With the “Cold Calling is Dead” (half truth… of course) banner waving high going into 2021, there’s never been a better time to learn the coveted skill of cold emailing.
Companies like Salesforce built multi-million dollar empires using cold emails to generate new customers.
There’s absolutely no reason your business can’t do the same.
You need to sell B2B to make it work and be legal, but other than that, cold email is a foolproof pipeline filling technique.
Of course, there are many, many, many people who fail at cold emailing and give up.
They throw their hands in the air and say, “eh, cold email doesn’t work”. Bullshit…
The difference between you and them = solid principles.
So, without anymore delay, let’s learn the 3 principles of cold email:
1. You do not sell in a cold email.
Cold email is a sales technique – but you never sell in a cold email.
A cold email is to break the ice & start a conversation.
After a prospect replies positively, they become a lead.
You can follow up with this lead until they say “NO” (and even then, there could be interest later).
But, again, you are not selling.
There is no pitch.
There is no “offer”.
There is only: what are you doing now and how might I be able to add value to your situation?
This ensures you stay legal, increase lead volume, and convert more leads to opportunities, and more opportunities to sales.
2. Keep it short
It’s so important to keep your cold emails short & free of links.
Yes, I know this goes against a lot of the modern “evolution” of cold email, which includes video and media in the email.
This is great, but you’d be surprised how many mid-market/enterprise businesses have strict firewalls that will block an email like that before it even gets to your prospect.
We follow the principle of 3 paragraphs or less, and absolutely no links.
The logic?
Most prospects will manually type in your email domain to check your website (make sure you forward your cold email domain to your website!).
And again, if they’re interested, they’ll reply.
At that point, you can send videos, PDFs, links, and whatever else you think will resonate with your audience at that stage!
Marketing automation can even advance this effort further, but it’s so important to make sure you get that reply, before following up with tons of media they didn’t ask for.
3. Targeting is everything
What good will it do if your perfectly succinct, powerful message goes to the wrong people.
People who aren’t even interested in what you offer.
Waste of time right?
It’s all about having a great handle on your ideal customer and getting good data.
It’s easy to overcomplicate this, but it’s super simple.
LinkedIn is, by far, the most updated, relevant B2B data source on Earth at this point.
It will only grow.
So, first find a LinkedIn lead scraper you can use, preferably with LinkedIn Sales Navigator so you get the most accurate data that aligns with your ideal customers.
4. Personalize
The best cold emails show that the sender did their research.
We use Warmer.ai for this.
They personalize every email with real research from the prospect’s LinkedIn or website.
Use these tools or do the research manually, but don’t get caught sending a generic email – it won’t work in 2024.
Pro tip: Remember to follow CAN-SPAM/GDPR guidelines and include your full physical business address with your name at the end of the email.
Cold Email Done the Right Way Really, Really Works
Cold emails are going strong into 2024 and beyond.
They supply us with 80% of our new business and keep our clients bringing in revenue.
When it comes to industrial, tech, supply chain, and other B2B industries, cold email is one of the best client acquisition channels.
Follow the 4 simple principles and you’ll have instant success, connecting with your ideal customers.
An added benefit of this strategy is that, by jumping on calls with your ideal customers, you learn more about how to align your brand and offerings to their exact needs.
This is extremely powerful.
Use that feedback to improve your business on a weekly basis.
Add questions to your FAQ page. Add videos answering specific questions on YouTube. You’ll see customers start to come in on automatic.
