You’re going to learn how to increase the responsiveness of your outbound email campaigns.
The tips contained in this article are based on real-world examples from my experiences as an email marketer and salesperson. These tips will be broken down into actionable advice that you can immediately apply to your emails.
| Takeaways |
|---|
| 1. Craft attention-grabbing subject lines. |
| 2. Personalize your emails for individual recipients. |
| 3. Segment your email list based on demographics. |
| 4. Provide valuable and relevant content. |
| 5. Use compelling visuals to enhance engagement. |
| 6. Include clear and compelling calls-to-action. |
| 7. A/B test different email elements for optimization. |
| 8. Optimize emails for mobile responsiveness. |
| 9. Keep your emails concise and focused. |
| 10. Send emails at optimal times for higher open rates. |
| 11. Use social proof to build credibility. |
| 12. Leverage storytelling to connect with recipients. |
| 13. Monitor and analyze campaign performance for improvement. |
1. Write A Compelling Subject Line
You might have trouble with your subject lines if You’re not clear on what you want people to do after they read the email (e.g., set up a meeting, visit your website). You’re focused on pitching something rather than being personable (e.g., “Enterprise software can improve your business!”)
If your subject line has a direct call-to-action or is relevant and personalized, it will be more compelling for the recipient. You should also make sure to stay within the recommended character count of 50 characters or fewer. This won’t guarantee that recipients will open and read your email, but it will increase the likelihood that they’ll take the next step.
Writing effective prospecting emails is an art, and with the right techniques, you can significantly boost your open rates. Explore our detailed guide on 13 Tips to Get Your Prospecting Emails Opened and Increase Replies to learn how to capture your audience’s attention and drive more engagement.
2. Personalize Your Email
Email personalization is a simple and effective way to build rapport with your contacts and let them know that you care about them as people. To personalize an email, you’ll want to use the customer’s name, as well as their company name. The more effort you put into letting customers know that you’re interested in their particular situation and needs, the more likely they are to respond.
3. Follow-Up With Your Prospects
You must give your prospects a reason to follow up with them. If your email is good enough, they will want to open up a conversation. But don’t send too many emails! If the prospect doesn’t respond to the initial email, resend it after one week. If they still don’t respond, resend it again after two weeks. You can always get someone on the phone if you try hard enough but don’t call before you send any emails.
You also need to make sure that you are sending enough emails. Send one email every other day for a total of four emails in eight days. Make sure that you are not sending an email too close together or too far apart from each other. If your first contact with the prospect was via phone and he or she did not pick up, then send another email within 24 hours (but no later than 48).
Also, make sure that you are not sending emails at the wrong time of day: Sending them late in the day might result in lower response rates because people may be busy during those hours or out of town for work purposes for example; early morning messages will be read and processed faster by recipients as well – so consider this when planning your campaigns accordingly.
In the crowded world of email marketing, it’s crucial to make your messages stand out. Discover 12 Email Marketing Hacks to Help You Stand Out and Capture Attention for innovative ways to enhance your campaigns and leave a lasting impression on your recipients.
4. Include A Sense Of Urgency
Use the word “today,” or “today only”. Explain why you’re the best person to solve their problem. Also, Include a deadline for taking action; Use scarcity tactics, like saying that there are limited slots available, or saying that prices will go up soon
5. Make An Offer They Can’t Refuse
Offer something of value that your prospect can claim by clicking a link in the email. This is a powerful call-to-action that helps to drive engagement, potentially leading to more sales or higher revenue from existing customers. You could offer something like; A free trial or demo of your product or service; A free consultation or assessment of their current setup; An ebook, guide, or template that they can download, and Access to an online webinar
6. Make The First Sentence Count
Your introduction is crucial, as it affects your recipient’s overall perception of you. If you aren’t memorable, they’ll move on to the next email in their inbox. They are busy people and don’t have time to deal with an unnecessary burden (i.e., reading/responding to your email).
Therefore, it’s important that your first sentence is direct, clear, and conveys a sense of urgency without being intimidating or salesy. For example: “Hi [name], I’d like to introduce myself and see if what we do might be a good fit for your business needs.” Include at least one benefit of using your product or service in the first sentence so the recipient immediately understands how it could help them.
It also helps if you mention a similar company/customer who has benefited from working with you and/or include a link to a case study that demonstrates how you solved someone else’s problem (even better if it’s a company in the same industry as your prospect).
Elevate your email marketing game by incorporating proven strategies. Our guide on 15 Ways to Improve Your Email Marketing Campaign offers actionable insights to refine your approach, increase engagement, and drive better results from your campaigns.
7. Segment Your Audience
When you segment your audience, you separate your email list into smaller groups based on shared traits. This allows you to send targeted messages that are relevant to their particular interests and concerns. Here are some of the most popular ways to segment audiences:
Interests and behaviors: These audience segments can be created by looking at what types of products or services your customers have purchased in the past. They can also be based on customer behavior, such as how recently they have purchased from you or how frequently they visit your website.
Demographics: You can segment customers by important demographic information like age, location, gender, and income level. For instance, if you sell camping equipment and clothes that are made for active lifestyles, it would make sense to group customers who identify themselves as hikers or kayakers, or rock climbers—not those who identify themselves as couch potatoes.
Location: You might want to send special offers to people who live within a 50-mile radius of one of your retail stores so they can use the offer while shopping in person (and not just online).
8. Send Your Emails During Optimal Hours
Your prospects’ email inboxes are probably full of other sales emails, and some of them will likely be promoting something similar to what you’re offering. So your emails must reach your prospects at the optimal time when they can see them and open them.
But the “optimal time” varies depending on who you are emailing and how busy their days are likely to be. If you send your emails too early in the day or after business hours, they might get lost in a busy professional’s inbox.
Your prospects will have gone through all those other marketing emails already. If they like what they see, they might buy that product or service right away, if only to avoid later buyer’s remorse (or FOMO). But sometimes consumers forget about their initial impulse buys by the time evening comes around, so sending an email a few hours before dinner can remind them of a decision they made earlier that day, and prompt them to order again before it’s too late.
And if you’re selling products or services meant for teenagers, there’s no reason not to send out prospecting emails during any hour of the night; teens tend to stay up late anyway!
9. Optimize For Mobile Devices
Mobile optimization has to be a priority in your email marketing. Now more than half of all emails are opened on a mobile device, and it’s only going to keep growing, so if you’re not optimizing for mobile, you’re doing something wrong.
The statistics speak for themselves: Mobile-optimized emails get better open rates, higher click-through rates, and more conversions than desktop-only emails. But this shouldn’t come at the cost of making your email unappealing – or worse, illegible – on desktops. With some careful planning and testing (the A/B kind), you can create an email that works equally well on all devices.
Crafting attention-grabbing subject lines is a key element of successful email campaigns. Dive into our list of 16 Email Subject Lines That Will Grab Your Readers’ Attention Instantly to learn how to entice your recipients to open your emails and discover your valuable content.
10. A/B Test Your Various Email Elements And Analyze The Results
Try out a few different versions of your email, making subtle changes to each one, then send them out to a sample group from your contact list. Then look at the results (does one version have a higher open rate or click-through rate than another?), analyze the differences between the two versions, and apply what you learn in your next campaign.
For example, let’s say you sent out an email campaign that was identical except for its subject line i.e., both had the same overall message, call-to-action, and so on. This could give you insight into whether people respond better to questions or statements as subject lines (for example). Or it might tell you that they are more likely to open an email if it indicates its purpose in the subject line (e.g., “[Company Name] is hiring” vs. “Looking for new talent?”).
11. Make It Easy To Unsubscribe From Emails
This is what’s expected of you as a marketer and is the law of the land in most countries. By not including an unsubscribe option, you risk violating privacy laws or frustrating your recipients, both of which could lead to undesired outcomes. You want to avoid having people mark your emails as spam because spam complaints can lead to your email being blocked by internet service providers or email services such as Gmail and Yahoo! Mail.
Although giving users the option to unsubscribe may seem counterintuitive, research indicates that those who do unsubscribe weren’t going to engage with you anyway. You’re losing subscribers who weren’t invested enough in your content to stick around, so don’t worry about it. If someone does end up wanting out of your campaign, let them go with dignity and respect.
Put the unsubscribe link in plain view near the top of every message you send out and make sure it’s easy for recipients to find. For example: “If you’d like to opt-out of these messages from us, click here. We’ll miss you!” Don’t be too sad though data shows that when people are given a choice between receiving an unwanted email once per week or never at all, 81% will choose never all (source).
12. Create Content That Resonates With Your Audience
How do you create content that resonates with your audience? There are a few ways to go about it. For instance, you can use Google Analytics to get an idea of the type of content that most resonates with your audience. You might also browse through Google’s keyword planner tool and see what search terms people are looking for in your niche. A quick look at the top-performing content in your niche should also give you some inspiration.
Beyond this, make sure you use the AIDA format (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) when creating content that is designed to generate a response from email recipients. The structure is simple: start by grabbing their attention (use an intriguing subject line), build interest with relevant information or data points, generate desire by highlighting how they will benefit from what you’re offering, then finish by prompting them to take action (i.e., schedule a demo).
13. Keep It Short And Sweet
Avoid long or complicated words, especially when there is a simpler word you can use instead (e.g., avoid using “comprehensive” when you mean “complete”). Try to use short words as much as possible so your message will be clear for everyone to understand easily, even non-native English speakers who may not know all of the vocabulary used in everyday speech or technical jargon associated with their profession or industry (e.g., “incentivize” vs.” encourage.”)
Avoid technical jargon specific only to people who are familiar with your industry (e.g., if you’re selling industrial equipment then avoid using terms like “volume ratio” unless they do matter). Instead focus on what makes sense for them: how they’ll benefit from using this product rather than being bogged down by details about how it works internally (unless those internal details do matter).
A well-crafted email subject line can make or break your open rates. Learn the art of writing subject lines that compel action in our guide, How to Write Epic Email Subject Lines That Encourage Opens and Clicks. Uncover the secrets to creating subject lines that resonate and drive engagement.
Final Thoughts
Sending emails is not rocket science. It is not a skill that everyone has, but it is a process and a skill that can be learned. There are many elements to consider and steps to take when sending cold emails to prospects if you want them to respond.
So there you go. By following these 13 tips, you can be confident that your prospects will be reading the emails you send them. If you have any other tips on how to increase the effectiveness of prospecting campaigns, please share them in the comments section below.
Further Reading
Here are some additional resources to enhance your understanding of email prospecting and campaign optimization:
Sales Outreach Emails: Best Practices for Today’s Landscape Learn about effective sales outreach strategies, personalized messaging, and connecting with your audience in the current email landscape.
Mastering Email Prospecting: 13 Tips for Success Dive into expert advice on improving your email prospecting game, from crafting compelling subject lines to building genuine connections.
How to Make Your Emails More Clickable Explore actionable tips to increase the click-through rates of your emails, including content optimization, CTAs, and design.
People Also Ask
How Do I Make My Email More Responsive?
The most effective tactic is to personalize your email campaigns. Personalized emails generate 6x higher transaction rates than non-personalized emails! You can customize the first name field in your email template to greet each prospect by their first name. That way, you can emphasize a sense of familiarity in your outreach and make it feel less promotional.
What Makes An Email Effective?
A good quality bulk email service provider with proven results should be able to handle any issues that arise while sending large volumes of marketing emails. Your ESP should also provide reliable tracking so you can optimize and improve future campaigns based on performance metrics. Moreover, your ESP should allow you to organize different categories of prospects into contact lists and segments so that you can easily target specific audiences with relevant content at different stages of the buying cycle or funnel.
How Do You Write A Good Email Subject Line?
Subject lines are golden opportunities for marketers to draw readers in with enticing copywriting or infuse a bit of personality into their messages.
Although there are plenty of templates out there for creating catchy subject lines, it’s important to remember that the best ones are genuine a flash-in-the-pan tactic is not going to keep people coming back (or even opening) every single time they receive an email from you.
Strive instead to build trust between yourself and the reader by consistently providing useful information relevant to their pain points or interests.
How Do You Write A Good Follow-Up Email?
Write your follow-up email within 24 hours of receiving no response from the receiver. Don’t send them too many follow-up emails. Ask if they have any questions before sending your email. Don’t be pushy or impatient in your email. Keep it short and sweet, to help them solve their problem quickly and effectively.
What Is The Best Time To Send Emails?
While there is no perfect time, it’s generally recommended that you send your emails during normal business hours, on weekdays, and between 1-4 p.m. These times are when email users are most likely to be checking their inboxes.
What Is The Best Day To Send Emails?
Tuesdays are generally considered the best day of the week for sending prospecting emails, with Wednesdays a close second. The worst days of the week for sending prospecting emails include Saturdays and Sundays.
What Makes A Good Subject Line?
The ideal subject line length is around 50 characters or less, which will ensure optimal visibility on all desktop and mobile devices. If you’re looking for an additional boost, try ending your subject line with an emoji (or two).
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A high-quality emoji can catch the eye of any reader like nothing else! When crafting your subject lines, be sure to test them in advance and track their open rates over time so that you can analyze which ones resonate with your audience the most. This will help inform future campaigns as well.
Costantine Edward is a digital marketing expert, freelance writer, and entrepreneur who helps people attain financial freedom. I’ve been working in marketing since I was 18 years old and have managed to build a successful career doing what I love.