When it comes to lead generation, we’ve all received and heard about cold emails.
Often associated with spam, the reputation of cold emails has suffered from abuse in mass marketing, and many businesses are reluctant to implement a commercial strategy with cold emails for fear of negatively impacting their reputation.
It is, however, an effective technique that should be part of the daily activities of salespeople or Business Developers.
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What is Cold Emailing?
Cold emailing is a Lead generation technique that involves initiating contact through an email with a person who does not know you.
Cold emails are mainly used in B2B and have two main purposes:
- Break the ice with a potential prospect.
- Confirm interest.
Pro tip : At Reexia, we use cold emails for some of our clients, depending on their industry and target companies, generally as part of a strategy involving other channels (such as cold calls, marketing, etc.).
Your cold contact strategy should allow you to determine if your target can be a potential customer.
To achieve this, you must first identify your ideal target, and determine the right way to catch their attention and validate their interest.
In cold emailing, your approach will be to send a series of emails. 1 introductory email (icebreaker) and 3 to 5 follow-ups.
The response (or lack of response) from your target will allow you to judge their potential interest.
Here is an example of a simple sequence:
- Email 1 – Who are you, why do you want to get in touch, and can they be interested?
- Follow-up 1 – Did they read your first email? + A brief reminder of your initial request.
- Follow-up 2 – What are the benefits of working with you?
- Follow-up 3 – Is there another person to talk to?
What to do next depends on your target’s response:
- Your target gives you a good reason why they are not interested – take them out of the sequence and move on
- Your target tells you that now is not the right time – you may have identified a lead, keep in touch to build rapport
- Your target does not respond to you – try another approach or move on to the next target.
- Your target responds with a RFQ – well done but remember chances of closing on a cold contact are slim. Make the most of the opportunity to build rapport.
- Your target refers you to another contact – Now you know the right person to talk to.
- etc…
The results of your approach will strongly depend on the quality of your emails. If you use automatic or semi-automatic tools, make your emails look authentic. As a general rule, your emails should:
- Be short and direct
- Do not contain links or images
- Ask a simple question (call to action)
We’ll cover writing cold emails in another post. If you have any question or need advice, contact-us directly and a member of our team will be happy to help.
What tools are available on the market for sending cold emails?
At Reexia, we use a proprietary semi-automated tool that allows us to keep a very personal approach with our targets and links to our shared CRM Systems. But there are many tools available on the market. Below is a list of some the most popular solutions you can find:
