Using Cold Emails in your Business Plan

While it might not be as common now, one tactic of small businesses is the cold email. In short, a cold email is an email sent to a number of different people to communicate a new product or service to a customer a business hasn’t contacted before. They can be crucial to the early stages of a marketing campaign, and mastering them is a crucial role in business communications. We’ve compiled here a list of all the things that make a great cold email, and how you can optimize using them for your business as well.

What is a Cold Email?

Cold emails are the start of any business relationship. Everything starts with a conversation in the business world, and cold emails are no different. Think of it almost as a salesperson going to a conference and meeting new customers. They’ll be giving a pitch and look for opportunities to start conversations with this new demographic. But they’re also not looking to pitch an offer or brag about the company. Rather, cold emails seek to break the ice about your business and start a dialogue with your potential customer base. It’s a message you send out to people who may not know a lot about who your company is or what you like to do. The goal then is to build a relationship with these new customers and to foster that relationship going forward.

Writing a Cold Email

There’s a number of guides online which walk you through the step-by-step process of writing a cold email. For the sake of this list, we’ve shortened the tips to be more digestible; but there are more exhaustive guides that can be found online or through Google as well.

Cold Email Quick Tips

Tip 1: Editing your ‘From’ Line

Your ‘from’ line is the section of an email that tells the recipient who is communicating with them. When composing a cold email the from the line is as important as the body and content of the email itself. It’s a part that influences the first impression of your company greatly, and a good from the line can decide whether your message is read or simply thrown in the trash and forgotten. Since you’re still a stranger to the people your contacting, they may be suspicious of your email. You need to make you’re ‘from’ line appear trustworthy, so consider including things such as your full name, or even your company name and job title. Be consistent with your from the line as well, as changing your name or job title too often may scare off your customers or make your business appear illegitimate. 

Tip 2: Writing a Good Subject Line

Another important aspect of the cold email is to have a subject line that opens the door to the consumer. You need to form a first impression before they even open your message. That’s why you need to make your subject line a good one. Consider writing from your customers’ point of view, making the benefits of your product or service the main part of your subject line. Additionally, you can personalize subject lines when contacting customers to show them you’re not simply some spammer, you’re trying to reach out to them individually. Don’t give away all your information in your subject line either, use it to entice and intrigue your customer into viewing your message and contacting you back!

Tip 3: Coming up with a Great Intro

You’ve managed to make your subject line work, and now your customer is persuaded and reading your email. But you’ve got to make sure you spent just as much time crafting a persuasive, opening statement to your reader! Studies say most intros only have 3 seconds to capture a reader’s attention and make them read past the first two lines. This can be why cold emails are so difficult to start. Try to flatter your reader, ask about their problems or expectations from your business; and treat your introduction as an opportunity to show your prospects and services to a customer. If they feel your outreach is delivered and well researched; they’ll be much more open to the idea of doing business with you.

Tip 4: Adding Value to your Pitch

Your pitch is the section of the cold email where you tell the customer what you want from them. How do you make this work in a cold email? You need to spice up the benefits for the potential buyer so they not only have a clear idea of what they’re buying, but of what it includes as well. For example; if you’re selling insurance; you would do well to list all the premiums or features you offer. However, this isn’t always the best approach for a cold email. Your receiver might feel over-informed or bombarded with information. Instead of talking just about features, you should focus primarily on the benefit of your product; you should seamlessly link it to your intro by feeding into the problems your customer may have been having before you contacted them. This can make you seem knowledgeable about their issue, and lead your customer to trust you with developing a solution for them as well.

Tip 5: Polish your Conclusion

One of the most important things in your cold email is how you choose to conclude it. Make your ending polite, concise, and informative. Don’t make the customers feel as if you’re trying to sell them something and move on, rather; speak to them as if you’re beginning a long-form dialogue between you and your business. A well-constructed signature also boosts your reputation with a customer. Make sure it appears trustworthy, containing all the needed information and nothing extra. 

All of these tips and more are the best place to start organizing a cold email campaign. These early campaigns can often lead to great success for small or internet-based businesses, and often help customers feel more comfortable when dealing with your team. Consider discussing cold emails as part of your business plan, or integrating them into a marketing campaign. They may make all the difference in the long run.