Cold Outreach: What Is It and How to Use It?

Have you heard about cold email outreach? I bet you have. It is a technique widely used among small business owners, startup entrepreneurs, and marketers. Why? If done right, emails are a relatively inexpensive and effective way to reach the target audience. 

That’s why many marketers and business owners use it for pitching, sales and building relationships.

Read on to get more details about cold outreach, as well as some tips for cold emailing.

What is Cold Outreach?

Cold Outreach is the process of contacting the potential clients, or target audience, without their prior consent, to offer the product, service or cooperation via email. The cold outreach contemplates that a sender does not know the recipient, as the first get emails by researching the Web. It usually has the principle of sending in bulk at its core, considering forwarding emails to a significant number of people. 

The strategies vary from niche to niche, sphere of operation and needs of the target audienceFor instance, marketers apply cold email outreach as a substitute for cold calls, while startups use it to pitch their ideas to investors and the media

Yet, many emails are ignored or happen to get to the spam box. That’s why one should know the basics of cold emailing.

How to Start a Cold Email Campaign: List, Domain and Message

Any campaign starts with research and preparation. The same applies to cold emailing. The launch of cold outreach is impossible without an email list, email domain with a good rating, and a compelling message. 

Develop an email list that ensures deliverability

How to find emails for your email list? You can look for emails by yourself, doing research on the target audience contacts. In this regard, you can use business databases, websites, or even social media, like LinkedIn. 

You can do it manually or use specific cold email outreach software or lead generation tools. For instance, the GetProspect extension allows extracting emails from LinkedIn: https://getprospect.com/linkedIn-email-finder-chrome-extension. This software can find and verify the emails, while the marketer would only need to find people. 

The quality of emails matters here, as in case the emails you find are invalid, your offer or pitch is unlikely to reach the recipient. Thus, before all, design a quality email list.

Create a new email address and prepare the domain

A new email address should be credible and straightforward, evoking trust. At the same time, you may need to use a specific domain. Why? Before all, domain and your email address are the first things that email providers see. Based on it, they determine the rating and define whether your message can be trusted. 

The rating affects the chances of the message going into the spam folder. There are also enough email testing software or websites like Spamhaus that, in this case, work as cold email outreach software.

Pay attention to subject lines and message body

An answer to the question “How to start a cold email?” would not be complete without mentioning these elements. The subject line and message’s content are the parts that ensure the opening of emails and your potential customers’ engagement. 

First of all, the subject line should be intelligible and convey what the message would be about. Besides, it should not be too long and promotional. 

Regarding the body of the email letter, focus on the structure, clarity and prospects’ needs. The form would set the flow and add to understanding of the content. Next, your message should have a definite goal and call to action. It will ensure that prospects respond if interested. 

Lastly, put the recipient’s needs in the center. Remember that what you offer is to help them or provide a solution to the issue they are experiencing.

Cold Email Best Practices

The efficiency of the cold email campaign depends on how you impact the open rates and engagement. Not all recipients decide to check their inbox; others don’t open emails because they don’t know the sender or fail to engage due to lack of certainty. Thus, some cold emailing tips can improve engagement and other rates.

Always think of personalization

People tend to open emails more often when they see their names in the subject line. Also, complimenting the specific works of the recipient can make your message more appealing.

Be an expert who can solve an issue

There is one prospecting technique that suggests you depict yourself as an expert. What for? If you show that you are competent, it will add to the trust and ignite customer’s interest in your product.

Don’t be basic and develop your style

One of the tips for cold emailing underlines: when reaching out to someone, try to write as if the recipient is in front of you. It is a way to be authentic. That’s why some people consider using templates to be wrong. Everybody receives the same messages and can see the sign of an annoying outreach campaign a mile away. Besides, you can use specific graphic elements, communicating who you are as a brand.

Be sure to experiment with your campaigns

There is no ideal message or email for your target audience. Why? People focus on different things depending on age and experience. That’s why it may be a good idea to design various messages for the separate sections of your audience. Test the elements that refer to how the emails look and can be perceived.