In the fast-paced realm of B2B sales, establishing meaningful connections with potential clients is important.
And making sales with cold emails is tough. Even though you have written cold emails, it can always seem new. In this comprehensive guide, we'll delve into the key elements, in-depth tips on how to write a cold email for B2B, and best practices for sending B2B cold emails that resonate with your target audience.
Understanding Cold Email and B2B
Before diving in details, let’s break down cold email and B2B.
A cold email is like sending a message to someone you don't know. It's not like talking to a friend or someone you've met.
In the business world, sending a cold email helps reach out to new people interested in what a company offers. The tricky part is making these cold contacts into potential new business deals. Writing a good cold email is about making the other person interested and showing how your company can be helpful to them.
B2B stands for Business-to-Business. In simple words, it means one business selling stuff to another business. This is different from businesses selling things to regular people (which is called B2C or Business-to-Consumer). B2B deals are usually bigger, more complicated, and focus on making both businesses happy by providing what they need.
Something interesting happens when we use cold emails in the business-to-business (B2B) world. Cold emails have become a clever way for businesses to talk to each other, find new chances, sell more things, and smoothen the sales process.
The trick is understanding how other businesses operate, figuring out what they need, and then writing emails about those needs.
How to write a Cold Email for B2B ?
Writing effective and perfect cold emails for B2B requires a thoughtful approach to engage potential clients and drive meaningful conversations. Let’s talk about how we can drive more sales using cold email outreach campaign:
1. Preparation
Understanding Your Audience
Before composing an email, invest time in truly understanding your audience. Who are the individuals you're trying to connect with? What are their pain points, challenges, and goals?
Tailoring your message to speak to the specific needs of your target audience directly is the crucial first step toward a successful B2B cold email campaign.
For instance, if your solution is an email-sending software designed for bulk outreach, your target audience would likely include individuals needing bulk emails, such as sales team or marketing professionals.
Once you know your target audience, you can start researching their pain points and how to help them. Write them down, and you can use them to create your email content.
Identifying decision makers
Now that you understand your target audience, the next crucial step is pinpointing the right decision-maker. The primary goal of sending cold emails is to persuade these decision-makers to consider purchasing your product or service.
Identify who holds the decision-making power so you can specifically target them. For instance, if you're marketing a bulk email sending software to marketing and sales reps or professionals, sending emails to every industry professional is ineffective.
You must decide who, among these professionals, has the authority to make purchasing decisions, such as marketing or sales managers. This focused approach increases the chances of your cold emails reaching those with the power to choose your product or service.
Create your own email list
The last crucial step while preparing for your sales cold email is to secure the contact details of the individuals you're targeting in the business to send the email to the right person.
Many individuals make mistakes in this phase, such as resorting to buying an email list of specific target personas. While this isn't inherently bad, purchasing an email list can elevate the risk of obtaining incorrect emails, increasing bounce rates.
The optimal approach is to craft your own email list. Utilize email-finding tools and delve into research on platforms like LinkedIn to identify your target personas. By doing so, you can independently gather their email addresses, enabling you to reach out directly and present your sales pitch.
Constructing your own list ensures accuracy and enhances the chances of establishing genuine connections with your intended audience.
2. Writing your cold email copy
You understand your target persona and create your contact list to send emails. Now, let’s talk about how to write an amazing cold email copy to maximize your results.
Writing effective Subject Line: The Gateway to Success
The subject line acts as your introduction and is pivotal in whether your email gains attention.
When crafting an email subject line, leverage every opportunity to capture your prospect's interest. The success of your email ultimately relies on the content within, but without a compelling subject line, your emails may go unread, regardless of the value they provide.
Keep your subject line concise, ideally within 6-8 words.
Ensure it is intriguing and directly related to the recipient's interests or challenges. Create curiosity, like “Judith, boost your conversions by 40%.”
Personalization is a game-changer – including the recipient's name or referencing a recent event related to their business can significantly enhance your subject line.
You can learn more about how you can create effective subject lines for personalized emails in this blog: The power of curiosity: Creating intriguing Cold Email Subject Lines
Opening Lines: Grab Attention from the Start
Make your cold email captivating by writing magnetic initial lines and urge your prospect to reach CTA and take action. You can follow this, especially when reaching out to cold prospects.
Aim to warm up your recipient by showing genuine interest. While some prefer to get to the point, it's crucial to make them feel good by mentioning something about them.
Express a sincere interest in their business or share a brief insight showcasing your understanding of their industry. Once familiarity is established, smoothly transition into your main pitch.
The main objective of your opening line is to ignite curiosity and encourage your prospect to keep reading.
Pitch: Highlight Benefits, Not Features
Now comes your pitch. You must highlight their pain point and how your solution fits right in. Your potential clients are not just interested in the technical details of your product or service, they want to know what it can do for them.
Instead of trying and giving them the specifications of your solution, focus on the benefits it brings. Clearly explain how it can address their specific challenges or enhance their processes.
Be concise yet compelling in conveying the value you offer. Remember, it's not about what your product has but how it can positively impact and improve their business. Remember you must keep your email count around 70-120 words max.
Build Credibility: Showcase Your Value
Establishing credibility is paramount in the B2B context. Try to highlight your company's achievements, relevant case studies, or partnerships.
If you've had the privilege of working with well-known clients, mention them briefly. This helps build trust and positions you as a credible solution provider.
Personalization: Tailor Each Email
Try to write a personalized cold email and tailor it according to your own recipient. Personalization goes beyond addressing the recipient by name.
One of the best ways to do personalization in your email by checking out your prospect's linkedIn profile and use it to reference specific details about their company, industry trends, or recent accomplishments. This demonstrates that you've done your homework and are genuinely interested in their business.
If you want to learn how you can do effective cold email personalization to maximize your campaign results: Personalization in Cold Email Outreach: Connecting on a human level
3. Call-to-Action: Guide them to the next step
The final step of your cold email is to write a clear call to action at the end of your email. Every effective cold email should have a clear call-to-action (CTA). Whether it's scheduling a call, requesting a demo, or replying to your email, guide your prospect on the next steps.
Guide your prospect seamlessly toward the next steps, making it effortless for them to take action while emphasizing the benefits. Your CTA should be compelling, clearly illustrating how taking the next step will add significant value to your business.
Without a well-defined CTA at the end of the email, it might not produce the desired results, as you won't be directing your prospects toward a specific action. The primary objective of your CTA is to prompt your prospects to take the necessary actions that align with your goals.
4. Execution and Sending
With your email copies finalized, it's time for execution and sending out cold emails. Let's discuss what you can do for effective execution, enhancing your strategy to drive more revenue for your business.
Follow-Up: Be Persistent
Getting a reply to your cold email can be challenging. Don't be disheartened if you don't get an immediate response, as B2B sales often require multiple touchpoints.
Craft polite and concise follow-up emails to remind your prospects of the value you bring gently. Consider adding customer testimonials to bolster your credibility. It's essential to avoid bombarding them daily with emails, as this could lead flag your email as spam.
Instead, adopt a strategic follow-up approach tailored to your audience. Test different follow up email strategies to determine what works best for you.
Thoughtful and respectful follow-ups can often be the key to success in the world of B2B cold emails. Learn more about follow ups of cold email that actually works.
A/B Testing and Monitoring results
Testing your emails is like checking if your messages work well in cold email campaigns. Look at your analytics regularly to see how many emails you sent, how many people opened and clicked them, and if anyone replied. This helps you understand if your emails are working.
Do some A/B testing. It's like trying out different versions of your emails to see which one works better. Make a few changes and see what people like more.
This is a smart way to make your email campaign get even better results. Keep an eye on your numbers, try out different things, and you can make your campaign super effective.
Write Write Write
Even if your cold sales email campaigns are starting to show results, it doesn't mean you should stick to just one version. The email world is always evolving, so you must keep creating new cold email copies and trying the best strategies.
While learning from others is helpful, the real magic happens when you persistently develop your own body of the email that works best for you. Don't settle; keep crafting different versions of your emails—your next one might bring in even better results!
Email Examples
Let's explore a few examples of effective cold emails that sparked responses in our campaigns. I'll share templates I've personally crafted for our different outreach efforts.
Template 1: Normal
Subject: Sam, crack the code to your software’s success
Open rate: 78%
This email had a whopping open rate of 78%. This email was crafted using the steps I shared above. This campaign was there to pitch the Founders of Software available on AppSumo. Let’s discuss why this is a good email:
This email's open rate was good because the subject line was highly relevant and personalized. It focuses on a pain point and uses the first name of the recipient which creates a sense of familiarity.
The email starts with a relevant introduction on how we discovered them and how we like what they are doing. The pitch part is clear, mentioning the pain points they might be facing.
This email gives a good value proposition and explains how an explainer video can effectively communicate the software value and boost website conversions. We are not selling our explainer videos, we are focusing on the point that an explainer video is important rather than boasting about our service.
This email has a clear CTA which tells the recipient to schedule a call and meeting.
Template 2: Direct
Subject: Jaden, 75% of people judge your website by this…
Open Rate: 62%
This is a successful cold email campaign for promoting the HubSpot themes we created. It had an open rate of 62%. The reason why this cold email campaign was a success was because it was a different type of campaign promoting both free and paid website theme templates which we created. The main goal was to get high clicks and page visits.
Let’s discuss why this cold email was good
This email is an example of direct conversation. We start by saying who we are and then ask a question about a problem and how it affects them. But, it doesn't show interest in their work, and it has a different way of presenting our idea.
This email provides a clear solution and highlights the benefits in three simple points. This format makes it easy to read and quickly catches the recipient's attention.
Even though the email is brief, it manages to convey all the important information we want to share. It also includes a clear and compelling call-to-action (CTA) which makes them click on the link to visit the website.
The subject line of this email sparks curiosity, urging recipients to open and read it. By beginning with the recipient's first name, it creates a sense of familiarity.
The inclusion of website statistics adds an intriguing element. However, the subject line intentionally ends abruptly, leaving the recipients wondering about the content and encouraging them to open the email.
Template 3: Promotional
Subject: Stefan, need help with HubSpot?
Open Rate : 61%
This is a promotional campaign aimed at boosting webdew's YouTube channel. Promotional content can sometimes receive negative responses, as people generally aren't fond of promotional material. Surprisingly, this email still yielded positive results. Let's discuss why.
Even though this email is about promoting something, we sent it to people who use HubSpot. Since HubSpot can be a bit tricky, people often search for help on platforms like YouTube. And since we're making short explainers, we're providing them with what they're looking for.
The email's subject line is short and easy to read, and it's personalized, making the recipient feel it's just for them.
It doesn't distract or say anything wrong; it simply asks a straightforward question, which results in a lot of recipients clicking and opening the email.
The email begins with an introduction, where we introduce ourselves as a HubSpot partner and user for more than six years. This demonstrates to the recipients that they are in capable hands.
The call-to-action (CTA) is a bit different here. It clearly instructs the recipient on what needs to be done. However, it is written in a language and tone that doesn't strongly emphasize the action.
This type of CTA is well-suited for promotional cold emails, as being too pushy in initial interactions may not be ideal. It aligns with the approach of not seeming too forceful when reaching out to someone for the first time, which is often the case with cold emails.
Ready to excel in writing a Cold Email for B2B?
Writing successful B2B sales emails is a skill that can be honed with thoughtful refinement and best practices for B2B cold emails.
By understanding your audience and crafting compelling email subject copy with the above steps, you can generate new leads from your next cold email marketing campaign.
Don't get disheartened if you are not getting results from your cold outreach emails initially. Following the steps above, you can elevate your B2B cold email campaign game, open doors to new business opportunities, and increase lead generation. Happy emailing.
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