A great tool of outbound sales is the use of cold emails. This is when you personalize relevant email content to prospects you had no prior contact with. Sounds easy enough, right? Add an email address, throw in quick verbiage about your firm, and press send. But is it really that simple?
In order to do this correctly and not have it viewed as spam, you need to follow these 8 rules:
- Keep cold emails short. We suggest limiting your email to 2-5 sentences. Anything longer than that will lose your audience. People get lots of emails which they briefly scan. They do not like to read long drawn out content, especially from people they do not know. Also remember, most of the time they’re reading from their mobile phones that have small screens. Nobody wants to read a novel on an iPhone!
- Keep cold emails logical. You want your email to be concise; it should logically state why you contacted them, what you are offering and the prospect’s next steps.
- Content must be valuable. Making content valuable requires being relevant to the reader. They must feel as if they are getting something from you in order to reply to your email. The best way to do this is by offering a solution to a problem they already have. How? Well, first you must do your due diligence and know your prospect. Having an understanding of their likes, dislikes, problems and how they work will greatly benefit you.
- Be human in communications. You do not want to sound robotic or scripted in anyway. Using generic templates may be good for structure, but personalize the content. Show the reader that you are a person reaching out to another person. Use a regular conversational tone and write the content yourself.
- Make the email about the prospect. It is important to make the content about the reader and not you or your company. When it comes down to it, they are only interested in their lives and their problems. Make sure that your email speaks about them and solving their issues.
- Cold emails should not sell. The purpose of a cold email is to start a relationship, period. It is not to sell products or services. If any part of your email sounds remotely like a pitch, take the time to edit it or game over. You’re number one goal is to create positive engagement from your prospect.
- Would you respond to your cold email? It is always advisable to put yourself in the prospect’s shoes before sending out any email. Read it out loud. Does it have a conversational tone and sound human? Is it selling anything or just starting a relationship with the prospect? Once you are happy with your content, would you respond to it? If ‘yes’, then your email is ready to be sent.
- Always follow up. One cold email most likely will not be enough to get the attention you want. People are busy, they may have forgotten the email or simply wait to see how hungry you are and if you approach them again. We highly suggest that you always follow up. It shows that you are invested in creating a relationship with them. Often times people don’t even consider responding until the 3rd email or later.
In closing, look at some of the recent cold emails you have done. Are there parts of it that you should change? By adopting the 8 cardinal rules listed above, you will improve your cold email responses and start successful relationships.
If you’d like MindStorm to show you how to create a cold email campaign that gets you your next 100 clients, call 1-844-MINDSTORM. MindStorm’s Ultimate Prospector is the cold email and social selling system to generate sales meetings on demand. The Ultimate Prospector typically achieves 2.5x more leads than industry averages. Check out The Ultimate Prospector
About the Author:
MindStorm CEO George Athan helps B2B companies achieve rapid growth. He is regularly asked to be a guest on business podcasts and to speak at events to share his expertise as a business growth expert. George Athan believes that business owners and executives can save years of the learning curve by modeling the strategies of today’s fastest growing companies. His mission is to help bring those strategies to your company.