How to succeed with cold emails and generate more clients for your business

Cold mailing is sending emails to people who are not yet familiar with a company or brand. Distinctive feature: users do not give consent to receive cold mailing emails.

 

There are rules, if followed, that this strategy will work, let's talk about it.

 1. Make a portrait of the target audience according to several parameters:

- who is your recipient: business area, position;

- why should he agree to your proposal;

- What problems can you solve?

- what objections may arise;

Based on this information, work out the semantic blocks that need to be included in the email: offer, product benefits, use cases, and terms of cooperation.

 

2. The second thing to pay attention to is the subject of the email. This is the first thing the recipient sees and what will be written there, he will either open your email or delete it or mark it as Spam.

 

IMPORTANT: do not deceive people, do not write a topic that will not match the content. This will not bring results and you will become a regular spammer.

 

3. Email content.

Write short, to the point. Structure your email. Put yourself in the place of the recipient of the email and offer him solutions to his problems.

 

4. Design. 

Don't use too many different colors, or fonts, and don't include links or pictures.

 

5. Say what you want.

Your emails should contain a call to action and a proposal that should be as concise and clear as possible. Keep in mind that your clients may be busy people who may receive dozens of emails a day. Save your and others time.

 

6. Address by name, indicate the name of the company or the position of the person. Personalization increases the open rate of emails.

 

7. Add a closing PS

The final PS in a cold email is a great way to show that you are a person and not just some faceless company trying to sell them something.

It could be "PS - we can help with that!" or it could also be a personal touch, like "PS: I hope you let us know what you think of our services."

 

How many follow-ups and why?

 

The main problem with cold emails is ignoring our letters, which does not bring any effect as a result.

Let's say you've developed a sales script and a commercial proposal. You have found a database of potential customers and sent them the first "Introduction" letter. And it would seem that you did everything right, but you did not get the expected result.

What is the problem? Companies often refuse the first contact, and even the second and third. As studies show, to ensure the successful completion of the transaction, we need a fourth and fifth contact.

 

Only a few selling companies reach the fifth attempt, and they are often successful. The mere fact of contact does not guarantee sales, but with the right content and frequency of hits, you can achieve the coveted result.

 

Let's analyze the basic rules for using and writing follow-up emails:

 

1. After the presentation.

 

1-2 days after you presented your product in an "Introduction" letter or life, for example, at an exhibition or conference. Write a follow-up letter, for example, thanking you for your time or discussing the client's pain points.
Important!  Add a call to action. The recipient must understand what you want from him

 

2. Extension of the shipping date.

 

This action is relevant when working with large companies, or when selling expensive products.
Since it is not always possible to contact the owner or director of the company directly, you need to take the time to familiarize the rest of the employees with the product. Give the client enough time to discuss the deal with the team.
Thus, the sales cycle is extended. Plan to send a follow-up email 4-5 days after your presentation.

 

3. Lack of response.

 

It should be remembered that not everyone may be interested in your product, no matter how unpleasant it may sound. But there are still ways to reconnect. You can offer additional resources or even a discount on a product.
You can also ask if the offer still stands. Sometimes a simple question can spur the recipient into action. Try it, improvise.
Such a message can be sent about a week after the previous letter.

 

4. Parting

 

If there was no response to your series of follow-up emails, then you should say goodbye to a potential client. The last email might be a message that you are removing him from your customer base or asking "When is it convenient for you to chat?"

  

5. Remind yourself of context.

When writing a letter, you should assume that the person does not remember you or your offer. Try to unobtrusively and briefly recall where you met (for example, at an exhibition) or about the offer that you made in the first letter. Highlight moments so that the person remembers you.

 

6. Image of an expert.

Remember that you are a professional. Your client is not.
Therefore, it is worth creating and maintaining the image of an expert so that the recipient has confidence in you.
Use terms that are specific to your industry.
Also, do not forget about literacy and readability. The letter should be easy to read and free of grammatical errors. One mistake can spoil your opinion of yourself.

 

7. Choose the right time to send it.

To increase the speed of response to your letters, send emails during business hours, and be sure to check the recipient's time zone.
Also, pay attention to what days messages receive the maximum response. If you send a letter to corporate mail on Sunday, you will have very little chance of getting a quick response.

 

 

What are the technical things you need to have before starting cold emailing

 

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are the basic settings that you must make before starting email marketing, no matter which mailing service you choose. Without them, the letter will not be delivered to the client's mailbox or will end up in the "Spam" folder.

 

SPF and DKIM are DNS records, without which the message will most likely not be delivered or will end up in the "Spam" folder.

 

The Domain Name System (DNS) is the Internet system for mapping literal names to numeric Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. For example, when a web address (URL) is entered into a browser, a DNS query is made to find out the IP address of the webserver associated with that name.

 

DMARC is an algorithm of actions with your mailings if messages are found suspicious. All of these security elements are created as TXT, a DNS record type that allows textual information to be associated with a domain.

 

SPF confirms that the domain is not fake.

Sender Policy Framework is an entry with a list of servers and IP addresses from which it is allowed to send messages on behalf of the domain. By setting up SPF, you inform the mail services that it was you who sent the letter. If the letter is sent from an IP or server that is not in the record, the provider will regard it as spam.

To set up SPF, create a text record of the servers from which you send mailings. Settings are made in the domain hosting control panel.

 

DKIM improves the sender's reputation.

DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail) is an email verification technology that can be used to identify fake emails. DKIM adds a digital signature to the letter. Thanks to it, mail providers can verify that the message was sent from the specified domain.

DKIM works like this: the letter contains encrypted data about who sent the letter and when. The postal provider receives this data along with the letter. The provider decrypts them using the public key posted on the domain from which the letter was sent. The public key is placed in the DNS record in the TXT field.
If the data match, it means that this is an honest sender, the letter can be passed to the "Inbox". If not - a fraudster, the letter is sent to "Spam".

DMARC specifies the verification algorithm.

Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC) is an email sender authentication policy based on DKIM and SPF protocols. This policy determines how the recipient's mail server should process incoming messages if the sender's address could not be identified.

 

You define the algorithm yourself. There are three options:

- nothing to do;
- mark as spam;
- reject.

 

For DMARC to work, you first need to configure SPF and DKIM signatures on letters. Upon receipt of a message, the postal provider checks the SPF and DKIM for correctness and compliance with the domain. If the check fails, then your domain's DMARC policy takes effect. After verification, reports are sent to you.

 

How to increase your open and reply rates?

 

Increasing your Open Rate does not guarantee you a successful deal, but it is one of the most important indicators in sending cold emails.

It's a good idea to regularly monitor spam and deliverability metrics in postmasters. The lower the spam rate, the higher the Open Rate.

Consider the basic and simple ways to increase the Open Rate of emails:

 

Sender avatar

The avatar is clearly associated with the company or person. It helps to see your letter, to distinguish it from others, and therefore affects the open rate. Not all mailers and applications display avatars, but if the functionality of the mail provider allows you to do this, then you should not neglect this possibility.

 

Name and email of the sender

Most surveys show that when users receive emails from real people, users are more likely to open and read them. The name increases the Open Rate by 35%.

Do not use long names, they may not fit in the field provided for them (especially on mobile devices)

 

Letter subject

47% of people open emails based on a subject line. Therefore, you need to pay special attention to the subject of the letter: length, text, emoji.

The most opened topic length is 61-70 characters.

Do not use special characters, capslock and check the text for typos. Good manners: uppercase and lowercase letters in appropriate places.

The subject line should be clear and relevant to the content of the email, without being deceptive. important words

- to the beginning. Communication begins with the subject of the letter, so it should evoke emotions.

 

Appeal

Addressing a person by name also affects the open rate of the mailing list. The subscriber's name can be specified both in the subject line and in the body of the email. If you don't know the name, refer to the position or feature of your target audience, such as "Dear Entrepreneur".

 

Reactivation of "sleepers"

There will always be those who do not open letters, so your task is to identify inactive subscribers.

Choose a reactivation strategy. Your task is to determine how to return interest in the newsletter:

• give a discount
• free bonus;
• free period;
• interactive

 

Base cleaning

If the subscriber could not be reactivated, remove it from the database or move it to a separate address book. You must calculate the optimal time for removal or reactivation yourself.

Purge and removal of inactive users should take place regularly, at least once a quarter.

Mail providers monitor your reputation and don't like it when your letters are not opened.

 

Time and day of dispatch

On the same days and hours, the open rate can be very low, on others it can be record high.

Only you can determine the best day and time to send your email, as it depends on your audience, product, and your content. This can only be done with the help of split testing, subject to the optimal number of subscribers.

 

Send frequency

Set the frequency of mailings depending on the life cycle of the product or service that you represent. Regular mailings with promotions and the welcome chain should have their own frequency and should not overlap.

 

What is email verification?

 

Email validation is the process of checking email addresses for existence and authenticity.

Email verification is the process of verifying that an email address is being actively used. Using SMTP communication, or mail transfer protocol, an email request is sent and checks whether the contact is active or not.

 

There are 2 types of failures:

 

1. Hard bounce- a constant reason why an email cannot be delivered.

• Email does not exist
  • Domain name does not exist
  • Delivery blocked by subscriber's server
  • Emails marked as spam by the recipient

 

Hard bounce will block the sender. Do not exceed the limit of 7% of non-existent addresses.

 

2. Soft bounce- temporary reasons due to which the letter cannot be delivered.

• Letter size or character limits exceeded.
  • The user's server is temporarily unavailable
  • The user's mailbox is full.

 

Stages of validating the list of email addresses:

• Validation of the local part of the postal address (before @). For example, if the user added a special character: "/" or two dots ".." - joh/nyander..son@gmail.com
  • Checking the domain part of the postal address (after @). For example, the user missed a letter in the domain name: johnyanderson@gmail.om
  • Duplicate mailboxes
  • Spam traps. These are the addresses that postal services "catch" spammers. Lists of known spam traps are checked and matches are identified.
  • Disposable emails are temporary mailboxes that do not require registration. Check for such email addresses.
  • Domain and server verification. Mail eXchanger (MX) is a DNS record that points to a mail server. A domain without this entry will not accept emails. Checking the address for the presence of an MX record.

 

Important! Do not send mailings from the main domain. Use a subdomain for this. This way you will not accidentally fall under spam and save the reputation of the domain.

A subdomain is part of the main domain. For example, "sub.anybiz.io". If your account is blocked, you can always create a new one without losing your domain name.

 

What is an email warm-up?

 

Email warm-up - process of preparing an email address to build a reputation* with email providers by regularly sending and receiving emails. The main goal of this process is to increase the open rates of your outgoing emails, which in turn will lead to an increase in the number of responses and clicks within the email.
Reputation* is a measure of how well email providers trust you based on their reputation algorithms.

 

Warming up process

Today, it's not enough to just send out a daily rate of emails.
To show email providers that you are an honest and legitimate sender, it is worth emitting the activity of a real user, namely:

- Sending and daily increase of email limit
- Large list of email addresses for interaction
- Receiving emails
- Reading emails
- Mark as important
- Replies to emails
- Removing emails from SPAM
- Using snippets (personalization of emails)
 

By following all the above points, you will minimize the chances that your letters will end up in the SPAM folder and teach providers how to such as Google, Outlook, Yahoo, Zoho and many others that your emails should be placed in "Inbox".

 

Types of Warm Up

 

You may decide that you could do all this manually yourself, without resorting to automatic services.

And you will be right, but not everything is as simple as it might seem.

 

To manually warm-up, you will first need:

 

- A circle of people, friends, or colleagues who have emails with high engagement, a corporate domain, a good reputation, and are ready to respond to your emails regularly.
- If not, then a list of emails owned by you, with a good reputation, an outdated or corporate domain, and different providers.
- Make a plan for warming up the email following a linear growth curve. You can start 5-10 emails and add 15-20% daily.
- A lot, a lot of time.
 

Now let's talk about the benefits of an automatic email warm-up tool:

 

- You don't have to do anything, everything is automated
- Unique delivery control algorithms
- Efficient warm-up thanks to a huge network of highly reputable email addresses
- Automatic warm-up temperature increase
- Communication of emails in a thread on the selected Topic
- Communication of emails in a thread on the selected Language
- Statistics and tests to track progress
- Increase and maintain deliverability even during email campaigns
- Fast and high-quality support

 

In conclusion,

You are one cold email away from just about anything you want.

 

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Daniel Shnaider is the Co Founder & CEO of anybiz.io