5 Cold Email Tips to Get More Sales

You already know that sales are vital to the success of any company. Without them, revenue won’t come rolling in.

And you’re also probably aware of the fact that cold emails are a fantastic marketing tactic to utilize, especially in the B2B world.

What isn’t so easy to know is the ability to convert cold emails into sales. That’s why we often hear questions like: “how can I increase my response rate?” and “how do I turn the leads I’ve generated into paying customers?”

To help share some light on the subject, I’ve created this guide to lead you in the right direction. But first, I’ll cover the fundamentals that you’ll need to know before heading to the advanced stuff.

The Basics

Only send emails to verified email addresses - If you have collected emails from a sketchy database, chances are you’ll run into problems. That’s because the information listed isn’t verified. Therefore, you run the risk of the email address no longer being active, which can result in your email bouncing. If this happens, your bounce rate and spam reputation will increase - meaning all future emails sent have a higher chance of going directly into spam folders.

Don’t send emails to individuals outside your target audience - It can be tempting for you to send out mass emails to any verified email you can get your hands on. However, if you do this, there’s the possibility that the recipient will mark the email as “spam.” Obviously, this will hurt your reputation and increase the chance of future emails you send going straight to spam.

Are you having trouble finding verified emails to target? useArtemis is the answer. You can find and gather LinkedIn email addresses from the demographic you’re targeting in no time at all. And to make things even easier, there is an app version where you can put the software’s prospecting platform to work, giving you an abundance of verified emails to use.

But that’s not all! Once you’ve collected your list of prospects, useArtemis allows you to distribute the cold emails with just a few simple steps.

Now we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get into the tips you can take advantage of to bring in more sales.

#1 The Subject Line

This is the most vital part of any email. It’s the main way you can get your prospects' attention after all! With only a few words, you need to be able to explain why they should open up your email out of the many other cold emails they receive and read what’s inside.

Every important cold email metric, from click-through rate to response rate and more, relies on a high-quality subject line.

However, it’s better said than done. Subject lines can be a tricky thing to master. You want to gain the attention of your recipients, but you don’t want to look too salesy and come off as spammy.

First and foremost, you need to ensure your subject line is short and straight to the point. You don’t want a long and convoluted subject line that doesn’t provide them value. You need something punchy, concise, and gets to the purpose of the email in as few words as possible.

A recent survey found that 63% of people open their emails on mobile more than they do on desktop. With a much shorter cut-off point for mobile email apps, making your subject lines even shorter is imperative.

Keep In Mind the Three Common Motivations

There are three things you need to consider when writing a cold email subject line, self-interest, emotional interest, and relational interest.

But what does this mean?

Well, self-interest refers to the subject line offering value to the recipient so that they want to open it.

Emotional interest refers to the emotion you can get out of your recipient by making them feel special through your subject line.

Relational interest refers to some kind of connection you and the recipient share, making them want to open the email.

Because of this, using one of these three methods is critical for increasing cold email metrics.

What Else is Important?

Due to these three points I’ve just mentioned, personalization is key in writing subject lines. In fact, it has been proven that adding the first name of your recipient in the subject line increases open rates by 35%!

Finally, as mentioned earlier, you need to avoid ‘spam’ words such as ‘free,’ or ‘limited time offer.’ Why? Words like these often trigger the spam filter, sending your email to the dark depths of their junk inbox, never to be seen again.

However, with a bit of creativity and restraint in getting straight to the point, you are sure to craft stunning subject lines that will get your leads eager to open your cold emails.

#2 A/B Test everything

You can plan everything down to the last detail and the cold email marketing campaign can still not produce any valuable results. Or you could receive some traction from the campaign, but you know that the results could be much better.

Thankfully, there is an answer to solving these issues: A/B testing. By using this method, you can fully understand what’s working well and what needs improving. You’d be surprised by the difference that changing a single word can make. It could lead to the email being opened or skipped over. Therefore, you must be willing to adapt to what prospects best respond to.

One case study shows that when a business used A/B testing, its leads increased by a whopping 256%. So the importance of doing these tests can not be underestimated.

To start with, you must track the response rate of the two subject lines that have been created. If there’s a clear winner, then you need to implement it, even if you prefer the other one. At the end of the day, it’s all about generating sales, so the one that has the higher open rate is definitely the best choice.

After this has been achieved, you’ll want to test all other elements of the cold email too - different phrases, sentence length, paragraph length, and more. Once this is all taken care of, you should have a cold email template that’s ready to bring in the big bucks.

#3 Personalizing Your Email to Stand Out

Standing out in a sea of cold emails that leads receive every day is getting increasingly difficult. However, personalized emails are the key to achieving success. As we’ve mentioned in the subject line, personalizing cold emails is vital for increasing interest.

Prospects receive hundreds of generalized emails every day, which are easy to do, so putting in that little bit of extra effort really makes you stand out.

To create a truly great personalized email, you need to take time to research everything about the recipient and tailor the message to them.

Making your readers feel that they are important is one of the best things you can do when sending cold emails. But how do you do that?

The first and most important thing is to use the lead’s name. Now, this seems like a no-brainer but you’d be surprised by the number of people that forget to do this!

Specifics are also a great way to personalize a cold email, whether it is talking about something recent, such as a blog post they wrote, a Youtube video, or even a project they are currently working on. When they read that you are interested in them, they are more likely to be interested in return. This is because it's clear you have taken a lot of time to be more personal than many other cold emails.

Think about it. Would you want to receive an email that is basically a sales pitch or one that shows research and care have been taken to craft it? My bet is on the latter!

The point I’m trying to make is that personalizing cold emails takes a little bit more effort, but the result is all worth it.

#4 Following up

It’s an often occurrence for us, humans, to see something we like but forget about it because of a distraction. And this scenario happens a lot when carrying out a cold email marketing campaign.

However, there is a solution to grabbing prospects’ attention once again: following up. Now there are a few ways of doing this, and each of the ways you can use will likely see different results.

Our rule is that you should follow up a minimum of 3 times after sending your first message. It’s recommended that each follow-up message should be sent 3 to 7 days after the previous one.

If you don’t get many responses to your first email, don’t worry! This tried and tested method of following up afterward is likely to provide you with a load more responses down the line. As I said, they’re likely interested to learn more but have been pulled away by something else - so have faith!

#5 Book a meeting

We’ve all received cold emails directly selling products without any other communication. And 99% of the time, this results in the email going straight to the bin or being marked as spam.

No one wants that, so what’s the best way to promote your B2B products/services?

That’s right, you’ve guessed it: book a meeting.

Asking to have a meeting is much better as you won’t be directly selling to them. Instead, you will be asking them to have a conversation that will grow their confidence in your product/service, and most importantly, increase their trust in you.

You can’t do any of this through email alone, but providing that human element goes a long way to help you achieve your goals.

What’s more, it is unlikely that your email will answer all of their questions, but a meeting will provide them the opportunity to do so.

All in all, it’s important to remember that the goal of a cold email is to increase interest and most importantly book a meeting in the lead’s calendar to have a call with you.

That’s where the magic happens, and you are much more likely to increase your sales this way than with an extremely sales-pitch-focused cold email. It can be a real game changer in building and improving relationships with potential clients!

To wrap things up

Cold emailing B2B prospects doesn’t have to be difficult. When you have the right plan and the tools, such as useArtemis, nothing can stop you from unlocking the full potential of this marketing strategy.

So, hopefully, you’ve learned some helpful tips that will ensure future campaigns go smoothly.

That’s all I have for you today, happy emailing!