The first trick is to make people care — if you want them to open your cold emails, that is. For example, every day I get messages that start off like this: It’s become one of the most popular outreach strategies that don’t work. Never ask for something in the first email. Emails with personalized subject lines get 26% higher open rates on average, too. Even the worst emails, like promotional emails about stuff we don’t care about, benefit from higher open and click rates with personalization. I’d be willing to bet you and your prospects for cold outreach feel the same. There are too many emails that take up too much time. Because without them, your creative email never gets seen. My creative subject line was too creative and didn’t drive enough urgency to click. Instead of just accepting the “fact” that 97% of people won’t respond or click, we should be taking that as a sign that we’re doing something wrong.
Fewer than 24% of cold-outreach emails get opened.
That means that more than 75% of your cold-outreach emails aren’t actually seen by real people.
So your click-through rates or response rates are likely around the 2-3% mark.
Honestly, that’s terrible.
That’s not a knock on you! That’s the reality for most marketers.
Our customers are already fending off hundreds of emails each day. It’s incredibly tough to break through.
You don’t have time to spin your wheels. You can’t keep plugging away at something that’s not working.
If you want to drive sales or higher response rates, you can’t stick to the same old strategy.
Cold outreach is often seen as a mass-produced process. Most people are OK with losing 97% or more of their leads.
But why? Why on earth would you spend the time collecting leads just to lose them because “that’s how it goes?”
You shouldn’t!
Most cold-outreach ROI sucks. But thankfully, there are multiple ways to increase your success rate.
Today, I’m going to show you how to use personalization, concision, and communicating value without pushing benefits to drive better results.
And that’s just a few of the ways you can be more successful with cold outreach.
So here’s why your cold outreach ROI probably sucks right now and how to fix it.
Why most cold outreach sucks (and how to fix it)
The truth is that cold outreach isn’t dead.
And I don’t think it will be anytime soon, either.
In fact, it works very well if you know what you’re doing.
Email still can deliver the highest ROI for marketers because it takes less time and effort.
It is the best way to scale your efforts. Technology allows you to customize, personalize, segment, and automate your list with just a few clicks.
Unfortunately, most marketers are doing it wrong.
Cold outreach almost always sucks because it’s too generic. And it’s also excruciatingly boring.
Here’s a perfect example. You tell me if you’d give someone a minute of your precious time if this hit your inbox:
Dear ((name)),
Can I take 15 minutes of your time to tell you about ((my product))?
I think it would help you ___ and ___.
If not, is there anyone else I can speak to?
Sincerely,
Boring Marketer
I can almost guarantee you that you wouldn’t respond.
Why? Because nobody needs that product. They don’t care about it.
It seems like they don’t care enough about you, either.
That lifeless, stock-style template doesn’t try to help you at all. It only sets up their own selfish reasons for contacting you.
The first trick is to make people care — if you want them to open your cold emails, that is.
Because email beats social for customer acquisition every day of the week. And you can’t afford to fail.
There’s no room for error here. You can’t afford to lose people with your generic emails.
Automating your emails dilutes the message. You risk turning people off before you ever get a chance to turn them on. Marketing-wise, of course.
Here are some of the biggest mistakes you should avoid if you want to improve your cold outreach ROI.
Mistake #1. You’re not being sincere
I get tons of cold-outreach emails every day.
I answer over 400 emails a day. So there are at least a dozen cold ones in there somewhere.
Many times, they’re trying to reach out about Quick Sprout, Kissmetrics, Crazy Egg, or my other entrepreneurial efforts.
For example, every day I get messages that start off like this:
It’s become one of the most popular outreach strategies that don’t work.
It’s not sincere.
Do you actually use Kissmetrics? Are you signed up? Do you interact with the blog? Are you on the email list?
I can verify the answers to most of these questions in about 30 seconds.
And the majority of the time, the answers are all no.
Then, I even feel lied to! It seems disingenuous, and now my feelings are hurt.
It feels like someone is just using a deceitful tactic to cheat their way to the top.
Here’s another email you probably get all the time:
I loved your post on XX, mine is similar! Wanna mention it on your site?
C’mon, seriously? Everyone knows you shouldn’t ask for something without providing value first.
Instead, be sincere! Or better yet, see how you can help me first.
Then I’ll be much more inclined to help you.
If you don’t use a prospect’s tools or services or stay up-to-date with their blog, don’t claim to.
If you are the only one getting value, rework the pitch.
Try something like this instead:
First, it’s short and to the point.
I can’t stress this enough: Be concise! Busy people answer hundreds of emails each day.
Second, it doesn’t beg the recipient to give you something. They’re not even asking for anything from me!
Instead, it shoots for sincere and personalized. It strays from the typical cold-email strategy.
And that’s why it’s more likely to work.
Never ask for something in the first email. And never show that you’re only emailing to get something without giving anything in return!
Notice that this example comes off as sincere. It doesn’t ask the recipient for something in exchange for nothing.
Instead, it shows sincerity by discussing a previous article and making a case study out of it.
Then it seals the deal by simply asking if the receiver wants “a heads up” when it’s published, rather than asking for a link.
Or check out this email response I got a while back after sending out a newsletter email for a new blog post:
Now that’s sincerity! He’s actually subscribed to my email list and actively uses one of my products.
Then he tells me about his latest project that involves converting my infographics into video format. He’s helping me!
And again, he doesn’t ask me for anything except a few seconds of my time to check out the video.
Sincerity wins the day with cold outreach.
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