How to conquer the dreaded cold call email

by | Jul 20, 2021 | Content

Do the words “cold call” give you the shivers? Reaching out to cold prospects is not easy (and can be somewhat nerve-wracking), but it is fundamental to both driving awareness of your organization and ultimately creating sales. In fact, when done correctly, cold call emails can be an effective part of your sales enablement strategy.

To help you cozy on up to the idea of creating a cold call email marketing campaign, we’ve pulled together best practices and tips for crafting emails that will drive results:

Start by segmenting your list

Personalization of your marketing message is key to standing out and grabbing the attention of the recipient. And when I say personalization, I mean going beyond the basics of having a first name or company name in the email. What you need is to be delivering content that addresses their pain points and highlights solutions.

The best way to ensure compelling personalization is by segmenting your outbound email campaigns into small groups. Start by breaking down your list by industry. From there, you can segment even further, for example by job title or function. This allows you to really focus in on how your company can be an asset to the recipients.

Craft your message(s) carefully

Write authentic, helpful email contentOne size does not fit all when it comes to the actual content of your email. Start with the body of the email itself, pinpointing problems and explaining how your product or service can solve them.

Make sure you are genuine and personable, so that the email itself sounds authentic and not part of an automated drip campaign (even though it probably is). Remember: you are not the focus; your prospect is. So, don’t talk about yourself. Instead, talk about what you can do for them.

Cold call email campaigns generally consists of at least 3-6 emails. This means you can keep them short (under 200 words if possible), and build on your message with each email.

Other factors to take into consideration for your email is the subject line and closing:

  • For the subject line, keep it short, so it doesn’t get cut-off in an email preview. If possible, include the prospect’s name, company, or recent accomplishment (as long as it’s relevant).
  • When closing your email, include a strong call-to-action (CTA) that will drive your prospects to the next step. This could be downloading a piece of content or attending a webinar. Try focusing your CTA’s on the benefits they’ll receive. For example, swap out “Sign-up” for “Get industry news.” Don’t forget to include contact information as well, in case a prospect wants to reach out to you directly.

Don’t shy away from testing

Using cold call emails to A/B test your campaigns is a great way to increase your open and CTRs for emails. Have two subject lines you really like? Try both, so see which one drives more opens. Or, try different offers to see which one is more enticing to your audience. Just don’t test more than one component per email campaign or it will be difficult to identify which components were responsible for which results.

Another form of testing is to try distributing your messaging across different channels. You might find that an infographic, for example, gets more downloads through LinkedIn over email.

Above all, review results and pivot

Review and analyze email resultsWhen creating a cold call email campaign, make sure you are tracking your results. This data will give you key learnings and ultimately tell you what your audience wants. After each campaign, take time to review the stats, noting not only what did work, but what did not work. This allows you to fine-tune your campaign as you go, and to create strong follow-up messaging.

If you find something is just not working, then make the change right away, and see if that doesn’t turn things around. (Not sure where to start? Check out our 4 tips to effective marketing campaign follow-up).

Now it’s time to take this knowledge and get started on that email campaign! Need help with cold call email strategy or content? That’s our jam! Contact us today, and we’ll get you on the path to email success.