In recent years, one of the most extensively employed customer acquisition tactics among digital marketers has been cold email marketing. With each passing year, achieving results from cold email outreach is growing more difficult, maybe due to this increasing prevalence. However, the truth remains that cold emailing is effective. For B2B and e-commerce enterprises, a well-crafted email is still a great tool for establishing stable and profitable partnerships.

This tutorial will educate you to the foundations of cold emailing for B2B and e-commerce organizations and show you the best practices for producing cold emails that convert in 2022, whether you’re new to outbound marketing or just want to improve your outreach game.

What Does “Cold Emailing” Mean?

Cold emailing is an outbound marketing approach that entails utilizing email to contact potential clients with whom you have had no prior transactions or interactions. A cold email is a conversation starter, similar to shaking hands with someone you want to do business with for the first time.

Because the recipient of a cold email is unfamiliar with your company, your messaging should be different. Your handshake email should provide an introduction to your company while maintaining relevant to their interests.

Inc presents an excellent example of a cold email made by Dhruv Ghulati, the founder of Facmata. Ghulati received $500,000 from Mark Cuban as a result of that email.

Statistics on Cold Emails

Cold emails have existed for practically as long as email has existed. As a result, there’s a lot of research on how effective cold emails are as a marketing approach.

Here are a few of the most significant.

• Every day, an estimated 293 billion emails are sent and received (Statista 2019).
• Email is the third most important source of information for B2Bs (BaseOne via Imagination).
• Email engagement is the primary indicator for gauging content performance for nearly 90% of B2B marketers (Content Marketing Institute 2020, 30).
• Cold emails have a 21.33 percent open rate across all industries (Mailchimp).
• Approximately 69 percent of people report emails as spam based just on the subject lines (Invesp).
• Taking the time to write personalized email subject lines can double your response rate (Yes Lifecycle Marketing via Data Axle, 2017).
• A/B split testing can boost open rates by 49% (Lead Lantern).
• Longer email outreach campaigns with 4 to 7 emails have a higher response rate than shorter campaigns (Woodpecker 2022).
• Cold emails with 50 to 125 words are optimal (Boomerang 2016).
• Sending more follow-up emails can increase the response rate by a triple (Propeller 2018).
• Email subject lines with 36 to 50 characters have higher open rates than those with fewer or more characters (Smartwriter.ai 2021).
• The global average open rate for promotional emails was 21.3% in 2020 (SuperOffice 2021).

Cold Emails Then and Now

You could get away with the bare minimum in the old days of cold email outreach. People used to simply bulk send a templated pitch to a list of recipients without bothering about customization. One email was enough for everyone. 

This got the job done until more businesses caught up with this trend in recent years. As more businesses became familiar with the tactic, people’s inboxes were flooded by the same generic emails, driving fewer open rates and clicks.

The market has since changed, and in 2022, building relationships is in vogue. It’s no longer about writing a three-paragraph hit-or-miss template that speaks to everyone and no one at the same time. Moving forward, success in B2B cold emailing depends on your sincere willingness to learn about your prospect and find out how a potential partnership can benefit both parties.

How to Write Effective Cold Emails

To write a cold email that elicits a response, keep in mind the following best practices.

1. Segment your recipients

Divide your email recipients into segments or smaller groups that will allow you to create a more targeted campaign. Segmentation has been proven effective not only for email marketing but also for online advertising, personalization, and more.

 If your leads data allows it, segmenting your contacts based on the following categories can lead to higher open and click rates and low unsubscription and complaint rates.

• Location. Use geographical data to send out your cold emails based on the time your recipients are most active.
• Demographics. Use age and gender categories, employment setup, and technologies to tailor a pitch that resonates with recipients.
• Niche. Find out about their unifying interests or characteristics to help you craft a more relevant message.

2. Write clickable subject lines

There’s no use having the most engaging email pitch in the world if your recipient will mark your message spam before they even click on it.

An effective cold email should generate interest at first glance by using a compelling subject line that generates clicks.

Here are essential tips for creating effective subject lines:

• The fewer words, the better. Limit your subject line to 50 characters or less.
• Don’t say it all right there. Make it interesting by tossing in an element of mystery.
• Include your recipient’s name on the subject line. This will lend your email a more personalized, well-thought-out tone.

3. Keep your email body short and sweet

The average office worker receives around 121 emails per day. Approximately half of these will be tossed out, while others will only receive a skim-through.

Most people don’t like reading long emails and in the cold email department, making that assumption is the safe bet. So keep your email body snappy and on point. Drive your point home in as few words as possible by capturing the value of your proposition in short and concise paragraphs.

Ideally, a paragraph should have two to three sentences with unpretentious words and simple sentences.

4. Use a single call to action (CTA)

Asking your recipient to do three things in your email is a risky task. You don’t want to sound like you’re asking too much. After all, it can also be confusing.

Instead, ask them to do one thing, and make sure your message funnels down to that one action. Make your CTA as straightforward as possible, and leave no room for confusion.

5. Personalize

Although it takes time, it pays well to do your bit of research and find out about who you’re trying to engage with. A trained eye can easily spot a cooked email in as little as five seconds. But it’s also easy to pick up one that is genuine.

So put effort into tailoring a message for your recipients. As they say, good things take time. Your sincerity will reflect in your messaging.

Your Turn

Make these tips handy for your next cold email marketing outreach. If you don’t want to exhaust your leads on trial-and-error, get experts to get the job done and make the best bang for your buck. Email marketing is a wise investment with a high turnover when done right.

As a strategy, email is here to stay. But the field continues to evolve. What used to work no longer bodes well in today’s email-inundated market. If you want to make the best out of your leads, you need to rethink how you approach cold email. 

Jane