How to Design Cold Emails that Convert
No matter what cold email marketing strategy you have in mind, understand that the ultimate goal of your email is to get your audience to respond. For that, you should look into ways to boost your email marketing response rate using strategies like content optimization and personalized messaging.
No matter what cold email marketing strategy you have in mind, understand that the ultimate goal of your email is to get your audience to respond. For that, you should look into ways to boost your email marketing response rate using strategies like:
- Crafting a compelling subject line that grabs attention
- Personalizing the email content to each recipient's needs and interests
- Providing value upfront through helpful resources or insights
- Including a clear and enticing call-to-action
”A small list that wants exactly what you’re offering is better than a big list that isn’t committed.” Ramsay Leimenstoll
The different components of your cold email all work towards goals of content optimization and providing value to the recipient. For instance, the subject line aims to pique curiosity and lure the receiver to open the email by highlighting a key benefit or posing an intriguing question. The opening line then needs to quickly establish relevance and continue building value to earn further reading.
Next, the first line of the body needs to quickly establish relevance and value for the recipient to earn further reading. The second line should continue building on that value proposition, perhaps by highlighting key benefits or social proof. The third line is where you can insert your call-to-action (CTA), such as requesting a meeting, demo, or consultation.
The third line is where you insert your call-to-action (CTA). However, don't just bluntly ask for something - the CTA should feel like a natural next step after you've established value. For example, you could invite them to book a consultation to discuss their challenges further, or offer a free resource like a webinar or case study that's highly relevant to their interests.
The overall goal is to make your receivers respond to your message and start a conversation with you. But getting that response requires finesse - you can't just directly ask for something upfront. By providing value tailored to their needs and making the next step feel like a natural progression, you'll be much more likely to earn a reply and open the door to further dialogue.
10 Ways to Improve Cold Email Performance
Even if it is only a cold email marketing campaign, make sure that you do not sound like you only copied a message straight from an email template. At the highest level, use a personalized approach that demonstrates you understand the recipient's specific needs, interests, and pain points. Leverage details from your research on their company, role, and industry to make each email feel tailored just for them.
Here are our top 10 cold email tips:
Research and Qualify Prospects
Thorough research and lead qualification is crucial for successful cold outreach. Use tools like cold email prospecting platforms to build a targeted list of prospects that match your ideal customer profile. Consider using an email finder tool like ContactOut to streamline this process by uncovering verified contact information for your researched leads. This allows you to:
- Screen for Fit: Ensure you target only those truly interested in your offering by vetting against criteria like budget, decision-making authority, need for your solution, and buying timeframe.
- Gather Context: Learn about each prospect's company, role, challenges, and goals to personalize your messaging.
- Prioritize: Identify the hottest leads to focus your efforts for maximum impact.
The more qualified and researched your list, the more relevant and compelling your cold emails can be.
When used correctly, personalized marketing is a powerful tool to grow your business. Email prospects vastly prefer reading messages that are tailored based on their specific needs, interests, and context - which you can only achieve through diligent research and lead qualification. By gathering those vital customer insights, you ensure your cold emails:
- Demonstrate relevance: Addressing the right pains and priorities earns attention.
- Build trust: Showing you understand their world positions you as a knowledgeable partner.
- Provide value: Tailored insights and solutions feel more helpful than generic pitches.
Ultimately, qualifying leads allows you to stick to your ideal customer profile and ensure each email resonates.
Use Appealing Subject Lines
The subject line is arguably the most important part of a cold email, as it determines whether your message even gets opened. The best cold email subject lines can boost your campaign's open rates by 30% or more. With an engaging, curiosity-piquing subject line, you can prod recipients to open your email and read what value you have to offer.
Some proven subject line tactics include:
- Using the recipient's name for personalization
- Posing an intriguing question or stating a contrarian opinion
- Highlighting key benefits or outcomes you can deliver
- Keeping it ultra-brief and mysterious
There is no second chance when creating a first impression, so crafting an attention-grabbing subject line is crucial. Here are some proven tips:
- Personalize it: Using the recipient's name (e.g. "Hi Amanda") boosts open rates.
- Keep it simple: Brief, conversational subject lines (e.g. "Just tried calling you") feel authentic.
- Ask questions: Posing an intriguing query (e.g. "Do you have a referral program?") piques curiosity.
- Highlight benefits: Clearly stating a key value prop (e.g. "Increase leads by 30%") grabs interest.
- Use data: Citing stats or numbers (e.g. "The 5 marketing metrics you're missing") adds credibility.
The keeping-it-brief strategy applies not only to the subject line, but to the entire email as well. The body should be 3-5 concise, value-packed sentences at most, with a total word count under 100 words. This allows you to quickly communicate your value proposition and call-to-action without overwhelming the recipient.
Easy readability, a clear benefit statement, and tangible next steps are hallmarks of excellent cold emails with high response rates. By keeping your message laser-focused on what matters most to the reader, you earn their attention and increase the likelihood of a reply.
Send Emails At The Right Time
Timing is critical for ensuring your cold emails actually get read. Send them at the right time when recipients are most likely to have the bandwidth to review and respond. Consider the suggestions from a recent study by Coschedule:
- Tuesday mornings: Tuesdays tend to be the best day for email engagement as people are settling into their work week.
- Thursday afternoons: Thursdays are ideal for follow-ups, as people are wrapping up for the week.
- Avoid Mondays/Fridays: Inboxes are often overloaded on these bookend days, making it easy for emails to get buried.
Ensure Email Deliverability
Email deliverability is a crucial but often overlooked factor that can make or break your cold outreach efforts. Even the most compelling emails will fail if they never reach the inbox. Ensuring deliverability depends on several key aspects:
- Sender reputation: Your domain and IP address reputation, based on factors like spam rates, impacts inbox placement. Warm up new IPs gradually.
- Technical setup: Properly configure authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to validate your identity as a legitimate sender.
- Content quality: Avoid copywriting with spammy language and ensure emails provide value. Excessive sales-y language can trigger spam filters.
- List hygiene: Regularly clean your lists and suppress bounces, spam traps, and other risky addresses that damage reputation.
By optimizing deliverability, you ensure your thoughtfully crafted cold emails actually land in front of your prospects.
Focus On The Customer
Remember that when designing your cold email content, you are trying to connect with people who do not know you or your business yet. These prospects are not interested in learning about you - they care about how you can help solve their specific challenges and make their lives or businesses better.
That's why the most effective cold emails take a customer-centric approach, leading with relevant insights about the recipient's world and priorities. Demonstrate that you understand their unique situation, then position your offering as the solution to their problems. But don't make it all about your product - focus on the value and outcomes you can deliver for them.
In the email, at most one line should be dedicated to briefly introducing who you are. The rest of the message should focus on the recipient - their challenges, goals, and how they can benefit from your solution. Highlight tangible outcomes like increased revenue, reduced costs, or freed up time and resources.
Remember, cold emails are not about making a sale upfront. They are about starting a conversation by establishing trust, credibility, and value from the recipient's perspective. If your message makes it all about you rather than them, you'll likely get ignored or marked as spam.
Even if it is clear to your recipients that you are prospecting for new business, you still need to make your cold emails 110% about them and their needs. Start by acknowledging their likely skepticism of unsolicited outreach. Then, earn their interest by demonstrating a deep understanding of their role, industry landscape, and key priorities. Offer insights, resources, or new perspectives that are truly valuable and relevant to their world - not a generic sales pitch.
Provide Social Proof and Credibility Signals
While the core focus should be on providing value to the recipient, you can increase your cold email's persuasiveness by including credibility-building elements. Link to case studies, product demos, testimonials, or other social proof assets that your target audience can explore to validate your expertise and successful track record.
You can also cite data points, awards, or credentials that position you as a trustworthy, authoritative voice on their challenges. Just be sure to keep these elements concise - the bulk of your message should still address their needs, not make claims about yourself.
It is best if you can always provide a portfolio of work that your target audience can check out, such as:
- Product Demos
- Case Studies
- Popular Blog Articles
- Testimonials
Maintain Proper List Hygiene
Before launching any cold email campaign, it's critical to properly clean and validate your contact list. Use an email verification tool like MailerLite to identify and remove any invalid, risky, or problematic addresses that could harm your sender reputation.
Sending emails to non-existent addresses, spam traps, or honeypots can quickly get your domain blocklisted by major inbox providers. This makes all future emails far more likely to get filtered as spam or blocked entirely. Maintaining good list hygiene protects your ability to reach the inbox and ensures your messages get delivered.
Follow Up Persistently but Respectfully
You might feel the need to send multiple emails to make your recipients aware of your offering, but be careful not to come across as pushy or intrusive. The key is to find the right cadence that demonstrates persistent interest without being overbearing.
A good rule of thumb is to send an initial cold email, then a follow-up 5-7 days later if no response. If still no reply, send one final follow-up email 2 weeks after that before moving on. Adjust your timing and number of follow-ups based on your specific audience's behaviors and preferences.
Throughout the process, always maintain a respectful, helpful tone focused on providing value - not making demands of the recipient's time. If they ask to be removed, promptly comply.
Leverage Social Channels for Warm Introductions
In addition to cold emails, you can increase your chances of starting a conversation by leveraging social media and online communities. Monitor relevant forums, groups, and platforms where your prospects are active. Look for opportunities to engage with their content, provide value, and build familiarity.
You can also use tools to find email addresses and other contact info directly on platforms like LinkedIn. But don't abuse this by spamming cold outreach. Instead, use social intelligence to identify shared interests and make warm introductions that feel more natural than disruptive cold outreach.
The goal is to build relationships and rapport through multiple positive touchpoints before attempting a cold email pitch.
Set Realistic Expectations and Continuously Optimize
When launching your first cold email campaigns, it's important to set realistic expectations around engagement and response rates. Cold outreach inherently has low conversion rates, so expect initial campaigns to generate relatively low engagement as you find your groove.
However, don't be discouraged - use this as a learning opportunity. Closely monitor metrics like open rates, reply rates, and conversions. Then iterate to continuously optimize elements like your subject lines, messaging, audience targeting, and send cadences based on what's working and what's not.
As you refine your cold email strategy over time and build up a base of engaged contacts and attract new customers, you'll be able to generate increasingly higher quality leads. But it all starts with embracing a test-and-learn mentality from that very first campaign.
