In order to create a compelling and clickable email template, it is not enough to possess copywriting abilities. It is the whole art powered by psychology, which requires selecting suitable instruments and understanding why you actually need a cold email pitch. An epic question comes into play: how to write cold emails to get your prospect to open them and respond? To answer briefly, you must create attention-grabbing subject lines to make your email open.
To improve your email reply rate, write a brief, value-powered, targeted, and straight-to-the-point email copies. But nevertheless, even masterfully written emails can be prone to failure. So what is the secret? The essential part of effective emails relates to the holistic approach toward email outreach, which must be target-oriented and personalized. Instead of sending thousands of cookie-cutter emails that get few responses, write hundred target-focused emails and achieve 10-20 more replies. There is no one-size-fits-all formula that will make your email a silver bullet. To facilitate your endeavor, we will take the heavy lifting off your plate by sharing the step-by-step strategy we apply to our clients and their prospects.
In this article you’ll find out:
- How Serrano 23 helps businesses achieve high reply rates in their email campaigns
- Step 1 focuses on identifying the right approach to take in email outreach, including data analysis and evaluation, selection of suitable email campaign type, and applying a human touch
- Step 2 highlights the importance of creating a value proposition in the cold email, including tips on prioritizing the prospect’s needs and showcasing relevant results
- Step 3 involves defining an ideal customer profile (ICP) and personalizing efforts to the fullest by gathering as much information about target companies
A step-by-step guide on how Serrano 23 helps businesses achieve up to 40% reply rate
Step 1: Identify the appropriate approach
Step 2: Create value for each target group
Step 3: Define an ICP and personalize your efforts to the fullest
Step 4: Adjust the outreach according to industry focus (+ title)
Step 1: Identify an appropriate approach for email outreach
To determine which approach will perform better, we consider the combination of various factors. First of all, it is worth noting that when the client refers to us, he mostly provides us with the peculiarities relating to his industry and business, along with the depiction of his ideal customer profile (ICP). Such data serves as a basic reference point for crafting a tailored email template.
In combination with the previous experience of our writers with other companies and industries, our current team is permanently evolving in the framework of our new projects. In this way, we have established our own common practices. Let’s go through the main ones you can use in your strategy:
- Data analysis and evaluation. Once the clients start cooperation with us, we get all the necessary information about them. Afterward, backed up by the experience from previous email campaigns, we assess the obtained info of the client and adapt it accordingly to a specific use case. All the previous cases serve us as comprehensive insights for setting up a new fresh template that will be used further for the next effective email campaigns.
- Selection of suitable email campaign type. For this purpose, we combine our subjective opinions and objective background powered by stats and data from our analytical tools. Based on this data, we select the campaign type from our email library that best correlates with our client’s business goal and outreach intent. Additionally, apply A/B testing to weigh all pros and cons of certain email template.
- Applying human touch. Even if you automate your efforts, always integrate a human perception of the information you provide in the email. People you reach out to are alive humans apt to interact on a psychological level.
Serrano 23 Note: Amid covid pandemic and the digital evolution of business operations, approaches have been modified. Thus, archaic methods don’t work anymore. Customers’ demands have significantly shifted, resulting in more progressive business patterns while selling products or services. Customers want actual results and numbers that can determine the effectiveness of your offer.
Briefly, what you should do while defining the approach:
- Preliminary analysis
- Industry research
- Consultations with colleagues
- Brainstorm sessions
- Analysis of each template section
- Coming up with at least 3 different subject lines variations
Step 2: Create a value proposition in your cold email
The capability to create value in each of your templates has to be your hallmark. Actually, a value proposition is the pillar of each email, defining its unique peculiarity. And it doesn’t mean that if you outlined, for instance, the value to your prospect in one part of the email, you can relax and ignore delivering it throughout the rest of your email copies. Each block of your email has to be saturated with value. This is the main logic – value focused on the prospect.
Let’s compare how the same information can be packed in different ways. Adhere to the following tips to enhance your intent:
- Focusing on your product or service features without outlining the clear result to your prospect is inefficient.
—> We can help your company with website development, mobile app development, and UI/UX. Among our clients in CPG industry are Amazon and Ebay.
- In order to deliver value to your prospect, prioritize their needs and model the benefits they can obtain from the interaction with your product. Augment your potential with solutions to their pain points.
—> Your company can make use of our extensive experience working with big players in the CPG industry like Amazon and Ebay to update your legacy systems and convert your website to a medium that attracts your target audiences with the digital experiences they demand.
- Don’t leave room for their assumptions about how your product can change their lives. Make the work for them – showcase results that can be achievable thanks to you. Simply put, if you describe directly the features of your product – you talk about yourself. But if you present real outcomes that are highly relevant and valuable to your audience – you express care toward them. And now feel the difference:
—> Your company can make use of our extensive experience working with big players in the CPG industry like Amazon and Ebay to update your legacy systems and convert your website to a medium that attracts your target audiences with digital experiences they demand, resulting in a 20% increase in new organic leads in your pipeline.
Before writing the value proposition, ask yourself:
- How does my prospect stand out from the crowd?
- What peculiarities are specific to your prospect’s industry?
- What business challenges does your prospect face?
- How can you address their concerns?
- What case studies are relevant to your prospect’s interest?
- What numbers and metrics can you provide to differentiate yourself from your competitors?
Step 3: Define an ICP and personalize your efforts to the fullest
Identifying your ideal customer profile (ICP) and collecting as much information about the companies you are targeting is the must-do in your cold email strategy. Once you clearly determine your sales ICPs, it’s time to elaborate upon their backgrounds by getting acquainted with as many details as possible. When you target businesses that meet your ICP, the sales cycle performs faster, bringing you higher win rates.
To get maximum personalization and relevance in your cold email messages, follow these steps:
- Consider such factors while creating your ICP:
- Company industry
- Annual revenue
- Company size
- Company location
- Business challenges
- Employee count
- Tech stack
- Identify and learn the person (title) you are targeting.
To build an ideal portrait of the buyer persona, you must conduct in-depth research on their preferences, expectations, their lifestyles. For this purpose, we at Serrano 23 are permanently learning the titles in the company we are targeting into the nitty-gritty. For example, if we target C-level executives in the retail industry, we monitor employment agencies and investigate requirements for selection for this position. Once we gather data about our ideal prospects as much as possible, we start learning their pain points, terminology, their opinions in social space, etc.
- Tailor your email according to your prospect’s pain points.
If you have, for instance, 3 different ICPs, your cold email will look different for each of them. Apply industry-specific social proofs covering pain points most relevant to the specific profile. Therefore, creating customized and tailored outreach emails that fit each use case as closely as possible is of utmost importance, making your communication highly relevant.
- Include psychological factors while crafting your message.
To acquire emotional proximity with your prospect, you have to learn common behavioral patterns of such types of titles you are targeting, their mindsets paying attention to the industry their businesses operate in. The more accurately a portrait is defined, the more personalized and relevant your outreach will be.
“We start speaking the language of those people we refer to. The language we choose depends on the buyer’s portrait. It has to be accessible and establish an emotional connection with your prospect.” – Kyrylo Potapkin, Head of Content Department.
Step 4: Adjust the outreach according to industry focus (+ title)
There are common rules and best practices for writing cold emails; however, they should be fundamentals that need to be fleshed out. You must tailor your actual email in a way that fits the tone and voice of your prospect in the specific industry and his position in the company you are targeting. Therefore, consider the following aspects while reaching out to a specific business or title:
- Voice and tone
- The email length
- Technical details
- Demography peculiarities & geographical location
There is no universal template that will match different ICPs and business types. Even though you adhere to the best cold email practices and techniques, use critical thinking in specific cases and make maneuvers and adjustments accordingly.
Let’s take a look at two examples of cold emails that don’t adhere to standardized principles of cold email writing. However, they are effective for special cases.
Template #1: Short template that performs
Wave 1
Subject line: marketers at {{Company}}
Hi {{FirstName}}. I’m {{Sender}} from {Company Name}. I’m interviewing marketers and would like to chat with you, too.
Would you have a minute to discuss and assess {{Company}}’s current marketing initiatives to identify areas of improvement?
Best,
Sometimes, a short and “vague” template with not much information performs really well. This template works best for small and mid-sized businesses in the wellness, consumer goods, and cosmetics industry, targeting such titles as VP of marketing, marketers, marketing managers, etc.
Template #2: Large and unusual template that also performs
Subject Line: Official partnership proposition – {Your Company Name}
Subject Line 2: Partnership request – {Your Company Name}
Good {{time_of_the_day}} {{FirstName}},
It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.
My name is {Name}, I’m reaching out on behalf of {Name}, {Title}, to discuss our potential partnership.
Due to your past experience at {{}Corporation}, we assumed that you would have a unique perspective on our potential collaboration.
{{Company}} can make use of our white-label (distributor-neutral) customer management services to drive a variety of revenue growth services globally and support your preferred route to market.
This is a different type of engagement than the {{Company}} core distribution team, in that we would sell and act like {{Company}}, i.e., conduct channel management, identify revenue retention possibilities, and drive customer success as a fully-integrated {{Company}} unit:
- Channel management – we will assist you with recruiting partners, developing revenue strategies, identifying growth possibilities, and creating campaigns to increase customer and partner awareness + retention as an integral part of your team.
- Revenue retention – we help you capture additional revenue through account management, upselling, cross-selling, contract renewals, and more.
- Customer success– by streamlining the buying process, offering end-user assistance, and driving technological value realization through time-, event-, and value-based interactions, we actively generate and maintain client interest in your brand.
Would you be open to a quick talk with {{Name}}, {{Title}}, and {{Name}}, {{Title}}, to learn about existing areas of cooperation?
Respectfully,
This template performs perfectly while targeting financial, healthcare, and OEM businesses, namely CFOs, Directors of finance departments, Heads of customer support, and sales departments. Such templates tend to be more detail-oriented and require extensive descriptions of products and services. Therefore, the long-form format here works great.
Why Do Cold Emails Fail?
Let’s say you have an incredible product or service, but your efforts in sending cold emails are unjustified. We noticed that businesses become disillusioned with the effectiveness of cold emailing once their response rate is less than 3%. And they give up in the early stage after having no reply to their initial email. The statistics show that 48% of sales reps do not attempt to follow up, while 80% of sales require 5 follow-ups before closing the deal. If you want to make traction, follow-ups are your must-do!
Order tailored industry-specific email sequence
Do you know that prospects don’t react because they are busy (especially those with C-level titles)? That doesn’t mean they are not interested in your request. According to Harvard Business Review, on average, Americans receive 120 emails per day. So what is the verdict? Fight and win as Jason Zook, founder of the now-dissolved IWearYourShirt, who achieved 75% sales deals from follow-up emails.
And even if you follow up, it does not mean 100% success. The problem can still remain. From our experience in cooperation with our clients, we can clearly outline their two major pain points:
! Low open and response rates
! Increased spam emails
Serrano 23 Note: Mostly, SDRs who reach out to their prospects adhere to pushy sales approaches instead of establishing the connection and delivering real value in their emails. Following old-school techniques, sales reps tend to potentially close the deal, which a priori ruin their efforts to build an emotional connection. According to Gartner, SDRs must make more personalized and relevant touches per lead.
Let’s compare the differences between the wrong template and a well-performed one to define your mistakes and elaborate upon them.
Wrong Template TEMPLATE №1
Subject Line: 2023 trend investigations that inspire, let’s connect!
Hi {First Name},
I hope you are well. Can you believe we are in the final quarter of 2022? I want to reach out to you as I really enjoyed getting to know you this past year.
I imagine your 2023 planning is well underway or finalized by now. As a trend-obsessed company, we would love to help you identify future innovation in your category. Our trend investigations have us digging deep into categories you want and need to explore.
{Company} clients have described trend investigations as their “dream analysis” — a best-in-class investigation that illuminates critical business opportunities and differentiated insights.
Leverage your remaining budget to inform and identify gaps and opportunity areas as you plan for next year. Would you be interested in scheduling a time to talk and brainstorm? (We offer a free trend-mapping session.) Let me know how your week looks, and I’ll be happy to send a calendar invite.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Why doesn’t it work?
Issue 1: Unattractive subject line
The effectiveness of the subject line depends not on creativity but rather on personalization and relevance.
Issue 2: Lengthy introduction
The sender in this email starts his letter with non-essential statements and questions that are not to the point. Such excessive and irrelevant intros impede the clarity of the intent you are addressing to your recipient.
Issue 3: Talking about yourself
Prospects are those persons that have no time to listen to your achievements and your dry benefits. They want obvious and proven results they can obtain while cooperating with you.
Issue 4: “Vague” value
There are no actual results indicated, only blurred statements crammed with unnecessary information. An email without an accurate and person-oriented value proposition lacks expertise and is prone to failure.
Issue 5: Inaccurate CTAs
In this email, we have two questions and one more additional CTA. Unclear CTA and excessive questions divert the focus.
Good Template TEMPLATE 2
Subject line A: EOY projection for {{FullName}}
Subject line B: maximize last-minute {{Company}} budgets
Hi {{FirstName}},
I have previously reached out a few times to you as I was curious how {{Company}} identifies key trends across categories of interest.
We would love to assist you in identifying future innovation in your category – our trend investigations have us digging deep into categories you want and need to explore.
We can assist your team in identifying white spaces, obtaining a trend macro picture of the business, developing platforms and innovation spaces with greater depth and clarity, and understanding the future of a given category through deeper insight.
I’d love to discuss how you can maximize those last-minute budgets on innovation and start the new year ahead of the curve – would Tuesday work for a quick strategy session?
Best,
Why does it work?
Trait 1: Straight-to-the-point subject line
In the first option, we provided a precise title of the project addressing a particular person in the company. In the second variant, we offer an accurate resolution to the prospect’s pain point.
Trait 2: Outlined value proposition
Here, we deliver value and relevant correlation to the prospect’s business at each portion of the template.
Trait 3: Clear CTA
We gave the prospect a question requiring the answer “No” or “Yes”.
So what are the common mistakes you need to avoid?
The main reason businesses face difficulties while making pitches to their prospects is the lack of expertise (poor data quality) and the utilization of time-worn approaches (no targeting). Mostly the following mistakes are typical to startups who are novices in the field and companies with solid SDR departments but which lack tailored email template writers.
In order to create sophisticated email templates and skyrocket your reply and response indicators, primarily figure out what mistakes ruin your emails, making them stuck in the same place. Here is the checklist of common mistakes businesses make. They:
- have a wrong vision of email marketing
- don’t know how to pitch to high titles
- don’t know how to space out follow-ups correctly
- do not follow up at all
- insert images and links in the email, which leads to spam
- use spam words such as “Order now/today”, “For instant access”, “Double your income”
- lack awareness of email marketing in general and have zero tactic actions
- write long-from emails to cram into all the features of the product/service
- use old-fashioned approaches and methods that have no impact on modern audiences
- expect immediate gratification and results.
Serrano 23 Note: There is a tight interconnection between the quality of the data you produce and how you “supply” it to your target audience. This means that poor data quality affects targeting your desired market. Therefore, the data you use in your emails must be the foundation of your highly targeted campaigns. The more proven and personalized information you incorporate in your pitches, the better resonation you will get.
How to Write an Outstanding Email: Wordstrir Cold Email Tips and Tricks
Here are some main recommendations to follow from our email writers.
- Don’t neglect the possibility of following up even if your first email didn’t get any response. The average open rate for all industries reaches 21.33%. Follow-ups can double response rates when crafted in the framework of your sequence. Strike while the iron is hot.
- Create short and straight-to-the-point emails. Mind that particular titles in the company require more profound and lengthy information provided in the copy. Provide info that is relevant to the specific industry you are targeting.
- Avoid the high-pressure sales tactics in your first contact and focus on expressing your concern about the prospect’s pain point and showcasing relevant solutions.
- Don’t sell outright. Cold emails are geared to first make a business connection and build credibility.
- Make your subject lines relevant and personalized. They can significantly impact the open and reply rates by up to 30%.
- Use only one CTA. If you cram your email with several different questions, there is a high chance your email will be ignored.
Avoid apologetic and negative tones in your email copies. Such phrases as “I’m so sorry for reaching out,” “I apologize for bothering you,” “I want to ask for your precious time to consider my superb product”… This tone DOES NOT work at all.
Why hire Serrano 23 for your cold email outreach?
Our writers have background and expertise in a plethora of industries and engagement with different types of businesses. We’ve acquired our unique and nontrivial email approach allowing us to target various business titles. No single method or technique provides a “silver-bullet solution.” Many aspects are covered: industry research, ICP learning, personalization, and psychological comprehension. Our writers do not adhere to a standardized approach only.
Our company’s hallmark is customization to ensure a high level of personalization. Moreover, we utilize our own AI-powered tool to ensure spam-proof quality. Check out our email template library to take a look at how we crafted emails for our B2B clients from different industries. If you have any questions, let us know – we’re here to help you achieve consistent revenue.