Simple Outreach

A simple cost effective solution for cold email outreach. Promote content, build relationships, and generate sales.  www.simpleoutreach.com  

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A Guide to Optimizing Your Cold Email Deliverability

No matter how much time and effort you’ve put into your email, it won’t matter if you’re not also focusing on one other area: Deliverability. A great email that doesn’t make it to someone’s inbox is no better than spam. If it doesn’t get past the gatekeepers, you’ve failed.

Internet service providers (ISPs) and email providers work very hard to ensure that only quality, relevant emails make it to the inbox. That’s a very good thing, as spam accounts for 47-73% of all email, depending on who you ask and how you define it. In 2017 alone, 269 billion emails were sent and received each day. That amounts to billions and billions of spam messages sent daily. One in five emails never reach the inbox. Imagine if they all made it through. Email would be a useless channel. Unfortunately, the same strategies and protocols that try to intercept spam can also leave your email lingering in limbo, the spam folder, or the Promotions tab.

 Deliverability issues can destroy your open and click-through rates, engagement, conversions, outreach, and everything else you’re hoping to accomplish with an email campaign in the first place. In fact, the global deliverability average is only 75.9%. Optimizing for deliverability is a must in the world of email outreach and marketing. Let’s take a look.

   Email Deliverability: The Basics

Email deliverability is a set of steps or processes that happen in order to place your email in someone’s inbox. If you believe having a valid email address and hitting the send button means your message is successfully delivered, you’re mistaken.

When you hit send on an email, the ISPs and email servers of your recipient quickly go through a lengthy checklist before allowing you access to an inbox (where you might still get flagged as spam or end up in one of the tabs). They look at:

Your sender reputation, including abuse reports, volume “too much too soon is a red flag”, blacklists, and spam traps.

Your content. Is it spammy or too promotional (text-to-image ratio, long links, text-to-html ratio)? Does it contain spam trigger words?

 Deliverability is a moving target, slower-moving than SEO algorithms, but moving nonetheless. Resources like Return Path can help keep you updated.

You can mark any email that arrives in your inbox as spam. This helps the email service providers (ESPs) like Gmail learn to better identify spam and keep your inbox cleaner. That’s good. Every time someone reports one of your emails as spam, though, it gets added to an abuse report on you as a sender. Too many, and you’ll be flagged as a questionable sender, and your emails will get flagged or blocked from delivery. That’s bad.

The usual threshold over a month of sending is anywhere from 0.5% down to 0.15%, depending on the volume sent.

To avoid abuse reports, only send personalized and relevant messages to your recipients.

 Verbiage

Choose your words carefully. Don’t make them too ‘salesy’, and avoid using the dollar sign, too many bolded words, all-caps, FREE!!, and emojis in cold and business emails. When the servers find any of those, they take a much, much closer look at you and your message.

With the arrival of GDPR legislation last year, the major email providers like Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo have implemented more aggressive features for their spam filters. No one wants to be found in violation of the new rules. Again, that’s generally a good thing, but it does make your job just a little more difficult.

 Links and images

One sure-fire way to get caught by spam filters is sending emails with tons of links, images, or gifs. Too many links are often a sign of spammy emails, so we recommend having no more than 2 in an email, including the signature. Images and gifs are treated the same as links, so if you must include them in your emails (which we generally recommend against), have no more than one.

Warming up a new domain? All bets are off. Start off with no links in your email at all to be safe, and focus on getting replies before you start sending cold emails.

 Blacklisting

Blacklisting usually happens when either a particular IP address or sending domain is flagged for spam-like behavior.

End up on any of the critical email blacklists, and you’ll have to jump through hoops to get removed from them … if it’s even possible at all. The solution? Don’t do anything to get blacklisted.

  The Guide to Maximizing Your Deliverability

You should understand the basics by this point: Your email is checked against abuse reports, blacklists, and the individual ESP spam filters and checklists. You’ve got to successfully run that gauntlet to make it to the inbox.

 Keep a Clean List

Have a targeted and scrubbed list of recipients. Only send relevant content. If too many people mark your messages as spam, or you’re getting too many bounces, you’re toast. At a minimum, verify your email addresses, remove hard bounces immediately, and soft bounces after multiple attempts.

Use a Reputable Provider

Use a G Suite (i.e. non-Gmail.com or non-Hotmail.com) email account. G Suite is a trusted email service provider, it’s affordable, and offers plenty of tools and integrations.

 S tart Slow

Using a new domain or address? You need to warm it up with the ESPs and filters. Start with no more than 50 per day and work up from there. Be consistent as much as possible with volume and sending schedule. Too much too soon and you’ll likely get flagged.

 Follow a system that looks something like this:

    Week 1: 50

    Week 2: 85

    Week 3: 110

    Week 4: 150

    Week 5: 250

    Week 6: 480

and so on…

 There isn’t a rule or exact number. It’s a matter of testing and evaluating. If you ever hit Google’s quota, or start seeing bounces higher than 5%, we recommend to step back to the previous limit and wait for another week.

Above all, once you find a sweet spot, be consistent as much as possible with volume and sending schedule. Too much too soon and you’ll likely get flagged.

 Include an Easy Opt-out

Besides being a requirement, an easy unsubscribe option is better than a recipient having no choice but to report you as spam. Since most people doing cold email would rather not include an unsubscribe link in their emails (though you can do this SimpleOutreach), your best bet is to make it clear how someone can opt out.

 Optimize for Open and Response Rates

Engagement is the name of the game. Do everything you can to get recipients to open your email, and respond to its message. This also means evolving your copy over time. Beyond just a strategy to keep your engagement high, we’ve seen lots of accounts who ended up seeing worse and worse deliverability rates even with high-quality lists and good copy, because they used the exact same copy for months and months. One easy way to make sure your copy is staying fresh and ahead of spam traps is by consistently testing it.

 Use a Name in the From Field

Are you more likely to open a cold email from [email protected], or [email protected]? Never, ever use the dreaded donotreply@ for any reason whatsoever. Be real. Be authentic. Be a human being. There’s a lot more you could and ultimately should be doing, too. Maximizing your deliverability is a long game, and includes reputation, authentication, content, and more. But start with these nine, and go from there. Trying to do too much at once can quickly get confusing and feel overwhelming.

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How to Handle the “Now Is Not a Good Time” Reply

The number one reason a prospect will say “Now is not a good time” is because the salesperson’s opener (what they said after “Hello, my name is…”) invoked this type of response. In short, the salespersons opening value statement was anything but and failed to accomplish its first objective, which is to pique interest in those precious first few seconds of a sales call.

 Hot or Cold

And this response isn’t just a product of cold calling either. I’ve seen plenty of salespeople get the same blow-off/stall on warm calls as well (Warm calls = when a prospect raises their hand)

An example of a warm call would be when a salesperson is calling a lead that was generated via their website or email after a prospect requested information or a proposal and the salesperson calls and says something like:

“I’m calling to see if you had any questions” or “I’m following up on your proposal request,” and they still hear “now is not a good time.”

No matter the type of sales call, the “Now is not a good time” blow-off/stall has EVERYTHING to do with how the salesperson approached the prospect and very LITTLE to do with the temperature of the sales lead.

  The Solution

The “What will be different in a week/month?” rebuttal is argumentative in my book and all though it is better than saying “ok” and hanging up, it’s a flawed solution because it doesn’t address/fix the real problem that caused the “now’s not a good time” response.

If you want to drastically reduce the number of times your prospects use this stall tactic on you, you’ll need to re-word the opening value statement so that they will want to hear what it is that you have to offer by piquing their interest in the first few seconds of the call.

 Do that and watch how the “now’s not a good time” stall becomes a thing of the past.

Example: Which call would pique your interest more:

     “I’m following up on your request for _______.”

Or

    “I understand you’re curious about what type of results you could expect from our _________ as well as what the initial investment might be…”

 If you want to get better results, you have to stop using old, flawed sales tactics and start using new sales techniques that make logical sense.

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Cold Email to Generate More Leads

It’s no secret that templates can make you more efficient at sending cold email campaigns. However, regardless of what you’re using those templates to achieve, less is almost always more.

Sending fewer, more personalized emails generally gets better results – both in the short-term (i.e. in the reply rate) and the long-term (i.e. in your ability to build relationships with prospects). Templates should be used as a starting point to help speed up the process of sending cold emails, but there’s a balance to be struck between sending an entirely templated campaign and 100% personalized emails.

Below is some cold email templates designed specifically to help you grow your email list and generate more leads via cold email campaigns.

However, for best results, templates should never be pulled from a site and sent as-is – they should always be adapted to fit the tone and style of the sender. This is part of the personalization process, but it also helps ensure that you’re not making the embarrassing mistake of sending the same email as a competitor.

A cold email template is a skeleton that you need to work out. Take the time, and you’ll have created a powerful tool that lets you squeeze every bit of potential out of what is already a massively effective channel: 72% of consumers prefer email for marketing communication, the worldwide average open rate is 24.82%, and 85% of adults in the United States check their email at least once per day. Meanwhile, 89% of marketers list email as their main channel for lead generation.

 Cold Email Best Practices

Not all email is created equal. There are good examples and bad examples. Just throwing some words together and sending them out do not guarantee success. You need to stack the deck in your favor by remembering a few key best practices discovered via millions of emails sent.

Subject Lines

This is your digital calling card. If it’s weak, generic, or spammy, your recipients will at best delete without opening. At worst? They may report it as spam, and then your sender reputation takes a hit and it becomes exponentially harder to get your message to the right people.

Just how important is the subject line? In a word: extremely.

Studies have revealed that anywhere from 35% to 47% open an email based on the subject line alone

69% of people report an email as spam from just the subject line

A first name in the subject line can lift open rates by 20%

Personalized subject lines are 22.2% more likely to get opened

The only way to find the perfect subject line for your message and audience is to test, track, and tweak. In addition to that, remember:

Keep it short. Too long, and recipients may not see the entire thing in the preview pane. That can be a death sentence. How short? somewhere between 30-45 characters is a good rule of thumb.

Personalize. Are you more likely to open a generic or personalized email from a stranger? First name, location, company name, or a reference to a previous encounter are just a few ways you can quickly and easily make it about them.

Specificity and usefulness. Does your subject line convey a specific and useful benefit to the recipient? Does it tell them exactly why they should open and read? It should.

Be authentic. Making outrageous claims that you can’t deliver on may get you an open, but it won’t win you a sale. Only promise and promote what you can reasonably expect to deliver.

Body Copy

Subject lines may be 80 cents out of your email marketing dollar, but the body copy of the email itself is obviously still important too.

Your opening line. The subject line may earn you an open, but it’s the opening sentence that convinces recipients to keep reading. It should be an extension of your subject line, piquing curiosity and compelling readers to continue. The bottom line? It’s not about you.

Make your opening line about your recipients. Don’t waste your opening line with “Hi, my name is so-and-so and I work at such-and-such company.” No one cares.

Clear beats clever every time. What’s in it for them? What pain point can you address? Be specific.

The main body. Your subject line gets you in. Your opening line grabs attention. Your main body needs to deliver on whatever you’ve promised or claimed so far.

Be authentic and real. The best emails are casual and conversational. Write like a human being, for other human beings.

Personalize where you can with demographics, recent announcements, events, or accomplishments, or industry news.

Cut to the chase. They don’t know you. Your subject and opening lines have bought you a bit of their time. Don’t waste it.

 One compelling but low-friction ask. There should be one and only one thing you want your recipient to do with every message you send: watch a short video, schedule a free demo, share a link or resource, and arrange a time to chat, and so on. Your CTA should be very low investment and easy to accomplish.

The benefit. Your main body copy needs to answer one pivotal question: what’s in it for them? Spell it out. What problem do you solve? Who else have you already helped? Whenever possible, quantify the benefit with concrete numbers: saved an average of $700, reduced acquisition costs by 39%, increased output by 50%, and so on. We respond to concrete stats more than abstract concepts.

 Cold Email Templates to Test

 Be as direct as you can

 Subject: 10x [prospect’s company’s] traction in 10 minutes

Hello [name],

I have an idea that I can explain in 10 minutes that can get [company] its next 100 best customers.

I recently used this idea to help our client [company/competitor] almost triple their monthly run rate.

[Name], let’s schedule a quick 10-minute call so I can share the idea with you. When works best for you?

This template reportedly generated a 57% open rate and a 21% response rate, likely because:

 The subject line highlights an attractive proposition, but leaves enough to the imagination to make the recipient want to open the email and learn more.

It very quickly describes what the sender can offer the prospect (100 new customers) and what they need from them (10 minutes of their time).

    It uses social proof as evidence of how this proposition has worked for others.

 3-Sentence Format

As the name implies, this template takes a more-is-less approach, and it delivers excellent results. You don’t literally have to cut your message down to only three sentences – your intro, description, your ask – but you should try and keep it as close to that number as possible.

Hi [name],

My name is [your name], and I’ll keep this quick.

I’m the founder of a software tool that saves busy executives like you as many as 10 hours each and every week.

Could I have ten minutes of your time next week for a personalized demo that’ll make clear why entrepreneurs like love our product?

 Share a Valuable Resource

 Above all else, you want to be seen as an asset to your recipients. You want to provide value to them every time they chose to open one of your emails. One of the quickest ways to do that is to share valuable and highly relevant resources with them.

Subject: Thought you might like this article

Hi [name],

You’re latest article on [subject] got me thinking.

I found this article on [article title] that may be beneficial to you and your team

Here’s the link to check it out – [link]

Hope you find it helpful. Keep up the great work.

 Ultimately, remember that a template is a starting point. It’s not a finished product, but it does provide the bones you need to supercharge your outreach. Try these 15 to see what works and what’s relevant for you and your audience.

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Ways Outbound Sales Impacts Inbound Marketing

Outbound prospecting can and will help your inbound marketing efforts. For example, you can use outbound prospecting to secure marketing objectives like guest posts which will drive inbound leads.

Outbound includes cold calling, social selling, and email campaigns to reach out to prospects while inbound relies on content creation to attract new clients.

In our opinion, outbound sales and inbound marketing tactics are basically two sides of the same coin. Engage in one but at some point, you will have to fire up the other so you get the best results.

Here are ways we see how outbound can impact inbound efforts:

 Outbound helps with prospecting and defining your ideal customer profile

Inbound marketing will drive traffic to your website (hopefully) as prospects engage with your content. This is nice and all but you will not know the exact profile of the potential customers that are coming to your website.

That’s where outreach and lead research come in handy. It is a tactic that reaches out to potential customers with a targeted, customized message and drives them deeper into the sales funnel. When you define your ideal ICP (ideal customer profile) and you start with the research, you have an idea of who to target and who your potential customers are.

Conducting outreach campaigns will help you generate interest in your service or product with the right audience. Outreach gives you the ability to test out your messaging, and see to what messages people respond the best.

Also, getting feedback from prospects about your brand and product can help you better position your business on the market and in your inbound marketing initiatives. Creating relevant content, based on the feedback and questions that your potential clients have, will impact your inbound lead generation. You get these questions and objections through the outbound selling process.

  Outbound can accelerate your website content

Often, marketers forget that the ultimate goal of content creation is to drive leads to the website, catch them and convert into paying customers. Content is there to inspire, educate, raise brand awareness and attract leads. It takes time to set everything up and get the first results, but once the content strategy is in place it has the potential to drive traffic for a very long time. To speed things up and make your inbound marketing efforts scalable faster, outbound and outreach campaigns can help.

Launching outbound campaigns to promote new content to potential clients and customers is the way to stand out from the crowd. Reach out to relevant websites and blogs and see if they are interested in editing your content, or including your guide on a list of useful resources. Also, if you notice that your brand is mentioned somewhere on the web but they didn’t link back to your website, reach out to them and ask for a back link.

 Outbound can help with converting website visitors

In most cases, inbound traffic is not targeted. Many visitors are just not interested in what you are selling. Hence your ridiculously high bounce rates and oh so sad time on site stats. Ads can also be a good channel to attract visitors to the website. But, if you are targeting them by demographics (geographically or by industry), there is little chance that they will really convert.

It is all about targeting your micro-segments and your niche. With the help of outbound efforts, you can retarget the content that spikes interest in your service (or product), and ensure that you’re reaching only visitors with an intent to buy.

This can be achieved by creating lookalike audiences. You already know your ICP, and by analyzing your outreach efforts you can easily make adjustments and additional criteria for the ads.

Also, if you have a new product or service that is going to come out soon, the quickest way to get the news about it in front of your existing and potential customers is by conducting an email outreach campaign. It is actionable and will bring you new inbound leads faster. Your potential clients will end up coming to you instead.

 Outbound can help you with growing your online presence and reach

Many businesses rely on referrals and the power that social influencers have on potential buyers. Use outbound social selling to build your LinkedIn presence, build relationships with those new social connections, and then ask for referrals.

Outreach can help you reach out to bloggers and social media influencers, and create a relationship with them. Ask them to review your product or service, or host a giveaway and help you grow your brand’s online presence and reach.

Find guest blogging opportunities and build your authority in the industry by writing high-quality articles. This will serve as a guarantee to your potential clients that you are an expert in the field and that they can trust you.

Spreading the word about your brand and products through podcasts is also a good way to convey your message and expertise. Use outreach to connect with different podcast programs and suggest a topic that you are expert in.

Using outbound, you can build a clear picture of your ideal customer profile and learn what content works for them and get them to engage with it and convert into a paying customer. By being in direct communication with leads and customers, you can build a solid relationship and get their feedback on the demand and competition.

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Cold Call Emailing: How to Create Effective Subject Lines

    When sending out emails, what’s the best way to develop the subject line? That Depends on the type of email.

    Is this a first-time cold call prospecting email (first time = you have never spoken with them before / cold call = they haven’t raised their hand to be contacted)

    Is this a first-time email to a prospect that attended a lead generating webinar?

    Is this a follow-up email to a prospect you’ve already spoken with? And if so, where in the sales process did the last call end?

These are just a few scenarios that a sales person would deal with on an every day basis, so to answer the question as accurately (and as helpful) as possible, one would need to be aware of the situation at hand.

 FIRST TIME / COLD CALL EMAIL

Let’s suppose you meant when you are emailing a cold call prospect for the first time since that is a popular scenario.

To come up with an effective EMAIL SUBJECT LINE, solve the problem by working it backward.

Meaning, start with the end in mind. What is it that you want to have happen once the prospect reads your email? What is your objective?

 Let’s say it’s to schedule a call to determine if they are qualified.

So working it back from there, what would you have to do to get the prospect to be willing to agree to a call regarding a subject that they currently aren’t “raising their hand” for?

 SOLUTION: USE THE WHAT’S IN IT FOR THEM METHOD

The body of your email needs to pique their interest right off the bat, which means your message, needs to be short and to the point! NO Links; NO PDF’s; NO Long paragraphs explaining what you do.

Example:

    “Hi (First Name) the reason for my email is we recently helped (Competitor 1, 2 and 3) cut/lower (ENTER HOT BUTTON) while at the same time increased/added/raised (ENTER DESIRED RESULT) and wanted to see if it would make sense for us to have a quick conversation to determine if what we do could be of some help to you as well.”

So, by working it backward, we know what our desired result is and to accomplish that, we need to pique their interest. We used the “competition” play to spark their interest (almost all C-Level execs want to know what their competition is up to) and so now, we have to get them to open the email.

The SUBJECT LINE

In this case, why not just put one of the competitor’s name in the subject line?

Short, sweet and relevant. No “tricks” or “tactics” like using the “Re:” to try and make them think you’re replying to them.

Just to the point with the message all being about the WHAT IN IT FOR THEM approaches.

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How to improve your sales pipeline to boost revenue

Have you ever found yourself staring at your sales pipeline and notice that it isn’t trending positively? It’s likely because you lack qualified leads, have a low close rate which slows the movement of deals from one stage to another. Because of this, your company loses a significant number of opportunities and doesn’t achieve their revenue goals.

 So, how do you get out of this vicious cycle and finally hit and exceed your targets?

First, realize that you are not alone. The way you manage your pipeline is crucial as you need to determine where the root of your problem lies and where you are losing the most money. So, we’re giving you the some working solutions you need to optimize your pipeline management process and take your business to the next level.

 Reduce your time devoted to admin tasks

Salespeople spend more time (23% of their entire working day) on administrative tasks than actually selling (22%). This should never be the case. A sales rep should work hard to close deals and spend less time on admin tasks, order processing, collecting payments, etc. You have heard this advice a hundred times, but no one tells you HOW to address these tasks efficiently.

The best way to optimize non-sales activities is to automate those using specific tools. One option is PandaDoc, software that streamlines your document workflow to increase revenue. PandaDoc offers free templates to use with their proposal software. Their templates significantly reduce document creation time, down to minutes, so sales reps can spend their day on activities that really matter – selling.

  Succeed at forecasting

If you neglect the forecasting process, you’re missing out on tons of opportunities. Forecasting is one of the pillars of pipeline management — it’s almost impossible to come up with the right outcome without seeing the anticipated challenges and possibilities. To have constant control over your sales pipeline, you should have considerable control over future events.

.

Find an individual approach to each customer

Even though your customers have similar needs, their buying behavior remains different. Some prospects will easily buy “in one click”, coasting through each pipeline stage. Yes, those leads are appealing to some salespeople, but what if you’re dealing with the opposite of your desired customer?

Some prospects require only a call, others –– up to several meetings. You don’t know how many times you will discuss an offer or which stage will be the hardest for your prospect. This must be taken into consideration while speaking with each customer.

Therefore, make a plan. Establish a process for getting your ideal customer profile to purchase. This may take some practice and trying different cadences but the exercise is worth it in the long run.

 Shorten your sales cycle

Some customers and prospects will drag out the buying process and prevent you from ever closing them. But why? Where is the gap in your sales pipeline? Here are some possibilities:

At the qualification stage when you start suspecting that some of your qualified prospects won’t consider your offer. The best advice is to disqualify them immediately rather than waste time on those who will never buy.

At the meeting stage when your prospect is waiting for you contact him/her and designate a call or a meeting. Arrange the next meeting (call) immediately at the end of the previous one to prevent this.

At any stage when a customer is confused about the next steps. This can be resolved by providing him or her with expectations of the whole process at the very beginning of your conversations.

You can also use your CRM since most have key features to aid in managing the sales cycle.

 Keep sales data together

A business owner can hire numerous sales reps or fire all of them at the same time. That’s a reference to the possibility of data fragmentation; two salespeople may have one way of sharing information and the one who was fired may have another, which could possibly lead to missing or unclear details on a prospect record in your CRM.

Data is vital when it comes to establishing strong relationships with customers, so you can’t lose momentum under any circumstances. A great solution to keep all important information together is cloud storage. These services can be integrated with CRMs too.

 Quickly move your prospect further down the pipe

Don’t delay, assess your open opportunities as quickly as possible. There are always a group of prospects who are “ready to buy” right now. They are your highest priority — make them purchase.

The second group is prospects are “almost customers.” The third — leads who have just entered your sales pipeline. You need to move them all to the next stage as quickly as possible. Use every chance today, or they’ll be gone tomorrow.

What will help win each opportunity? Use the contact feature of your CRM to organize your contact info and get detailed insights on every lead.

 Find your win ratio

Some battles might be lost, but the war should be won. To win the war in pipeline management, you should keep the bar high by maintaining a strong win ratio. It is equally important to know why you lost those battles. The secret to controlling your win ratio is the constant monitoring of your sales process and precise forecasting.

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Sales Meeting Ideas to Keep Your Team Motivated

Companies across the world share a common problem: meetings. They have too many of them, they last too long, or they include people that don’t really need to be there – or, in many cases, a combination of all three. Whatever the reason, the fact remains that too many companies are still holding meetings that aren’t as productive or purposeful as they could be.

While the issue spans all industries and departments, sales teams need to be especially aware of wasting time in meetings since time in meetings is time they’re not selling – and that means lost revenue. Before we get into ways to keep your sales team motivated and focused in meetings, let’s make sure you’ve got the basics right first. Here are some general rules for holding productive meetings:

 Set a Single Goal

Each meeting should revolve around achieving one specific goal. Meetings geared around more than one goal tend to lose focus, so if there are multiple goals on the agenda, seriously consider whether you can leave less-pressing goals for another time.

 Assign a leader

All meetings should have someone in charge who’s responsible for ensuring things stay on track.

Designate this person ahead of time – this will allow them time to consider their role in the meeting as they plan for it.

 Keep Meetings as Short as Possible (and Stick to Your Schedule)

Meetings are typically scheduled in half hour or hour-long slots. I imagine a big reason for this is that, while you can overwrite it, 30 minutes is the default setting in Google Calendar. While some meetings might require a half an hour or more, many don’t. A purely motivational meeting might only need 10 minutes, while a brainstorming meeting might take a full hour.

Be realistic about how much time you need, and don’t fall into the classic trap of scheduling meetings in half hour or hour-long blocks, just because Google’s configured that way, and that’s what you’re used to.

 Focus On the Positive

Save grievances for one-on-one meetings – group meetings should only mention achievements and what went well. There are rarely any benefits to discussing mistakes publicly. It’s embarrassing for the person (or people) involved, and demotivating for the rest of the team. It also paints the leaders concerned in a poor light, and is likely to impact their subordinates’ feelings towards them.

 Consider Your Remote Workers

It’s far easier for remote workers to become distracted and zone out from a meeting than it is for workers who are physically present to do the same. It’s also more difficult, if not impossible, to implement some of the concepts included below.

·         Keeping meetings as short as possible is always important. It’s even more important when remote workers are involved.

·         Make sure everyone gets the chance to have their say.

·         Treat remote workers as if they’re in the room.

·         Ensure all participants speak loudly, clearly, and to everyone – whether they’re in the room or not.

·         Invest in quality equipment. Get this bit wrong and your remote workers might as well not be in the meeting at all.

 Ways to Keep Your Sales Team Motivated and Focused in a Meeting

Once you’ve got the basics of running a productive meeting down, you should be ready to diversify the content of your meetings and explore new ways to keep your sales team motivated and focused throughout them.

Just keep in mind that the contents of any meeting – sales or otherwise – will vary according to the attendees and their hierarchy. A meeting between a CEO and CMO would, for example, be very different than a meeting between a CMO and their team of executives. The structure would likely change again if the meeting consisted of a CMO or head of sales and a group of new employees.

 Share Inside Information

Companies that are transparent have happier and more engaged employees – primarily because being upfront and honest with your employees breeds a culture of trust and openness, and a feeling that you’re all working towards a common goal.

To start embracing a more open and honest culture in your company, make sharing information a regular feature of sales meetings.

 Ask Staff to Role-Play

A few days ahead of the meeting, give your staff a theme and ask them to prepare a role-play based on it. In theory this could be anything, but here are few ideas that make sense in a sales environment: Staff role-play

·         How they overcame a tricky objection.

·         The hardest pitch they ever did.

·         Their most embarrassing moment as a salesperson.

·         How they dealt with an argumentative prospect.

At a minimum, role-plays are usually lots of fun, but they can also be really educational – especially if you encourage more experienced members of staff to act out scenarios that might be new to your less-experienced staff.

Don’t force staff to participate, however – you won’t achieve much by embarrassing your team. That said, role-plays are valuable when it comes to honing sales skills. Anyone who’s not keen on role playing in front of their colleagues should still be role-playing somewhere a little more private.

 Play a Game

Games that are designed to help your staff work together can help strengthen relationships and boost confidence. There are countless ideas for team-building games online so I won’t go into much detail now, but here are some quick suggestions for games that I think work well and are easy to organize.

Scavenger hunts – put your team in pairs and give them a list of silly tasks to complete – things like locating a hard-to-find item or taking a selfie with a stranger. For maximum team-building brownie points, make sure you pair up team members who haven’t yet bonded.

The egg drop – split your team up into small groups and challenge them to make a contraption which will house an uncooked egg (something like what you see below) and prevent it from breaking when dropped onto a hard surface.

 Hold a (Short) Training Session

Pick one topic and hold a mini training session geared around sharpening your staff’s skills in that area, or teaching them a new skill. Hold a training session

The first time you do this, you’re probably going to want to take on the role of trainer yourself; however, I’d encourage you to open future slots up to your whole team.

 Surprise Your Staff

Hold your meeting at the end of the day and surprise your staff with a non work-related activity (food and drinks are usually a safe bet – just make sure to consider everyone’s dietary requirements and what non-drinkers/drivers might enjoy).  

 Mix Things Up

Avoid following a set agenda. Rinse and repeat, and your team is quickly going to become bored. Even worse, they may well struggle to remember the details of the meeting. Prevent this by mixing up the format you use, the activities you plan, and the length of meetings.

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Surprising Email Subject Lines

Are you A/B testing them on a segment of your subscribers before rolling the winner out to everyone, or using them as a way to improve and refine your subject lines each time you schedule in a new campaign?

If not, you should be. Your subject line is your digital calling card, and it needs to get that door opened. Nearly half – 47% – of recipients decide whether to open or discard based exclusively on the subject line, and 69% report an email as spam – the dreaded s-word – depending on their impression of it.

To get you started, and give you some ideas for subject lines you might want to try out yourself, here are some A/B tests that prove what works best isn’t always what you expect .

 Including the word “free” in your subject line probably isn’t sending emails to spam (and can significantly increase open rates)

The idea that using the word “free” in email subject lines can trigger spam filters is nothing new, and in some cases may be true (if you’ve got a history of sending spammy emails for instance, placing “free” in your subject line probably isn’t doing you any favors). That said, if you’ve got a clear track record with your email marketing platform, using “free” in your subject line is not only unlikely to affect the deliverability of your emails  but could significantly increase open rates.

 And a synonym of “free” might increase open rates even more

There’s only a small discrepancy in open rates, which indicates that the same premise seen in test one must still be at play (people like free things). The word “free,” however, can be linked to “low value” or “low quality.”

“Complimentary” doesn’t share these same connotations, which allows you to tap into the consumer’s desire for a freebie, but without devaluing your product.

 Personalizing your subject line could be as simple as adding a “you”

Personalizing an email subject line is a powerful and effective way to increase open rates, but there is some evidence to suggest that consumers have become desensitized to the impact of seeing their name in their inbox. This alternative addresses the recipient directly and feels personalized, but without using the recipient’s name.

 Money isn’t everything

Some audiences will be more motivated by benefit and self-interest than straight discounts (not to mention the over-reliance on discounts from spammers). Try this out for yourself by writing subject lines that touch on how your product or service can make a positive difference to their lives or businesses.

 Context is everything

Ambiguous subject lines drive curiosity, creating a knowledge gap which can increase open rates. But there’s little doubt that they can decrease click-through rates and conversions, too. This is because a vague subject line lacks any targeting. Open rates might be high, but that’s because your recipients couldn’t resist finding out what’s inside the email.

The antithesis to an ambiguous subject line is one that details exactly what the email contains. Not only should this increase click-through rates, but as seen in the test above, it could increase open rates too (at least when compared to a similar, but slightly less descriptive version of the subject line).

 Emails sent from real people instead of a company could see higher open rates and click-throughs

We know an email that features a company as the sender’s name is part of an automated email campaign that’s probably trying to sell to us. Using a real person’s name feels more personal (even if it’s not).

 Emojis might help your subject line stand out, but they could be hurting open rates…

There are at least a couple of factors at work here. Demographics are going to play a part in how responsive an audience is to emojis. Older or corporate audiences are more likely to be turned off by the presence of emojis in subject lines than their younger counterparts, who are likely to be more accustomed to the role emojis play in digital communication.

They can also render incorrectly (appearing like this: □) and potentially flag spam filters (though as we touched on earlier, this is less of a concern than it used to be).

 Frequent emails won’t necessarily decrease open rates

While there’s undoubtedly a limit to how often you can email your subscriber list before they will hit the “unsubscribe” button, if you’re consistently sending content worth seeing, and using direct, descriptive subject lines (another clear winner from Huffman’s research) this limit may be much higher than you think.

 Dropping the corporate-speak is effective, even when the subject matter is serious

Simple – these subject lines replicate what you might receive from a friend or family member. Keep it simple, friendly, and real. Write like the real human being you are.

 Using all caps isn’t always bad

The winning subject line is bold and stands out. Just bear in mind that using all caps in a subject line can trigger spam filters. Then again, as we’ve already seen, this risk is mitigated if you’re consistently sending quality emails.

To be absolutely sure, it might be worth trying this one out on a small portion of your best subscribers

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How to use Open-ended Sales Questions to Close Your Sales

There are two types of questions out there: open-ended questions and closed-ended questions. The way we use these questions can affect many areas of our lives, from our ability to build and maintain friendships, to how effective we are at selling.

 So what’s the difference between an open-ended question, and a closed-ended question?

A closed-ended question can be answered in just a few words, or even a single word. These are questions like: “Did you have a good weekend?” or “Do you like your job?”

Open-ended questions, however, invite further conversation. We’re almost forced to elaborate with our answers. Questions like “What did you do over the weekend?” or “What do you like and dislike about your job?” are open-ended equivalents to the questions above.

So why should you be using open-ended questions in sales? Simply put, it keeps the conversation going. Closed questions give customers an easy way out. They may be interested, but they’re sitting on the fence. Make it easy for them to say “no,” and they probably will.

Open-ended questions make saying “no” much trickier. Instead, they get prospects talking, enabling you to discover more about their situation and what’s preventing them from moving forward with the sale.

Here are a few tips for asking open-ended questions the right way:

Sound genuine

It’s really easy to sound forced when asking any sales question, and it’s one of the easiest ways to lose a potential customer’s trust and respect. Take a genuine interest in prospects so your questions come across as honest and natural.

Don’t interrogate

A genuine interest in what your prospects have to say is critically important. Making them feel like they’re under interrogation is a critical mistake. Keep things casual and friendly at all times.

Don’t answer your own questions

When a potential customer doesn’t respond fast enough, it’s really easy to fall into the trap of filling the silence with your own thoughts. Instead, be patient, and let prospects respond in their own time.

Actually listen

When engaged in a conversation, far too many salespeople focus so much on what they want to say next that they completely overlook the other half of the conversation; i.e., what the other person is saying.

If you want to be successful in sales, you have to listen, and you need to adapt your responses accordingly.

  Ready to change how you approach closing sales? Here are open-ended questions that will help you do exactly that.

 What impact do you think this product would have on you or your business?

This question forces the prospect to think for themselves. In fact, it almost eliminates the need for you to do the closing, since it puts the onus on them instead.

Ask this question once you feel confident the prospect understands your product’s key features and benefits, and how those features and benefits apply to them. You can then leave it up to the prospect to figure out how and why your product is a fit for their business.

 If you were to solve Y problem (problem discussed in previous conversations), how would it impact you or your business?

By the time you feel ready to close a sale, you should have a solid understanding of your prospect’s primary pain points.

 What would you be willing to invest in solving problem Y?

Haven’t discussed pricing yet? This question should get you the information you need and allow you to seal the deal by agreeing on a price or pricing structure that’s both fair to the customer, and appropriate for the product you’re selling.

Use this when you know the customer’s on the verge of converting, but holding back from saying “yes” because they’re concerned about costs or stipulations in the contract.

 What does Y (i.e. competitor’s product) do that ours doesn’t?

Few products are entirely unique, so odds are each individual or corporation you talk to will be considering one or more products in addition to your own.

This means that understanding what you’re up against, and why a customer might choose a competitor’s product over your own, is key to giving you the sale.

 What does your decision-making process look like?

The buying process can differ substantially between companies. A startup with 10 employees is going to have a very different decision-making process than a corporation with 10,000 staff members stationed across the country.

Finding out what’s involved in getting a “yes” is helpful early on in the sales cycle, but it’s an essential question to ask if you’re struggling to close.

 When can we begin working together?

This one’s a classic closing question, and one that’s arguably overused. In the right context however, it makes perfect sense. Why? Because it’s simple, direct, and gets things moving. And isn’t that what you’re really after?

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How to Write a Follow-up Email after No Response

If the thought of writing a follow-up email makes you feel a little uncomfortable, you’re not alone. Our instincts tell us that if someone hasn’t replied to our first email, they’re not interested, and that they’re not going to like it if we bother them again. Unfortunately in this case, our instincts are often wrong. Very few prospects say “yes” to the first ask – or, for that matter, to the second, third, or fourth.

In fact, we find that a 20% response rate to the first email sent, and 13% to the fourth. The sixth email in the sequence received a massive 27% response rate.

So, how long should you wait before sending a follow-up email? As a general rule, more than three days is a good amount of time to wait before sending your first follow-up.

 How to Write a Follow up Email

Now that you know how important it is to follow up, and how long (give or take) you should wait before sending each email, let’s go through how to write the follow-up email itself. It is important to test different email subject lines when following-up.

 We have split this into four sections. To help you write your email, I’ve included examples of what you might say in each section – the idea being that you can then link everything together into a custom follow-up template.

 But first, you need to: Decide What You Want to Achieve

Before you do anything else, it’s mission-critical that you decide what you want to achieve from this email (or emails).

 For example, you might want to:

    Get more information/a specific piece of information

    Arrange a meeting

    Close a sale

 A. Openers you might want to try include:

I just wanted to follow up on the email I sent last [day of the week email was sent] about [subject of email].

I just wanted to follow up to see what you thought about [subject of email].

I hope this doesn’t sound weird, but I saw that you read my previous email.

 B. Explain Why You’re Emailing

Go on to explain the reason for your follow-up email, in a manner that’s both direct and concise. Just tell the recipient what you want. If this hasn’t changed since your last email, remind them.

I think [product name] could really help you [element of prospect’s role] more effectively. I’d love to have a quick chat to find out if I’m right.

I think [product name] could really help you and I wondered if you’d be interested in trying it out for a month or so (completely free, of course).

 C. Include a Call-to-Action

Make it easy for the recipient to respond. For example, if you’re trying to arrange a meeting, suggest a specific date and time (and place, if you’re arranging an in-person meeting).

Does 4:15 p.m. on Thursday work for you?

Are you the right person to talk to about this? If I’m in the wrong place, could you point me in the right direction?

Just reply ‘yes’ if you’d be interested in getting some more information and I’ll send a couple of short docs over.

D. Close Your Email

 Wrap up in a way that feels natural to you and is sympathetic to your interactions with the recipient so far.

While I have a few suggestions below, this part is really quite personal – as above, wrap up however you feel comfortable.

        Let me know what you think! [Your name]

        Let me know if you have any questions. [Your name]

        Speak soon? [Your name]

        I look forward to hearing from you! [Your name]

  Sample Follow-up Templates

 If the suggestions above aren’t enough for you to work with, here are a few samples from the selection of templates we offer our users at Simple Outreach.

 Hey [First], can we hop on a quick call [Date_Time]?

Thanks,

[Your_Name]

 —

Hi [First],

I didn’t hear back from you last week when I was looking for the appropriate person managing your [Role]. If it makes sense to talk, let me know how your calendar looks. If not, who is the appropriate person?

 Thanks,

[Your_Name]

 —

Hi [First],

 I have tried to get in touch with you to see if there is a mutual fit between our company’s expertise and your goals around [Business_Driver].

 If you are not interested or there is another person you would like me to follow up with, please let me know.

 Would it make sense to invest 5-10 minutes to determine if there is a mutual fit?If not, who do you recommend I talk to?

 Thanks,

[Your_Name]

 —

[First],

 I’m writing to follow-up on my email. I didn’t hear back from anyone on the team. If it makes sense to talk, let me know how your calendar looks.

If not, who is the appropriate person for me to talk to?

 Thanks for your help,

[Your_Name]

 —

[First],

 I just tried giving you a call and left a voicemail. I’d like to discuss [Opportunity] with you. Please give me a call back at [Your_Phone_number], or send me a note if you get the chance.

 Thank you!

[Your_Name]

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Must Haves of Every Successful Lead Nurturing Campaign

As the acceptance rates of inbound marketing rise, the importance of a viable lead nurturing campaign becomes more apparent. The majority of leads take a considerable amount of time before they are prepared to make a purchase. This means marketers have to nurture up to 90 percent of leads through an elaborate process.

Proper implementation of a well-planned lead nurturing strategy can make a huge difference on the outcome of the process. Companies that employ effective nurturing strategies boost sales at a lower cost. Yet, research has shown that only 36 percent of marketers implement lead nurturing campaigns. Understanding the impact of key components of a successful campaign is vital to getting it right.

 Targeted content

Targeted content has the capacity to boost sales opportunities by over 20 percent. The approach is useful in lead nurturing because of the difference in content needs. However, many marketers struggle when it comes to creating and delivering effective targeted content. This compromises the viability of nurturing campaigns.

It is vital to ensure that content is delivered to the right audience at the right time. The first step to correctly implementing the campaign involves identifying the needs of all potential buyers. For this reason, you need to gain useful insights on each unique buyer persona. This makes it easy to compose engaging and informative content that satisfies the needs of specific leads.

The content ideas should be based on the leads’ interests, objectives, goals and marketing triggers. To fully understand these unique needs and personas, it is best to leverage the power of marketing automation tools. These platforms provide a practical solution for identifying, segmenting and targeting the prospects. In turn, you will be in a position to refine and scale your inbound marketing strategy.

 Multi-channel lead nurturing

Employing a multi-channel lead nurturing strategy is a sure-fire way to address the needs of leads at various stages in the sales process. The approach involves the use of multiple channels that are relevant to the potential buyers. One of the major reasons for adopting this multi-channel approach is that leads respond differently to particular channels. For instance, research has shown that email open rates for marketing campaigns do not exceed 20 percent.

Marketers must abandon the practice of implementing basic email drip campaigns that deliver generic messages to multiple prospects. It comes as no surprise that such an approach fails to deliver the required results. Looking beyond the limits of a single channel like email solves this problem.

A viable multi-channel approach takes advantage of social media, marketing automation, direct sales, paid re-targeting, email marketing, and engaging website content. For the strategy to work, sales and marketing teams need to work in a cohesive fashion.

Social media can provide a viable alternative when prospects ignore email. Many people are active on social sites regularly. The platforms help you cultivate relationships by engaging in lively chats and liking their pages. On the other hand, dynamic website content plays an important role by providing informative and relevant content that answers key questions. The content should help prospects make

 Multiple touches

An ever-increasing number of marketers are switching from single media campaigns to multi-touch ones. This route allows marketers to utilize multiple contact points with the aim of generating incremental sales. However, the campaigns require targeted and consistent messages that appeal to potential customers.

The success of these efforts is also dependent upon the accuracy of prospects’ information in the database. The data can be used to create individual personas needed to implement custom campaigns. It is common for potential customers to access up to 23 touch points prior to engaging with salespeople.

Interaction with the customer on various platforms is vital. In the end, marketing teams must glean insights from the process to identify the exact touch points that helped the prospect the make the final purchasing decision.

 Multi-touch marketing allows you to:

    Accelerate the velocity of sales cycles,

    Streamline marketing strategy, and

    Improve overall performance.

In addition, multi-touch marketing provides a practical way to plan and forecast expenditures associated with the marketing campaigns.

 Timely follow ups

A report published in the Harvard Business Review showed that many US firms are not acting in timely manner in regards to following up with prospective customers. On average, B2B sales leads are contacted after 42 hours, which is unacceptably long. Fewer organizations were reaching out to potential B2B marketing customers within one hour. Even worse, some companies fail to follow up completely.

The odds of turning a prospect into a paying customer a dramatically increase when the response time is within the hour. The follow up email or phone call needs to be well researched to ensure a favorable outcome. This is in contrast to cold calling, which lacks insights about the prospect’s interests.

As mentioned, sales automation tools should be considered in any campaign intended to facilitate a successful lead nurturing initiative.  You can learn more about automating prospect follow up here.

 Personalized emails

Personalized emails have the capacity to boost conversion rates when compared to non-personalized messages. Generic email strategies are usually ignored because they lack direct appeal to most recipients. Personalizing emails based on specific actions by the prospects improves the effectiveness of lead nurturing campaigns.  If your data does not contain a complete profile, services such as email append can be used to enhance and enrich these profiles in order to create a more personalized message.

The prospects can trigger email responses when they click on links, visit website pages or download content. These actions enable you to deliver the ideal content at the right time to the right leads.

 Sales and marketing alignment

To boost sales opportunities, companies need to align both sales and marketing campaigns in the lead nurturing process. This has proven to be a highly effective approach that delivers significantly better results. The alignment works better by enabling sales and marketing teams to identify with precision when a prospect must be channeled through the nurturing funnel.

When a potential customer transitions from one team to the other, they will be exposed to a more personalized experience. Teams can share key insights about the prospect’s interests and needs. Marketing triggers like conversion events, pageviews, sales contact or workflow enrollment help shape the nurturing efforts.

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The Elements of a Good Cold Email Campaigns

Careful and strategic planning is an essential part of business success. And today, there’s no better tool to help you get where you want to go than cold email. Pound for pound, nothing delivers better results.

As you plan your campaign, it’s best to follow a recipe for success, one that emphasizes that you’re messaging people; people who have real needs and real pain points. Tapping into what they care about and providing value is what’s going to get you results.

 Assemble an Outreach List

The best emails won’t have any effect if you’re not sending them to the right people. You’ve got to identify the right prospects based on industry, geography, budget, size, and more. Building a rock-solid outreach list isn’t easy, but it is necessary. In fact, 40% of sales reps say that prospecting is the most challenging part of their job.

 Rather than combing through LinkedIn profiles one by one, you should enlist software to automate the assembly process for you. Simple Outreach, for example, searches for leads in specific industries and roles. Then you can export that data as names, phone numbers, emails, and social media profiles so you can focus more on your campaign.

  Heat Up Cold Emails With Personalization

Customer.io found that personalized emails had 29% higher open rates and 41% higher click rates than emails without any personalization. With stats like that, you can’t afford not to personalize. In fact, unless you’re sending out thousands of emails a week, you should take the time to personalize each one, even if it’s just a sentence or two.

In a perfect world, you’d highlight mutual connections to catapult your credibility, but simple tactics like using the prospect’s name, company name, or personal details can go a long way toward building rapport. Flattery, sharing useful relevant content, and connecting people are also ways to level up the impact of your email.

 Optimize the Email to Get Noticed

Getting your email opened is half the battle. The other half is keeping the prospect’s interest long enough to provide value and show you’re worth their time. Here’s a breakdown of what your email should include to earn a response:

 Subject Lines - 47% of emails are opened or discarded based solely on their subject line, so take extra time to make sure it’s interesting, short, personalized, conversational, and not spammy.

 Body - Ditch the introduction. They don’t care about you or your company. They care about what you can do for them. If they want more, they’ll look at your signature line to get context. Instead, focus on stoking curiosity, providing value or social proof, and doing your best to avoid looking too pushy or salesy. Be sure to keep it short and make sure every word and sentence persuades your reader to move on to the next one.

 Call to Action - End strong with a low-friction ask and make it easy for them to respond. Either tell them exactly what you want them to do, or set up the email in a way that gains their permission to continue the conversation. Whatever you do, don’t jump the gun asking for a 15-minute meeting on the first email. Getting a response is step one. Then a phone call might be the next logical step.

 Signature Optimization - People will inevitably be curious about who you are, so be sure to link to relevant content. It’s all about building credibility and establishing trust, so links to your website, talks you’ve given, recent articles or awards, and active social media profiles go a long way.

 Find the Best Time to Send Emails

The best time to send email is whenever there is less competition. The best day to send email is Tuesday, and the best time to send an email is between 8am-10am, and 3pm-4pm.

Since people are typically most responsive early in the morning and later in the evening, try to fit your campaign into that window. Leverage a tool like Simple Outreach to automate the process around the perfect schedule. If this isn’t possible for whatever reason, strive to follow up during those times to maximize the possibility of getting your email read and responded to.

 Proofread Emails Like a Pro

Nothing ruins your cold email campaigns like having grammatical or spelling errors. While mistakes are a fact of life, you’ll still want to make every effort to position yourself and your brand in a positive light. Here are a few helpful tips beyond using spell-check:

 Download Grammarly to find complex writing errors that spell-check typically misses.  Ask yourself if each section adds value or clarity as you read. If it doesn’t, delete it. You don’t have much time to make an impression, so cutting the fluff is a quick win for everyone. Read your email out loud at least once.

This makes it much easier to identify any confusing parts of your email.

 Craft the Perfect Follow-up Strategy

Sending your first cold email is just the beginning. Cold email campaigns should have a consistent follow-up schedule, and ideally include an omni-channel approach of cold email automated follow-ups, cold calls, and social media engagement. That way you can spread out your touches and come off less salesy.

When following up, it’s also best to not just check in without good reason. Following up for the sake of following up is wasteful and should be avoided at all costs. Instead, create a reason to follow up. One approach is to send out helpful content in your first email so that your second becomes a natural follow up: “Have you had a chance to look over the resources I sent you? I’d really appreciate your feedback.”

Your cold email campaigns are fluid and never truly complete. You can optimize and tweak for years and still have room for improvement. Relentlessly testing and improving is the name of the game. Measure your open rate, response rate, sales generated, and more. Strike a balance between effective email templates and personalized emails. Finally, remember that cold email isn’t about selling – it’s about building connections.

[simpleoutreach-blog]

How to get Improved Reply Rates for Cold Emails

How to Write a Cold Email that Beat Your Best Ever Reply Rate

First off, let’s clarity, not all cold email is spam. Unlike a common misconception, cold email can be very useful in driving traffic, generating sales and building interaction. To differentiate between cold email and spam: cold email is a conversation—a one-to-one interaction between target audience and a business organization—whereas spam is the bulk product email that forces marketing on its prospective buyers.

 If you’re looking to reap the rewards from cold email, send out customized emails to prospective buyers—the ones you’ve never known or connected with. The idea is to hook new audiences and encourage them to react.

The message should sound like you are talking to an individual and not a group of targeted people; this will separate your email from spam and will beat your best ever reply rate.

But, how to write a cold email that receives an optimal positive reply rate?

Well, we have a solution to that problem. Follow the proven techniques or templates mentioned below while writing a cold email, to get it read or reacted upon. The below-mentioned ways share the same idea i.e. to persuade the reader to read the upcoming sentence until closure. Then, tempt him into following a call-to-action. This idea is a proven recipe to beating the best ever reply rate.

 BAB: Before, After, Bridge

This persuasion technique can cast a convincing impression on the reader that encourages him to respond.

It’s all about setting the current situation and its solutions apart, where a reader is encouraged to decide whether he wants change or not. According to behavioral psychologists, the reason why this method works is because human are more likely to respond to pleasure and pain and BAB does exactly that in order to induce readers to respond.

It differentiates between current (painful) and after (pleasurable) scenarios:

Before—Your current stage, or likely stage while dealing with a problem

After—A happy scenario when the problem is solved

Bridge—How you can help them bridge the gap between before and after

You can begin by introducing the reader to their problem; then describe why they need to eliminate it or how things will change when that problem is solved. And at the end, explain how you can help them eliminate that problem with your product/idea/service.

  AIDA: Attraction, Interest, Desire, Action

It’s a proven technique for social media marketing and is equally beneficial for cold emailing.

AIDA stands for:

A—Attraction

I—Interest

D—Desire

A—Action

 The basic idea is to hook the potential buyer, deepen his interest, then initiating a desire in him to buy from you and finally luring him to take action. If you plan your email on this technique, your email is more likely to get a reply.

 PAS: Problem, Agitate, Solve

PAS is different from BAB; it’s not about differentiating between before and after scenarios. It doesn’t create a happy situation rather deepens the pain to induce CTA. As pain is even more compelling than pleasure and forces a person to react immediately.

Problem—Introduce the problem

Agitate—Tell them how it’s only going to get worse without a solution

Solve—Put your solution forward

Today, people want to avoid problems and unnecessary hassles or burdens.

So instead of showing them a life without problems, PAS focuses only on the problems and how they’re going to get worse day-by-day. Then it offers a solution followed by a CTA.

 3  S’s

The idea here is to keep the email short, to the point and easy to understand.

Remember, less is more and in a busy day, your prospects won’t have time to know it all in just one email. So pick a brief idea, don’t deviate and keep it simple.

Short—Keep it short (42% reply rate)

Straight-Forward—Get to the point

Simple—Keep it simple

This technique is sure to work, especially if you’re targeting a large group or audience.

As a matter of fact, shorter emails generate a quicker response. So follow the3 S’s and beat your best response rates.

Now that you know the various proven methods to write a successful cold email, let’s focus on points that you should keep in mind while creating a cold email, no matter which method you follow.

 Here’s what to include:

    Your subject line should be straight-forward and honest.

    Also, include a link to unsubscribe, cold emails aren’t forced.

    Present yourself accurately.

    Your business address should be present.

 Cold emails show potential buyers exactly what they are looking for. Personalized emails help in building interaction and are written to fit individual needs as receivers are more likely to connect with the information that matches their interests. Cold emails are aimed at forging new relationships with potential buyers and connecting with unknown targets.

 Include a Clear Call

 The main motive of your email should be to build brand awareness. Whatever action you need the reader of your email to perform it should be clearly mentioned within the email and it should be a short as well. A basic example of a CTA would be SPAM because all SPAMs are stuffed with CTAs that urge the user to visit a website.

While writing a personalized cold email, keep the aforementioned tips in mind.

These things will have a huge impact on the readers and will compel them to react. Also, it’s very important to select the persuasion techniques wisely.

Keep your target audience and their interests in mind.

Experiment if you don’t succeed the first time and know what works the best for your business. The right technique might just double the chances of receiving a lead through cold emailing so research well and make the best out of the techniques mentioned above.

By selecting the right technique and keeping the above-stated tips in mind, you can create a cold email that makes for a successful outreach. If done correctly, cold emailing could become your business’s favorite marketing weapon to connect with potential buyers. Just put a little bit of identity and realness into your emails and watch your business grow.

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Cold Email Marketing Tips

There are always some high-value prospects that you have not had a chance to meet and introduce your offers to. For these prospects, you may try cold email marketing to capture their attention and why not?

Cold emails can have an open rate as high as more than 45%. So how do you get your prospect to respond to your emails and show interest in your products? While luck plays a role in the likelihood of getting a response, there are things you can do to increase the chances of getting your respondents to open, read, and respond to your email.

Here are some few tips on ways to increase the reply rate for cold marketing emails.

 Give the best first impression

The subject line is the best point of increasing the email open rate. Below are guidelines for creating an enticing subject line.

• It should be simple and direct.

• Personalize the email with things like the first name of the recipient

• The subject should not have click bait–the information in the subject line should be in the content of the mail.

• The subject lines should provide value to the reader.

• The preview of the email should give comprehensible information.

 Research on the client

One of the biggest cold emailing mistakes is sending the same message to all prospective customers. Every prospect is different. Therefore, a single message may not connect with every individual. It is important to research both the company that one wants to market to as well as the recipient of the email.

One can research the social media profile and websites of the prospects, or learn about them through professional contacts. Armed with that knowledge, you can then draft an email that connects with their personality, beliefs, and their line of business. Most prospects do not respond to generic emails. People need to feel that the email addresses them and their situations and not mere generalizations.

 The content of the email should provide value

Most sales professionals are obsessed with their products and their potential that they forget about the needs of the prospect. When marketing a product to a business or an organization, the focus of the content should always be how the product would help the organization achieve its goals. Otherwise, an amazing product without any perceived value will not elicit interest.

A good way to approach this challenge is to identify a problem that the company may be facing which can be solved by your product. Have this in mind when drafting the email and demonstrate how your product or service can help deal with the challenge. In addition, there should be a subtle message that shows that your product is better than whatever they may have been using.

  There should be no rush

Unlike the final consumer, organizations take time to decide on products and especially where a substantial amount of money and learning time is required. Other times, the decision to meet the salesperson has to be discussed by a team. Therefore, one should not be in a hurry to follow up with subsequent emails. It is good to give the prospect several days, a week or two before sending any other email. When the prospect finally replies to the email, the salesperson should not be in a hurry to set up a meeting or prod the client for more information as he or she may risk making the prospect cold.

Where a follow-up email aims at giving more information about the product, the customer should have time to breathe and process the information. Most prospects will back off when high-pressure sales techniques are employed.

  Determine the recipient

Most marketing emails sent to an address such as [email protected] are not responded to. This is because there is no specific person that the email addresses. Again, many emails bounce due to wrong addresses or being directed to people who have left the organization.

It is important to determine the recipient of the mail and check if the address is correct to improve the delivery rate. A low delivery rate signals failure in conducting due diligence.

 Avoid being salesy

Most marketers feel the urge to immediately ask to meet the customer in the very first email. Unfortunately, most prospects would not agree to a meeting after the first email. It is important to strike a conversation with the client and then warm them up to the product.

A good approach to the challenge is treating the email as a face to face meeting. One does not go straight into selling a product to a stranger. There is a little conversation and getting to know each other before selling the product. Conversational emails have a high reply rate.

 Make it short

Cold emails are like an elevator pitch; they should be short and sweet. The marketer should not oversell or make more than one pitch on the same email. The email should have the main point which is then elaborated by a paragraph or two. The prospects are likely to read out the whole email if it is short, straight to the point and gives them a solution to a problem that they may be facing.

Cold email marketing is similar to meeting strangers. The email should introduce the sender, start a conversation, and give the recipient a reason to reply to the mail. Moreover, it should show that the sender understands the business and offers a solution to a challenge, or helps the organization improve in a particular area.

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Sales Follow-up Email Templates to use for Your Next Cold Email Campaign

A common mistake when sending sales emails or any kind of outreach email is to overlook the follow-up. All the emphasis gets put on sending a great initial email, while the follow-ups become little more than a mindless exercise.

That’s a huge mistake, since research has shown time and again that most sales result from a follow-up.

So why then are sales reps still: Sending bad emails? Timing their emails poorly, for instance, waiting too long to send a follow-up, not waiting long enough, or being too persistent and sending too many emails?  Just not bothering to follow up at all?

Below are some templates for follow-up sales emails that we have picked from various other websites. This means others have and may well be using them in their own follow-ups. So before you send your first follow-up, take a few minutes to personalize and make your chosen template your own.

 Keep it short and sweet

Hi again, [name], [Show the person you aren’t a robot]

I know your inbox is probably a busy place, so I just wanted to send a quick follow-up email. I’d love to chat with you about having [prospect’s company name and what you want].

My original email is copied below for quick reference.

Would love to chat,

[your name]

All sales emails should be short, but follow-ups should be even shorter. However, this doesn’t mean you have to do away with all the pleasantries. You can be polite, friendly, and human, while keeping things concise – as this template goes to show.

 Make replying a easy task for recipients

Hi [name],

I see you’re too busy to reply at the moment. Could you please just hit me back with a number 1-2-3 that best describes your response?

    Please leave me alone!

    Too busy, email me again in a month, please.

    I’ll write you back in a week.

This format is popular because it works. And it works because it makes it incredibly easy for prospects to reply. Just bear in mind that if you use it, you’ll need to pay extra-close attention to how much you adapt it.

 Be honest

Am I bugging you yet?

I hate pushy salespeople, at the same time I’d hate to think I gave up on trying to help you when all you needed was one piece of helpful information I’d forgotten.

This template recognizes that, and it works, thanks to its simple, brutal honesty.

 Show absolute belief in your product’s fit for the prospect

Hey [First Name],

I understand your position, but I wouldn’t follow up with you if I didn’t strongly think that [your company] can help [prospect company] solve [challenge] by [product benefit #1] and [product benefit #2].

I can promise you that [your product] is going to be an industry standard. By choosing to not implement it, you’re putting your business and your ability as a [their department] person at a disadvantage.

Let me know if you want me to jump on a call so I can walk you through what we do.

Best,

[your name]

This type of response gives a reason for following up that simultaneously reinforces what the prospect stands to gain from the product.

 Add value

Hi [name]

You likely deal with [business pain], so I thought I’d share a quick tip many of my clients have found helpful: [1-2 sentence actionable piece of advice].

I have a few more ideas around [improving X]. Let me know if you’re interested in hearing them.

Best,

[Your name]

There’s no rule that says the focus of a follow-up email should be the fact that you’re following up. The template above doesn’t do that, and instead tries to tempt a response out of the prospect by adding value in the form of advice the rep thinks they’ll find useful.

 Remember, the important thing is that you follow up. While it can seem logical to assume that if someone hasn’t replied to your first email, they’re not interested, that’s not necessarily the case. Very few prospects say “yes” the first time around.

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Cold Email for Influencer Outreach

Here’s the system that we found works , and it can work for you, too.

Step 1: Find the Influencers

Before you reach out, you need to identify the influencers – both big and small – in your industry.

There are several ways you could do this, but I generally like to keep things simple. We start the search with a quick Google query. We Google relevant keywords and phrases followed by ‘influencers,’ ‘communities,’ ‘groups,’ or ‘blogs’ and make a list with a few readily-available metrics like number of followers and publishing schedule.

If  we are looking for influencers in DIY home improvement, We might Google “DIY home improvement” or “DIY home improvement blogs.”

Click a few links, collect a few names, and build your list.

Next, check out their social media profiles for more data. While there, use the platform search in the same way to find platform-specific influencers on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and more.

Remember that it’s not just about the number of Twitter followers. Medium-sized influencers are often better than the big fish – and easier to work with – while micro-influencers are increasing in value all the time.

You want numbers, yes, but more important is the engagement they generate – likes, comments, share, mentions – and their impact on their community. The best influencers have reach, relevance, and resonance.

Step 2: Follow Them on Social

After generating a list of potential influencers, We like to check out their profiles and follow them on social media.

By scanning and reading the stuff they share with their group, you can get a better understanding of them and whether they’re actually a good fit for your  product and audience, and  by genuinely getting involved with them in some small way like commenting, liking, or retweeting,  you can warm them up even if only slightly.

By following and engaging, they can see your name at least a few times. Then, when you  get around to the actually outreach, you are  not a complete stranger to them.

Step 3: Reach Out Via Email

After we have spent some time on their preferred social media platform or channel, it’s time to reach out and make direct contact.

The key here is to provide value to them, to help them, and to generally make them look good.

We might make a comment or offer a sincere compliment about a recent blog post they’ve written, ask for a short quote for a piece we are writing (with a promise to send them the link later), share an article or round-up from my blog that mentions their product or website.

Step 4: Nurture and Nourish

Once you get that coveted response, nurture and maintain the relationship for all it’s worth … because it’s worth a lot. It’s a give-and-take situation. Give in the first email or two, then take something in the next one (a guest blogging spot, a product review, or whatever).

Clarify for yourself what kind of relationship you want this to become. Is your ultimate goal for them to be an advocate, user, contributor, cheerleader, reviewer, or something else? Know going in so you can gently move the relationship in that direction.

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How to Leverage Cold Email in Your Influencer Outreach

If you’re looking for a way to grab the attention of your ideal buyers, then you need look no further than someone who already has their ear. You need an influencer. Get them to put in a good word for you, and your chances of success increase exponentially.

Influencers are individuals in a particular industry that have some degree of sway over your potential customers. They have already built credibility, trust, and authority, so when they recommend or advocate for a new product, the community reacts in a very positive way. That means more sales, more signups, and more revenue.

It’s not the only way to connect and engage with your target market, of course, but influencer marketing works very well in our modern digital landscape.

Some Facts:

For every $1 spent, influencer marketing delivers an average of $6.50. That’s a 650% return-on-investment.

Influencer campaigns are the fastest-growing customer acquisition channel, according to 22% of surveyed marketers.

59% of surveyed marketers plan to increase their influencer budget.

The top two most cost-effective methods for customer acquisition are influencer marketing and email.

Before we go any further, we need to define what an influencer is and is not. An influencer typically has a big following, creates and shares their own content, has a sizable email list, and enjoys higher-than-average engagement from their community.

They have an audience and a voice.

An influencer may be a traditional celebrity like an athlete, actor, singer, or ‘other’, but they don’t have to be. Many influencers are not famous outside of their own sphere of influence. In fact, many influencers don’t even have a huge following. Called micro-influencers, they can pack just as powerful a punch.

As long as they have genuine clout and reputation, the actual numbers become relatively unimportant. If their community reacts and responds to their suggestions – do they buy and spend based on what the influencer says? – Then the size of the group doesn’t matter.

Cold email is a great way to reach out and connect with influencers in your industry, but you’ve got to do it the right way.