Did you say “BtoB cold emailing”? This email marketing strategy involves sending a prospecting email that you have never contacted before to convert as many prospects into customers as possible. Of course, like any strategy, there are pitfalls and mistakes to be made! Here are 7 deadly sins to completely avoid in your BTOB cold emailing…
1. Too Long and Non-Personalized Email Content
If your email is too long, your recipient won’t take the time to read it! So on average, write about three sentences that are clear and concise, with an introduction, a part summarizing your intention and a call to action presented in the form of a question.
Likewise, an impersonal email will have little chance of appealing to your interlocutor. If you don’t personalize it, it shows that you are not interested in their potential problems, in their business, and in their person.
A personal email should contain the first name of your interlocutor, as well as the name of his company. He should have the impression that the message was written and thought out specifically for him. Remember to cite general relationships, for example, references to competitors or similar companies.
2. Inappropriate equipment
Some people who use a marketing automation strategy use tools that are inappropriate for cold emailing. Although they save time, they are only suitable for sending fast and bulk emails, such as newsletters. However, the purpose of cold emailing tools is to increase the sending speed to better simulate human usage.
To achieve your goals, you must use the right tools for your cold emails and prospecting emails in general. To be sure to choose the right software, make sure it has specific features:
- Personalized email with merge tags, such as company name, prospect’s first name;
- scheduled reminders;
- bounce tolerance.
If you intend to send follow-up emails regularly, this feature should be included in your tool. With the sheer number of possibilities to follow up, you will have difficulty and time wasted trying to get the message across as well as identifying the professionals concerned.
Other features come in handy too. This is a matter of scoring or following up visits after clicks, as well as detecting responses with the aim of not chasing down potential people who didn’t respond.
3. Very Commercial Messages
When you ask too many questions and you use too much promotional copywriting, you risk quickly losing your interlocutor who will no longer want to read the rest of the message. The latter may, in fact, be annoyed or reluctant in the face of the message addressed to him.
Remember that a cold email is not a sales page, but a means to establish initial contact with the prospect. Its purpose is to elicit feedback to establish a more in-depth exchange.
Thus, any expression encouraging conversion or purchase should be avoided. The purpose of your first message is neither to convert nor to sell, but to interest you in your interlocutor and his problems.
4. Forget the Call to Action
Thinking of asking too many questions in your first contact email? Take that idea out of your campaign. And conversely, refrain from asking any questions, as the prospect will not understand what you expect from him. This will make it easier for him not to reply to your email.
To achieve your goal of creating a reciprocal relationship between the recipient and the sender, you must demonstrate empathy through gestures inserted into the body of the message. In addition to showing that you are genuinely interested in your prospect, you should ask them a well-posed and precise question. The latter would lead to an exchange that could lead to collaboration.
Be sure to step back in your message to advance your prospect. He should be a real hero, but not just a supervillain.
5. Spam Words
Prohibited by the receiving server and algorithmically, spam words that are inserted into the email are carried to their destination in the spambox. In the most widespread spam terms, repeated use of two or three exclamation points along with words like “free” is immediately sanctioned.
By using periphrase, it is possible to circumvent some spam words. Thus, the word “free” can be replaced by a set of words “open access to the public”.
In some exceptional cases, spam words can be used without fear of their not being delivered to the recipient. This is especially the case if you have already exchanged multiple emails with the recipient or if the latter has whitelisted your email address.
6. Don’t care about formatting
Through the formatting of your email, your recipient will attempt to assess your credibility and seriousness. If you do not take care of this element, your interlocutor will not give importance to your message.
The format in bold is to be used sparingly so as not to attack your prospect. Remember that emails usually contain standard text with minimal formatting. If you use a marketing automation tool, your email will be sent as a template, proving to your recipient that your message has not been personalized.
7. Omission of Signature
Omitting a signature means avoiding revealing your identity to the recipient, who would be suspicious. To avoid this, remember to sign each of your emails, because:
- The algorithm prevents abuse by obtaining as much information as possible to ensure the legitimacy of the senders. Thus, they carefully analyze the signature;
- Signing brings different data about you to your interlocutor, who will thus be assured that you are humane and sincere.
Your signature must contain:
- Your company name;
- your work ;
- your first and last name;
- domain name;
- your head office.
conclusion
Reaching a potential person via BtoB cold email requires special attention. To be successful with this first contact and change it later, eliminate long and impersonal emails to get your interlocutor’s attention while showing him you’re interested. Also, make sure you use the right tools and don’t compose a business message. A call to action is essential to showing what you expect from your recipient.
Also, remember to train regularly as trends and strategies change. This webmarketing training course certifying “Develop your activity with webmarketing” qualified for CPF will allow you to establish an effective digital strategy.