Cold Email Marketing Doesn’t Have to Send a Chill Up Your Spine
The weather is getting colder and that chill in the air makes a lot of us want to snuggle up and hibernate for the winter. Cold weather can have this effect on us, but sending out cold emails shouldn’t send a chill up your spine.
The stigma to cold emails or cold calls is that you’re bothering people who know nothing about you or what you do. You may see that as a scary and unfortunate situation, but we see opportunity! A fresh new start to a new relationship.
The key to this opportunity is to have a well thought-out plan…a five step plan to be exact:
1. Organize your contact lists.
By organizing and segmenting your lists based on certain variables such as location or company type, you can better speak to their specific needs within your email. This is a crucial step to taking the chill off your cold email. Maybe they haven’t heard from you before, but if you spark their interest in providing relevant and interesting information, then you turn that cold lead into something much warmer.
Knowing where your contacts came from is half the battle and very important to avoid being marked as SPAM. Make sure you have a response from these contacts that you can contact them and always offer an option for them to opt out at the bottom of your email messages. By managing subscription preferences on your opt-out page, you can allow contacts to decide what sort of messages they wish to receive from you in the future. Maybe they no longer want to receive software updates, but would like to continue receiving your newsletter.
2. What is Your Value Proposition?
While you organize your contacts, think about a value proposition for each of those segments. Why would East coast accountants care about your product? How much time can you give back to working mothers? Identify the pain points of your contacts and make sure your product and/or service speaks to that.
3. Work Up an Attention Grabbing Subject Line
After you have your segmented contact lists and identified value propositions for those segments, it’s time to draft up your email. First thing’s first- a subject line! There are gobs of blogs around how to write a good subject line and Pinpointe writers take the cake. From the 10 worst performing email subject lines to 9 tips for writing email subject lines that work, you can get a pretty good feel for where to begin.
The reason subject lines are so critical to the success of cold emails is because there’s a lot riding on those few short words. You have to fit in why your contact should open your email and what they should expect from doing so. That’s a lot to squeeze into just a handful of words. But it can be done. A few tips I personally live by- don’t be generic, test and test again with email split testing, and the shorter, the sweeter.
4. Drafting the Cold Email
Speaking of a short and sweet subject line, the email body of a cold email has to be just that. I don’t mean 3 to 4 paragraphs; I mean 60-70 words! Now it may take some practice to become clear and concise, but it’s worth it. Use this outline to focus on what matters most in a cold email:
- Describe who you are and why they should pay attention.
- Spell out the main purpose of your email.
- Make the call to action so enticing, they can’t help but obey.
If you think about what goes through your head when you read a cold email, it’s usually “why should I read this sales pitch?” So answering that early on will allow them to pay attention to the purpose of your email and whether it relates to their needs or not. A clear and easy call to action will then convert more contacts. Instead of clicking through to a lengthy form, try asking them a simple yes or no question.
Adding some warmth to your cold email through informal and playful copy is also encouraged. It’s one way to really stand out from the rest, because as you know, people get way too much email. What can you add (in terms of charm, not more words) to grab and keep the attention of your contacts?
5. Don't Forget to Follow Up
A large percentage of people you send cold emails to will not respond on that first message. Don’t let this get you down. It’s the way of email marketing and your email campaign should include follow up emails that include at least three components:
- Let them know why you’re following up.
- Restate the value proposition from the first message.
- Position your call to action with a yes or no question.
The follow up should be even shorter than your initial email. If you’re juggling multiple tasks, think about setting up a setting up a drip marketing campaign that triggers a sequence of emails.
Cold emailing can be intimidating, mostly because almost every other marketer out there today is doing it. Think of it as this: If you can quickly and easily explain what you’re selling and why a contact should act, it’s a win-win. With a short and personalized message, you are being respectful of their time and energy.
Even when you are close to perfecting the cold emailing process, it won’t show off all your hard work unless you track it every step of the way. That means measuring the conversion rate over the extent of the entire campaign. Pay close attention to details such as whether your contacts clicked through to your website but didn’t actually contact you for next steps. That can show you their level of interest along the way, helping you identify those warmer leads to pursue down the road.
All in all, cold emails don’t have to be a chilly experience for you AND the receiver. Use this opportunity to start a good relationship. Even if these contacts aren’t willing to act just yet, it’s on you to set the stage for a smooth transition when they are ready.
