Guest Post by Scott Mathews
Are you still waiting to automate cold email campaigns as part of your sales/marketing strategy? It’s 2019 already, don’t tell me you’re still hoping for snail mail to come back. Email has always been one of the most influential marketing channels and the trend is not going to disappear anytime soon.
According to the report, consumers who purchase products through email spend 138% more than those who don’t receive email offers. Cold emails play a particularly important role in this process because they enable marketers to approach a brand new group of prospects.
Cold emailing is a well-known marketing tactic that creates a wide range of practical benefits:
- Raise awareness: You can use it reach out to the prospects that never had a prior relationship with your brand or organization.
- Educate prospects: This channel of communication allows you to explain the pros of using your products or services, thus leading to the final benefit of cold emailing.
- Lead generation: The last advantage is that cold emails frequently convince prospects to take the desired action and become full-time leads.
But how exactly do you generate fresh leads using the old tactic? The point is to adjust your strategy and exploit the latest trends in this field. We will show you here the seven most productive cold email tricks.
Write a Straightforward Subject Line
A subject line is the first thing users see when they receive your email. For this reason, writing straightforward titles is critical to the success of your campaigns. You need to keep it short and concise, not hiding the real purpose of your message.
Some marketers play mind games with people by creating overpromising headlines, but this is nothing more than the surefire way to lose professional credibility and inspire people to neglect your messages. After all, users know that products cannot be “life-changing” and you better avoid click baits like this one.
You must be honest and clearly state the purpose of the message. A study reveals that A/B testing your subject line can increase open rates by 49%, so feel free to play with different solutions to come up with the best title ideas.
High-Quality Email Content
Once you’ve found a way to engage the audience with appealing titles, you have to do the same with email copy. It takes a high-quality textual content to seal the deal and convince receivers to take the desired action after reading your email.
We strongly recommend you use the so-called 3B model: brevity, blunt, basic. What does it mean? Just like the subject line, an email copy also has to be brief, direct, and simple. Keep in mind that less is more in email writing. If you don’t know how to make an impression with only a few lines of text, you should consult expert services such as:
All these agencies employ professional content creators with years of experience in email copywriting, so they can help you come up with quality email scripts or write the whole message on your behalf.
Keep It Personal
Customization plays a major role in contemporary marketing, particularly in the field of cold emailing. A report claims that personalized email messages improve click-through rates by an average of 14% and conversions by 10%. You don’t want to sound scary by using delicate personal information, but addressing a recipient by his/her name is more than enough to make your emails sound friendlier and more compelling.
Offer Incentives
The quality of cold email copies is the basic precondition to make a breakthrough, but most times you’ll need to give something extra in order to win over the prospect. Every brand promises the best products or services, so you should offer incentives to outdo competitors.
There are dozens of options at your disposal, but these are always the obvious choices:
- Giveaways: You can offer small gifts to convince users to engage with your content
- Discounts: Coupons and discounts usually work well for first-time customers
- Free trials: Why would you praise the product if you can give recipients the opportunity to test it free of charge?
The BAB Model
The BAB model is a widespread email marketing technique. The writing procedure is simple:
- Before: The first B describes the situation BEFORE using your products or services.
- After: This is where you explain the benefits of your offer and the situation AFTER the purchase.
- Bridge: You must use the BRIDGE to explain how to get from BEFORE to AFTER.
Although it may seem complex, it really isn’t. Here is a simple example: “You are investing a lot in social media marketing, but don’t know how to measure ROI? Using our software, you can track results, eliminate pain points, and improve cost-efficiency of your campaigns by 20%. If this sound interesting, make sure to give us a call – we will explain everything within 10 minutes!”
It Is up to You to Decide!
This is another email marketing tactic that successfully drives leads. Namely, users love it when you give them the freedom to decide whether to take the desired action or not. How does it work?
You write a short and sweet introduction, explaining the advantages of your offer. However, you conclude by stating that you appreciate the receiver’s willingness to read the email and leave it up to the user to follow the CTA (or not). It’s a simple but highly effective psychological trick that works well in most cases.
Carefully Choose Time and Date
When you send a cold email is as important as how you write it. You must choose the date and timing carefully so as to increase CTR. Namely, most users are overwhelmed with work on Mondays and want to take a rest during weekends, so the best option is to send them cold emails from Tuesday to Thursday.
But the timing is essential, too. Numerous studies proved that users read emails early in the morning or at the end of the work day. Therefore, you should follow this pattern and send cold emails when it matters the most.
Conclusion
Cold emails are a great way to attract new customers, but only if you apply the state of the art techniques in the process. This marketing strategy is not new, so you have to follow the latest trends and use all the tricks in the book to convince the recipients to engage.
Our post presented you seven practical tips on how to double leads from your cold emails. Make sure to follow our suggestions and you will notice soon enough that your lead generation efforts are really making an impact on the target audience.
