Let’s face it: Cold email is not always well perceived, yet there is no marketer who has not relied on this technique. It gets done, but fearful of comparisons it is often not said!

Think about this: on average, B2B employees spend at least a quarter of their working day on their inbox, which makes it a vital part of their communication, especially if it is sales-oriented. Email can easily become boring, impersonal and consequently ineffective. To help you break this status quo, here’s a list of actions that will help you write emails that convert.

1: Deeply understand the potential customer

Once you have picked out activities which are compatible with your product or service (you can this with your own research or by relying on profiled databases such as Bancomail’s), the aim of your research is to find out the specific interests of your target audience.

Put another way: show your recipient that you know them. In the case of a company you can use social channels and the website, from which you can gather a lot of other information. Your task requires you to make a careful analysis of strengths and weaknesses. Your role will be to solve a real problem that your potential customer is going through.

Once you have identified these particular aspects, make sure you mention them in an understandable way in your message. In this way you will provide a concrete context for your reader.

Each email will become unique, but you can still send them all with one single click! Compose your email template by including customised portions of text as placeholders: by using professional sending platforms, you will be able to associate each recipient with a dedicated content field!

Don’t be lazy, then: thanks to databases such as Bancomail’s, you have a lot of additional data besides master information. You can learn a lot about your potential customer through their website or social networks (available on request)!

2: Don’t write like a template (even if you are a template)

Templates are a super time saver and allow you to replicate a proven message to several recipients, but if you have chosen your inspiration from some online gallery, remember to distinguish your message or your recipient will perceive it as the same as dozens of other competitors.

If you use templates, customise them to make them more similar to your tone of voice and your brand. There is no need to use hyperbole or doggedly researched words: good writing requires you to be clear and concise.

Be friendly: the best emails, the ones where you build a relationship, are conversational. Don’t jump headlong into why your product is superior to the alternatives, but start by outlining the framework in which it will be useful. This is the part where you empathise with your reader and it can be reassuring to tell them about your experience or that of one of your testimonial customers.

3: Keep your email short and clear

This is not a nonsense to the previous point! The secret to writing a perfect email is to provide enough information wrapped up in a content that is both educational and ‘fun’ to read (it’s calledinfotainment).

Before you explicitly ask for something as decisive as a purchase, you need to create trust and recognition. An easy way to do this is to offer value upfront, that’s why a good cold email should offer information and availability for a free consultancy. This approach establishes a very powerful driver in persuasion: reciprocity, a mechanism whereby human beings naturally tend to return a favour.

Here are some clear purposes to get straight to the point:

• Offer a preview or a free demo of your product
• Share an article useful for understanding the offer
• Offer guides or report that could make a difference to reader’s activity

Don’t be afraid to give a deadline when waiting for a response: urgency, expressed politely and without ultimatums, gives a reason for action. If your offer is time-limited, mention it; if you are trying to schedule a meeting, suggest a specific date and time!

4: Technology helps

Sending with a professional sending platform not only helps you to tailor your message to increase the chances of contact, but also provides you with many details such as the amount and pattern of clicks and opens.

You can use this data for two purposes:

• Learn and improve – Email-Tracking will help you over time to make better and better decisions: you can test different formulas and understand the best sending time.
• Combine follow-up actions – in your role as a salesperson, email is a tool for you to generate interest and engage the first contact. It can take up to 10 touch-points to get a response from your prospect, so why expect the first email to close the deal?

5: Make it easy to respond

When you’re cold emailing you’re prescreening your prospects, which is why it’s essential to offer a lead magnet, a hook to grab your reader’s attention: we’ve seen a few examples where the action expected by our prospect is to request a demo or a report.

Call to Action (CTA) are sentences designed to trigger expected actions in the reader. Practically speaking, it is a short text that clearly explains to the user what to do and how to do it.

A powerful CTA should:Includere un verbo che rappresenti un’azione

Usare parole in grado di generare un’emozione

• Include a verb that represents an action
• Use words that generate emotion
• Motivate to action by reminding the user of the incentive provided

In your cold email you therefore need to be very clear: your potential customer needs to know what to do to explore the topic further. Your task is to make this process as simple as possible.

Depending on your approach you can choose which path to follow. If you want to automate this process by providing more information, use an in-depth link, but make sure that users can easily get in touch with you from your website.

If, alternatively, you prefer to establish a bond with your reader, make yourself available to them with a simple sentence: “Do you have any questions? Don’t hesitate to ask by replying to this email” or “Reply “Yes” to this email and I will get in touch with you to answer your questions”.

Bottom line

Based on the tips we’ve shared, your own experience and inspiration, re-read your cold email by ideally dividing it into three parts:

1. The introduction: this is where the game starts; with the subject line and first words you capture your reader’s attention. This is where you make the difference between being read or trashed, so make them curious by getting straight to the point.
2. The Value Proposition: this is the heart of your email; focus on the value and how you can solve a problem. Why should your reader care? Put yourself in their shoes and make yourself relevant
3. Call to Action: this is the crux of your email; don’t dance around it, just tell your reader what you expect of them!