Cold Email Tips

Without Using Automated Technology

I had a message this morning from a client interested in some tips when sending out emails to generate meetings. I know there are a lot of systems, tools, funnel management systems, and automation’s that are on the market to increase the impact of outreach messages. That was not the question in this case.

These tools are highly effective when you have an audience of hundreds or maybe thousands of people and you are trying to engage them. But what if you have a small audience and you are simply trying to get a reaction?

My client works in a high technology industry, they sell solutions to laboratories and research centres for highly complex biology such as gene sequencing.

This means that they are not targeting a large number of customers. They have a very small and specific audience that they’re trying to engage with. What that means is that they can create very specific email messages, and really personalise them.

What they were interested in were tips that might encourage their customers to open these emails and to act on them.

The real question was

“When is the best time to send a cold outreach email?”

Too often I think that organisations, who are trying to engage customers using email, forget to apply common sense. It is easy to become caught up in data and analytics and forget that you are dealing with people.

People, who are forgetful, who are busy, who have good intentions, and who have a lot to do in their current job.

We forget to apply our own experience to that of our customers when we consider sending emails and their reactions.

Foxleigh Insight

• It is OK to send the same email several times.

If your customer missed it the first time, then they don’t know it is the same. If your customer saw it, liked it, and intended to act but forgot, then receiving the same email again is likely to have a positive effect. It is highly unlikely that a customer will remember that they have received exactly the same email previously and will be offended by it.

• Do try different influence strategies.

It is clever planning if one version of your email uses social proofing, positive feedback from other customers, and another version uses scarcity. You will create a different tone for the same product and appeal in a different way to the same customer. Not one influence strategy is going to be fully effective, therefore using a sequence is likely to increase the chances of success.

• Do plan a sequence of emails.

Create three different versions of your email and then prepare to send them three times each. That way you have created 9 weeks of email activity for your target audience. If you combine that with social media activity you have a very effective and structured strategy lasting several months.