Setting Up Cold Email Outreach to Generate Leads

Author: Bryan Scott(Amarjit)

Getting through to strangers is hard! Be it in life or B2B marketing. Cold emailing is a challenging yet powerful technique to generate leads and convert them. If done right, it puts you on the radar of your prospects. Several entrepreneurs have landed their dream clients or launched successful start-ups by sending cold emails.

Any C-suite executive can tell you that they receive a slew of cold marketing emails throughout the day. So, making yours stand out in such a maze is the most critical step towards setting up a cold email outreach strategy. But, how exactly can this marketing initiative yield returns? The key lies in creating a great email – one that is personalized but not pushy. Listed below are actionable tips and tricks to help you further draft cold emails that will surely generate qualified leads.

Build an Effective Email List

Targeting the right prospects is at the foundation of generating qualified leads. Setting up a cold email outreach program without getting the target list right is like setting yourself up for failure. So, how do you get the targeting right? Dedicate resources to research into the business needs and challenges of companies within an industry that stand to benefit the most from your brand offerings.

Now spot the critical decision-makers in the shortlisted organizations for profiling. By this point, you must know your prospects’ pain points and need gaps. Study the client’s previous buying journey to comprehend their motivation behind a purchase. Once the targeting process is complete, put their current email ids on a list. You can build such a list with the help of third-party contact data providers. After you have procured the email list, draft personalized messages for each customer segment rather than creating a generic mailer.

Additional Read: 6 Essential Ways to Increase Quality Leads via Email Campaigns

Avoid using Templates

It doesn’t take long for a seasoned executive to figure out that you have emailed them using a generic template, which has most likely been used to approach countless others. This practice can negatively hamper your brand’s image. In today’s age of information, personalization is possible and must be leveraged at all costs. That doesn’t mean you write individual emails to countless prospects. But, you can personalize certain things to make the cold email seem more intelligent.

For instance, begin your email by addressing the prospect by their title and first name. Pitch information based on their business vertical, location, etc. to make the person feel like you’re talking to them. No point blasting their inbox with the information they don’t need. Do this by segmenting prospects based on specific markers like the industry they operate in, or the years of experience they have. While this may mean drafting a bunch of mailers, it will be worth your time and effort.

Don’t Open with a Pitch

Generally, brands begin by launching into a long-winded explanation about their fantastic offerings and why potential clients must choose them. This technique does not often work. What has a better chance of working is pre-empting pain points and assessing need gaps of potential clients. Also, if you must pitch a product or service, make sure it directly or indirectly solves a pressing issue for the potential client.

While drafting a cold email, mention the name of the company and why they are well known within their domain. Then get around to pitching your offer without sounding too pushy. Doing this shows that you are genuinely interested in solving the prospect’s problem and not serving your company’s interests alone.

Include a Strong Call to Action (CTA)

A cold marketing email should be crisp yet descriptive. But that is not all! The prospect must be informed about the next steps, should they be interested in availing of your services. For instance, you may have the best full-stack development services in Asia, but what do you want your client to do after reading this piece of information? Do you want them to call you? Or, schedule a meeting online or request for a quotation?

Therefore, your emails must feature a strong call to action (CTA), letting the recipients know of the best way to reach you or request a proposal. You can also provide a button that takes them to a specially-designed landing page that offers personalized information or service discounts to prospects.

Additional Read: 7 Steps to Boost B2B Event Marketing ROI and Leverage Lead Generation

Keep it Short

Most executives who receive cold marketing emails already have their plates full with several responsibilities and targets. Therefore, if you want your email perused, keep it concise.

Begin with a unique yet informative subject line; don’t beat around the bush before hitting the main points, show value, and wrap it up with a strong CTA.

A general rule of thumb with introduction mailers is to keep the word limit under 200 words. Data suggests that sales emails between 50 to 125 words experience a high response rate of 50%. Additionally, emails with around 20 lines of crisp text have the best click-through rates. Therefore, when in doubt, keep your emails below the 200-word mark.

Always Follow Up

You might be sending hundreds of cold emails to the right prospects, but if you are not sending follow-up emails, you will see a dip in the response rate by at least 10 to 15%. Make sure your cold email outreach cycle has follow-up emails already written and sequenced to go at pre-fixed intervals.

If possible, set up at least 3 to 4 follow-up emails as sometimes it takes that long to get a response. Make sure to keep the flow of communication consistent with the initial email sent by your team. The follow-up email must also end with a strong CTA. Furthermore, do not take too long to send out the follow-up email – wait no more than a week before sending a reminder. Also, reach out with a follow-up email to only those prospects that have not made contact with you on any channel. If a potential client has gotten in touch with you over a phone call, it does not look professional to chase after them with a follow-up email.

Over to You

Remember that sales emails take time to perfect, and more often than not, you may need to follow-up twice or thrice before you get any attention. But don’t despair if you don’t see immediate results. Stick to this endeavor and keep in mind that countless businesses use cold emails to reach out to their prospects because if done right, this technique is very beneficial.