How to make cold emailing work?

Email is dead.

That's what every new age marketer on the internet says.

Open rates have been falling each year to the current 20% industry average.

We all know that this is happening because our inboxes are cluttered with work emails, newsletters and annoying promotional messages.

Not only that, but each of us is constantly being pitched through social media, fliers, billboards and tv commercials and that causes us to be in an information overload state.

Our attention span is claimed to be at the lowest point ever. It's proven in fact that the average person can now barely focus for more than 9 seconds. Can you believe that?

The good news is that there are still ways to hold attention. Nielsen research suggests that messages with a clear value proposition are able to hold people’s attention for much longer.

Pair this with the fact that 86% of professionals prefer to use email when communicating for business purposes (HubSpot, 2017), and it's clear how there are still opportunities to get leads through cold emailing.

But how can you make your emails stand out and get replied to?

Having good copywriting skills can make the difference.

Copywriting is the way of arranging words to make someone take a specific action. Is the reason why people buy something - it can be considered salesmanship in print.

And to be effective in sales you have to first catch and hold the attention of the prospect.

You might be thinking: "This is all nice and good, but I'm not really into sales and don't know if I really need to learn this".

I get it. No one likes a used car salesman, but that's not what we are trying to become.

Even if you’re not into selling, everyone has to sell something at some point. You might find yourself trying to persuade a recruiter to hire you during your next job interview or trying to convince your partner to watch your favorite show on Netflix instead of Love Island (I know, there's a 99% failure rate but if you are well prepared you can flip the odds).

So the following tips can benefit you too. Below I'll outline a framework that will make your emails and communication 10x more effective.

AIDA

I read about this famous way of structuring a sales message after realizing that I was writing very vanilla emails. This formula consists of:

A: Attention

I: Interest

D: Desire

A: Action

The AIDA formula has been already widely discussed by rockstar copywriters, so I won't get into the nitty gritty details right now.

But what I want to do is share how you can use this framework immediately and improve the response rate of your next cold email.

1) Attention: You have to grab their attention! Write a catchy subject that includes either a question or their name and a first line that is relevant to the him/her

People don’t want to feel like they are being spammed with a mass email campaign, so adding some type of personalization can make a big difference. Find a recent reference that you can start your email with and show your recipient that you are familiar with their company in some way.

E.g:

"Hi {name}

I just read an article about what you are doing at {x} and came across your name while looking for contacts at {company name}. Big fan of the project! "

or

"I have seen from your LinkedIn profile that you were at the {x} conference last week. I was also there ...!"

Start your email with something that sticks out and don't go too crazy. Write like you'd speak.

2) Interest: Once you manage to grab their attention, provoke their interest

Now that they are paying attention, you have to make them go through the slippery slope.

Validate yourself. Show them if why they should listen (commonalities, authority, etc).

Don't write something boring like: “I’m interested in talking with your head of department so I can tell her what we do and why you should use my service.”

How can you help them? You might consider doing this instead:

1. Tell them a story that helps to highlight why your recipient should be interested in what you have to offer.
2. You can draw attention to a common pain point of your prospect.
3. Show how you can help them achieve a clear result– i.e. reduce the cost of x by x, help them get x more customers in x time, increase their revenues or help them be x times more efficient at x.

3) Desire: Outline all the benefits they can experience by working with you

The following step is to create desire for your product/service by demonstrating its value and clearly explaining your USP (unique selling proposition).

Don't be too long-winded, remember that cold emails are more effective when they remain short.

Include testimonials of past and current clients and what they managed to achieve by working with you.

4) Action: Tell them what to do

When the reader reaches this section of the email, clearly explain what you want them to do next with a CTA (call to action).

Example: “We’d love to help you do the same - could you point me to the relevant team member to talk about this?"

or

"Would you be free Monday or Tuesday any time between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. for a quick call to talk about how we can help {company name} do {x}?"

Boring alternative: “Please let me know how I can help.”

Don't be boring. Be specific.

If you enjoyed this article and would like to dive into more copywriting material, check the works Claude Hopkins, David Ogilvy and Robert Collier.