E-mail is the most popular and simplest business communication channel. Cold mailing is based on the use of this channel for direct contact with people of interest from the perspective of our business.
Does generating B2B leads via email work? Of course, it is one of the most effective channels for generating scalable sales for many businesses (and I write it from practice, each month we acquire several hundred clients for our clients in this channel). However, it is a game with many elements.
Cold campaigns work, but only if they’re well prepared. The rules that I will discuss in this thread will definitely help you with this.
First, I will focus on the principles of acquiring the perfect customers, then I will discuss the most common mistakes made in cold mailing.
1. Let the messages be about your recipient, not you
Cold email is a message that your recipient does not expect. You are very often a complete stranger to him and this is your first contact.
So you should focus on the needs and challenges of the potential customer, not on praising your products or services. Of course, by using cold mailing, we have the prospect of selling and acquiring customers. But we should do it by solving their problems.
At this stage, hardly anyone is ready to buy our products. However, many people are ready to talk about their challenges. Our role in this is to propose a specific solution that will allow us to win a client.
2. Keep messages as short as possible
As already mentioned, our recipient probably doesn’t know us, they don’t expect our message, so at this stage they won’t be willing to spend much time on us.
In our opinion the messages should consist of a maximum of 4 sentences. I know from my experience that there may be exceptions to this, of course, but 4 sentences is a pretty good indicator that you should stick to.
If you are able to include the appropriate value and hit the potential client’s problem in one or two sentences – do it. The shorter the better.
3. Use the language you use on a daily basis
When operating in a specific niche, you most likely speak a specific industry language. Most likely, it won’t be understandable to your recipient.
The recipient should understand what you have to convey to them, so it is recommended that you use the language you use on a daily basis.
Plain language is also desirable due to the perception of the message by the recipient. Too formal message can be found as a carefully crafted marketing campaign rather than a direct message. This can cause major communication problems.
4. Keep it simple
The key call to action should be adapted to the cold mail format. You do not have any relationship with your customer yet. That is why your request should require the smallest possible effort from your audience. At this stage, you do not sell your product or service right away.
Try to empathize with your customer’s day plan. Focus on what their challenges are and offer them the right call to action based on that. For instance, you can suggest having a 15 min call instead of one hour.
You still have time for your next sales steps.
5️. Use tools to optimize your process.
W make extensive use of various tools that help us optimize cold mailing activities and other campaign processes.
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6️. After 24 hours your e-mail has most likely expired.
B2B recipients check their e-mail boxes very often. If they do not reply to our e-mail within 24 hours, there is a good chance that they won’t reply to it at all.
Of course, there are some exceptions – sometimes someone will come back to you after a week or even a month if the person was out of office or on vacation. However, these are sporadic situations and, in most cases, the 24-hour rule should be adopted.
7. Personalize as much as you can
The more you personalize your message the better.
Go into what problems your potential customer may have, find a specific person you want to reach, and personalize everything that makes sense.
Obviously, personalization can be very time-consuming since some people or information are difficult to reach. However, we truly believe that cold mailing or any other lead generation activities require quality over quantity.
Personalization makes recipients feel the value of the message you send, and they are more likely to respond to it.
It is worth using tools during this process and one of our favorites is LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
8. Mobile friendly
Your cold mailing must be mobile-friendly.
While creating campaigns for clients, we always advise sticking to the text. Skip everything that is unnecessary – extensive graphics, footers, or video materials.
Your communication should remain simple. Text messages are the safest option because they display properly on any device.
Most emails are now read on mobile devices, so if they don’t display properly on them, your chances of success are drastically reduced.
9. Follow up, follow up, follow up
Follow-up is an essential element of any successful cold email campaign.
Follow-up is extremely important and can multiply your sales results. Just because someone does not reply to your first message does not always mean they are not interested in what you are doing. There can be many reasons and that is why your follow-up is necessary.
Summary
It is compliance with these 9 points that will distinguish effective cold mailing from failed campaigns, which often appear to be spamming.
In the next blogpost , we will share with you the most common mistakes in cold mailing, hoping that thanks to these tips your campaigns will run smoothly.
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