In the early 2000s, sending cold emails or calls was the primary way to reach potential customers in the sales funnel. This was especially prevalent in the era when social media wasn’t a thing yet, offering businesses the opportunity to spread the word about their services and products. However, with the introduction of other marketing tools, it has become exceedingly competitive to reach clients through cold emails – however here’s a guide on how to do it correctly, so keep reading!
Cold Emailing Practices to Grab Your Receiver’s Attention
To master the art of cold emailing one has to be a mixture of two things – creative and proactive. Creativity and proactiveness can help you land your emails in your receiver’s inboxes and make sure they open them. While there is no silver bullet to success – these measures can surely minimize your probability of failure!
1. Add a Personal Touch
Starting your emails with “Hi John,” is not the only way you can add a personal touch to your cold emails – it is much more than that! A more effective strategy would be to dive deeper into your receiver’s psyche – understanding their pain points, interests, and preferences. Leaving everything to guesswork is also not a good idea, instead, it is better to take an information and analytics-driven approach to sending emails to your clients, researching and reading about their recent works and achievements and applauding them on it while also sliding in references to your services in the most organic way possible!
2. Sending Relevant Messages
Google in their 2024 email sender requirements has highlighted the importance of sending messages that are relevant to your receivers instead of targeting receivers who may not take any interest in your services. Failing to comply with this new Gmail mandate may lead to an increase in your email’s spam score. Hence when crafting your email, make sure you lay focus on what matters to your receiver by highlighting the value you may bring or the problem they may be facing which you can address.
Instead of crafting generic emails that serve to purpose of a majority of your receivers and will ultimately be discarded by them, try to recognize their needs and provide ways to fulfill those needs.
3. Grab Attention from the First Instance
Did you know that you can attach your brand logo to emails so they appear in client inboxes? This is possible with BIMI. BIMI or Brand Indicators for Message Identification is an email authentication protocol that allows domain owners to append their brand logos to any email they send out from a BIMI-enabled domain.
To activate BIMI for your emails you must:
- Create your BIMI-compliant brand logo
- Enable DMARC enforcement for your emails
- Publish your BIMI record and upload your logo
- Improve Email Deliverability with DMARC
A DMARC analyzer can help you improve your email’s deliverability by reducing the chances of illegitimate sources impersonating your domain name in phishing attacks. With the support of complimentary email authentication standards like SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and/or DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), having a DMARC policy published for your domain allows receivers to easily demarcate and take action against potentially fraudulent emails.
Fraudsters impersonating your domain name frequently in phishing attacks can lead to your domain getting permanently or temporarily blocklisted on your recipient’s inboxes. By taking preventive measures like DMARC, you offer a better chance for your legitimate emails to safely land in your recipient’s inbox, reducing impersonation threats.
5. Allow Your Recipients to Unsubscribe
Google in their 2024 sender guidelines also mentions the importance of allowing recipients to opt out of uninteresting emails. If your email talks about selling women’s hygiene products, and your recipient is a man – it makes no sense! This is a classic example of a message that will definitely not be of interest to your receiver. By allowing your receiver to get messages about products they need in their day-to-day lives you help them maintain a less spammy and decluttered inbox, enabling them to organize and navigate important emails more efficiently. So the next time you sit down at your workstation to write a marketing email, make sure you curate emails that are concise, easy to read, and equally compelling for your audiences.
Furthermore, having a clear call-to-action at the bottom of your emails can also help users avail of your services if they feel the need to. However, if your email does not suit their needs, there should be a one-click unsubscribe option to discontinue receiving them.
Final Words
Even in 2024, cold emailing can be an effective way to get new customers to subscribe to your services. While there is no fool-proof strategy to succeed at email marketing and it is all about experience and expertise, by achieving DMARC alignment, displaying your brand logo, and paying attention to your message content will take you a long way!
