Key Components of a Cold Email Campaign

Part 1 – The Call To Action

As we discovered the first post of the series on getting results from cold b2b emails (found here) the goal of a cold introduction is absolutely not to make the sale. Too many cold emails (especially the first one) go for kill shots. They make huge mistakes like:

  • Selling the reader on a service they have never heard of
  • Going for the sale immediately
  • Discussing pricing
  • Talking way too much. (People in general, but especially a cold audience, are not interested to read about your company, its culture, how cool it is, or how long it’s been around. They haven’t heard of it. They don’t care.

What they do care about is money and results. It’s OK to name drop, show statistics, and value — but only when done in the right way.

This leaves us wondering.. Well, what is the goal?

As our initial cold email is simply to introduce yourself to the client, maybe pique their interest in you/your company and start the conversation. Think of a cold email as the first 4 sentences of a sales call. Introductions & familiarities with a splash of generating interest.

So, you can’t sell, you can’t talk too much about you, your services, or your pricing. What can you do?

  • Be as personable as possible (Use custom tags, like first name, city, day of week, company, etc..)
  • Say something unique about their industry/company.
  • Ask leading questions related to your product/service or the problem you fix.

Request a next step.

Requesting a next step, as your CTA is the most important part of your email (of course, as this is where results/sales come from). Instead of the overused “Does this product interest you”, “when is a good time to connect”, “here is my calendar let’s talk soon” phrases that don’t work. Try something with more of a micro commitment. This is much easier, and your prospect will have a much higher chance at converting into a real conversation. Since email isn’t your sales tool, it’s your introduction tool to bring on more sales meetings, this works perfect. Try CTA’s like this instead:

  • Are you on LinkedIn?
  • Do you use Skype for business connections?
  • Have you tried xyz as a solution to abc?
  • Would you review abc if I send it over?

These examples have very little commitment, and open the door for further conversations, and THAT is where you can get more into you, your business, your solution.

Take this example I used for my lead generation firm. I wanted to get a professional sports organization or two on my client list, and I did. Here is the process & email I used to generate conversations with the right person of the organization.

  1. Identify my audience: VP of Sales from professional sporting orgs ticketing dept.
  2. Procure email list in the said audience: Order — B2B Email Lists (or just email me.)
  3. Figure out a problem they have I can solve with my product/service: Provide warm leads for their best sales reps, so they can close them instead of cold calling.
  4. Get connected to the audience via cold email: my email went exactly like this: (notice the signature line. We’ll talk more on the importance of this later.)

That alone, I sent to 428 VP of Sales titles (or similar) in the sports industry. It was so simple and short it had an average open rate of 56% (241 unique opens.). I received 38 responses.

Of the 38 responses, unfortunately, 21 we’re along the lines of “Hey Andrew thanks for reaching out, but I don’t really have time” or similar.

The 17 positive responses led to great conversations. I was able to learn more about the clients pain points in their sales, where other companies fell short, or if they even needed my service. I learned all of this before even bringing up my value to them. I could structure my offering in such a unique way that was perfect for their overall needs.

This was not a volume campaign, but a targeted campaign with a clear set of goals with every interaction.

In summation, your cold email introduction has several main parts/objectives and is less than 5 total sentences

Starting the conversation with something that appears genuine to their company

Reason for connecting (besides the sale, why would they be a good person to talk to?)

Easy call to action (from above).

Great signature line (to be discussed next post).

Stay tuned for the next post about creating the perfect signature line, and optimizing body content.

Follow the blog, LinkedIn, or email us contact@b2bdataguy.com. If you are in the market for a B2B email list, visit B2B Data Guy — Targeted B2B Email Lists That Convert And Produce ROI for a free sample list in your target market.

If you are in the B2B space and have any questions about your marketing campaigns, or could use some b2b email lists, check us out at B2Bdataguy.com, ask for a free sample of 100 prospects within your target market! Or, email us: contact@b2bdataguy.com for a quick reply.

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