QUICK & DIRTY GUIDE TO COLD EMAILING

Send outreach emails thatactually get responses

A practical resource for salespeople:

Use buyer personas and pain points to amazing effect

12 irresistible cold-email templates

Data-driven advice for subject lines, sending times, etc.

Where does this aversion come from? Prob-ably from past ineffective experiences - the wrong cold email, sent at an improper time to an inappropriate recipient, can make a sales rep think twice about their next email.

This ebook was written to quell those fears and provide sales reps with a short and snappy guide to writing the right kind of cold email - the kind that gets you responses.

With effective templates and savvy follow-up techniques, the cold email can turn from an annoying check on the to-do list to a true pros-pecting ally.

Read on to get up to speed on what you need to set the stage for an effective cold email, as well as 12 tried and trusted cold email tem-plates ready to use, and finally, quick tips for making sure you get results like these:

The cold email. Love it or hate it, it’s an indispensable element of your sales team’s arsenal. However, even though email marketing has two times higher return than cold calling1, many prospectors approach the cold email with more than a little hesitation. Afraid of being shot down, or worse - receiving no response at all - sales reps don’t always see cold emailing as a viable lead generation technique. 1 Source: Marketing Sherpa

Getting Started:

“Email is almost 40 times better at acquiring new customers than Facebook and Twitter”

Source: @mckinsey

Setting the Stage(what you need to know before you click ‘send’)

Buyer Persona

Before you rush into composing your cold email, stop and take a step back: there are a few key aspects of your email’s recipient that you need to be familiar with before you start pounding away at your keyboard.

To write an effective cold email, you need to get inside the head of your prospect - walk a hypo-thetical mile in their shoes, so to speak. To do this, you need to know at least a little bit about their:

• Role at work: What does their job consist of? Business hours? Availability? Typical characteristics?

• Business: What industry do they work in? Size? Revenue? Local or international? What’s the business culture like?

• Objectives: What do they aim to achieve in their job? How is their ‘success’ measured?

• Challenges/Problems: What are their main challenges at work? What are their sources of pressure? How do they react to being interrupted by phone/email? Are they always crunched for time? Are they control freaks or do they delegate work?

• State of mind: Gender, age, education? What is their personality type? Are they more interested in concrete, short-term solutions or looking at the big picture?

• Way of buying: Do they prefer buying by telephone, email, physical meetings? What websites do they use to look for a new solution? What do they think about salespeople in general? Are they more focused on a solution itself, or rather on its implementation, it’s technical aspects, the time and cost involved in on boarding/installing, in financial investment, or in the risks involved?

All of this information will let you start painting a picture of your buyer personas. After all, you need to have an idea of the type of person you’re writing to in order to make your messages as relevant and attention-grabbing as possible.

REMINDER: A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal buyer based on knowledge of your client base that you have from your sales team, market research or other pertinent sourc-es.

Pain Point and Value PropositionThis information will help you to outline two very important parts of your emails - your recipi-ent’s pain point and your value proposition (which should fit nicely with the former). Hitting the nerve of a prospect’s pain point will make them sit up and pay attention to your outreach email...correctly and succinctly identifying and communicating this pressing need is key.

REMINDER: A pain point is an underlying pressure, an “If x happens, then y happens” scenario. If you’re talking to a Sales Manager, their pain point will not be “that their sale reps don’t make enough cold calls during the day.” Rather, it will be what happens because their sales reps don’t make enough cold calls - they don’t hit their targets, the revenue forecast looks dim, the Sales Manager’s reputation internally suffers and they get in trouble with their higher ups!

Once you’ve identified the right pain point, this is the moment for your value proposition to shine. The phrasing of your value proposition - which should respond unambiguously to a pain point - should be carefully crafted, as every word counts. Put yourself in the shoes of your pros-pect (this is where their buyer persona comes in handy) and explain how your solution assuages their pain point in a way that highlights your differences and advantages over direct and indirect competitors.

Putting Pen to Paper: Subject LinesNow you’re ready to start composing. But first, your opening line. No prospect will even get to reading your email if the subject line isn’t enough to draw their attention so they actually open what you’ve sent. That’s why a good subject line deserves a few minutes of thought.

Some words of wisdom:

• Keep it short. We’ve found that with our own outreach emails, sticking to below 35 characters (and under 7 words) leads to the best open rates. At least avoid using over 50 characters, at which point we saw a significant drop in opens.

• Don’t be tricky: Though you do want to pique the curiosity of your recipient, you don’t want to be deceptive or outright lie. The last thing you want to do is frustrate the very person you want to build a trustful relationship with. Use a subject line that hints at your value proposition and how you can bring value to your lead.

• Beware the SPAM filter: Avoid words that will trigger SPAM filters, even if your intention is to announce that you’re not spam! ‘Spam’, ‘free’, “#1”, “Affordable”, “Offer”, “buy” and other overly salesly sounding words should be banned from your subject lines. Googling the latest spam-triggering phrases can be a good idea before sending off your first round of emails.

• Experiment: At IKO, we’re constantly A/B testing our subject lines to see which works best for a certain persona, sector or offer. The only surefire way to know if a subject line will work is to test, test and test again. If you’re using an automated email engagement solution like IKO’s Smart Engagement, check the engagement analytics once a week eliminate poor performers and priviledge high flyers.

Composing Your Mail:12 Useful TemplatesNow that all the preliminaries are taken care of, you’re ready to send out your message in a bottle! Here are 12 tried-and-true templates ready for use by your sales reps.

Scenario 1: The Direct LinkedIn Admirer

Email 1:

NOTE: Keep the style casual, include a few “imperfections” so it doesn’t look too polished or cookie cutter.

(Our internal average over entire scenario - 83% open rate, 32% response rate)

Predictive Lead Generation solutions can also usually provide new leads from a list of named accounts, in which the territory is delimited, or from a dynamic territory, using criteria such as demographics and firmographics.

Predictive benefits

Email 2: (2 days later)

NOTE: Solutions like Calendly let prospects book a time directly in your calendar, which can help boost meetings for busy, efficiency-oriented prospects.

Email 3: (5 days later)

Email 4: (8 days later)

Email 5: (8 days later)

Short Alternative: Brave LinkedIn Admirer

Email 1:

NOTE: Actually going on a prospect’s LinkedIn profile (not in invisible mode) is a good way to create an instant connection. If they actually go to check and see you really did visit their page, this is a perfect way to instill a sense of trust before you even get them on the phone. It’s therefore worth putting in this extra step if at all possible.

(Our internal average over entire scenario - 81% open rate, 43% response rate)

Email 2: (2 days later)

NOTE: The ‘sent from my iPhone’ can be added even when the email is sent from a laptop or desktop. The idea is to make the approach as ‘real’ and relatable as possible - and to show that you’re busy and on the road!

Email 3: (3 days later - Not in thread)

Email 4: (4 days later - In thread)

Email 5: (8 days later - In thread)

(Our internal average over entire scenario - 78% open rate, 39% response rate)

98%of current users of Predictive Lead Scoring say they would purchase again.

Scenario 2: The Friendly Approach

Email 1:

Email 2: (7 days later)

Email 3: (7 days later)

Email 4: (7 days later)

Email 5: (7 days later)

predictive scoring vendors

Top TipsNo matter which scenario you choose, or if you want to create your own starting from scratch, there are several rules of thumb that apply to virtually any outreach email.

First, always keep in mind what might actually get a prospect to respond to you:

Problem: You hit the nail on the head and addressed their pain point - they’re bound to want to learn more.

You: You showcase your expertise and you don’t come off as too salesy - this is the perfect combination for you to add value.

Curiosity: This is a powerful motivator: hinting at a new technology, if you add an air of mystery to your message...

Reciprocity: If you give a “gift” to your prospect, they’re likely to want to respond in kind. Providing truly relevant articles, white papers and other content can be a good start.

Fear: Anxiety over an impending challenge, threat or competition is another strong motivating factor to get in touch with someone who could possibly help, aka YOU if your value proposition is well-worded and relevant.

These are the primarily colors you need to use to paint your amazing, effective outreach email.

And finally, some golden nuggets of wisdom:

• You can work with any kind of response - even seemingly negative ones• Make sure your variable fields sound natural: Marc instead of MARC, “Apple” instead of

“Apple Inc.”• Only one CTA (Call to Action) per email: Check out this content, click on my calendar link,

tell me what time works for you…• Think about your signature: If using a photo, make sure it looks professional and inviting• Think multi-touch! If you have access to engagement analytics, try “warm calling” passive

leads that are the most engaged with your emails but haven’t responded yet.

Contact usRequest a free trial

contact@iko-system.com

The ultimate sales automation software to engageleads and trigger 5x more meetings.

www.iko-system.com | +44 (0)20 38 087 745