Cold emailing can be harder than most forms of communication for two main reasons. First, you don’t have a relationship with your target audience yet, and second, you lack the benefit of non-verbal feedback. As a result, you won’t get a chance to change your approach in real-time. But it doesn’t have to end this way as cold emails can actually work well.
You can build your career and launch start-ups with cold emails. However, it would work best if you employed professionalism in your cold email. This article highlights some of the best cold emailing practices that professionals follow.
Best Cold Emailing Practices
1. Tailor your message to your target audience
Before you send out cold emails, it would help if you did a little research about your target audience and personalize the message to them. It would great if you thought about who your audience is, how they perceive the world, their interests, and what they really want. It’s a little more like developing a theory of mind about your target audience. This way, you would show them that you have worked towards understanding them.
In your email, be clear on why you are writing to them and not anyone else. By outlining exactly where your audience fits in, you can tell a story that will make sense to them. Most importantly, you want to ensure that your request is not easily fulfilled any other way.
2. Validate yourself
When you meet a stranger or receive an email from one, you want to know who this stranger is and why they matter to you. When sending out cold emails, you’re the stranger. You have already done some research about your target audience, but they have no idea about who you are. Your most important task is showing them that you are credible to win their trust.
- Mutual friends and social connections
If you know someone that your audience also knows, say it. Here, you’ll have offered strong social proof. Similarly, it would work great if you mentioned any direct connections you may have with them. Having a mutual friend with them means you are not a stranger to them anymore.
- Social status, social status, and credibility
If you don’t have a mutual friend with your audience, you can mention any authority, social status, or credibility that is relevant to them and your request. A line or two will work just fine. It would be best if you tried proving yourself important to them to get a response.
- Commonality
You shouldn’t worry if you don’t have real status. You can find a commonality that attracts your audience. We could belong to the same group, especially a personal one. You can also look for any unexpected connections, such as unusual hobbies or hometowns.
To most people, similarities matter the most when they are rare. Further, people tend to bond more when they share rare commonalities, as this allows them to feel that they fit in and, at the same time, stand out.
The essence here is, you want to find a way of transforming from a stranger to being part of your audience’s group.
- Solve your audience’s problem
What’s in your email for your audience to care about it? With their busy schedule, why should they take their time to respond to it? Most people put more effort into avoiding pain than in acquiring pleasure. Having done your research about your target audience and found a pain point, you can offer them relief.
If you can’t solve their problem, you can give them something they want or even connect them with somebody they would like to meet. This will make you stand out since rarely do people give before they ask. However, ensure your gift feels appropriate for your audience.
- Keep your cold mail short, easy, and actionable
A lot of people enjoy the opportunity to help others. By asking for help from your audience, you make them feel good about themselves. However, you want to make your cold email it as easy as possible for them. You are probably aware that people are more likely to read short emails than long ones. In addition, you’re likely to get a higher response rate if you request a clear and specific action from your audience. Here, you want to avoid those rambling, long-winded emails.
The best way to keep your emails short and direct is by writing the same way you’d talk. It’s more like meeting someone at a party. You can’t just walk up to them and start pitching them. You begin by introducing yourself, saying something nice, connecting with them over interest or a shared friend, and then making a request that makes sense to them. It would work wonders if you read your email out loud before sending it.
Make sure it sounds natural for it to read well. You can make your request easy and actionable by doing as much work for your audience as possible. There is a lot more to ask than just telling your audience what you want. It matters a lot how you tell them.
- Appreciate your audience and sound a little vulnerable
Sound a little submissive to your target audience. However, this doesn’t mean cowering before them like they’re lords. The point is, you’re asking a stranger for a favor. Express gratitude and display some vulnerability to give your audience the feeling that they are good people if they choose to help you. Besides, it will give them status and a little power because you are approaching them.
Even just telling them you’re really grateful will double response rates. However, remember to tell them it is fine if they’re too busy to respond. Giving your audience a way out will actually make them more likely to respond.
- Avoid using templates
Finally, ensure you don’t fall into the temptation of using templates if you really have to personalize your cold emails. There are many templates online, but most of them are good only for mass emails and sales. You can’t find any good enough for personalized cold emails. This makes sense because you can never find anything personalized from a template.
Final thoughts
In conclusion, the above are six of the best cold emailing practices that professionals follow. It’s worth noting that cold emailing isn’t a new phenomenon. It has been around for years now and is not about to go away any time soon.
One thing you always have to keep in mind when sending cold emails is that you are emailing real people. A lot of people have their inboxes flooded with emails, and only pick out those that matter to them.
You can always tell when an email is from someone who has something important to say to you. It would make all the difference if you added the “human aspect” into your emails, and create a killer subject that sets you up for success in your cold emailing endeavors.
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