Today I declare it loud and proud – Cold Emails Aren’t Dead! In fact they are only just getting started. There is so much innovation and clever tactics being used in the space, such as this quirky email I’ll talk about today.
Getting success with cold emails is not easy and requires a lot of testing, just like any traditional marketing strategy. However, it can be very feasible, once a strategy is working, and it’s extremely scalable. We find through clever crafted emails, the cost per acquisition, is significantly cheaper than traditional forms of advertising, making the channel very viable for our clients and businesses.
The Exact Email That Generated These Results:
The Results:
We sent this email to a total of 290 businesses in our ideal target market of B2B businesses in Melbourne. In turn we generated 24 leads – making for a an 8.27% conversion rate from those we contacted to lead.
Tasty Metrics:
WooHoo – Warm Leads:
Breaking down what made this email so successful:
1) The subject line – using a question and a friendly subject line like ’10 mins – coffee?’ achieved a 77% open rate of those we sent this email to. This subject line is fantastic as it’s relevant to the nature of the email, and the party receiving it could assume this is coming from a colleague. It has a fantastic element of intrigue prompting one to think ‘hmmm who would want to grab a coffee with me’
2) Personalisation – The first thing we talk about in our emails is them, not us. No one cares about us yet. Through a tailored line of personalisation about each company. We draw on them, their business, their case studies or their offering. The intention of this personalisation is for the prospect to read it first up, and not even think this is a sales email, rather marvel at who’s invested this time into researching something specific for them. Standardisation does not work anymore, be unique and put in effort and the conversion will be significantly higher as a result.
3) The image (un-standardised) – By having a coffee cup with my name on one and the prospects name on the other, attention is instantly caught. I mean who isn’t going to see that pop up on their screen and be intrigued. If we can make the prospect laugh or smile, and stand out in their busy frantic day, then we are winning. Be bold, original and different. If your strategy is standard, then you will get standard results.
4) Non text heavy email – No one has time to read your whole business thesis via email. People are busy and as attention spans are getting less and less, as marketers we need to capture attention fast and sharply. The least amount of text you can possibly use, to establish who you are, what you want and when, the better.
5) Clear call to action – Make your call to action as simple and clear as possible. For example, ‘how is coffee next week on Tuesday at 12.00pm?’. Something the prospect can just reply ‘yes’ to. Do not try sell your offering via your email, try sell the next stage of your sales process which can be a coffee or phone call or whatever. So many people try sell their offering far to early. No one will ever do business with you just through your email. This is like asking someone to marry you without going on a date first! Build a relationship through your emails, it will pay far greater ROI in the longterm.
I know what you’re thinking. This all seems like a very time consuming exercise to personalise these messages and send out at scale. Not to worry, it actually doesn’t take a lot of time with the right tools and strategies, that can be used to streamline a lot of this. A good email generation strategy is something that should work on auto-pilot in the background producing high qualified leads while you can focus on what truly matters, running and growing your business.
Shoot me through an email if you have any questions about this strategy or want to talk about how to implement a highly personalised campaign like this. I love connecting with fellow founders and business owners 🙂
Thanks for reading,
Jesse
J2 Group – jesse@j2group.com.au
