- Cold marketing emails can grow your audience—but only if you do it right
- The email that inspired this post on cold marketing email tips
- This isn’t one of my cold marketing email tips—it’s a requirement (kinda)
- Don’t force me into a time—and be sure to understand the concept of time zones
- If you have information to share, share it—don’t make me work for it
- Your email just looks spammy—make an effort
- Don’t ask me to do your job or feel sorry for you
- Cold emailing is tough—but it’s tougher when you don’t get your audience right
- Don’t try to “trick” me—there was no previous correspondence, was there?
- The last of my cold marketing email tips—offer some actual value
- What have we learned by reviewing these cold marketing email tips?
- Cold marketing emailing is tricky—don’t make it more challenging than it needs to be
Cold marketing emails can grow your audience—but only if you do it right
You may need some cold marketing email tips if you’re trying to increase your audience. Cold emailing means contacting potential customers you have no previous relationship with. Based on the email volume of most inboxes, just getting someone who doesn’t know you to open an email is a challenge.
But if you do get them to open it, that’s only half the battle. You can still screw things up. And based on the emails I get in my work inbox, most people have no idea how to send effective cold emails.
I get a lot of these emails in my work email. I can only assume most of these people are buying lists or using tools to scrape email addresses. I’m on LinkedIn and listed as the marketing team lead for my company, but my profile uses my personal email address. Searching for my work email address produces no hits. But I only get these types of emails in my work inbox, not my personal one.
Regardless of why I get them, I do. Most of them are horrible. None of them have swayed me yet! Let’s look at a few and see if we can figure out some cold marketing email tips based on the mistakes we find.
The email that inspired this post on cold marketing email tips
If you research cold marketing email tips, one of the first you’ll find is personalization. If your email isn’t personalized, it’s more likely to get flagged as spam. Many of the examples in this post were in my spam folder.
A few weeks ago, I saw an email with the subject line that had my university name in it. It was obviously a cold email, but it piqued my interest.
While Mud Creek Days is accurate, I don’t remember an infamous “Annual Tug-o-War”. I Googled “acadia university mud creek tug of war” and saw nothing about this event. So, that was odd. But it was a good attempt at personalization beyond just using my name. But then, the next line was:
SKREEEET! “That said?!?!” Damn, that’s a hard tangent. Needless to say, I stopped reading right there.
Personalization is vital to cold emailing, but getting it right is more important. Yes, this email got my first name and company name right. They even included my university name. But the horrible transition of “That said” was so out of left field that it was jarring.
This would’ve read much better if the author had taken the time to come up with a transition related to the opening.
In the tug-of-war between available SMS solutions, our cost-effective platform that fully integrates with Salesforce is the clear winner.
That’s a much more gentle (and clever) transition. I still wouldn’t have replied, but I wouldn’t have shared a screen capture of the email with my coworkers for a laugh. It wouldn’t have appeared in this blog either!
This isn’t one of my cold marketing email tips—it’s a requirement (kinda)
No one likes spam. Email clients are getting better at filtering out spam. To help combat spam, Google and Yahoo recently implemented new rules for mass emailers. This likely won’t affect you—unless you send 5,000+ emails daily. But meeting these requirements can only increase the chance of your emails making it to inboxes.
Part of these new rules includes a requirement to include a one-click unsubscribe link for mass marketing emails. That means a link that will remove the recipient from a mailing list with one click. It shouldn’t take you to an email preferences screen where you can select which emails to receive.
If you’re sending out emails manually to individuals, this requirement won’t apply to you. But if you use a platform like Mailchimp or Hubspot to send emails, you should definitely include this. Again, unless you’re sending more than 5,000 emails daily, this won’t directly affect you. But following this guideline can’t hurt.
The trend I’m seeing is the inclusion of a line like this:
Ironically, this entire phrase is linked and takes you to an email preferences page. Then, there’s the more informal version.
BTW, how can you not trust someone with the surname “Trusty”!?!
In most cases, I suspect these are just attempts to engage you. If you reply “unsubscribe” or “no”, there will likely be a follow-up email. It will likely contain some special offer to convince you to reconsider. If people don’t want to hear from you, they’ll mark your message as spam, and guess where your next email will end up?
Finally, using this method makes your attempt look spammy. Just don’t do it. Either include an unsubscribe link or leave it up to your recipients to condemn your future emails to their spam folder.
Don’t force me into a time—and be sure to understand the concept of time zones
A tactic I’ve noticed in many of these emails is that they try to force you into a meeting time. If you’re asking someone to take time out of their busy schedule to meet with you, do it on their schedule. I can only assume someone decided that suggesting a specific time was a great tactic. And now everyone’s doing it.
Can you see a problem with this approach? I see several.
- You’ve provided me with your Calendly link—if I want to find a time, I’ll use that. Don’t try to force me into a time that suits you.
- The line “In any case, you have the option to find another time here that is suitable for you:” makes it seem like your proposed time is somehow better—it’s off-putting.
- Your company is based in Singapore but has branches in Australia. My company is based in Australia (which has five time zones). I’m a remote worker based in a different country. In what f@cking time zone is this proposed 2 pm meeting?
The last point is an error I regularly see. Workplaces are becoming increasingly global, with many companies employing remote workers. If you’re going to propose a meeting time, include a time zone! It’s just common sense!
Oh, and here’s another of my cold marketing email tips—don’t propose meetings 90 minutes in the future.
I got this email at 1:31 pm. By the way, your sentence contains a comma splice. This should be two sentences. And Zoom is capitalized—it’s the name of a company/platform. And no, 3 pm today does not work for me—regardless of the time zone.
If you have information to share, share it—don’t make me work for it
I assume this has to do with boosting numbers for engagement rates. If someone replies to your email, that’ll make your stats look better. But if you have something to share with me, share it with me in your first email. Don’t make me jump through hoops to get it.
Why do you need my permission to send me a sample digest? Why not attach it to this email? Or at least share a link where I can download it without having to ask you for it. I might be interested if you provided some helpful information in your initial message.
Probably not. But I’m more likely to look at it on my own than reply to you to request it.
Your email just looks spammy—make an effort
Several of the emails have specific phrases bolded. The intent may be to draw attention to important information. But it makes your email look like a template. It seems like these are fields that whoever writes the emails needs to update. While your efforts may be to personalize the email, they have the opposite effect.
In general, any marketing email needs to feel like a one-on-one email. It needs to feel like it was written to you specifically. That’s why a “trick” copywriters will use is to create a persona for their campaigns. They write emails to that one person rather than trying to appeal to everyone. Try it. See what happens.
Don’t ask me to do your job or feel sorry for you
One of the cold email tips I read about was to include a line similar to:
“If you’re not the right person, please connect me with the correct person.”
If you think I’m going to spam a co-worker with your lousy email, you’ve got another thing coming.
Yes, you’re barking up the wrong tree. No, I will not forward your email to a co-worker so you can bother them. I like my co-workers.
I’m sorry, but desperate much? You want me to appreciate your efforts in sending me unsolicited emails? BTW, you emailed me five times in a 2-week period. You sent me this email with “one last note” a week ago. Keep your records straight.
Cold emailing is tough—but it’s tougher when you don’t get your audience right
I’d definitely question the legality of this information—if it’s actually legit. But there’s another problem.
My company isn’t in competition with Mindbody. There is a division that may be in competition, but mine isn’t. And none of my company’s divisions are in the Mining & Metals industry. That’s what made the following email super confusing (though the opening seemed suspiciously familiar).
If you’re sending out so many emails you can’t keep ‘em straight, you need to reassess your “system.” If you can’t keep your prospects organized, again, you need to take another look at the way you’re doing things.
Don’t try to “trick” me—there was no previous correspondence, was there?
Another popular tactic involves trying to trick you into believing the sender has contacted you earlier. They want you to think you’ve had some sort of previous exchange.
Nice try, but I searched my emails, and there were no previous emails from you. This next example went so far as to include a fake “reply-to” email in the body. I never got the May 01 email. Nice try.
BTW, I’d love to see the stats on how well that desperate opening works. Why the hell would I be interested in some random fun facts about you?
- My son is an adult
- I didn’t play tennis in college
- I’ve never lived in any of those cities
- Wait! I exercise daily, and I like Skittles!
Holy shit! I’ve got to contact this kindred spirit!
I’m sure Skittles are often the key that opens the door to A/B testing. But not mine. That door has been welded shut.
The last of my cold marketing email tips—offer some actual value
Many of these emails come off as incredibly vague and suspicious (i.e. spammy).
Guests? Not clients? What research is that? And what are your thoughts? Leading in which domain?
At least they included a time zone—but 12 pm EST is 1 am for me, so it doesn’t sound great. But if you actually knew anything about my company, you would’ve known that. We won’t be chatting anytime soon.
What have we learned by reviewing these cold marketing email tips?
Take a look at this email. Do you think it’s effective? Can you spot any of the above mistakes?
There’s no way you could know this, but this is another fake reply email—there was no note from a few days ago. Strike 1.
No Calendly or similar link for easy booking. Not a necessity, but it would’ve been nice. We’ll call that a foul ball. There’s another foul ball with the closing—it should be “Many thanks,” and yet another foul ball with E.g. –> e.g.
Oh, and there’s that line about asking me to piss off a co-worker by sharing their email address. Strike 2.
And the final strike for me is—you’re pushing your video production for demos and testimonials. Why not include a sample of your work? Like a demo of your product or testimonials from your satisfied clients in video format? You want me to consider you for video production, right? You’d have a better chance by including a sample ’cause your email ain’t doing it for me.
Cold marketing emailing is tricky—don’t make it more challenging than it needs to be
Cold marketing emailing is a tough putt, to be sure. But making the above mistakes makes it even less likely you’ll get any results. Avoid the errors above. Remember these cold marketing email tips for your next cold email campaign:
- Personalize—but do it right
- Include a single-click unsubscribe link (don’t ask people to reply with “unsubscribe”)
- Don’t try to force times for meetings, especially without time zones—provide a link to a scheduling platform
- If you’ve got something of value to share, share it—don’t make me jump through hoops to get it
- Don’t bold obvious values that’ll change depending on who you’re sending the email to
- Don’t ask me to spam my co-workers on your behalf—it’s not gonna happen
- Get your audience right—make sure you know who you’re mailing
- Don’t try the sneaky “fake reply” email
- Vague emails that offer no actual value will not convert—show me you’ve done your research
Following these cold marketing email tips won’t guarantee your emails will convert. But using them will give you a fighting chance.
If you need help with your cold email marketing, contact DC CopyPro. I won’t make any of these mistakes—I promise.
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