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Cold Email Strategy: How to Update Yours for 2021

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Does cold emailing even work for small business?

Cold Email Strategy How to Update Yours for 2021

The concept of  a cold email strategy is simple: first, you find people who may be interested in your product or services.

Then you get their email address and tell them why your solution is the best option for them.

So, yes, it works great for small businesses as well as enterprises.

But why use cold email? Doesn’t that just annoy people?

Why Cold Email?

Although it can seem intimidating, cold email is one of the best ways to generate business opportunities in 2020.

The main upside of having a cold email strategy is its scalability.Click To Tweet

Cold calls take up a lot of your time. But cold emails are much quicker and can be just as effective.

Cold emailing works because:

  • It’s direct
  • It gets your name out there, even if leads don’t bite
  • You’re able to personalize your outreach
  • It’s easy to measure
  • It actually converts leads to customers

But where do you find these leads?

How To Generate Leads

To have a cold email strategy, you need leads. And to generate those leads, one of the most effective tools is LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

Use Sales Navigator Advanced Search to easily find people by industry, location, professional background, keywords, and other filters. This will show you hundreds or even thousands of leads for you to contact.

Once you get the email addresses exported, you can start to reach out with personalized emails.

Tips On How To Improve Your Cold Email Campaign

The key to a successful cold email strategy is to email at scale, not send mass emails. There’s a difference — and it’s an important one.

Keep it plain

I know you want leads to see your products and/or services right now, but including links in your opening email hurts you. Not only will spam filters probably block your email, but you also see a better reply rate.

That’s why you should use plain-text emails and avoid using any links in the first email.

A common culprit of this problem is the email signature.

Even though it looks cool and professional to have your website and social media profiles linked below your name, take those out.

Those are links you don’t need, and it will just clutter up your email.

There should be one call-to-action for the recipient: reply to your email (not scroll through your Instagram profile).

Write a catchy subject line

For you to get any responses, people have to actually open your email. Most people probably use the subject line to decide if it’s junk or worth reading.

That’s why the subject line shouldn’t focus on you and your company. Make it about the recipient. It should almost sound like you’re emailing a colleague.

Try these subject lines:

  • Quick question for you
  • What are your 2020 goals for this quarter?
  • How do you ______?

You could even go one step further and personalize your subject line by using the person’s or company’s name.

Focus on your opening line

Once the person opens your email (because of your amazing email title), the opening line is part of the first impression.

Don’t start out with “Hey, my name is Bill and I’m the Sales Director for…”

People don’t like to be sold to. And if you say you found them on LinkedIn and you’re “reaching out,” they’ll probably smell your sales pitch a mile away.

Instead, make it about them:

  • “I saw that you were interested in…”
  • “Congrats on the new job!”
  • “Are you looking for…?”

Focusing on the opening line is especially important because many people check email on their phone.

So what you include in the first sentence (even the first half of the first sentence) is important.

That’s why you should preview your email on a mobile device before you send it.

Use an indirect ask

As great as your product is, nobody actually wants to “hop on a call” with you. At least not from the get-go.

Remember, these are cold emails. You’ve got to warm them up before making such a demanding ask.

The leads you’re contacting don’t have a lot of time, so a 15-minute phone call has to be worth it.

You’ll need to engage with them at least for a few emails.

So it’s better to soften your initial CTA. Ask a simple yes/no question, like one of these:

  • “Do you want to hear more about how A can do B for you?”
  • “Is that something you’re interested in hearing more about?”
  • “Does that sound like something you’d want to talk more about?”<

Using these tips will immediately update and improve your cold email strategy. 2020 is looking very promising for your sales campaign.

Is your email strategy as effective as it could be? Compare what you’re doing with the advice in OptinMonster’s Email Marketing Made Simple: A Step by Step Guide [+ Examples].

 

Photo credit: Simon Berger, @8momentsinlife on Twitter – used for the background; edited in Canva. 

Post originally published Feb 23, 2020; updated 6/24/21 for 2021 and to add an excellent resource for my readers.

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Brooklin Nash

Brooklin Nash heads up content for Wiza, a sales prospecting tool focused on LinkedIn Sales Navigator and cold emails.
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Comments

  2. Informative article. You can use a cold email strategy to target the right audience. It is the easiest way to target your audience and tell them about the products and your schemes.

    You can send a mail about your products and special offers up to 1000 people by using email marketing. You need to make an email msg and a list of your customers or audience.
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  4. Thank you for sharing this useful information about email marketing. Email marketing can be quite helpful for any business but knowing the right strategies are very important and I am definitely going to apply these strategies for better results.
    Gaurav Sodhi would love you to read ..Hello world!My Profile

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  6. Thanks for such a detailed article on cold email strategy. Yet, I haven’t used this strategy, but after reading this article, I am sure this strategy will definitely work for lead generation. Keep posting!

    Reply

  9. Hey
    Your post is very helpful and informative.
    Email marketing is the easiest and effective way to promote any business. I also facing problems in email marketing.
    I thought that email marketing does not work but after reading your post I understand all things.
    Thank you for sharing this Post
    Sweety
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  10. i used this strategy I share That Thanks.
    I know you want leads to see your products and/or services right now, but including links in your opening email hurts you. Not only will spam filters probably block your email, but you also see a better reply rate.

    Reply

  14. Really helpful to those who face difficulty in email marketing,I am also in this category because I have been doing email marketing for 1 years but the problem is that I could not generate lead generation. So this will help to me and those who face the same.
    Rishav would love you to read ..Best camera phones in 2019My Profile

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  16. This is a very important piece for those who are considering to approach people through email. If done right as you explained it could feel like a personal message to one and it would sound genuine. If your tip and tricks mentioned are brought into implementing this email activity could bring the personal touch unlike other marketing activities that appeal to masses but look like yet another random ad that would generally piss off the receiver.
    A nice article and more importantly a very relevant one. Thanks for this mate.
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  17. Hey Brooklin Nash,
    Email is the best conversion way in the market. Cold marketing is old but effective way. Most of the time companies don’t have email list of clients, in such case cold marketing is the best option to reach their clients. Your information is one of the best pieces of work I have come across. Thanks for the post.
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  19. Lead generation is the most difficult part for me but this strategy to lead generation is amazing and it is far better then those strategies i have already tried. Thank you for sharing this.

    Reply

  26. very good strategy thanks i share that.
    For you to get any responses, people have to actually open your email. Most people probably use the subject line to decide if it’s junk or worth reading.

    Reply

  30. Before reading this article, I thought that email marketing does not work. But after reading this article I changed my mind. Email marketing works if we implemented it properly.

    Reply

  32. Really valuable advice! Our team is starting to focus more on email marketing, and I think the information you shared will go a long way with them! I will pass this information on.

    Reply

  34. Hi Brooklin,

    Beautiful piece of content you have here. Your subject and opening lines are the two most vital elements if you want your emails to generate ROIs. With an irresistible subject line, recipients will open to find out what’s in it for them. And when your opening line is compelling enough, there is no doubt that consumers will read it through and take your desired action. In fact, an email opening line is like the intro of a bog post. It has the power to keep readers on your site or make them leave right after they click. So it’s best to take some time to craft a masterpiece that will make email recipients consume the entire material.
    Thanks for sharing!
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