Cold Emails Meaning
What is a cold email?
Cold email means a way of starting and maintaining a business relationship.
To get a better understanding of what is a cold email, we need to think about how business relationships develop particularly in the offline world. Often, everything has to start with a conversation.
Below is one of the possible scenarios: a salesperson opts to attend an industry conference or trades to meet new customers. At the event, they look for opportunities in order to start a conversation. However, they do not intend to put on offer any of their products or brag about their company. Theirs is to break the ice and begin a dialogue. The goal is to learn more about their prospect’s business and build a rapport with them.
So, what’s a cold email(s) in the same principles that are followed for outbound sales? Cold email means a platform where you can begin a conversation targeted at the online world. These are messages you send to people who know nothing or have little information about your company or even its existence. And because this is the first time they are hearing about you, we refer to them as “cold” leads.
What are cold emails for? The purpose of a cold email is not an instant conversation but rather building a relationship with strangers to become business partners. Alternatively, cold calling email is warming the leads little by little.
How to Write Cold Emails Effectively
Cold email is a sensitive subject and most people will shy away from it. The obvious reason why people prefer not to send cold emails is the fear of being ignored. And it’s indeed true, you will be ignored.
But are you aware that a cold email could probably give you the best results in marketing when correctly used?
However, there is a need to master the art of drafting cold emails to be successful at it and avoid time wastage. A wrong move will see your emails always ending up in the spam folder.
And to assist you to create those cold emails that can probably break the ice between you and your potential clients, we outline for you some constructive tips.
But the following tips are not cast in stone because there are no specific rules on how to write the best cold emails. Trying out various strategies is the best.
If you think the formula you have in place for cold emailing works for you, it’s also fine. But it’s not harmful to add a few other tips because the goal here is to help you explore cold email’s full potential.
- Define Your Goals
To create a successful cold emails outreach, the first step is to identify and articulate your goals. You may want to build a network around your brand or find new business partners.
For a team of marketers or an individual, there is a need to know what you want to achieve through cold emails, understanding the goal, and possibly, write it down. This helps structure the cold email campaign and ensures there is space to regroup if need be.
- Pick Out Your Prospects Carefully.
You need to ask yourself which cold emails will get a response? The first step when embarking on writing cold emails that have a higher probability of being responded to is knowing your prospects. You have to carry out your due diligence in order to ensure those services you provide to them will be helpful. For instance, you do not have to waste your time pitching a product that targets a remote worker to a nine-to-fiver.
But how do you do this? Filter the entire mailing list then narrow down the target audience until that point when you have a feeling that you know them personally.
You should choose your prospects carefully and not at random. Again, choose those prospects you are already familiar with, know what they do and their position within the company you intend to work for, etc. By doing this, you increase your chances of your cold emails being responded to.
- Introduce Yourself
Avoid being shallow as you introduce yourself. Your prospects are likely to feel better by knowing you and the reason for trying to reach them.
The first line of your cold email is the first shot at making your introduction. At a glance, this line should provide prospects with important information about you and your company.
It is your first impression that prospects get and helps you in creating and maintaining a relationship.
It is not unusual if your prospects have that initial wariness concerning a new or strange email they found in their inbox. It is the introductory line that gives you an opportunity of gaining their trust and ensuring they are at ease to further read your email.
What information you should include in your email’s first line?
Your first name and maybe last or both. Also included should be your company name and any other interesting information that could grab the attention of your prospects.
Do you want another trick that works? Before you send that cold email, put it aside, take a breather, come back and put yourself in the shoes of your prospect, read the email again but with a fresh outlook. Do you think your prospects will be impressed at first glance?
- Keep Your Subject Line Interesting
The other element in your cold emails that catches the attention of your prospects should be in the subject/title line. The subject line must be kept professional, interesting, and catchy. Check the score in sendcheck.it
Personalizing the subject line would increase the chances of your cold email being opened. A simple act of adding the name of your prospect to the subject line can increase the open rates of your cold email by nearly 20%. This is a number you may not want to miss.
Your cold email’s subject line must give your prospects an idea of the information contained in the body of your cold email.
A well-drafted subject would catch a prospect’s interest immediately they see it. If it’s not that catchy, you can be sure it will end straight to the trash bin or remain unopened forever. Therefore, consider a subject line of a cold email that sounds promising. You can achieve this through a few trials and edits.
- Keep It Short and Simple
People are not interested in reading lengthy emails, especially when it’s from a stranger or a spambot. For this reason, when drafting a cold email, make it simple, short, and easy to digest. A rule of thumb is that you should not attempt selling your products or services from the very start. Your goal in doing a cold email should be laying a foundation that creates a relationship. I have to mention that your cold email’s focus should always be about your prospects and not you. Nobody wants to know how awesome you are, but the value you bring to them.
Likewise, you have to show your prospects why they should consider working with you. In doing this, do not use many words. Go straight to how you can help them but remember the goal is not hard-selling, rather setting up a business relationship that lasts.
- Personalize Your Messages
Your cold call emails should be personalized as if you personally knew your prospects in order to impress them. Avoid being vague or even too formal but talk to your prospects as if you were engaging someone you knew for many years. You need to tell them what they do and what benefits they are likely to get by working with you. However, be careful not to state all you know about them in the cold email. Stating everything may depict you as a stalker, a bad thing for business. Hence, you want to mention the most relevant given the goal of your cold emails. A tool like Rubedo gives one an opportunity to even have unlimited customization with the spin feature of the system. The email below has only 4 remains but the amount of variation is quite high which will increase the deliverability.
- Review Your Email Before Sending Out
By reviewing your cold emails thoroughly, you ensure its send to the right people. For instance, a misspelled word does not give a good picture of you. Ensure your cold emails do not have errors by proofreading and making the necessary corrections. Some important aspects should not miss from your email including an introduction, what you do, and of course the help you will provide to your prospects. The human brain is known to unintentionally skip errors, hence it would be a good idea if you used spell-checkers such as Grammarly or you can seek assistance from friends, your team, or family.
- Send Follow-up Emails
It’s recommended that you keep in touch with your prospects via follow-up cold emails. At times they require a little push or convincing to start. The initial cold email you did to your prospects might have warmed them up, but follow-up cold emails could be the deal setter. So, ensure consistency but avoid overly pushing.
Overall, creating the perfect cold emails outreach does not have a known and universal formula. You just need to employ these tips and align them with what best suits your brand.
Examples of Cold Emails
Rubedo contains hundreds of templates you can use to run their cold emails. It also contains a very cool feature where it spins either the subject or the body to ensure there are many variations to the email written hence increasing deliverability.
See some of the emails in Rubedo templates.