I know what you’re thinking: “Cold email marketing? Isn’t that dead?” Well, I’m here to tell you that it’s not. In fact, when done properly, it’s still a highly effective channel to acquire new customers and build relationships with them. But the truth is that cold email marketing is dead if you do it poorly. So if you’re going to try it out for yourself, make sure you follow these best practices for reaching out to your leads and getting them interested in your brand.
Define your campaign purpose and primary goals
Before you start your campaign, define your campaign purpose and primary goals:
- What are you trying to achieve?
- What are the main KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) that show that this goal has been reached?
- What is the best way to achieve those goals?
- What is the best time to run this campaign?
- How long should it run for?
It’s important to know these things because if you don’t have a clear vision of what success looks like, how can you measure whether or not your email marketing strategy was successful?
Create an email template and personalize each message
It’s a good idea to create an email template, then tweak it for each campaign. Here are some reasons why:
- It’ll save you time. When you’re sending out hundreds or even thousands of emails, this will save you a lot of time and effort.
- It’ll keep you consistent. Your brand will be cohesive across all your messages with this strategy in place, so recipients will feel like they know who they’re talking with when they receive your emails (and that can be a powerful asset).
- It’ll ensure nothing gets left out. An email template helps ensure that every message has the same essential information—such as where people should go if they want more info about your product or service—so there’s no confusion about what kind of offer is on offer here!
Send from a real person and not a noreply@domain.com address
You don’t need to use your own personal email address, but it’s important not to use a generic one like noreply@domain.com. The value of an individual’s name is that they can build credibility with their audience, so if you’re not willing or able to share yours then do what you can by using something as close as possible. For example:
- Don’t send from info@example.com or sales@example.com—use info@[your company name].com or sales [at] [your company name].* Don’t use support@[your company name].com—use customer service [at] [your company name].
Run A/B tests to try out several different approaches
An A/B test is when you run two different campaigns targeting the same audience, but with different variables. For example, one campaign might have a subject line that says “A Cold Email” and the other “10 Cold Emails That Will Get You More Leads.” You then measure which version gets more opens and clicks.
You can even split test multiple variables at once (e.g., subject line, number of emails sent per day, whether you send them to people who clicked or not). This will let you know what parts of your campaign are working best for your audience—and which ones aren’t!
Once you’ve completed the A/B tests, compare how many people opened each email and how many of those people clicked through to your landing page — this will give you an idea of what type of message works best in your industry.
Track data, keep an open mind, and learn from your mistakes
As you’re running your cold email campaigns, it’s important to keep track of the data. You want to know what emails are working and what emails are not working. And when you have a cold email that isn’t performing well, you need to make adjustments quickly so that it starts performing better for future senders.
In addition to tracking messages sent and opened rates, make sure that you’re tracking other key metrics like:
- Opens vs bounces (i.e., messages that bounce back due to bad email addresses)
- Click-through rates (CTRs) – how often people click on links in your emails
- Bounce rate – how many people mark an email as spam or junk mail after opening it
Cold email marketing can be an effective acquisition channel for you, but you have to follow best practices to make it work
Cold email marketing can be an effective acquisition channel for you, but you have to follow best practices to make it work. Here are the tips you need:
- Create a compelling subject line, such as “[Your company name] – How To Grow Your Business With Content Marketing”
- Write a short message that is personalized, relevant and interesting to the recipient
- Make sure your email template is consistent with all other touchpoints in your marketing funnel (website, social media posts etc.)
Conclusion
By following the above tips, you will be well on your way to creating successful cold email marketing campaigns. However, if you still have questions about how to reach out to potential customers using this method, don’t hesitate – contact us now!
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Red C is a well established email marketing agency who has over 15 years experience. We’ve worked across dozens of sectors including fashion, retail, travel, financial services and healthcare.
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