Cold email is, to a large extent, a black box.
Knowing that you’re hitting the inbox, without expensive tools and processes, is almost impossible.
And with the new iOS 15 updates, it isn’t getting any easier.
Thankfully, there’s a few shortcuts to make it a little easier on you.
#1: Under 30% Open Rate
Your first big indicator is: if cold email open rates are below 30%, you may have a deliverability problem.
This is including the privacy updates launching across almost all systems.
Keep an eye on open rates and run tests if they’re under 30%.
#2: Run Deliverability Tests
There are a few apps you can use to test your email address and deliverability to make sure you’re starting with a solid framework.
First, check our 9 Cold Email Commandments to make sure you’re setting up the framework in the first place.
Gmass Tools:
Gmass has a suite to help you figure out the black box of deliverability, for free. Use them when in doubt.
- Inbox Checker (Inbox, Promotions, or Spam)
- Email Tester (make sure DNS records are in place)
- Deliverability Wizard (check campaigns’ stats in general to compare)
These should help you make sure you’ve set up your email addresses properly and check where your emails are ending up.
Glock Apps
Glock apps is a bit pricey for most beginners, but if you’re serious about scaling cold email, there’s no better resource for deliverability.
#3: Don’t Track Open Rates
Here’s the truth: open rates are simply a proxy to make sure you’re hitting the inbox, and a measurement of how effective your subject line is to get prospects to open your emails.
But, it’s really only a proxy.
The real metrics to track in cold email are:
- Reply Rate – if you’re getting replies, your emails are not only getting opened, but read and replied to
- Meeting Booked Rate – when your emails are getting replies and leading to meetings, you’re truly filling your sales pipeline with new potential customers
- Return on Investment (ROI) / Profit – when meetings are booked and deals are being closed, you’re actually profiting and proving that you should invest more time and money into cold email
So, do you really have to track opens?
If you’re just getting started and testing subject lines, maybe it’s worth it to you to track open rates.
But in my opinion (and in the opinions of many other smart sales and marketing pros), it really doesn’t make sense to track open rates.
It’s much better to focus on the metrics that are closer to revenue, so you can actually decide whether your offer, targeting, and outreach are really working (and worth continuing and investing in).
Conclusion
Open rates are alluding a lot of business owners, marketers, sales professionals, and entrepreneurs right now.
But we have to ask ourselves, are we focused on the right thing?
Are we cold emailing just to cold email (because someone told us it’s a magic bullet to get mores sales), or are we actually using cold email as a tool to drive revenue or testing offers and targeting?
At the end of the day, focus on tracking the metrics that really matter and run tests to make sure your emails are hitting the inbox (at least most of the time), and, as always: test, test, test.
