Simon Mactaggart from Growth Copy believes thatis missing from most cold emails today, and it’s easy to see why. Cold email is often seen as a quick and efficient way to reach new potential clients, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to spend any time actually thinking through what you’re going to put in that email.
Simon recommends you’re clear on the key points before sending your email, including the email’s objective, target market, the value proposition and the desired audience response, among others.
The fix
Take a moment and think before you start writing that cold email. Be clear in your mind the recipients of your email and what your goal is.
Mistake #2 – Talking like a robot
Ask someone to write a sales email and for some unknown reason, they magically transform into a machine, spewing out soulless and jargon-filled messages. It’s like we immediately forget that we’re human beings, reaching out and talking to other human beings.
We lament the bland emails we receive, then send off another ‘Dear Sir/Madam’ email with as much human Spain Phone Number Data connection as a paperclip. Instead, put yourself in your customer’s shoes and write the kind of email you’d like to receive.
The fix
Read your email out loud and imagine you’re talking to your prospect face-to-face. Does it sound natural? Or does it sound like you swallowed a thesaurus? Make a note of the points you cringe at, then rewrite them.
Mistake #3 – Leaving the subject line as an afterthought
You only have nano seconds to convince Algeria Phone Number List me to read your email, and bad news: the clock starts ticking as soon as I see your subject line. For a start, if it’s not something I’d be interested in, it’s going to be deleted.
No thanks, I don’t need ‘1st Page on Google ranking!!’ Even if I was interested in SEO, I wouldn’t open the email; one exclamation point is pushing it, but two gets you blocked. Is that picky?
Yes. Someone could be emailing me with the best service in the history of the universe and I’ll miss it if they use too many exclamation points. I’ve already had 30 emails today trying to sell me hair recovery and cheap meds, and I need to scan and decide quickly whether or not to open an email.
The fix
Your subject lines can either boost or open rates or send them plummeting. Be clear, be useful to your target audience and whatever you do, don’t sound spammy.
Mistake #4 – Not getting to the point
Your work isn’t over once you’ve convinced your recipients to open the email. You now have to convince them to go ahead and read it. So why start with a long introduction, the company history, a list of every project they’ve ever worked on…?
I hate to break it to you, but I’ve already moved on. When you’re writing a cold email, you need to make sure every word counts. Your first line is especially important, as most email clients will show this as a preview before your email is even opened.
