Cold emails are typically sent to qualified prospects. That means research has been done on whether the recipient is appropriate and has a legit email address.
Do not confuse cold email with spam email. Spam emails are sent to a myriad of addresses at once, without investigating the recipient’s relevance or verifying that the email address itself exists.
But does cold mail work? And is it worth it? In short: Yes
Eighty-nine percent of marketers say email is the primary channel for lead generation, and there are good reasons. A cold email is an excellent tool for any business because it’s affordable, effective, and scalable. These benefits are even more apparent to SMEs. Here’s how small businesses can leverage cold email to grow their business in five easy steps:
1. Create an email list
It would be best if you had a target audience to increase your chances of getting a response. You can find leads manually or otherwise, the manual investigation is recommended, even if it takes time. But free and reliable.
2. Write an Impressive email with a signature
Cold email may sound easy, but it will not work perfectly if you don’t use it wisely. If you tend to copy templates copied from other companies, the audience will delete your emails immediately. No one wants to see what they have already seen; it’s clear. Therefore, writing an email becomes more skillful if you can learn and improve it. All you need to do is a compelling subject, an exciting email body, and an action phrase.
Email signatures are almost always overlooked. Make it dynamic, including links to other media (YouTube, Facebook, etc.) and find more content. The entire team must send the same email signature type to promote upcoming events, content, and more.
3. Follow-up is the key
If they don’t reply to your first email, don’t assume that someone isn’t interested. You don’t need to remove them from your contact list yet. According to one survey, 18% of recipients replied to the first email sent, while 27% responded to the sixth email.
Also, be sure to customize before submitting a follow-up and also include the reason for your follow-up each time. Unless you do so, it will be useless, and you will only receive cancellations.
There is a reason to follow up. You’ll be wanting to send a follow-up message, “I’m just chasing you,” but such emails aren’t worth anything. There must be a real reason to send this message in the first place. For example, a prospect may have just received a promotion.
4. No Spam
Increase the interval between each email you send. You may send the first follow-up 2-3 days after the first email. You’ll probably have to wait a few weeks before sending the email 5-6 times.
5. Record your success
Keep track of what works and what doesn’t, and use the information you learn to improve future cold outreach performance. There are many metrics and items you can test in your sales email. For example:
- Which blog or case study had the most link clicks?
- Which CTA gave the most answers?
- Which email format produced the most sales?
- Which row produced the most openings?
- Which variation of the sales presentation led to the most product demos?
Take Away
Use email as your first contact, then use other channels (such as phone or face-to-face meetings) to develop your leads through your sales pipeline. It’s a poor use of their time and is incredibly unreliable. The chances of passing all relevant information are virtually zero. Now it’s your turn. Use cold email in your sales process.
