Back in the day, there was cold calling. During my college years, I had many-a-job making cold calls – from insurance agencies to charities. Not very many of us tolerate those calls anymore. National “Do Not Call” registries are popular, though not always effective. Chances are, you don’t know one single person who wants to receive a cold call, much less make a purchasing decision from one. Let’s hereby declare the era of the cold marketing telephone call dead.
What is the more commonly accepted way to communicate to potential customers today? It’s cold prospecting emails. Reaching out to current and former customers is not “cold”; the target audience is people you’ve never done business with before. How do you execute a cold prospecting email campaign that is more attractive and less annoying to the recipients? Here are 4 proven secrets to writing great cold prospecting emails:
1 – Craft a Winning Subject Line:
Fail on this one line and your email doesn’t even get opened.
- Research and know the names of your prospects.
- Use their name or company name in the beginning of the subject line.
- Be as specific as possible. No vague or open-ended questions.
Here are some examples of subject lines that fail, but are then tweaked to succeed:
“John Doe, are you in?” (Sounds sketchy.) Change it to: “John Doe, demo Product X in 15 minutes.” (Now your prospect knows what you are proposing and how long it will take him to try it.)
“Company Z, want to save money?” (Much too vague.) Change it to: “Company Z, let’s reduce printer costs by 25%.” (Who wouldn’t want to do that? This is a more specific and enticing line.)
2 – Check your Content:
Keep is short and simple. Do not write a long-winded introductory paragraph. Don’t go on and on about your qualifications. You need no more than 3-5 well-crafted sentences to get the job done. Get to the point.
Close your email with a question or CTA (call-to-action). Provide one link that is clear and obvious. Don’t ask someone who isn’t even your customer yet to work hard or look around for longer than a couple of seconds to figure out how to respond.
3 – Use Landing Pages:
A landing page is the web page that links to the one link you’ve put in your cold prospecting email. Do not just link to your website’s home page or your bio. A landing page is specifically constructed for those who are responding to your email.
Constructing effective landing pages is a separate topic. Check out my 2-part blog about landing pages.
4 – Follow the law:
There are penalties for spamming email addresses. Check the laws in your area before proceeding to send out cold prospecting emails. In the United States, read up on the FTC laws here.
Some general guidelines that must be followed to avoid being labeled as SPAM include:
- Don’t use a fake name, fake address, or fake anything. Always include your real address.
- Your subject line must not be misleading.
- Offer a way for the recipient to unsubscribe.
Use these secrets to success and you are well on your way to winning new customers with a cold prospecting email campaign! If this is a task that you’d rather leave to the professionals, call Mike Morris at Morris Marketing in Raleigh. Mike and his team of professionals can help you target the very best prospects with a winning email.
