If youâre still sending the same templated emails to your prospects, chances are youâre doing more harm than good. Templated emails rarely contain a message that works for breaking into the majority of accountsâeven if they rely on other marketing techniques, like A/B testing.
With less than 1% of cold emails receiving a response these days, reply rates have never been lower. Why? Because your prospects, who are saddled with more communication responsibilities than ever, have been trained to ignore you.
To fight through the rest of the noise thatâs flooding your prospectâs inboxes, you need to do whatever you can to stand out. The good news is that writing a great email is not as hard as you might think.
There are three levels of engagement for writing a personalized email. Letâs call them:
Iâll break down each of these approaches throughout this post, but will start by sharing this truth: if youâre reaching out to someone, it should be clear from the start that the person can legitimately benefit from your product or service. If thatâs not the case, you should not be sending them an email.
That being said, the first rule of cold-email engagement is: Always do your research!â
Start at the account level and follow these steps:
All of these activities will help youânot only with your initial outreachâbut throughout the entire sales process. Thatâs because doing this research provides you with information that can be used at different points in your sequence.
Even if you write amazing cold emails, youâre still not going to hear back from at least two-thirds of the recipients on the first touch. That being said, make sure you have plenty of info in your back pocket for future outreach...
Once youâve conducted the research listed above, itâs time to start researching the prospects themselves. Open up Sales Navigator and narrow down your search results. If you have a tool like LeadIQ and a Sales Engagement Platform, you can add these people and all of their necessary contact data into the proper Sequence/Cadence right from this view. Next, choose one person and open up their LinkedIn profile.
Scan through their profile. While most of the information you see can be useful, be sure to check out the Activity and About sections first, as these sections often yield the richest information. Donât forget to look at any Recommendations, as this area can reveal personal details (such as the prospectâs preferred name). A quick Google search can also prove fruitful.
No matter how much information you find on a prospect, you should be able to answer these four questions:
If you find anything that you have in common with your prospect or something that has legitimately piqued your interestâcool. You now have enough information for the most effective form of personalization, Personalization 3.0.â
Letâs say, on the other hand, that you donât have anything in common with the prospect, but you see a few things that they might be passionate about. You already have a decent understanding of their role and the challenges they regularly face, but you know that taking your insights one step further will increase the chance of a response.
In this scenario, you can look at things like where they went to college, where they live, how long theyâve been with the company, previous roles, other companies theyâve worked at in the past, job posts, company news, LinkedIn posts, etc. You can then place the information you find in the subject line and the first sentence of an email.
The prospect (hopefully) will be so intrigued by the personal touch that they will open and read your email. Thatâs the method for writing a Personalization 2.0 email.
If the person youâre researching doesnât share much information in their online profiles, and a Google search leads you to nothing but an endless rabbit hole into the deep dark abyss of Facebook and Twitter, then your next best bet will be demonstrating an understanding of the company they work for, as well as their role.
âRelevance is the keyword for Personalization 1.0 emails, and it works by showing the prospect that you understand and can meet the needs specific to them and their business.
A great way to write a relevant cold email is by talking about a customer that is similar to the prospect, and how your company + product successfully solved a problem that customer faced while also mentioning something youâve noticed about their company or team.
This email finds a relevant point of interest between the prospect and an ongoing client. It demonstrates:
a) your ability to relate to the prospect
b) your companyâs competence
c) a reason for the prospect to get in touch.
This type of email will stand out from templated emails, and give you and your company a competitive advantage. Do your research, stay personal, and stay relevant. Thatâs the secret recipe for writing a cold email that reaps rewards.
âHappy prospecting.