Although it may seem like old-fashioned communication, cold email is still a powerful tool for business growth. If used correctly, a well-crafted cold email can help you book more meetings with potential clients and partners.
According to Experian, personalized emails deliver 6x higher transaction rates. Avoiding generic and personalized outreach boosts your conversion rates and book more meetings than other, often paid methods.
Are you looking to book more meetings with potential clients but don’t know how? Then, effective cold email outreach could be the key to your success! This blog post will share tips on crafting an effective cold email to help you snag more meetings.
Benefits of having a cold email outreach as a lead generation channel for SMEs
Email is almost 40 times more effective at securing customers than social media. The most obvious benefit of using a cold email outreach campaign for SMEs is getting many potential clients and partners. By casting a wide net, you increase your chances of booking more meetings with qualified leads.
Another benefit of a cold email is that it’s a cost-effective way to reach your target market. Cold email is relatively affordable compared to other forms of marketing, such as paid advertising or PR. You can also track the results of your campaign easily, so you know exactly how much revenue it generated.
Finally, cold email is a great way to build relationships with potential clients and partners. By sending personalized messages demonstrating your knowledge of their business, you show that you’re invested in making the relationship work. This can help you stand out from the competition and win more business.
Best strategies to skyrocket your meeting bookings through cold email outreach
In this part, we will share actionable tips companies can implement in their cold email strategies to increase their conversion rates.
Find the right decision-makers
The first step in any effective cold email outreach campaign is finding the right decision-makers. This can be tricky, as you need to identify the people with authority to make decisions about working with you.
LinkedIn can be an excellent resource for finding this information. You can use LinkedIn’s search feature to find the contact information of CEOs, owners, or other key decision-makers at a company.
Type the company’s name and click on “People” under “Company Profile.” This will bring up a list of all the employees at that company. You can then use the search bar to find the contact information of specific employees.
Use LinkedIn to create a list of potential prospects, and then you can find their emails from LinkedIn contacts. Once you have the contact information of the right decision-makers, it’s time to start crafting your cold email messages!
Clean your email lists and ensure emails are valid
After finding decision-makers’ email addresses, there is one more step before hitting the send button. Clean your email list to ensure that the emails you are sending are valid and recipients can indeed receive your emails.
There are a few ways to verify email addresses. The quickest and most accurate is to use an email tester to check if emails are valid.
Email verification is necessary because it ensures your emails reach their intended recipients. If you don’t verify your email addresses, you risk your messages being marked as spam or bounced, which can negatively impact your sender’s reputation.
Deliverability rate is the percentage of emails successfully delivered to their intended recipients. A higher deliverability rate means that more of your messages are getting through, and fewer are being marked as spam or bouncing.
Start with personalized subject lines & preheader text
We will share tips for writing subject lines that increase open rates and creative preheader text.
Personalize your subject lines
One of the best ways to increase your open rates is to personalize your subject lines. Personalized subject lines are more likely to be opened because they indicate that you’ve taken the time to personalize the message for the recipient.
You can personalize your subject lines by including the recipient’s name, company name, or other personal information. You can also use a tool like Subject Line Tester to test different subject lines and see which ones have the highest open rates.
Start with a question
Another way to increase your open rates is to start your email with a question. Questions are more engaging than statements, encouraging recipients to take action and read the email.
You can ask recipients a question about their company, their industry, or any other topic that’s relevant to them. This will help you catch their attention and encourage them to read the rest of the email.
Write a personalized email copy
Getting your emails opened is one thing, but making recipients read through your email, click on essential links and reply to you is another. When writing personalized email copy, there are a few things to remember.
Make it personal
One of the most important things to remember when writing personalized email copy is to make it personal. This means including the recipient’s name, company name, or other personal information.
Personalized emails are more likely to be opened and read because they show that you’ve taken the time to personalize the message for the recipient.
Keep it short and sweet
When writing personalized email copy, try to keep it short and sweet. Recipients are more likely to read an email that’s concise and easy to understand.
Try to limit your email to one or two paragraphs, and ensure all of your points are straightforward and easy to understand.
Leave a good first impression with your email signature
As important as a short sweet and personalized email is, another thing that could flip the scales in your favour is a good first impression. By being clear and precise about who you are and how prospects can contact you if they’re interested, you’ll have a much better shot at winning them over.
An attractive, professional email signature will help you stand out in the crowd. Keep it actionable, and don’t overload it with unnecessary information. With a free email signature manager, you can add your personal details and link your website or social media to tell more about what you do. Most importantly, your prospects can book meetings directly from your email signature with a booking button.
You can have a beautiful, highly-converting email signature not just for yourself, but for your entire team. The Email signature manager lets you bulk create and implement consistent professional email signatures for your entire team at once. Even add a banner to your email signatures to promote your latest campaigns!
Automate your outreach sequences
Accordingly to Moosend, marketing automation users experience a 451% increase in qualified leads. That’s why when it comes to outreach, automation is vital.
There are several reasons to automate your cold email outreach:
- Automating your outreach can help you save time and increase your efficiency.
- Automated email sequences allow you to send a series of emails to a recipient without manually sending each email individually. This can save you time and will enable you to reach more recipients in less time.
- Automation also helps you avoid common mistakes that can hurt your outreach efforts. Automated email sequences ensure that your emails are sent correctly.
Finally, automation can help you track your results. By tracking the responses you receive from your automated emails, you can see which messages are most effective and adjust your outreach strategy accordingly. You can automate your cold email outreach using various tools.
Test different email closings
When it comes to booking a meeting, you don’t want to send multiple emails to your prospects before they have the option to schedule a meeting. It is all about experimenting with what works best.
For some industries, asking for a meeting in the first email works, but for some, it is wiser to touch base first and continue booking a meeting later. Try out several email closings and see which ones have the highest response rate.
Use SimplyMeet.me links in your emails
One of the best ways to schedule a meeting is to use a SimplyMeet.me meeting scheduler in your email. This lets your prospect quickly book a meeting without going through multiple emails.
You can create personalized links with your recipient’s or company’s name. This will help increase your chances of getting a meeting booked.
Personalize your email closings
When it comes to email closings, personalization is key. You want to ensure that your closing line sounds personal and relevant to the recipient.
Make sure that the next steps are clear
After you have finished writing your email, be sure to include a call-to-action (CTA) that is clear and easy to follow. This will help minimize any back-and-forth with emails and will make it easier for the recipient to book a meeting with you.
Focus on relationship building
When it comes to email closings, focus on relationship building. Don’t be “high-pressure” and only aim for the conversion. Instead, create a relationship with your prospect and aim to provide value. This will help increase your chances of getting a meeting booked.
Experiment with your email campaigns
When it comes to email marketing, one size does not fit all. What works for one company or individual might not work for another. That’s why it’s important to experiment with your email campaigns and find what works best for you.
1. Create multiple campaigns
When it comes to email marketing, it’s important always to experiment with new campaigns. This will help you figure out what works best for your business and increase your chances of conversions.
To get started, create a few different campaigns that you can test. Make sure to have enough data before making any decisions. We recommend sending at least 100 emails before using something for a test.
2. Test different subject lines
The subject line is one of the most important aspects of an email campaign. This entices the recipient to open the email, so you want to make sure it’s something they’re interested in.
You can test different subject lines and determine which ones have the highest open rates.
3. Test different email copies
Another important aspect of an email campaign is the email copy. This convinces the recipient to take action, whether clicking a link or booking a meeting.
You can test different email copies by sending different variations to a small group of recipients. This will help you figure out which copy has the highest conversion rate.
4. Test different CTAs
Another way to increase your chances of conversions is by testing different CTAs. This encourages the recipient to take a specific action, such as clicking on a link or booking a meeting.
You can test different CTAs using A/B testing software to send two variations of your CTA to a small group of recipients. This will help you figure out which CTA has the highest conversion rate.
The most important cold email metrics
These are the most important cold email metrics because they will give you insight into how your email is performing and where you can make improvements.
1. Open Rate: This metric will show how many people have opened your email. A high open rate means that your subject line was adequate and that people are interested in what you have to say. Conversely, a low open rate could mean that your subject line was ineffective or that your email was sent to a cold list.
2. Reply Rate: This metric will tell how many people have replied to your email. A high reply rate means that people are interested in what you say and willing to engage in a conversation. Conversely, a low reply rate could mean that your email was ineffective or sent to a cold list.
3. Bounce Rate: This metric will tell you how many people bounced your email. A high bounce rate means your email was not delivered to the recipient or the recipient’s mailbox is full. A low bounce rate means that your email was delivered successfully.
4. Click-Through Rate (CTR): This metric will tell you how many people clicked on a link in your email. A high CTR means that people are interested in what you have to say and are more likely to take action. A low CTR could mean that your email was not practical or sent to a cold list.
Bottom line
Start experimenting with your cold email outreach campaigns today and see how they can help skyrocket your meeting bookings. Just be sure to keep the following best practices in mind: separate your email list into different segments, find the right decision-makers, personalize your subject lines and preheader text, write a personalized email copy, and automate your outreach sequences. And above all else, always test different email closings to see which one works best for you.
About Author: Antonio Gabrić
Antonio is an outreach manager at Hunter. He is passionate about testing different outreach tactics and sharing results with the community. When he is not connecting with industry leaders, you can find him on his motorbike exploring off-the-beaten paths around the world.