Cold emails can be a cost-effective way to generate new leads, and, if done right, can be the underlying strategy for a very successful B2B outreach campaign.
In a recent Demand Gen Report from Hubspot, 53% of marketers said that email has been the most effective channel for their early-stage lead generation efforts.
This a reflection of an earlier trend where Hubspot found that 20% of marketers are using automated email marketing campaigns and 68% of businesses overall use automation in some aspects of their marketing efforts.
When it comes to B2B outreach, a staggering 68% of B2B marketers use automation as part of their day-to-day operations, with as much as 92% of B2B marketers pinning their focus on Account-Based Marketing.
If you connect the dots, it paints a clear picture of the current B2B marketing landscape: automate everything, focus on high-value clients, and send out targeted emails for maximum effect.
While half the battle in a successful cold email outreach campaign is building a list of viable leads that fit your buyer persona, the other half is the email itself.
Personalize your Message
Woodpecker gleaned a few insights from 20 million sales emails and found that personalized emails (that include details like the personal name and company role of the recipient) convert almost twice as much as generic cold emails.
Lemlist has put together a fantastic guide to crafting personalized cold emails that convert—with much higher click-through rates than the industry average.
Keep in mind that B2B email click-through rates can vary considerably, from 0.1-4.3%. So, even the slightest improvement in the quality of your cold emails can have an outsized impact on your lead conversion rates.
You'll want to warm up your emails first, so that you can avoid spam filters and improve your email deliverability.
Once you've gotten yourself a tool like Lemlist that can help you personalize your cold emails and get you into the right inboxes, you'll be ready for the next step.
Turn your CTA into a Deal-Winner
The end goal of any outreach campaign is to close more deals. What stage that deal is closed will vary considerably, depending on who you're targeting and what you're selling.
If you're in the SaaS space, getting your lead to sign up for a free trial might seem like the most obvious choice for a CTA, but that has its trappings too: educating your client on the "why" and the "how" is just as important as getting them to try your product or service for the first time.
The more complex your solution is, the harder it will be for the deal to sell itself.
That's why meetings have proven to be the ultimate deal-maker environment. You're more likely to close a B2B deal during a meeting then in an email, landing page, sign up form, or a free trial— even if all of those elements were touchpoints that brought your brand to their attention.
With all that in mind, your CTA should include the "what you should do" and "why you should do it".
Deal Winning CTA Examples
- Book a Sales Call - to help them through the buying process (critical to paperwork heavy services like insurance or legal aid).
- Book a Discovery Call - to help determine if your service is a right fit for their business (great for creative agencies that offer specialized services).
- Book a Product Demo - to help demonstrate how your product can be used effectively to fit their preferred use cases (an essential step for any SaaS business).
- Book an Interview - to share some of your insights with your client (can be a great way to introduce yourself as a potential brand champion or subject-matter expert).
Go the Extra Mile
Personalizing your emails, presentations and information packets (aka any digital material you want them to consume) to include the company branding and colors of your prospective client is the surest way to appear professional and well-informed.
Going the extra mile shows that you're serious about the deal and have done your homework about your client, which makes it that much easier to establish rapport and close a deal.
If you want to take your personalization one step further, you can brand your online meetings with your client's logo in MeetFox.
We've put together a quick guide on how you can pair MeetFox + Lemlist to personalize your entire cold email outreach strategy, from start to finish.
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