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After calling, emails are your second-best channel to reach out to net new prospects. That being said, there are quite a few things you need to know before sending out you first cold email.

Email Deliverability

Focusing on getting emails into the inbox, and out of the dreaded spam folder, but how? Follow these simple tips: 1) use only plaintext in your signature block by removing all links

2) ensure your SPF/DKIM/DMARC settings are configured properly for your domain. For more on this topic, see below link to Smarter Tools

3) do not attach pixels/tracking to your email

4) avoid using “spam” words. Use a spam word checker, such as Mail Meteor

5) check your domain for BLACKLISTS on known spam with MxToolBox

Email Content

Relevancy-at-scale

When writing emails, your copy needs to reflect either a pain that your ICP feels, or a problem that they do not realise is an issue. Knowing your target market is the only way to do this.

Research and determine what day-to-day looks like for them, put yourself in their shoes. What metrics is key to their success? It will vary depending on who you talk to in the org (Operations, HR, Sales, Engineering, Product, CS, Marketing et al.) Once you have a compelling reason why someone should look at your product, craft the message to resonate with the prospect, in a way that is less superficial but actually genuine as you are there to solve a problem.

Formatting

Formatting is what will make or break your open rates, due to the prevalence of mobile-use. On a mobile phone, your text will show up on their screen, so a good recommended length to keep your impact statement to is 90 characters. Use that real estate to good effect, and ensure you get the message clearly across what you are contacting your prospect about.

Also, keep the pleasantries towards the end. “Hope you are well” and “Hope you had a great weekend” are best left after your ask.

Examples

Ex. Hey ________, see that you’re hiring a bunch of SDRs at ________. We’ve spoken to other _________ in _________ and they say that their top priority is to reduce ramp time. With ________ we enable your ___________ to optimise and cut out unnecessary steps to reduce ramp by 30%, like we’ve done with ______ and ______. Curious if you wanted to find out more? - ____________

Ex. Speaking to other ___________ at ____________, they’ve told me that working on ___________ all day drives them nuts, with the updating and record keeping. What if there was a way to reduce all that double-entry and instead, have it done automatically from your call dispositions? We’ve helped _________ at _________ improve data hygiene and completion by 40%, making forecasting a lot easier. It helps save an average of 30 mins a day every day, so would that be worth 30 mins of your time to see how?

Tools

There are some amazing tools that can help with crafting perfect email copy. Here are a few that are constantly mentioned by other XDRs on LinkedIn:

• Lavender - helps you write better copy by giving you tips and tricks how to reduce, and make your copy more efficient. Free to try
• Grammarly - spelling and grammar checker. Free with premium upsell
• Regie.ai - AI copy generator. Paid only

Follow-Up

The most important part of cold outreach via email is the follow up or bump emails. Nearly all initial emails in a sequence will not be read, as the majority of responses come from afterwards. A bump email is:

• simple
• comes from the same thread/initial email as a reply
• jogs the memory of the prospect if they read your initial email

Ex. Hey _________, Any thoughts on above? (sig block) Hi __________, Understand your inbox is quite a busy one. Would it be better if I reach out ___________ to see if this is of interest? (sig block) Simple and generic, you will be suprised how much these bump emails get responses.

Further Reading

There are quite a few good resources to be found on the internet and LinkedIn about email as a channel for cold outreach.

The Best Cold Email I've Ever Received (and How to Write Successful...

(This article was originally published on 8/01/2017 and updated on 6/01/2021) If you're like me, you probably get at least one or two cold emails every day. At least. They either slither past your spam filter into your inbox or worse -- you receive a message from a random person or recruiter on LinkedIn.

www.proposify.com

The Only Guide to Sales Development Email Templates You’ll Ever Need

Tools

Email Grader by SalesLoft Labs

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emailgrader.com