How to send cold emails which get 10%+ replies
What is the aim of a cold email?
Think of cold email as a book cover. You aren't sold when you see a book cover. Good covers pique your interest, they make you want to open them. It's the exact same with cold emails. You don't even need to mention your company name at times. Create messaging which piques interest and offers low-resistance calls to action.
"learn more"
"lead magnet offer"
"case-study"
"a call"
Copywriting is pretty simple, people overcomplicate it. Having seen thousands of cold emails in my time here is what makes a poor one.
The sender has used links
The sender's message is generic
The word count is over 100
Typos and mis-spellings
It's an obvious sales pitch
No personalisation is used
Here are my non-negotiables to copy-writing
Never use any links ever
Be personalised, as much as you can
Keep below 50 words
Use Grammarly
Don't pitch, pique curiosity
How to craft subject lines which get opened
Growth Engine X describes copy writing really well. I have taken extracts from Eric Nowaslawski's Growth Engine X Wrapped Document. You can view it here.
Subject lines are something we tend to overcomplicate in cold email campaigns. When I analyse clients' previous campaigns they try too hard, the only people who try hard with subject lines are salespeople.
Ex: Subject lines like “Don’t Hire Your Next Agency Until You Do This” or “The Last Compliance Software You Ever Need” are obviously sales subject lines.
The best subject lines are ones which are crafted in a way that is delivered by someone already known to the business which is still authentic and not deliberately misleading or click-bait.
Colleague
Client/Customer
Another stakeholder
I use subject lines like:
"quick question {firstname}"
or if you were selling IT recruitment services it could be "open developer role" you get the idea. Less is more. Simple is more.
I actually split-tested this with a client, 1 subject line was very well thought-out and one was “quick question.” The first got 45% opens and the second got 89%.
Calls To Action or the "Offer"
I'm not a firm believer in split-testing subject lines, I prefer to split-test the CTA or the offer.
I tend to alter my offer based on how hot a lead is. If a lead is a perfect fit I might vouch for a call and if the lead is part of a wider and more generic list I will use a lead magnet or a softer ask.
(Extract from Growth Engine X)
My biggest suggestion here is to use your CTA as a line that answers the question “How do we make this worth this person’s time?”
OK CTA Example
Would you want to hop on a call about this?
Better CTA Example
If we could help you reduce future OSHA violation fines with just 2 hours of implementation, would you take me up on that?
Poke The Bear (Josh Braun methodology)
Josh Bruan is the leading authority for copywriting right now. He uses this distinct language which is problem-centric and writes messaging which draws out the pain from the prospect. If you would like to learn more about his work, ditch this document and have a look at his: Read more here.
Basically, what we are trying to do is ask a question that cuts through to our prospect’s problems whether they know it or not.
Broad example
Instead of asking, “How’s the training going for your Ironman?” ask
“how are you thinking about training for your Ironman so you don’t get shin splints in the next 8 weeks?”
Example for a SaaS company
Instead of asking “Do you need help automating your sales commission” ask
“How do you keep track of varying sales commission rates for each role and their accelerators?”
Types of offers you can make
In reality, every offer you make is to save time or save money. From a B2B perspective we could argue that these are the definitive offers you can make:
Save time - automated cold outreach (Smartlead)
Save money - using 20+ sales tools at once on a credit basis (Clay)
Make more money - AI follow-up generator (RevReply)
Health - personal trainers for busy 9-5s
Increase your status - a PR company
Numbers 1-3 are the usual offers we make in the B2B space, I know these aren't exactly how we would word them but fundamentally that is what we are selling. When you craft your email campaigns, try and create offerings that achieve all 3 offers in a sentence.
“Are you looking for help to do your taxes in 2024?”
Change to:
“How do you know your current tax accountant is using every legal loophole to get you the most money back?”
Leveraging your USP
A lot of businesses don't really understand their USP. They say they do but it appears weak. When we are building campaigns have a think:
What can I say that my competition can't?
If you don't know this answer then you can use a tool called "ValidatemySaaS" (I really need an affiliate like for this company, lol) this searches for every potential competitor to your business, ranks them by similarity and points out the features that you have and they don't + points out their pros and cons by analysing their product reviews.
I'm building the most extensive and accurate database for small business contact info right now and I wanted to validate this tool and also give clarity on my messaging.
Here is one of the 40 competitor reports I got back.
I now know that the coverage of data is my golden nugget, the aspect that I should focus on.
BONUS: 30+ Ultra-High Performing Cold Email Templates
https://www.lemlist.com/cold-email-templates
I would have a look through all of these templates, they cover most industries and they are fantastic. You can also see the exact results they drove.
To recap:
Keep word count under 50
Send emails as plain text (no links, schedulers etc)
Be problem-centric (poke-the-bear)
Pique interest (have a shiny book-cover)
Give prospects a low-resistance CTA or an enticing offer