Cold emailing is hard to do for two reasons: you don’t (personally) know who you’re reaching out to, and there’s no immediate feedback (like there is on the phone, for example). As a result, some companies avoid this intimidating tactic. But, if done right, cold emailing can be a lucrative tool for success.
Based on our years of experience sending successful cold emails, here are the four best practices we recommend for this account-based marketing tactic.
1. Before You Begin
You should always have a goal in mind when beginning a cold email campaign. Although you may not personally know your targets, it helps to do a little research on their company, pain points, and possible solutions.
When you’re done drafting the email copy, you should be able to answer the following three questions:
- What is the goal of this message?
- Who are we targeting?
- What are some strategies that you employ here?
If you can’t answer those questions, you’ll want to begin again to create a more effective strategy. Cold emailing can be intimidating, so you want to feel in control of the process instead of feeling like you’re taking a shot in the dark.
2. Email Copy and Structure
Now, onto the meat of the email. The most important rule to remember is to get to the point–the email should be no longer than five sentences, and if it is, you’ll want to defend the length. Keep in mind that your reader like doesn’t have much time to begin with, so anything more than five sentences will most likely get thrown into the virtual trash.
From top to bottom, this is how the email should be written:
- Get their attention right away with a catchy, not generic, subject line.
- Avoid starting with a question, especially something that could be answered with a yes or no. Chances are, the reader will say “no”, and delete the email before seeing what you’re offering.
- Personalize the body copy so it doesn’t seem like you’re blasting out the email to different targets.
- End with a question or call to action–something that prompts the reader to reply to the email.
- Add a PS with an option for the reader to either opt out or forward the email to someone else in the company who may be interested in what you’re offering.
In the end, personalizing the copy, focusing on a key pain point, and taking advantage of location similarities will always get you the best responses.
3. Cut the Crap
In writing, it’s tempting to want to flourish what you’re saying (we know in college we used the synonym tool in Word to make our reports sound smarter), but in email marketing, especially cold email marketing, you want to avoid that temptation.
In fact, “cut the crap” is a great reminder–say only what you expect from your target and nothing more. There’s no need to try to make small talk or butter them up; they’re busy, just like you, so make your messages should get directly to the point.
4. Testing One, Two, Three
Our cold emails run in a three-part sequence with the following cadence:
This cadence can be adjusted based on your target audience’s interest levels, but three tends to be our magic number.
In addition, although it’s hard to test emails because there’s usually no immediate feedback, it’s helpful to look at the email’s statistics: open rate, click rate, and so on. From there, you can adjust your messaging or test new messaging to see how those emails perform.
Example Time
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s take a look at an example of a cold email we sent on behalf of a client in the communications solutions industry:
As you can see, we successfully checked off all of our requirements. The copy was engaging without being too over-the-top, personalized without seeming creepy, and got right to the point with a clear call to action.
At obo. Agency, one of the pillars of our successful demand generation program is a strong cold email strategy. Most cold emails have an average open rate of 14-23%; ours typically have an open rate of 60% or above and a reply rate of around 11-12% (about 8% of which are positive replies). Not only that, but most clients we’ve worked with have generated about 10-25 new leads per campaign.
For more information on cold email best practices, reach out to us today!
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