Are you struggling to get your first customer? Reaching out to users, but no one's buying? Cold emailing can be a powerful way to reach out to potential customers and generate leads.
The first step in getting your first customer with cold email is to identify your target audience. This typically involved criteria like job title, job role, industry, and niche. You need to identify who are you trying to reach and what their pain points are:
Once you have a clear understanding of your target audience, you can craft a message that speaks directly to them. Personalization is key when it comes to cold emailing, so take the time to research your prospects and tailor your message accordingly.
Understanding Cold Emailing
What is Cold Emailing?
Cold emailing is the process of sending an email to a potential customer or client that you have not communicated with before. The goal of cold emailing is to introduce yourself, your product or service, and to try to start a conversation that may lead to a sale.
Why use Cold Emailing?
Cold emailing is a great tool for many reasons. Let’s take a look at a few:
- Low Cost: Cold emailing is a low-cost way to reach out to potential customers. Unlike other marketing channels, such as advertising or direct mail, cold emailing doesn't require a large budget.
- Targeted: With cold emailing, you can target specific individuals or businesses that you believe would be a good fit for your product or service. This allows you to focus on the most promising leads.
- Scalable: Cold emailing can be scaled up or down depending on your needs. If you need more customers, you can send more emails. If you need to focus on other aspects of your business, you can scale back your cold emailing efforts.
Overall, cold emailing can be an effective way to get your first customers, but it requires a strategic approach and a willingness to experiment and iterate on your approach.
Creating a Targeted Prospect List
To successfully acquire customers through cold email, you must create a targeted prospect list. This list should consist of potential customers who are likely to have the problem or pain point that your product solves. Here are some steps to help you create a targeted prospect list:
Identifying Your Ideal Customer
This includes understanding who they are, what they do, and what their pain points are. Consider factors such as demographics, industry, job title, and company size.
Researching Potential Customers
Once you have identified your ideal customer, it's time to start researching potential customers. This can include using tools such as LinkedIn, Google, Apollo, Clay, and industry databases to find individuals and companies who fit your ideal customer profile.
When finding leads, it's important to gather as much information as possible like their name, job title, company name, email address, and any other relevant information. The more information you have, the more personalized your cold email can be.
You should also prioritize your list based on factors such as likelihood to buy and potential value.
Crafting Your Cold Email
When it comes to cold emailing, crafting the perfect message makes all the difference in whether or not you get a response. The Follow Up newsletter provides a ton of great information on crafting your cold emails, as well as cold email best practices. Here are some key elements to keep in mind when crafting your cold email.
Writing a Compelling Subject Line
Your subject line is the first thing your recipient will see, so it needs to be attention-grabbing. Make it clear, concise, and relevant to your message. The key is to make the subject line not read like a “sales email” while also avoiding using clickbait or false promises..
Personalizing Your Message
Personalization is key when it comes to cold emailing. Take the time to research your recipient and tailor your message to their specific needs and interests. Use their name and reference any relevant information you've gathered. This will show that you've done your homework and you’re reaching out for a good reason.
Including a Clear Call to Action
Your email should have a clear call to action (CTA) that tells your recipient what you want them to do next. Whether it's scheduling a call, signing up for a free trial, or simply responding to your email, make it clear and easy for them to take the next step.
Remember to keep your email short, sweet, and to the point. The easier it is for the recipient to understand, the more likely they are to respond.
Following Up After Sending
When it comes to cold emailing, the magic is in the follow up.
When to Follow Up
It's important to give your potential customer time to read and respond to your initial email before following up. Generally, 3-5 business days in between emails is a good rule of thumb.
How to Politely Persist
When following up, it's important to be polite and respectful. Remember that your potential customer is likely busy and receiving many emails like yours, so you don't want to come across as pushy or annoying.
Here are a few tips for following up politely:
- Use a clear and concise subject line that indicates you're following up on a previous email.
- Mention your previous email in the body of the email to jog their memory.
- Keep your email short, brief, and to the point.
- Offer value in your follow-up email, such as a relevant article or resource.
- End with a clear call to action, like a phone call or meeting.
It's also important to note that persistence doesn't mean spamming your potential customer with multiple emails a day. Space out your follow-up emails and make sure each one provides value.
Analyzing and Improving Your Strategy
Once you have sent out your cold emails, it's time to analyze your results and make necessary adjustments to your strategy. Here are the things you should be analyzing:
Interpreting Email Metrics
Email metrics can provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of your cold email campaign. Here are some important metrics to track and analyze:
- Open rate: The percentage of recipients who opened your email. A low open rate could mean your subject line needs improvement or that your email list needs to be refined.
- Click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of recipients who clicked on a link in your email. A low CTR may indicate that your email content is not engaging enough or your call-to-action needs to be clearer. Side note: In many cases it is best to leave links out of your email to increase deliverability rates.
- Reply rate: The percentage of recipients who responded to your email. Positive: The percentage of recipients that responded positively to your email (booked a call, moved to the next step, etc.). Negative: Percentage of recipients that responded unfavorably (not interested, etc.).
By tracking and analyzing these metrics, you can identify areas of your cold email campaign that need improvement and make data-driven decisions to optimize your strategy.
Making Necessary Adjustments
Based on the insights gained from analyzing your email metrics, you may need to make some adjustments to your cold email strategy. Here are some adjustments to consider:
- Refining your email list: If you have a low open rate, you may need to refine your email list to ensure that you are targeting the right audience.
- Improving your subject line: If you have a low open rate, you may need to improve your subject line to make it more compelling and attention-grabbing.
- Personalizing your email content: If you have a low response rate, you may need to personalize your email content to make it more relevant and engaging to the recipient.
- Testing different approaches: If you are not seeing the results you want, you may need to test different approaches to see what works best for your target audience.
By making these adjustments and continuing to track your email metrics, you can improve the effectiveness of your cold email campaign and increase your chances of getting your first customer.
By Nic Conley, Founder @The Follow Up