Despite being a cornerstone of business marketing strategy, only 22% of cold emails ever get opened by their recipients. It seems that for all the effort and resources that companies pour into their cold emailing strategy, the reward is shockingly low.
So why is that?
It’s because so many businesses put all their time into optimizing their email infrastructure without thinking about the content of the email itself. With just a few tweaks to how and when you write your cold emails, you could see open rates skyrocket.
So let’s find out how!
Think About Your Recipient
Put yourself in your recipient’s shoes. You get an email from someone you’ve never met before, they show no familiarity with you or your company, and they’re asking you to download a file attachment.
Straight to trash, right?
Just because it’s a cold email doesn’t mean you have to be, well, cold. Even in B2B emailing, a little bit of familiarity goes a long way. Studies have shown that something as simple as including your recipient’s name in the subject line will send open rates shooting up.
If you’re cold-emailing a single person, showing familiarity is easy. Do a bit of research and show an interest in your recipient in your email.
With mass B2B emailing it can be harder. In this instance, you’ll want to pull from a database of information about the companies you’re emailing (and the names of their PR reps). That way, you can insert things like names and company details to show gumption in your initial email.
For many companies, the best way to get access to those kinds of databases is to work with companies from whom you can buy leads.
Cold Emailing Doesn’t Mean Boring Emailing
Okay, so imagine you’ve found some info about your recipient. You’ve put their name in your subject line and written a couple of lines to show familiarity with them and their business.
Then you get to your pitch and it’s just like every other pitch they’ve ever read.
Straight to trash. Again.
A cold email isn’t like any other advertisement you’ve ever written. That’s why a universal cold email template is hard to find. You aren’t trying to sell your service to a customer, you’re trying to establish an ongoing business relationship with a peer. That calls for a different tactic.
So instead of emphasizing the incredible value of whatever your business offers, emphasize the potential long-term benefits for your recipient of an ongoing relationship. You’re selling something more durable, and more abstract, than a one-time sale.
Go Forth and Cold Email
You might notice that a key theme of these cold emailing tips is ‘seem like a human, not a robot’. Showing interest in your recipient, using their name, being interesting, it’s all about establishing a relationship.
People are much more likely to establish relationships with human beings than spambots. And after all, they’re more fun to write this way.
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