How to Do Cold Email Outreach in 5 Easy Steps?

Cold email outreach can deliver impressive results, it can connect you with previously untapped prospects leading to new and improved revenue streams. Lots of companies, however, are getting it wrong, or aren’t giving themselves the best chance of success. We explore factors and tips that affect cold email outreach success.

What is Cold Email Outreach?

Cold email outreach isn’t a new form of marketing, in fact, companies have been using it since the dawn of the electronic mail era. It is for that precise reason that many people feel email marketing (especially cold email outreach) is an antiquated form of marketing. Yes, it is an old form, but does that mean it has stopped working? No. Email marketing has been proven to deliver incredibly impressive results and remains a personal and direct way to open up communication with prospects and your current client base.

The cold side of email marketing, known as cold email outreach, is when you contact a prospect that you have yet to speak with, that hasn’t heard of your business or has yet to engage with your business to your knowledge. You might use cold email outreach to introduce them to your business, your ideas, your products, and services or to simply share knowledge, all with the ultimate aim of turning them into customers.

Cold Email Outreach: Important 3 Things to Know

There are a number of factors that influence just how successful a cold email outreach campaign might be. You should bear in mind certain metrics after launch, the ones below can act as a good benchmark for you to work towards.

1. Ideal Cold Email Open Rates

Email open rates will vary massively depending on the content that you’re sending and a variety of factors such as if the recipient has heard of your business before if you’ve tried contacting them before, and if your subject line is compelling enough. The open rate always varies depending on the industry, some industries and sectors simply have higher average open rates when compared to others.

It’s important to note that if you’re measuring campaign success solely on open rate then you’re doing it wrong. Open rate is nothing without action, you could have a 100% open rate but if no one actually takes action and visits your site, books a call, or any other goal, then the campaign is a failure.

That all said, 25% is a solid open rate to aim for, if you’re getting closer to 40% and above, then you should be very happy.

2. Ideal Cold Email Response Rates

Once you’ve achieved a high open rate, hopefully, a high response rate naturally follows. Of course, the higher the response rate the better as that is a higher rate of prospects responding to you. There is no specific percentage rate that you should be aiming for, bear in mind that the average response rate to cold emails is 1%, but anything over 5% should be celebrated.

Response rate is almost always determined by the content of your email and when the recipient receives it. Your recipient may also do some of their own research on your business before responding too.

3. Best Time to Send a Cold Email

There is data that suggests you should email between certain windows. 5 am-6 am, send times to receive high open rates (one would assume as it is sat at the top of their inbox once they get to their desk), and also 7-9 pm.

The important thing to remember is that you know your audience better than anyone else. Exercise some empathy and think about when they are likely to be in a good position to respond to you.

Create Cold Emails That Get Replies in 5 Easy Steps

What follows are a series of tips that you should look at implementing into your next cold email outreach campaign. These tips are proven to get results and should increase your conversions significantly. They take effort, but good things come to those who try.

1. Follow Up

You shouldn’t expect to receive a plethora of responses to your initial email. It is, after all, called a campaign. Some people will take multiple emails before they’ll consider responding. That means you should build in follow-up to your campaign. Whether this is automated (which it should be at scale) or manual, following up is imperative to your success.

2. Subject Lines

Your subject lines are your opportunity to grab their attention. Consider the fact that people will receive dozens of emails every day, many of which are aiming to sell them something. Yours has to stand out, it has to make them want to click and learn more. Use emotion wherever possible to convince people that your email is worth their time.

3. Don’t Just Sell

The last thing people want is to receive an advertisement straight into their inbox. We are inundated with advertising every day. Instead, focus on what you can give them that is of actual value. It might be some information, it could be some entertainment, it could be anything that your prospect will find useful. Avoid simply talking about your product and services, instead signpost them towards useful resources so that they come to a conclusion that your services might be useful eventually.

4. Personalize

Personalization goes incredibly far in the world of cold email outreach. People like to feel like they’re receiving an email that was meant for them, and not that they’re just another number on a huge list of potential prospects. Yes, chances are they might be, but with the right automation software and email outreach tool, you will be able to add elements of personalization that leads to them thinking they’re in a genuine conversation.

5. Catch Them From The Intro

The opening part of your email is similar to the subject line, you have literally seconds to capture their attention before they move on. It is important to get straight to the point, this might be with a very clear statement of purpose, or it might be a precise introduction to who you are, what you do, and why you’re emailing.

Key Takeaways

Cold email outreach is a skill. It is a skill that takes time, effort, and experience to hone. Applying these tips and understanding the factors that affect the open/response rate will hugely help in the early days of any campaign. Be sure to test, track, and then adapt your emails according to the results.