Cold emailing may be the hardest form of marketing communication yet. You do not know your audience, they don’t know you, and you may never get feedback.
Scary, right?
Luckily, there are quite a number of tricks that will ensure that your cold emails are read and answered.
1. Tailor Your Message
This means doing thorough research before hitting that send email button. Think about your target recipient. What are their needs and interests? What is their view of the world, and what do you know about them?
In your email, show them what makes you unique and how your product relates to them.
If possible, avoid templates. You want to ensure that the message is personalized and that it is meant for that one particular person.
2. Have a Great Subject Line
Thirty-five percent of emails are opened based on their subject line. When writing a cold email, use flattering language, leverage a connection, or go straight to the point on your subject line.
Take time to craft an awesome subject line that does not send your email to the trash. Why? Sixty-nine percent of recipients decide an email is spam based on the subject line.
Stay out of their spam folder by avoiding spam trigger words. Get creative and make it short. Let it be between four and 15 characters. Subject lines with 6-10 words have a higher open rate.
Personalize the subject line too. Emails with a personalized subject line increase the open rate by 26 percent. Tell them what they should expect inside. Why are you writing? Why should they be interested?
3. Grab Their Attention
The average time a recipient spends reading your email is 11.1 seconds. This means you have a very short window before your recipient gets bored with your message.
Make sure you get right to the point with interesting and eye-catching content. Your subject line plus email content must be intriguing.
They must be customized with dynamic content that resonates with the recipient. Make sure every sentence compels them to read on.
4. Showcase Your Credibility
Your recipient does not know you. If you have any connections with them, outline them. Mention a mutual friend, your social status, your authority or credibility that is relevant to the recipient or the request you have. Don’t write an essay on it. One line is enough.
If you have none of these, find something you have in common. It could be a group, a connection, a hobby, etc. Try to find a connection that stops making you a stranger to them.
5. Provide a Solution or Alleviate Their Pain
Why do you want the recipient to care that you sent them an email? Your research will help you find a pain point that your product can solve. Lead with what can solve their problem and not the benefits and features of your product.
Provide them with the basic who, what, and why. Tell them how you think they are a good fit for your service or product. Make them feel valued.
6. Make it Short and Clear
Get straight to the point. Be clear and honest about why he or she is receiving the email.
7. Make Your Call-to-Action Clear
You need your prospect to act after reading your email. Make that clear and direct all your content towards it. The rule is one call-to-action for one email. That’s it! More than one call-to-action for more than one service or product is unnecessarily confusing.
It could be to complete a survey, to provide their contact details, or to subscribe to your newsletter.
Before sending that email, read it aloud. Make sure it sounds natural. At the end of the email, express gratitude. Gratitude motivates the recipient to act because they feel valued.
You might not get a positive response from each cold email, but you will have a great opportunity to grow your business from those who do respond.
