Cold emails are often seen as being an obsolete tactic in digital marketing but the truth is that they can still be very effective. The problem is people got used to receiving them and ignoring them. This is why it is so important to use modern, effective strategies. Cold emails can do wonders when it comes to growing a small business, but only if you take the right approach. With a correct email search and a proper strategy, you can obtain high open rates with great overall results.
In order to get you started on the right foot, let’s discuss the most important things to remember about using cold emails to grow small businesses.
How Can Cold Emails Help the Small Business?
To keep things as simple as possible, cold emails are still important in the current business environment because they can help with the following.
Networking
Cold emails can help you reach people that know or learn about your business or products. You could find someone that needs your service or product but does not know you exist.
Basically, sending these emails helps with networking. You can create a relationship with people you did not know. And in business, networking is much more powerful than you might initially think.
Leads
Cold emails can help generate sales prospects. If a lead appears from sending an email, the seller should work upon it to reach the sale stage. In fact, it can take a lot of trial and error to be successful with cold emailing, but it can be done. To do this, the cold email needs to be well-drafted and very clear in what it is trying to communicate or acheive.
How To Write A Good Cold Email
In order to make a cold emailing campaign effective, several things need to be known. The core of the matter though is that everything is about the email you send. Make your emails much more effective by remembering the following tips:
- Highlight the best offer – Because high-level executives and people, in general, receive numerous emails every single day, you need to stand out. You have to bring something interesting to the table. When you send an email with something average, you will not get a response.
- Get to the point as fast as possible – Because attention spans are lower than ever, if you email someone, you must grab attention in the very first 2 sentences.
- Keep emails informal – Always avoid formal emails because they simply do not work. When you use informal language, it is much easier to get a response from people.
- Show confidence – Because you present your best, there is no reason not to be confident. However, make sure you do not stand out as rude or cocky.
- Make the message personal – Try to at least use the name of the receiver in your opening sentences and take things a little further by showing that you know things about the person you email.
- Follow up – It is quite normal to see that most people do not respond to your initial cold email. This is why you need to follow up. Just do not overdo it.
How Effective Is Cold Emailing?
Just a few years ago, an average cold email reply rate was around 3%. Nowadays, the average is lower than 1%. This means that if you email 1000 people, you can expect a response of just around 10.
Fortunately though, cold emailing can have better open rates when you use a good strategy. But you should expect really low open rates in the beginning.
What Is a Good Cold Email Response Rate?
This is a very hard question to answer because all cold email response rates vary from one industry to another. However, with the right approach, you can likely get a response rate of around 50%. In some cases, you can even get as high as 70%.
Unfortunately, in many cases, the best email response rate you can get is under 10%. The most important thing at the end of the day is to keep improving so that you can get better and better results.
The Difference Between Cold Email and Spam
Many will tell you that any cold email is spam. This is incorrect. It is completely normal to contact people you do not know in order to establish a business partnership. But you need to do this in the right way.
The main differences between cold emails and spam are the following:
Intentional Contact
The cold email shows a valid reason why it was sent. This is usually done through a value proposition. The spam email looks very general and does not show any intentional contact.
Buyer-Centric Messages
Cold emails are delivered with specific language capable of resonating with receivers. They are not general and are built around the person receiving the email.
Value
Spam emails are automated and they do not deliver any clear value. They just try to get the receiver to do something. With cold emailing, you deliver real value and you showcase something of high importance, not a generic message.
Opt-Out Option
Spam messages do not have an opt-out option. When you create a cold email outreach campaign, you need to show the recipient that you do not want to bother him/her. You can easily do this with the presence of an opt-out option.
Final Thoughts
Many marketers stay away from cold emails because they think they are just a waste of time. Do not make such a mistake. In reality, cold emails can be incredibly effective and you can easily improve networking and even generate some very good leads.
The real problem with using cold emails in outreach campaigns is that marketers do not work hard enough to cultivate good relationships, do not follow up, and do not take the time needed to test different messages.
Always perform split testing and keep improving. Also, use email finder services you can trust so you are 100% sure you use accurate email addresses to contact people.
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