9 Best Practices of Consulting Cold Email

As a consultant, I’m always looking for new and innovative ways to market my business. So when I heard about cold emailing, I was intrigued. After doing some research, I decided to give it a try. But before hitting “send” on that first email campaign, there were a few things I needed to know from a legal standpoint. Here’s what you need to know about the legality of consulting cold email.

Consulting Cold Email

When reaching out to new clients, a business will send out a consulting cold email to prospective clients who have not expressed any interest in working with them. The goal of this outreach is to introduce the company and its services in hopes of securing a new client or a project.

What is a Cold Email?

A “cold” email is when you send an email to someone who doesn’t know you and has not given you permission to send them emails.

There is a myriad of reasons why you should make cold email prospecting a priority, but I will be focusing on two crucial ones: lead generation and brand awareness.

Generating a lead is at the top of the sales funnel, and the next step is converting that lead into a customer.

The more people you contact, the more awareness you create for your brand. The more people who know about your product, the more sales you’ll make.

Pre-targeting: If you plan to use cold emails to generate brand awareness – use pre-targeting ads on social media to generate some attention. It’s possible to use Google, Facebook, LinkedIn for these targeted ads to the business prospects in your cold list. If your prospects already know you and can relate to your company’s name, logo and brand color your cold email outreach will give much better results.

What are the Drawbacks of a Cold Email?

Much like the anxiety of interviewing for a job, sending out a cold email to a prospect can be nerve-wracking.

Without knowing your audience, you could either write a great article or a terrible one.

The worst part about sending out a cold email? You guessed it right — ending up in the spam folder.

With challenges come solutions. So in today’s blog, we’ll share our best practices for effective email outreach to your list of contacts.

Is Cold Emailing a Form of Spam?

When sending a sales email, the first question is whether or not it would be considered spam.

Cold email itself is not spam but not following the best practices for sending out emails can lead to your messages being marked as spam.

What is considered spam?

1. Sending too many emails
2. Continuing to send emails even when the recipient asked not to
3. Sending generic instead of personalized emails
4. Sending random emails instead of a targeted recipient list
5. Sending irrelevant, dishonest, and fake news

From a legal standpoint, your cold emails need to comply with CAN-SPAM as mandated by the Federal Trade Commission to not be categorized as spam.

Best Practices for Sending Cold Emails

Step 1: Create a cold email strategy

Avoid rushing into your first email pitch. Instead, take the time to plan out your campaign.

• Set a goal.
• Keep your budget in mind.
• Stick to your timeline.
• Write down your desired results.
• Identify your prospect.
• Choose the right tools and technology.
• Identify your human resources.

Step 2: Build a List of Prospects

Now that you’ve identified your prospects, it’s time to start making those sales.

Don’t collect email addresses just for the sake of it. Instead, focus on finding quality contacts that are likely to become customers.

You can gather the contact details of your lead, such as their full name, email, company, and phone number. Any other details that you think would be useful can also be added.

There are many ways you can learn more about your prospect.

You can discover the exact types of businesses you want to sell to by acquiring data from companies like ZoomInfo.

If you want to do it on your own, you can use tools like the Linkedin Sales Navigator.

There are many tools out there to help you prospect. Here is a list of a few:

1. GetProspect
2. Hunter
3. Snov.io
4. Apollo.io

Step 3: Verify Email Addresses and Clean Up Your List

Most sales software will verify emails for you, or allow you to remove bad emails from your lists, which can help keep a clean list.

If your email marketing software doesn’t have this capability, or if you want to double-check your list, there are plenty of other tools you can use such as:

1. Gmass
2. Kickbox
3. ZeroBounce
4. NeverBounce
5. Hunter.io

Step 4: Choose an Email Server to Host Your Mailbox.

Now’s the time to decide on an email host.

There are many email hosting services available, such as G Suite, Microsoft 365, and Zoho. If you’re not sure what one is best for you, our team of experts can help you. We can set up your email on our own server, so you can focus on growing your company.

For sending out mass emails and newsletters, you can set up your own mail server or use services like AWS, Google, or Mailchimp.

If you want to send out as many mass email campaigns as possible, check out Gmass. You can send emails through services like SendGrid, MailGun, or Amazon’s Simple Email Service (SES). Visit their website to learn more.

We highly recommend using G Suite for both email sending and receiving. You should also avoid using team or shared email accounts for sending out your messages, and you should not include them in your list. This will ensure your messages are sent and received quickly.

Step 5: Warm Up the Domain.

Don’t use your company’s main website to send out marketing emails. Your site and reputation should be protected from spam.

For cold email, it is better to have another look-alike domain. Once you have identified the domain, make sure you set the domain with proper DNS records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) for email authentication. Also, use a special domain scanner to find out any issues present and resolve them quickly.

It’s best to wait a few weeks before using a brand new email for a cold campaign. This gives the domain time to warm up and build up trust.

There are a variety of ways to warm up your prospect list, including Lemwarm by Lemlist and InboxWarm by Outreachbin.

Step 6: Personalize Your Copy

This is the most important step, so you should spend a lot of time on it.

1. Don’t send the same copy to everyone on your mailing list
2. Personalize your email.
3. Decide on a tone and voice.
4. Decide whether you want a hard sell or a soft sell.

Write your email copies based on these four tips. Get someone to proofread your copy before you send it.

Your copy needs to be constantly refined and tweaked through A/B testing and experience.

There are tons of resources online for helping you craft the perfect sales emails. But, remember, you need to tailor them to fit your brand and voice.

If you’re looking for a way to take your cold emailing to the next level, you should consider using AI marketing tools. With these tools, you can access a wealth of data about your prospect that can help you create a more personalized email.

Step 7: Set Up Your Cold Email Software.

Now that you’ve built your list, cleaned it, and organized it, you can sign up with email marketing software to manage and keep track of all your email outreach.

Using a newsletter tool such as MailChimp for sending out your mass email campaigns is a bad idea. Instead, use a dedicated tool for your cold emails like:

1. Woodpecker
2. Mailshake
3. Replyify
4. Reply.io
5. Salesforce Pardot

There are many different types of tools available for emailing your prospects. Each has its own pros and cons, so it’s up to you to decide which is best for you.

After you’ve signed up for your email marketing service, you’ll need to configure your mail server. Most of these services provide a way to integrate with Gmail and other IMAP/SMTP accounts.

Some of the tools will only let you send emails using their system, so you’ll have to rely on their software to send out your messages for you.

Step 8: Set Up Your Email Sequence

Upload your list of email contacts to the service and create your sequence using their email templates.

Test different copies and approaches to see which one performs better. Merge tags are a great way to personalize the messages you send.

Step 9: Measure Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Analyze the data from your campaigns to see if they’re successful. Here are some metrics you can analyze:

• Open rate: Are people opening your emails? If the open rate is low, your emails could be landing in the spam box.
• Reply rate: If your goal is to get people to reply, your call to action must be clear and concise.
• Click rate: How interested is your audience in your product?
• Bounce rate: If you have a high bounce rate, stop the campaign and reevaluate your strategy.

How to Follow Up on Your Cold Email

Just sending out effective sales pitches via email rarely closes deals. You’ll also have many leads that don’t respond at all to your sales pitch.

In both scenarios, you’ll need to have a follow-up strategy in place to maximize your chances of converting the prospect into a customer.

Here are our top tips to make sure you give your prospects the best shot at converting.

1. Reply to Your Original Email.

You want to respond to your original cold email, not create a new message. You want your lead to return to your earlier correspondence with you and refer back to it. This is especially the case if they did not respond to it.

If you want to change the subject, try adding some personal touches to it. This will make it stand out in the inbox and your lead will see that you’re not just another generic salesperson.

2. Provide Context.

The next step is giving your lead a compelling reason as to why you are reaching out. Be straightforward.

It’s important to keep your message short and sweet. Don’t waste your prospect’s time by rambling on and on.

It’s often not necessary to send a follow-up email to a cold lead, especially if you sent an initial email and they didn’t open it.

It would make sense for you to follow up differently with people who open your email and those who don’t. This way, you can tailor your message more specifically to each person.

3. Highlight the Value You Offer.

Now is the time to prove your value to a potential customer. At this point in the sales process, it’s not about convincing a lead to buy, it’s about proving your worth.

You only have to convince them that giving you more of their time is worth their while.

The best approach to this will depend on the product and client.

But if you can show how your product can help solve a problem for them, then you’ll have a good chance of piquing their attention.

4. Close with a Strong CTA

The closing of your email should be clear and direct. It should include a call to action that tells your prospect exactly what you would like them to do next.

Include a call-to-action that links to your scheduling tool, so potential customers can book a meeting right away.

You could suggest meeting them at a certain time every week. This will make it simple for them to move to the next part of your sales cycle.

5. Follow the 3×3 Rule

It’s now been a few days since you sent your prospecting email to a prospect, and they haven’t responded.

Follow up a maximum of three times, with at least three business days apart.

It’s important to be persistent without sounding annoying.

6. Don’t Be Cheesy.

The more direct you are with your follow-up, the better. Don’t use cheesy, manipulative, or aggressive tactics.

Avoid starting off your emails with phrases like “I hope my prior email didn’t offend you” or “We haven’t heard from you, and we’re starting to worry!”

It’s better to be honest with your prospects than to use these tricks. Saying things like “I want to take one last shot” or “I want to send you this email because I really think you’ll benefit from our services.”

7. Don’t Grow Stale

If you’ve tried emailing a prospect multiple times and they haven’t responded, then it’s time to try a different approach. Perhaps your subject line wasn’t compelling enough, or maybe your offer wasn’t quite what they were looking for.

Don’t grow stale with your follow-up emails! While you’re at it, use different approaches with each campaign. Try different templates, offers, and pain points. Your customers will appreciate it, and it’ll keep you on their minds.

Test out different days and times of the day to see when your emails are opened the most.

Conclusion

If you’re thinking about adding consulting cold email to your marketing strategy, make sure you understand the legalities first. Cold emailing can be a great way to reach new potential clients, but it’s important to know the rules before hitting “send.”

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