A Complete Guide to Mastering Cold Email Outreach

Most marketers wouldn't consider cold email outreach to be a strength. After all, it's not warm. It's not personal. And it doesn't immediately demonstrate initiative. Sounds dull, right?

Wrong. While not everyone enjoys engaging with customers through email, some marketers find it to be an effective and low-cost form of communication that can help them grow their business.

If you're looking to improve your cold email outreach game, then this article is for you. We'll cover what you need to know, including tips on how to get started, before unveiling the best practices that can help you progress.

Why Should You Try to Improve Your Cold Email Outreach Skills?

As we've established, cold email outreach is rarely considered to be a strength by default. That is, until you put in the effort to improve it. The reason this form of marketing is usually considered ineffective is because it doesn't offer the same personal connection as a phone call or a face-to-face encounter. It feels more like a task than an interaction.

With that being said, there are several benefits to cold email outreach. First, it's relatively low-cost. You can send hundreds or thousands of emails for free through platforms like Salesblink and Constant Contact. The key is to find a way to make sure you stay in touch with your audience, even when they don't need your help – like when a sale has been made or when a new product is about to be launched.

The Two Types of Cold Email Outreach

There are two main types of cold email outreach, known as co-marketing and cross-selling. The first type, co-marketing, is when a brand or business works with another entity – such as a non-profit group or a small business – to sell a product or service together. For example, if you're a sneaker company and a non-profit organization wants to raise awareness about child labor, they may decide to team up and send out emails promoting your sneakers to raise money for the children.

In the cross-selling example, an individual (the seller) reaches out to another individual (the buyer) to sell a product or service. For example, if I know you like playing golf and I see you're on vacation this weekend, I might decide to send you an email offering to tee up with you and teach you the ins and outs of golf. While this type of email outreach is typically considered “cold,” remember that it's a two-way street. The person you're reaching out to has a chance to accept or reject your offer.

How to Do Cold Email Outreach

Now, we'd like to walk you through the process of doing cold email outreach. To get started, find the email addresses of people you want to contact. Some platforms, like SalesBlink, offer you the ability to click the “Find Friends & Followers” button and see a list of all the contacts you have. Alternatively, you can enter a business email address into a search bar and hit “Enter” to see a list of email addresses.

Once you have your list of contacts, you can copy and paste email addresses into a document titled “Email list” or “Cold emailing list” to make it easier to keep track of. You can also use a service like ConvertKit to easily create a sign-up form and collect emails.

Now that you have your list of contacts, it's time to start crafting your message. The best approach is to write a short email that's relevant to your target audience. If you want to find the type of content that will make your email standout, you can use tools like Buzzsumo, which can analyze the sentiment of the content in your network and suggest story ideas for you to consider. Remember: less is more. Short and sweet. And try to avoid using the word ‘no' in your email. It's the done thing to write ‘not interested' or ‘Not responding' instead.

One more thing before we get started. When approaching potential customers (or anyone, for that matter), it's important to be genuine. Instead of using overly familiar or cute words, find a way to speak to the person you're emailing – whether it's a child, an adult, or an animal – with a language they will understand. For example, if you're writing to a family whose primary language is not English, use Google Translate to help jog your subconscious and get your message across.

The Three Step Email Outreach Process

When you send an email, you're essentially sending someone a present. And just like Christmas, you're trying to make them feel special. To ensure that they feel that way, you need to follow a certain process.

First, you need to identify the type of person you're trying to reach. Second, you need to find out what they want. And finally, you need to determine whether you can provide it. If you can, then you need to figure out how you're going to go about doing it. Let's walk through each step in detail.

• Step one: Identify the person you're trying to reach

• Step two: Find out what they want

• Step three: Determine whether you can provide it

Step one: Identify the Person You're Trying to Reach

When you start a marketing campaign, you need to know what you're dealing with. This is particularly important when sending cold emails, because you don't want to reach out to the wrong person. You can start by looking at your email list. Based on your analysis of the content you've posted online, you'll have an idea of the type of person you're dealing with. Now, it's important to note here that your target audience for this email may be your current customers. But it's also possible that they're entirely different groups of people.

For example, you might have an audience that likes to blog and tweet about tech tips and tricks. However, your target audience for a finance product might be someone who likes to spend their leisure time researching the stock market. So, knowing this, you would want to make sure that the person you're reaching out to is a potential customer of yours.

Step two: Find Out What They Want

Once you know who you're trying to reach, it's time to find out what they want. Start by asking yourself questions. Are they looking for information about a certain product or service? Are they looking for a way to save money? Are they wanting to learn more about a specific topic?

In addition to questions, you can also use a tool like Google Trends to gain additional insights about your target audience's interests. At the very least, this tool will tell you what kinds of searches your target audience is making. For example, if you have a clothing line and they search for “knit dress,” you know they're interested in buying clothes made out of yarn. Similarly, if they search for “organic food,” you know they're interested in eating healthy.

Once you have a clear idea of what your target audience wants, you can start to think about how you're going to provide it. There are three basic options here. You can

• Offer them information about your products or services

• Suggest a solution for their problem

• Present them with an opportunity to make money

These three options for Step Two are pretty much all you need to consider. If you can't provide what your target audience wants, you don't have a choice other than to go with option three and hope that something matches up.

Step three: Determine Whether You Can Provide It

Now that you know what your target audience wants, it's time to determine whether or not you can provide it. That is, can you actually find a way to make money off of the product or service you're promoting? If you can't provide it, go with option three.

This is actually quite simple. If you can't provide what your target audience wants, then you're not going to make much money from them. Simple as that. Now, this doesn't mean that you have to start a business right away. You can also use your resources to get in touch with the people on your email list and ask them if they're interested in what you have to offer. You can create a pitch for a product or service you're thinking about promoting and ask if they're interested in learning more. You can also reach out to the people you've connected with on social media and ask if they want to get involved.