep these things in mind with your cold emails.
- “Email campaigns […] have been found to increase revenues by 760% on average,” more than most brands have tried and keep trying to modify their marketing game in a way that will drive growth through email marketing and marketing automation in all its forms.
- There is a need for platforms like Moosend-one of the biggest Constant Contact competitors-comes into play.
- Brands are trying to grow in a way that will help them stand out from the crowd.
- Also, brands are becoming more or less a household name, like Nike or Amazon.
One of the most profitable things you can use, in order to see your conversion skyrocket is something all of us have demonized in our heads:
Sending out cold emails.
Of course, I am not talking about those email blasts from the past or those random, spammy-looking emails we all receive from time to time:
(Source)
Hyper-personalized “cold” emails with stellar email personalization are what I’m talking about and what I think needs to be a staple in any and all marketing plans.
There are specific rules to follow, before sending cold emails.
Research is key.
Maybe you’re the best at promoting yourself and your services. Maybe your brand knows what it’s doing when it comes to your product.
How is your email going to depict these facts in a way that will be relevant, timely, and appropriate?
Go ahead and do your research. Sign up for your competitors’ newsletter campaigns and expect some cold emails from them as well. Then, start studying your findings.
Studying your findings will help you determine what kind of needs your cold email campaign needs to cover. The findings will also help with project management. Your cold email campaign is a project in and of itself, that will help you out with other projects.
However, researching the competition is not the only thing you’ll need to do in this case.
Who is your ideal customer?
To know who would love to hear from you — you’ll need to create your buyer personas.
Buyer personas are depictions of what your ideal customer should be like. From their educational level, down to their location on the globe, buyer personas can provide a whole lot of insights and usually work like a charm:
(Source)
Buyer personas worked perfectly in generating leads and exceeding expectations. The buyer persona can answer your key questions:
- Who would be interested in your product?
- Who would find benefit from your product?
- Could these people end up buying your product?
- Could they end up buying more than once?
Let’s assume that you’re selling link building packages. It’s a very specific product that wouldn’t interest someone that’s not a marketer or a brand that is using growth strategies.
Are subject lines important?
In short, yes, the subject line is important. But why? And what do you need to do to make sure that you won’t fail?
A subject line is the very first thing a prospect notices about your email. A failed subject line can do this:
(Source)
The last thing you need is someone hurting your deliverability rate and making you appear to be the “bad guy.”
Here are some examples of subject lines to avoid at all costs:
- Don’t begin with questions. “Do you want to save your average order value from plummeting?” Nah mate, I’d rather not, because the first thing that comes to my mind is that you want me to pay you for something. And asking for money through a cold email screams spam. You can find an alternative way of saying this, such as: “Your customer feedback strategy is on point, congrats [name]”
- Grammar, punctuation, and the number of words and keywords are too important: Poor grammar is spam, and too many exclamation points make your subject line look like spam to Google-and look tacky. What is more, the number of words is something that can make or break your open rate.You’ll get the best response at an open rate if you’ve got a subject line that’s somewhere between 6-10 words. Lastly, avoid too many keywords. It looks robotic, feels rushed and guess what it can do for your cold email campaign. You’re right, nothing.
- Avoid using: “RE:,” “FWD:,” “URGENT,” and clickbait subject lines. Any of these beginnings will not resonate well with your recipients. Let me explain why: “RE:” shows that you’ve no idea who you’re emailing — or that you’re a bot. Either way, since the prospect never sent something for you to reply to — straight to the spam folder you go.“FWD:” seems more than a little unprofessional. Your prospect will consider that you didn’t take the time to erase the word “FWD” from the subject line. Imagine where your email will end up if your prospect thinks, “I never asked to be sent anything in the first place, and I don’t know that person.”
As for the “URGENT,” I think it’s more than obvious. Inconsistent, bullshit or misleading subject lines will lead your email to the spam folder and send your deliverability rate to a downward spiral.
Craft your subject line in a manner that won’t reveal too much information.
Opting for clickbait? Crafting your subject line will increase your open rate, sure, but that’s about it.
I’m critical of the overly spammy subject line techniques that resurface every now and then. Don’t get anxiety; here is a thing or two about what makes a successful subject line.
-
Let your prospects decide whether they’d like to open your email or not.
- For them to be able to decide to click or not to click — you need to be clear on what your email is about.
- Being clear does not mean you need to give them any available information.
- Be clear but playful:
The above subject line comes from my personal inbox and is the perfect example of what I’m trying to say.
For example How many hours are left “a few hours?” I need to open the email to get the answer.
- Write something opinionated. For example, “Video conferencing is the only way to hold conferences” or “Festive marketing is dead.”
- Remember this truth: The truth is that an opinionated subject line may not attract all of the crowd, but it will attract the right crowd. The right crowd is who you’re looking for with cold email.
Utilize the Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO). You can create urgency:
- With this FOMO — I fell into the trap, as expected.
- I saw something I couldn’t refuse — which was the offer.
- I also saw something that made me think that the offer’s gone.
- I had to click on the site and see what the offer was — and so will your customers.
The body copy of your email.
Let’s assume that the prospect loved your subject line and opened your email. That’s great; you managed to stand out in a full inbox. But how are you going to keep your prospects’ attention intact? One of your choices would be to use something other than words to attract just the right amount of attention without being overbearing.
You can achieve this by adding pictures and GIFs to your email’s body copy.
Let’s assume that you’re a band that has just released a new track. Instead of sending an email with the announcement, you can use video email marketing or send a Spotify type email with a picture of the album you’re referring to. Let your fans go about music streaming by just pressing a CTA button.
Have you studies your buyer persona?
Maybe your ideal customer likes text better because they’re old-fashioned like that? Your prospects are not reading your emails because they love reading. They’re reading your email because it provides a solution.
As an example: Let’s say that you’ve got a blog post ready. The blog post talks about making money with affiliate marketing. Do you think that sending an announcement about your new blog post will make people want to read it?
Of course not. But providing a snippet or a part of the solution you’re going to talk about, that will lead customers to the result they want.
If you want to make sure that you find an easy benefit that people will want, propose as a solution, something like starting an online business.
You can provide this solution by doing extensive research on your competitors’ bad reviews and then propose a solution already proposed by the consumers themselves. After all, buyers consider products that can turn them into the best version of themselves.
If you apply the principle to business owners looking at a product, you’ll see that they are looking at the best version of their business and not a product itself.
For example, if you’ve got a brick-and-mortar store, you’ll need to make your online presence known as well. 39% of customers visit a brand’s website before they purchase in a physical store. 9.6% of GenZ shoppers report buying items in a physical store, compared to Millennials.
What could that mean, other than needing an eCommerce website builder? Something like that will be the optimal solution for your store, as well as a full eCommerce inventory guide.
Best tip: Keep your message short and sweet. The readers won’t bother with lengthy text. If you need to showcase a demo of “the solution” you’re proposing, make it through a video.
Your readers need to see the value of your cold email-and, by extension, the solution you’re trying to provide — upfront — don’t make them look for it. Usually, just a couple of sentences are more than enough.
Did you personalize at all?
Personalization goes way beyond just the first name on the subject line. You’ll need to compose tailor-made messages that will suit your prospects’ needs. And this is where segmentation comes into play.
Let’s assume that you need to segment your list to the following categories: CEO, CFO, and employee.
It’s easy enough to find with a little digging on the internet. Just make sure you’re using your data correctly. An employee that has just been promoted to CFO won’t appreciate the downgrade and, most likely, won’t go through with the email.
You need a different benefit of the product for all the different positions of your customers’ persona.
If you’re about to talk to the Head of Sales of the company, you can provide a sales-y solution to making more money. Promote a digital customer loyalty program that will retain their recurring digital customers by offering sales and benefits, thus increasing their ARR.
If, on the other hand, you’re about to talk to the CMO, make sure to let them know about the best SEO companies that can help them increase in growth for their marketing department’s SEO game. Of course, you can’t go ahead with that kind of hyper-personalization for every cold email campaign you’re going to be sending out — but you get the gist.
If you’re dealing with very high-quality prospects, it’s worth the effort and the time, as it will look like you’re here to provide real solutions and that you’ve spent more than five minutes on research, rather than just wanting to score a quick sale.
Why should people trust you?
Are you looking here for answers to your questions — and not to answer someone else’s problems?
Answer these questions.
- What makes you one-of-a-kind in your field?
- What makes you a person that people can trust or look up to?
- Why should people listen to you?
Capture your prospects’ attention by introducing yourself right from the beginning. Tell them why you are essential. Use a description that will build credibility. Your description could be a little sentence or a link to your social media profiles.
If you’re an influencer, you can send a cold email that will be showcasing your tips. Can you show this customer how to be featured in social media influencers’ posts? Can you actually help people out?
With your tips and information, you will build credibility throughout the whole email.
The reason you need to build that credibility is straightforward: You need people to take the time and not just open your email, but actually read it. You want them to know that they can click on the links or CTA buttons, and they will achieve value. You help them achieve conversion rate optimization.
The second reason you need to use your “trust badges,” would be to increase your engagement levels. Engagement levels mean that you are getting actual responses from your prospects.
Your CTA is essential.
Your CTA plays a considerable part in your success — from its look, down to the wording.
The subject line and body copy should be precise, but just a little cryptic. Your CTA, on the other hand, needs to be super clear on the action your prospect needs to take. That way, you will reach your end goal.
No customer wants a hard sell.
While a customer may work in person or on the phone — it’s a lot easier to delete a cold email. Avoid selling — or even asking for a meeting — in your first email. Remember: you’re not going to sell on that first email — and perhaps not even on the second one.
Use the first email as an introduction or to build a relationship.
But be careful with what you’re trying to do.
Instead of a sell, you could call your prospects to act on a straightforward step. “Check our guide,” or “Download our free eBook.”
Encourage your prospects to share your cold email with their friends or other employees.
If you include some referrals’ discount or exclusive benefit in your email, it would work like a charm and would reduce your MRR churn, seeing as you’d always have new leads coming about without spending extra budget money to obtain them.
Pro tip: You can also go ahead and read all about the referral marketing definition and how it affects all businesses before trying it out on your own.
Also, remember to use contrasting colors for your CTA buttons.
If there is no CTA button, use bold letters.
You should draw their attention, using contrasting colors. Make sure that they won’t miss your last message: What it is that they’re supposed to do.
Don’t forget to follow up
Your prospect took the time to read your email despite never having heard of you. They also took the time to see the value and, eventually, took the time to convert.
You should at least send them a follow-up email to see how they enjoyed your product. This practice will lead your new (for now) leads further down the funnel and will eventually turn your customers into recurring customers.
You can also follow-up if they haven’t responded to your email, thus earning yourself a second chance at engagement.
Hint: Most reply to those emails, so it would be a real shame not to utilize a follow-up.
One final thought
The last thing I’d like to share with you as a tip is something that you already know — but please do this.
Always A/B test, my children, always A/B test.
Testing will lead to your best optimization, and will definitely, growth-hack your cold email game.
The post How to Send the Warmest Cold Emails appeared first on ReadWrite.
(52)
