Secrets to Improve Cold Email Response: Why Prospects Ignore

Grab a minute to pour some tea or have another espresso shot (6th in a row for today, huh?).

Let’s relax, and talk about why your prospects ignore the super-useful-free-piece-of-value-in-exchange-for-15min-sometime-this-week type of email.

You created a masterful subject line, nailed an email copy, included an excellent CTA, but the email did not make it?

I feel that pain.

The point is that almost 90% of the copy is only about yourself and solution, not about the person on the other side. You provide no personal experience, no value, and in the end, is squeezes lame and salesy.

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Here’s one of the  examples that landed in my inbox:

In other words:

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Greetings Yaro (I got your name from LinkedIn scraper), I put zero time in reviewing your profile and what your team does (my business is not tech-based), and I want your time to figure out if I can sell you something.

Have an absolutely terrific day.

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So will you respond? I doubt it.
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Here’s how you make your outreach better:

1. Make sure to put the prospect in the first place.

E.g., Hi Yaro, I noticed from your summary that you are a focused sales leader who sees the value in highly customized lead outreach.

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2. Do your homework. (do substantial research on each prospect. It pays out).

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E.g., Reading through your last publication on Medium, I got a sense it’s just about my situation! I’ve implemented some tips on email deliverability you suggested, and it worked.

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3. Do not ask for their time. Ask what they think. (your pitch)

E.g., Your article helped me to land a new customer, so I’d like to benefit you as well. We’re testing a new approach to hyper-personalized multichannel outreach to create quality relationships with prospects, and I’d appreciate your input as an early adopter.

Could it be of value?

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This copy (with some edits related to vertical and seniority level) landed me 12 appointments out of 50 emails sent.

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4. Be sure to properly warm-up your domain and email address before sending outbound campaigns.

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Email service providers will only allow your copy land in a primary box of your prospects if you have a good reputation. E.g. other people engage with your emails — open them, respond, mark ‘safe’, ‘important’, forward to their peers.

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Or — use a service like pipl.ai to do the job for you.

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Ultimately your goal is to retain interest. However, we’re not back in 2015 when email blast to random people worked. Now it’s all about the unique personal experience provided in each interaction. Period.

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