There are two kinds of people in this world, those who reach inbox-zero and those who do not. I seem to fall in the latter category. My inbox is constantly flashing 1,100 unread emails no matter how much reading, deleting, archiving or replying I do. I never seems to be enough.
According to Radicati, there are more than 205 billion emails sent every day and that number is only expected to increase. That’s great news for sales reps, bad news for my inbox however.
Where cold calling used to be the method of choice, the adoption of smartphones and chat based apps have lead people to opt for text based communication over calls. MarketingSherpa found that 72 percent of consumers it surveyed preferred to communicate through email for business purposes. If people are overwhelmingly choosing to communicate through email, why is the average open rate only 24 percent?
What are sales reps doing wrong?
It could be your writing, but that might not be the only reason. Sending a successful cold email that engages your prospect and gets a reply is an art build with five factors in mind. Here they are:
1. It’s about connection
If you’re using a template found online, your email is going to feel cold and unauthentic. The key to getting your cold email read is breaking that feeling.
You want to form a connection with the prospect immediately and that means doing some research. Before sending that email, check out their profile on LinkedIn or Instagram and learn about their interests outside of work.
Use what you’ve learned to tailor your email. Find the prospects hot button issues and focus on how you can solve them. Keep searching, the more you learn the better able you’ll be to connect with them.
2. Warm up the cold leads
When researching, there are other actions you can take to make your emails slightly warmer. You can make yourself less anonymous by and start building your connections before you’ve sent your first email.
While you’re on different social networks and forums learning about your prospects, consider connecting with them or following them, commenting on the posts they’ve published and engaging with them.
In doing so, when you send your email they will have seen your name even before you’ve reached out. People are much more likely to read emails from people they know than from people they don’t.
3. Show validation
When you go to our website at the very top of the page you see what InboxBrain offers and who uses our tools. This brings credibility to our site and encourages visitors to continue reading about our tools and start a free trial. You can do the same with your email.
Assume your prospects are like me and have over one thousand unread emails, they don’t want another from just anybody. They want to know who’s emailing them and why. Sharing a bit of credibility in your email will do a lot in getting your emails read.
Share successful case studies from other clients or even articles you’ve written. If you have a mutual friend, no better way to make an introduction than that. Do whatever you can to prove to the reader that you can deliver what you are pitching. If you do this they will stop and pay attention.
4. Change your signature
Most people use a generic signature consisting of “best regards” their name, maybe their title and a phone number. Why not stand out a little?
There are a few ways you can snaz up your boring email signature. Consider adding a link to an article, case study or webinar that you or your company is promoting. This is a great way to share more information about your company even if the prospect isn’t ready to purchase your good or service. This provides a great way for them to engage with you.
5. Follow up
You could follow tips one to four on this list perfectly, write a beautifully crafted email and still get no response. It’s common so don’t stress. Remember, your first email doesn’t have to be your last.
Most salespeople don’t bother following up after their initial email. Statistics show that 80 percent of sales emails receive a reply after at least five follow-ups.
The fact that recipients don’t read your email doesn’t mean they’re not interested in your product or service. Maybe they were busy and when they had it open it got deleted by accident. Or your subject line wasn’t clear. Following up with another email, or two, or three, four or five to ensure no avenues are left unchecked.
In short
Establish a connection, do your research and interact on social at first, show your credibility, update your signature and most importantly follow up four to five times.
If you follow these five tips your cold emails won’t feel so cold and you will increase your reply rates. Use InboxBrain to automate your follow-ups and 10x your sales email outreach. Start your free trial below or schedule a call to learn more.
