Jan 26, 2024

The Science of Effective Cold Outreach Emails

By Ethan Wade

What are cold outreach emails and why are they important?

A Cold outreach email is a practice of contacting individuals or organizations who are not currently customers or clients of a company in order to promote a product or service via email. Personal cold outreach can be a difficult task, but with the right approach, cold outreach emails can be an effective way to reach your ideal customers and target audience.

One of the most important aspects of cold outreach emails is understanding your target audience. Knowing what interests your prospects and what challenges they face can help you tailor your message to resonate with your ideal demographic on an individual level ( Check out our blog on converting customer profiles )... In fact, research conducted by BlueCore in 2021 showed that 74% of baby boomers, 72% of Gen X, 64% of Millenials, and 60% of Gen Z think email is the most personal channel to receive communication from their brands.

When done right, cold outreach emails can be incredibly effective when it comes to building relationships with potential customers. They are typically less pushy than traditional marketing emails and instead focus on building connections. This type of email can also help you learn more about your target audience and determine whether or not they would be interested in what you have to offer.

Additionally, cold outreach emails are important because they allow you to connect with people you would never have been able to reach otherwise ( Dreamline Digital, for example, has over 250M prospects in our network ). They can be used as a way to increase your network, find new clients, and build relationships. Oh and, let’s be honest: increase your conversions, aka make you more money.

Moreover, by using cold outreach emails, you can sidestep the common problem of worrying about spending too much on your marketing efforts. Research conducted by Litmus shows that on average email generates $42 for every $1 spent. That’s an astonishing 4200% return on investment!

That being said, establishing an effective cold email outreach strategy might just be your strongest cost-effective back-bone on your next outbound marketing campaign.


What can make a cold outreach email more “Effective” ?

Effective can mean a lot of different things in various contexts, in our case of cold outreach emails, effective can be defined as prompting the recipient to take your desired action. For example, asking your ideal customer to book a discovery call with you.

Whether you’re B2B or B2C, It’s our job when we write cold outreach emails to communicate our intentions clearly. While there is no one size fits all solution, there are a few key ingredients that will make your email more effective; giving you the best chance of increasing your conversions.



1. Tailor your email to your target audience

Research shows that over 35% of marketers send their customers emails 3-to 5 times a week ( Not Another State of Marketing, 2020).

Amidst this mass bombardment of prospects, tailoring your email to your target audience is your chance to stand out amongst generic sale-sy emails.

Personalizing and tailoring your email connotes to the reader on the other end that you’ve put thought into who the reader is, what they like, and what their needs and wants are, you put some effort into understanding who your prospects are as opposed to throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks.

Don’t be afraid to also mention specifics as to why you’re contacting the prospect individually. For example, if you are trying to sell software, it makes more sense to contact the IT department rather than the HR department. This is backed up by a 1994 study conducted by the American Psychology Association that shows people are far more likely to respond/help someone out when they feel more qualified to do so.

Here are our top 5 things to consider while tailoring your email for effective cold outreach:

  • What type of audience are you talking to?
  • What type of language are they likely to use?
  • Who are the people most likely to need your product or service?
  • What are they struggling with that you can help solve?
  • What pain can you specifically help them alleviate?

( read more about how to create an ideal customer profile here)


2. Social Proof from Clients

To understand how social proof can increase the effectiveness of cold outreach emails, we have to understand what it is first.

Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where people conform to the actions or opinions of others. It's been proven to be one of the most effective ways to persuade and can be used in a variety of different scenarios. Luckily for us, this applies directly to the effectiveness of cold outreach emails. If there are a lot of other people buying our product or service, it's more likely that the prospect might eventually buy it too.

Social proof helps us

  • Create a sense of community ( Join us! )
  • Leverage the bandwagon effect ( Golden state warriors 2017-2019, just kidding!)
  • Increase the legitimacy of our product or service.

A very easy way to implement social proof in your cold outreach emails is to write a simple line detailing who you’re working with / who you’ve worked with.

For example: “ Some of our current clients include X, Y, and Z”



3. Attitude - be appreciative, maybe show some humility or vulnerability

When it comes to cold emailing, the key is to make your messages personal and vulnerable. The idea is to show that you care about the person you’re reaching out to and are willing to take the time to get to know them better. You don’t need to go overboard with compliments or admissions of vulnerability, but a simple message expressing appreciation for their work or an interest in what they do can go a long way. Perhaps you’ve read a blog post that they’ve written, perhaps you saw their video on youtube, or perhaps you’ve even attended one of their live talks.

The classic Maslow’s hierarchy of needs study has admiration almost at the top of the pyramid in terms of “needs importance”. People love admiration. Mentioning that you've picked up what they’ve put down content-wise will be a sure-fire way to increase the effectiveness of your cold outreach email. Talk about 2 birds with 1 stone; establishing rapport and common ground with your prospect right away.

What are the best practices for effective cold outreach emails?

If you want to make your cold outreach emails successful, you need to format them correctly. Follow these steps to create an email that will grab the recipient’s attention and make them want to read more


Core Elements to include


Effective cold outreach emails have these elements:

Introduction : Who are you, and why are you emailing the prospect?

Credibility statement: What makes you qualified to email the prospect? Who referred you? What makes the prospect qualified to be your ideal customer ?

Unique Selling Proposition (USP): how does the feature or benefit of your product or service differ from and better those of your competitors.

TOP TIP: How does your USP benefit the prospect you’re writing to? How can you alleviate pain for your prospects?

Testimonials: Social proof to show your credibility, and on a large scale create the bandwagon effect.

Next Steps / Call to Action: What action would you ideally want the prospect to take next? Is it to schedule a meeting with you? Buy a product? Subscribe to your newsletter?


Keep the email short and easy to read

The average email is now over 200 words long. Studies show that people can actually only remember around 60% of what they read, while only 30% of what they hear is actually retained.

That being said, remember that your prospects are busy individuals, and you’re taking up their time to read your email. Try to keep your emails short, easy to read, and focused on the main point.

Additionally, proper spacing on email can make it easier on the eyes. We tend to want to read things that are spaced out evenly in a logical format. Spacing out paragraphs and sentences makes emails feel more approachable and increases readability.


Don't believe me? Here is our first point “Core Elements to Include” displayed clumped up.

“Introduction : Who are you, and why are you emailing the prospect?

Credibility statement: What makes you qualified to email the prospect? Who referred you? What makes the prospect qualified to be your ideal customer ?

Unique Selling Proposition (USP): how does the feature or benefit of your product or service differ  from and better those of your competitors.TOP TIP: How does your USP benefit the prospect you’re writing to? How you can alleviate pain for your prospects?

Testimonials : Social proof to show your credibility, and on a large scale create the bandwagon effect”.

Looks much less approachable right?


Optimizing for mobile

There are many reasons why your cold outreach emails should be optimized for mobile.

A 2019 study conducted by Mailchimp concluded that launching a mobile-responsive email design can increase clicks by 15%



Users often access email on their smartphones while they're on the go, which means you can reach them more easily and quickly. Additionally, because mobile devices have smaller screens, you can pack more content into each email, which can lead to a more engaging experience for your recipients.

Due to the close proximity of other phone applications, optimizing your cold outreach email for mobile can, and will increase engagement for you on other platforms as well. With nearly 55% of the global website traffic coming from mobile (Statista, 2021), it’s no longer feasible to ignore mobile cold outreach email formats.


Email timing

According to the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering, the best time to email someone is during normal workday hours. Email response times tend to stretch out over the weekend. No surprise here. But an interesting finding was that email response times also stretch out afternoon (12pm). Not only are response times longer in the afternoon, but content in emails is shorter too.

That being said, the most optimal time to send a cold email for maximum effect should be in the morning hours ( 9am - 12 pm) during a weekday.


Section 3: The number 1 thing to avoid for effective cold outreach emails

The number one thing to avoid is spam: sending too many emails in a short period of time

The effectiveness of cold email outreach is largely dependent on the quality of the initial interaction. Sending too many emails without a good reason can quickly alienate potential customers or colleagues, making it difficult to ever recapture their attention.

In fact, many mail providers can, and will recognize frequent emailing as spam, and potentially redirect your emails to spam or promotion folders. This might drastically reduce your cold outreach email effectiveness.

In addition, if your emails are too frequent, prospects may be inclined to report your emails as spam, resulting in a similar redirection of any email from your address.

Remember to be personal and relevant: Your email should be written in a personal style and focus on the recipient rather than just selling them your product or service. Sending an email that's too promotional or salesy, can lose trust with prospects.

Section 4: Dreamline Digital’s #1 Cold Outreach Secret….

The Number 1 downfall we’ve come to understand that makes the biggest difference when it comes to effective cold outreach emails is …… drumroll, please …….

Following up!

Yes… you read that right…. It’s something as simple as remembering to follow up.

One of the most important aspects of email marketing is following up after you send a cold email. Don't spam your recipients, but do send a polite follow-up message if you don't hear back within a reasonable timeframe.

Furthermore, If you send a cold outreach email and don't hear back, don't panic. It’s perfectly normal to not hear back from someone after sending an email. How many times have you forgotten to respond to an email?

Where we see a lot of people going wrong here is giving up after one email. Now, word of warning, we don't want to spam someone’s inbox with unwanted material, but a good rule of thumb is to stay within the 3-5 email range.

If you don't receive a response after a few days, try again with a slightly different message. Be sure to personalize your messages as much as possible, and avoid sounding too desperate.

TOP TIP: Recognize your previous email wasn’t replied to, but keep your tone appreciative and professional, again reiterate how your solution can benefit the prospect by solving their pain point. It’s about them, not you.

Above all, stay calm and professional. Following up on cold emails can be tricky, but it's worth it when you land that big client or job opportunity.


Conclusion

In conclusion, there are a few things to keep in mind when crafting your cold outreach emails.

First, make sure to personalize the email and make it relevant to the recipient.

Second, keep the email short and to the point.

Third, be clear about what you want from the recipient and make it easy for them to respond. Finally, avoid being too pushy or sales-y in your emails.

Following these tips should help make your cold outreach emails more effective and get you closer to achieving your goals.

When done right, cold outreach emails can be incredibly effective when it comes to building relationships with potential customers. Further, establishing an effective cold email outreach strategy might just be your strongest cost-effective back-bone on your next outbound marketing campaign.

When done wrong, even if your prospect never replies, your email can still help you learn more about your target audience and determine whether or not they would be interested in what you have to offer.

If you’ve made it to the end here, we want to thank you for taking your time to read The Science of Effective Cold Outreach Emails. At Dreamline Digital, we use the best tools and networks with the newest AI - science-backed methods to help our clients achieve their goals.

Cold outreach emails are something we specialize here at Dreamline Digital. We’ve leveraged effective cold outreach emails to generate over $20 million in 2021 alone. We believe they are one the most powerful and cost-effective ways to lead your future outbound sales and marketing campaigns.

If you’re interested in how we can help you with cold email outreach, please don’t hesitate to contact us via Email or Phone. We’re looking forward to hearing from you.


Email: madison@dreamlinedigital.com

Tel: +34 672-370-947

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