Cold Email Tactics That Get Response by Sean McGuigan. Available from <http://www.business2community.com/brandviews/pipeline/cold-email-tactics-get-response-01615288#1zQIIG3mYh5dRzsC.97>. [August 01, 2016]
We constantly hear about the powers of networking with the right people and building social goodwill. Emails are now thought to be things of the past which don’t play a role in marketing or any part of business because people don’t have the time or energy to read through or even open an email. It is almost impossible to believe that cold emails can be effective in today’s hyper-connected world.
However, it is a mistake to completely write off this strategy because it will offer results if implemented properly.
Optimizing Your Cold Email Strategy
No matter what type of business you are running, it is important that you equip yourself with cold email tactics that work with your specific audience. Here are a few general tips which should be the basis of your cold email strategy:
- Personalized research and finding the right recipient profile is as important as the sales tactics
- Important people have busy schedules, in order to win their trust and time, do your research and be concise.
- Make your email stand out by choosing the right subject line. Try to be specific and make sure your email copy lives up to the promise of the subject line
Improving Cold Email Deliverability Rates
You have written a killer email with an attention grabbing subject line, but how can you increase your chances of higher deliverability rates? Here are some tips you can use to start off:
- Closely monitor your campaigns and keep track of metrics
- Remove any addresses which are consistently resulting in undeliverable results
- Monitor the replies from prospects and respond to any unsubscribe requests ASAP
- Use a clearly recognizable email address in the “From” field and the “From Name”
- Write a relevant and clear subject line
- Stay up to date with the best practices of email communication
- Use an updated spam checker tool to make sure your email does not contain any spamm-y content. Most email filters are smart enough to pick out almost all marketing-heavy phrases/words
Improving Cold Email Open-Rates
According to research conducted by MailChimp and ConstantContact, average open rates for business emails falls somewhere in the range of 14% – 23%. How can you increase your odds? Here are a few ways you can make sure most of your emails are read:
- Craft a great subject line which sparks interest and stands out in a flooded inbox
- Use a recognizable name in the “From” field
- Add a short reminder message to jog your recipient’s memory about who you are and what they signed up for
- Segment your contact lists for better relevancy, most email software will let you create groups and assign unique tags
- Set a fixed frequency and inform your contacts about how often they can expect to hear from you
- Clean out your contact list if it hasn’t been updated in a while
- Use free online tools to check if your message might end up in the Spam folder
Improving Click-Through Results for Cold Emails
Now that you have got your customer to open and read your email, you must have an intelligent call-to-action which attracts immediate attention. Here are a few ways you can accomplish this goal:
- Use a strong and clear call-to-action in your email message
- Use simple words and short phrases in your main message. Keep paragraphs short, about 1-3 sentences is the ideal length
- Make sure your email copy lives up to the promise of your subject line
- Set appropriate contact expectations
- Connect a sense of urgency to your offer, try using short words according to customer numbers, time, etc.
Parameter Variations You Need to Test
Email marketing metrics mentioned above depend on a few basic parameters. Optimizing your campaigns means you have to test out a few variations of parameters. Measure these parameters across different recipient groups. They can also help you diagnose any problems in your email marketing.
- Email length—Longer, context-heavy copy vs. Short, to-the-point copy
- Subject Line—Specific, customized vs. Vague
- Nature of Request—Seeking a favor vs. seeking advice
- Purpose—Selfish request vs. Selfless offer
Cold email campaigns can be quite tricky to perfect. Creating effective campaigns come with a somewhat steep learning curve because it involves some research. The good thing is that the tricks are repeatable, learn them once and you will become an expert at cold email marketing. So be sure to use these tips to improve your email marketing strategy and remember that cold emails are effective if done in the right way.