For your business, a well-written cold email will work wonders.
Fortunately, you can make your message more persuasive to potential clients by correcting the most typical cold email errors. Therefore, it is what we will do today.
In this comprehensive article, we’ll point out the frequent errors marketers make when sending out cold emails and advise you on how to avoid them.
Is Outreach Via Cold Email Still a Good Strategy?
Prior to discussing typical cold email errors, let’s address the obvious: Is sending cold emails ever worthwhile? It’s a reasonable inquiry.
Only 8.5% of cold emails, according to studies, get a reply. And everyone is aware that inbound marketing initiatives can provide top-notch leads when sales teams are asleep. Additionally, LinkedIn makes it simple for sales representatives to establish personal connections with prospects. Why then do we bother?
While they are all true, they do not provide the complete picture. Few cold emails are read since they are typically spammy and poorly written. It takes a lot of time and work to implement inbound marketing effectively. LinkedIn is also a fantastic tool with some drawbacks.
In actuality, most sales teams still find success with cold email marketing. You can develop relationships with practically anyone if you do it properly. Then, you may use these connections to generate more business and advance your enterprise.
Nothing beats a well-written email delivered directly to the inbox of a qualified prospect at the end of the day. To succeed, you simply need to stop making typical cold email errors.
What Effect Do Cold Email Errors Have on Sales Success?
Cold email is a fantastic technique to communicate with prospects, as was already established. Unfortunately, the majority of sales representatives make too many errors for this method to be successful, which results in:
Low Delivery Rates
Spam folders receive bad cold emails. If you send too many of them, inbox providers may start to perceive your domain negatively, which will cause your deliverability rate to drastically decrease. Even if they are on your email list, it will be more difficult to email them when this occurs.
Unreliable Open Rates
The first step is getting into a prospect’s email. The second stage is to get the prospect to open your cold email. Unfortunately, poor cold emails rarely motivate recipients to respond. No one will ever read your material or click your link if they never open your messages.
Poor Lead Quality
A terrible cold email will occasionally defy the odds, make it to a prospect’s inbox, and be read by the intended recipient. You just saw a miracle, didn’t you? Someone contact the Pope. possibly not Poor messages rarely elicit responses from quality leads. It’s likely that the enthusiastic response you’ve received will lead to a lame-duck sales process.
Lost Time
You’re thrilled because you’ve just sent your first email. This potential client could be your first success with this tactic. I wouldn’t get too excited if your mail contained any of the frequent errors we discuss in the following section. Low response rates and even poorer sales are the results of poor cold emails. You must immediately fix them. You will only waste time if you don’t.
10 Cold Email Errors (And How to Solve Them)
Are you prepared to create a cold emailing plan? Great! Just be careful not to commit any of the following errors. Your efforts will be entirely wasted if you do this, no question.
1.Sending the wrong person an email
If you work in sales, dealing with gatekeepers is nothing new to you.
Your recipient is the gatekeeper you need to become acquainted with while sending a chilly email. Just double check that the individual is who you think they are. When you really wanted to message Joe in Marketing, the last thing you want to do is message John in Sales. Not good.
It is a waste of time to email the incorrect recipient. Additionally, it will damage your reputation with the business you are contacting as well as email service providers by making you appear to be a spammer.
What to Do Instead: First, stop using the “spray and pray” method of cold email marketing, which is sending emails to a random list of addresses and hoping that one of them responds.
Second, confirm that each lead you contact is a genuine individual. Make sure they are the correct person to email by checking again. (Note: Social media platforms may teach you a lot about potential customers. Use these tools to discern between genuine prospects and chance addresses.
I advise using an email discovery tool like Hunter.io, Lusha, or UpLead to find potential emails. (See this blog post for for details on the top email finders.)
2.Sending a protracted, dull email
I’m going to venture a wild guess and say that you aren’t Stephen King. James Patterson, Dan Brown, or J.K. Rowling are other unlikely candidates.
Stop attempting to write novels in your chilly email messages. They ought to get to the point quickly. Your recipients will hit the “Delete” button if they don’t, and you won’t hear from them again.
By informing potential customers about your company’s numerous honors, I know you wish to foster confidence. And you’d adore dazzling them with a long list of the qualities your product offers. Oh, and shouldn’t you also include the other clients you’ve previously worked with? No, I think you shouldn’t…
You’ve probably heard the adage “You never get a second chance to make a first impression,” so what should you do instead? Before you even get to know a potential consumer, do you really want to boring them to death? Obviously not. So be careful to keep your cold emails succinct and to the point.
How succinct and brief? Less than 200 words, but ideally between 100 and 150. This should be enough time for your prospects to become interested in you and choose to click your CTA.
Keep in mind that you are not using cold emails to generate revenue. You’re attempting to qualify prospects and initiate dialogues. The ideal way to accomplish this is with a brief statement inviting potential clients to go on an external link to discover more about you and your business.
3.Neglecting to Include Benefits
Do you discuss benefits in your cold emails or just list features?
You must emphasize benefits much more if you wish to succeed. Why? Since no one is interested in product characteristics.
Which would you prefer to purchase—a computer with an 8-core CPU, 8 GB of shared memory, and a 256 GB SSD—or one that will make it simple for you to join Zoom meetings for business, browse the internet in your spare time, and binge-watch Netflix over long weekends?
If you’re not a computer nerd, you probably went with option two. SSD, unified memory, and the CPU are unimportant to you. You’re interested in the things that nonsense will let you do.
Why should prospects care is a topic that needs to be addressed in your cold emails. The answer is that you specifically address their problems and offer a workable solution.
What to Do Instead: Avoid telling potential customers that your business can XYZ. Explain to them why XYZ is important. This will help you capture (and keep!) their interest
Keep in mind that recipients of cold emails are strangers. They don’t give a damn about your business or your goods. Whether you can assist them or not is the only thing that matters to them. You won’t receive many responses if your cold emails don’t make this clear.
4.Constantly sending too many emails
A moment of technical discussion please.
Deliverability rates will suffer with bulk email sending. Your excessive message volume will cause email providers to believe you are spamming people. As a result, a portion of your cold emails won’t make it to recipients’ inboxes, reducing your conversion rates.
If your emails are never sent to the recipients you intended, your cold email campaign will fail. Thankfully, there are a few steps you can take to guarantee maximum deliverability.
What to Do Instead: To start with, set a daily cap of 200 cold emails. If you transmit more than this, email providers may terminate your account.
I advise limiting your daily cold emails even more if your email address is new and doesn’t get many incoming messages. Also, remember to budget for follow-ups!
Assume you have created a four-email series and are using automation to send the emails at predefined times. In this scenario, you should send emails to no more than 50 new prospects per day. Due to the fact that 50 times 4 = 200, you will never go over your daily message restriction this way.
Warming up your email is one of the best strategies to guarantee deliverability. This will improve the standing of your email domain and raise open and reply rates.
Read our complete blog post about email warming for additional details.
5.Overselling in your opening message
A type of sales email, a cold email shouldn’t sound like one though! If your first pitch is overly salesy, you’ll undoubtedly turn off potential customers. After all, you weren’t asked to get in touch with them.
Unfortunately, this error happens a lot. Salespeople frequently use language like:
Hey Adam
I work at Company ABC, and I know you’re going to love our fantastic new product. It accomplishes XYZ, and our clients adore it. Can I give you a call so we can discuss more?
Thanks,
John
Why is this email flawed? It doesn’t feel customized and feels like a generic statement. (See below for more on customisation.) It automatically assumes the potential customer is interested in the product. Additionally, it does little to alleviate the prospect’s problems.
In essence, it’s a sales representative-focused communication that does nothing for the prospect.
What to Replace: Always prioritize your audience. What value can you offer to their lives?
Researching your prospects before emailing them is the best course of action. Then, in the first message you send, address the pain spots you have discovered. Here’s a brief illustration:
Hey Adam
Is your team having trouble increasing productivity and streamlining sales workflows? CRMConnect was created with this specific use in mind. Our platform provides all the resources merchants require to streamline procedures and close more sales. Can we talk about this for the next ten minutes?
Thanks,
John
This email is all about Adam and a possible problem he might be having. It is therefore considerably more likely to get a response. “Adam the Lead” will then change into “Adam the Prospect” after that.
6.Using inappropriate subject lines
The most crucial part of your entire cold email is the subject line.
Think about it: nobody will open your email if the subject line is terrible. Additionally, no one will ever read your sales pitch or click your CTA if no one opens your email.
No matter how in-depth and effective your cold email campaign is, it won’t work if you don’t capture the attention of potential consumers with a compelling subject line.
What to do Instead: Coming up with fantastic subject lines requires skill. But you can learn it without going to a Himalayan monastery to study. Here are some pointers to get you going:
Keep it Brief: On mobile devices, 61.9% of emails are opened and read. You might have observed that because mobile devices typically have smaller screens than laptops, subject lines are cut off early. Thus, limit subject lines to 60 characters or less.
Try personalizing your subject lines by using the recipient’s name. This is not an entirely foolproof approach. But research indicates that it can increase open rates. Test this strategy to determine if it benefits your sales team, just like you would with any other component of email marketing.
Be Sincere: “I will never lie in my email subject line,” say it after me. This is a bad method to establish a connection with a prospective client. How will you earn their trust once more? Don’t use “Re:” or “FWD:” in the subject line to entice recipients to open your messages. (Except if it’s actually a forward!) Instead, make sure the subject line is appropriate for the email’s content.
7.Omitting a CTA (call to action)
To persuade recipients to open your email, you’ve created a fantastic subject line. You wrote compelling body copy that will grab their attention. What’s next?
It’s time for the call-to-action, sometimes referred to as a CTA, my friend!
You instruct prospects on what to do next in your CTA. Perhaps you want them to call you, respond to your message, or click a link to a free white paper download. Make sure to let them know whatever it is. They probably won’t take any action at all if you don’t.
What to Do Instead: A CTA is required in every cold email. Before pressing the “Send” button, double-check that your messages contain one. Your efforts won’t be in vain this way.
Additionally, avoid sending prospects too many CTAs in a single email. Giving them options can seem logical to you, but their likelihood of doing nothing is higher. Instead, present prospects with a single CTA that is simple to comprehend and implement.
Your email signature and CTA are distinct. As long as they don’t deter prospects from your primary objective—getting them to click your CTA and proceed to the next stage in your sales process—acceptable it’s to create a compelling CTA and include links in your email signature.
8.Failure to customize your email template
It goes without saying that customized emails are preferable to generic ones.
You must conduct research on your prospects before using that information to establish relationships with them in your first email if you want your cold email strategy to be successful.
What to Do Instead: You won’t have any trouble personalizing emails. Better metrics and more sales will come as a result of your extra work, but it will take time. This is how you do it:
Learn about your potential through research. Peruse the profiles on LinkedIn. Read the blog of their business. Look for the difficulties people encounter every day.
Evaluate: After learning more about your prospects, consider how your business’s goods and/or services may benefit them. This is really crucial!
Write: Customize the email templates you use. Include a name for the person. Include the name of the business as well. Then discuss the precise problem they have and how your goods and services can resolve it. BOOM! personalized email
9.Failure to Follow Up
The size of your cold emailing campaign in terms of emails. The likelihood is that you won’t connect with many prospects if the response is less than five. According to studies, 60% of customers must decline an offer four times before accepting it. Your follow-up emails are crucial, in other words.
Of course, you are under no need to email a follow-up. On LinkedIn, you can also connect with potential clients. However, email follow-up is incredibly convenient now that it is automated. Let’s talk about that more.
Contact potential customers repeatedly as an alternative. After one frigid email, they most likely won’t respond. That’s alright. Send one more. then another then another
Aim to send follow-up messages at various times throughout the day. Try sending a follow-up email at 10am on Tuesday if, for example, your initial email was sent at 3pm on Thursday. Try sending a third message on Friday at 12 p.m. if the first two don’t work. Is that clear?
After some practice, you’ll discover the ideal occasions to send cold emails, at which point you can begin.
Now, you’re probably considering how to make the follow-up procedure more efficient. You are not to blame. Just picture how time-consuming it would be to manually send these messages, monitor each recipient’s response, and send follow-up communications based on this data. That sounds awful.
There is a better approach. Utilize an automated tool to take care of these activities. There are many email marketing platforms that can accomplish this, but because you work in sales, I advise choosing a good CRM that has email marketing features. The finest of both worlds will be yours thanks to this.
Use CRMconnect as an illustration. Using our platform, it’s simple to get in touch with prospects via phone, text, or email. When you do, it will be simple to keep track of them in your pipeline and increase sales. Win!
10.Forgetting to Improve Your Strategy
You’ve put a lot of effort into developing a cold email strategy for your business. I just want to know if it’s working, please. Until you examine your stats, you won’t know.
With every possible cold email strategy, you won’t be successful. Why? because you cater to a particular clientele. Some of the advice, suggestions, and best practices you read online will be ineffective. When that happens, you must take them out of your sales playbook.
What to Replace: On a frequent basis, evaluate your cold email strategy. Do you approach the appropriate leads? Are people reading your messages? Do your CTAs receive any clicks? Are you attracting legitimate clients or are you wasting your time on tire kickers?
You should probably focus on your email subject lines if your mails aren’t being opened. If people aren’t clicking on your CTAs, your body copy probably needs improvement. You can also need to personalize your messages more or contact better leads.
Try different approaches while writing cold emails. Try fresh strategies and remain open to new ideas. Then assess the outcomes to decide whether the aforementioned strategies are worthwhile. That is how you triumph.
Win by using cold email
In 2023, cold email marketing will still be a workable sales tactic. All you have to do is learn how to do it correctly. Start by avoiding the errors we discussed above. You will then be able to create lead generating efforts that are effective.
You know what else will be beneficial? a top-notch CRM program like CRMconnect.
You can design cold email marketing campaigns with CRMConnect, monitor interactions, plan follow-up emails, and more—all from a simple dashboard.
