Cold emails are 40x more effective in getting new customers than Facebook & Twitter combined. However, it's over usage and poor execution results in its poor performance. Getting the basics right will help you make the most of this high-performing channel.
Addressing email deliverability: If your mail lands in the spam folder and not the inbox, you have already lost the game. You can follow simple steps to ensure a safe inbox landing.
Relevant personalisation: The bane of today's outreach is the one-size-fits-all approach to it. So, start the personalisation from the subject line, then move to the first line of the mail and finally, the mail content.
Appropriate follow-ups: A single try isn't enough. Have from 3 to a maximum of 7 touchpoints with your potential customers. Not just that - also modify the content in each of these mails.
Problem
I want to enhance the performance of my cold mails. Better open rates, more clicks and higher replies!
Solution
There are three parts to solution - addressing email deliverability, relevant personalisation and following up appropriately.
However, as a result, it is also overused and poorly executed. Getting the basics right will help you make the most of a high-performing channel.
b. Timing
Cold outreach works best when you have good customer testimonials or case studies. This is because customers visiting your website can now see some social proof.
Therefore, it is ideal to start with your network and get initial customers. You will then be better placed to define your ideal customer profile while also being able to showcase your past success.
Perfecting your cold outreach takes time as there are many moving parts. So, persevere through it.
Also, good performance can be defined by the 30/30/50 rule - basically, a 30% open rate out of which 30% respond to your mails and 50% of them convert to customers. Of course, you can do better, but this rule helps to put your performance in perspective.
b. Process
As outlined earlier, we will break this process into three steps:
i. Addressing email deliverability
ii. Relevant personalisation
iii. Appropriate follow-ups
i. Addressing email deliverability
For your mails to be opened, it needs to reach the inbox and not the spam folder. To achieve that:
Ensure that you use reputed email providers
Low-quality IPs have poor deliverability
Also, authenticate your email domain
Each mail provider has a specific process
This tells providers you are indeed who you claim to be and increases your deliverability
Test the email ids you source
Email ids from tools OR through a form on your website can be fake
Sending mails consistently to ids that don't exist increases your spam score
So, always test mail ids before launching a "campaign", using tools like Hunter
Clean your mail list
Sending your mails repeatedly to people who don't open your mails, negatively affects the delivery rate
So, remove inactive recipients on a regular basis
Test email content
Your email content can trigger spam filters
Therefore, once you have your mail content is ready, evaluate it using tools like Litmus
ii. Relevant personalisation
While you need templates to scale your cold outreach, generic mails is the bane of outreach. Relevant personalisation is highly important.
Personalisation implies that the recipient feels that the mail has been written specifically for them. It needs to be reflected in the:
Subject line
Almost the only factor that drives open rates
Keep it short
Use their name
Subject should be representative of the mail content
First line
Also affects open rates, as many mail clients show a preview of the first line
Don't make this about you (reserve that for your signature)
Talk about their problem & your solution
Not in an one-size-fits-all fashion but one that personally relates to the person
Maximum customisation needs to be made in the first line
Mail content
Here is where the good gets differentiated from the great
So, personalisation should relate to the problem you are solving
Basically, don't generically talk about the individual's demographic/ professional history
For e.g. If you were writing to me about hiring developers from you, the mail shouldn't be randomly about my past experience in a bank. Rather it could talk about no-code tools and their limitations. Then possibly, ask me if I think the time is right to explore building a custom tool with a full-stack developer.
Further, use small gestures such as sending them a LinkedIn request and mentioning that in your mail too
iii. Appropriatefollow-ups
A follow-up is a necessity because your leads might
Like your offering but procrastinate the reply
Be busy and hence not open the mail
Be partially convinced but need a little more push
So, here are some best practices for follow-ups
Send a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 7
Space it out - bunching them together will only result in unsubscribes and angry recipients
Identify the actives times of your leads and schedule the mail accordingly
Content of your follow-ups
Don't keep sharing your pitch in each follow-up
Share case studies, useful industry content, a sample report made for them showcasing your solution, etc.
Here is a good article for the kind of follow-ups: Link
Segment the leads based on the activity on the mail - non-openers, opened but no response, etc.
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