How to Write an Engaging Cold Email

A flood of emails washes into people’s inbox every single day. One of them is yours. You have an awesome message to share. How do you make yours stand out? Especially when you’re still trying to establish a relationship with a customer? We’ll show you how to write an engaging cold email. 

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The Goal

Your goal should always be to attract customers through relevant and helpful content, wherever they are in their journey. That’s inbound marketing.

Since we're writing cold emails, we’re going to focus on the "awareness" stage of the Buyer's Journey.

The Problem

• 293.6 BILLION emails are sent and received each day. (Oberlo)
• The average person spends 28% of their workweek just reading and responding to emails. (Washington Post)
• Less than 75% of sent emails are never opened. (Campaign Monitor)
• 74% of consumers state they are “overwhelmed" by email overload. (Rival Tech)

The Solution

The answer sounds simple, but it really comes down to providing REAL Value to your leads and customers. That doesn’t mean some email without their name, or a long message stuffed with resources your target audience doesn’t need.

You have to spend real time and gather real insights into what your audience’s challenges are and how you can solve them. Since we’re discussing cold emails, you have an even harder job trying to get an individual’s attention.

Once you commit to that, it’s just finding the right formula. We have that for you!

The Engaging Cold Email Formula

There are 3 components to sending an effective cold email.

1. Set Expectations
2. Create an engaging layout
3. Use personalization

Let’s break down each of these.

1. Set expectations

Make sure to begin each email by clarifying, in one sentence, who you and why this email is important. If you take too long to get to the point, you get the trash icon.

When it comes to cold emailing, less is more.bBe concise and clarify the “why.”

2. Create an engaging layout

Use emoji’s in your subject line. An emoji in the subject line of an email increases the open rate by 29% and the click through rate by 28%. (Outreach.io)

Take time to craft an engaging preview text.

1. 1. 1. Attention (what’s the desired action or goal? (clarify)
      2. Interest (provide relevant content and value)
      3. Desire (What about what you’re writing about is going to leave them wanting more?)
      4. Action (give them a call to action)

3. Personalization

Personalization is the future. 

• Emails w/ personalized subject lines generate 50% higher open rates. (Marketing Dive)
• Show yourself. Add a photo or video. In fact, emails with video increase email click rates by 300% (Oberlo)
• Do research on who you are contacting. Look on LinkedIn, (linkedIn sales navigator) or look at team/company pages on websites. Sending 100 cold emails may seem smarter but it’s not. 5 well-crafted emails have a better chance!

Following these guidelines can help you start building better cold emails and increase both your open rates and moving individuals along the buyer’s journey.

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This content is from a recent episode of Growth Marketing for Martians, a podcast dedicated to discussing tomorrow's business growth tips -today!

Hosted by Rogelio Rodriguez and Jeff Lambert, these marketing Martians share an intergalactic love for learning and sharing with other podcast space travelers.