Cold emailing can go both ways – entice or irritate an army of recipients. There is no middle ground.
On the good side, sending out cold emails helps you generate leads and introduce your brand to those who have never heard of it.
On the flip side, cold emailing can cause nightmares to your business when you reach the wrong audience and send the wrong message.
It can easily be perceived as unwanted communication, leading to the email being ignored, deleted, or worse, marked as spam. When that happens, your sender reputation goes down the drain, and you’ll likely end up in that dreaded spam folder forever.
That’s why most cold emails fail, leaving businesses struggling to find prospects and build relationships with new contacts.
So, is cold emailing still an effective strategy today? Should you dedicate your marketing efforts to something that could drive your leads away?
Let’s find out.
Top 5 Cold Emailing Benefits
While it can be challenging to pull off, cold emailing can do wonders for your business when done right. After all, 80% of people still prefer sales representatives to contact them by email, proving how cold emails have a massive potential to grow your customer base.
Cold emailing can drive better results for your marketing strategy because of these top reasons:
- Targeted audience: It allows you to reach specific individuals or groups interested in your product or service.
- Measurable results: It is easy to track a cold emailing campaign’s success through open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates.
- Low cost: It is relatively inexpensive compared to other forms of marketing, such as advertising or direct mail.
- Flexibility: It can be done from anywhere and can be automated using email marketing software.
- Scalability: It can be scaled up or down, depending on the size of your business and your marketing budget.
Why Cold Emailing Efforts Fail
Cold emails can be a hit or miss, which is why it’s one of the more complex marketing tricks to master. These are the most common reasons cold emailing strategies don’t generate desirable results:
Generic Emails
Sending impersonal, generic, or AI-created messages that are obviously mass-mailed can result in low open and response rates. So, you should scrap those templates and create a more tailored email instead! Get this: emails with personalized message bodies have a 32.7% better response rate.
Poor Timing
There’s a time and place for everything – including cold emailing. Sending outreach emails at the wrong time, such as on weekends or outside of business hours, can result in them getting lost in a crowded inbox. Depending on your audience, finding the best days to send these emails will increase your email’s visibility and engagement.
Spam Triggers
Try not to be too sales-y with your messaging. There’s a subtle way to entice recipients with your offers, and with this approach, you can be confident your email lands in their primary inbox. Using certain words or phrases, such as “free,” “guaranteed,” or “limited time,” can trigger spam filters and cause emails to be blocked or sent to the recipient’s spam folder.
Lack of Research
Not researching the recipient or their company beforehand can make your email content relevant and interesting to your recipients. To make cold emailing effective, you must clearly understand your audience, the kind of message you want to deliver, and your goal of reaching out to them in the first place.
Non-Valuable Content
Why should the recipients open your email? What’s in it for them? What particular pain point will your email solve? As you create your cold emailing strategy, being guided by these questions will spell the difference between failure and success.
Bad Subject Lines
A vague, unrealistic, clickbait subject line is one of the leading reasons email marketing strategies don’t work. Subjects like “check this out” or “we’ve got something special for you” can be annoying, especially for a busy recipient who doesn’t like to beat around the bush.
Unclear CTAs
Failing to put a clear and straightforward call-to-action is a missed opportunity when it comes to cold emailing. Not including a direct CTA, such as asking the recipient to schedule a call or visit your page, can ensure your audience understands the next step.
4 Useful Tips To Make Cold Emailing Effective
On top of personalizing your email content and avoiding spam triggers, you can follow these simple and actionable steps to create a successful cold email campaign!
Introduce Yourself Well
Every good partnership starts with an introduction. Remember: you’re reaching out to someone you have yet to interact with.
Introduce yourself by talking about your background, what you do, and what you can offer. Adding proof of your excellent work also helps establish your credibility. You can insert bits of your achievements and testimonials!
Keep it Short and Scannable
Not all recipients have the time in the world to read long emails. A quick, easy-to-read text loaded with valuable information will spike your response rate! Be concise and to the point, and avoid using overly formal or complex language. Avoid pretty pictures – they are great for marketing emails, but they make it look generic. Use your storytelling power and make every word count.
Focus on Your Subject
Writing a solid and compelling subject line will help you achieve better cold emailing open rates. Make sure to clearly communicate the purpose of the email in the subject line. Remember to use action words and phrases to create a sense of urgency or importance. Do it in 50 characters or less!
Don’t Be Shy to Follow Up
It won’t hurt to send a follow-up email if you don’t hear back from the recipient. Sending follow-up emails can double your response rate. Just make sure to be respectful of the recipient’s time and inbox space, and avoid sending unnecessary succeeding emails.
Conclusion
Cold emailing IS effective, but it greatly depends on how you strategize, create, and manage your cold email campaigns.
Crafting a personalized and compelling message that addresses the recipient’s needs and interests can boost your email’s performance. Additionally, cold emailing can be more effective as part of a larger marketing strategy with a targeted list of potential customers.
With these tips in mind, you’ll be well on your way to sending persuasive cold emails that will help you reach your goals. Always be professional, courteous, and respectful; you’ll increase your chances of success.
Need help creating effective cold emails that convert? Get in touch with our outbound experts today to discover how to maximize a results-driven cold email campaign for your business.