You must make your cold emails engaging and personalized for the prospects to whom you are sending them for them to be effective. You should also consider when is the perfect time to send a cold email.
One of the most critical components of achieving your objective with cold email marketing is avoiding inevitable mistakes that could negatively affect your CTR and, as a result, your entire campaign.
Hence, this blog article will go through 10 common cold email mistakes to avoid in 2022.
10 common cold email mistakes to avoid in 2022
Using the inappropriate tools
It's critical to choose the correct tools for sending prospecting emails.
Here are some of the essential features to look for in ideal cold emailing software:
Using the incorrect email subject lines
Subject lines should not be confusing or weak since they influence how people behave. Nothing is more frustrating than sending an email that makes it to the inbox but is never opened because you used the incorrect subject line.
If your open rate is less than 20%, your email subject lines are most likely incorrect! Therefore, it is critical to employ the proper tools to determine your open rate.
According to HubSpot, just 33% of recipients will open emails based on the subject line alone. Don't make them overly sales-y and avoid spam triggers. Make sure the subject line isn't overly broad; keep it to the point. Give your potential customers a reason to read it. In general, you should utilize short, individualized subject lines.
Poor sender reputation
Sender reputation is a score ranging from 0 (poor) to 100 (excellent) that email providers use to assess whether or not your email is "spam."
Maintaining a positive sender reputation is critical for maintaining a high deliverability rate, which implies that people will get your emails.
You should know what email service filters check for when filtering incoming mail, whether you send cold emails one at a time or utilize automated tools.
Otherwise, not only will your cold emails be filtered as spam, but you may also harm your domain's reputation and future potential.
Here are some points to consider that may harm your sender's reputation:
Reports as spam
As you may be aware, if your receiver labels your email as spam, it will negatively impact its future deliverability. Therefore, it is crucial to personalize.
Your email should not appear to be a sales pitch. It should be personalized and written from a person, not from [email protected] to a person.
Bounce rate
A high bounce rate might ruin your cold emailing attempts. A soft bounce is the first type of email bounce, which occurs when the problem is temporary, e.g., a full inbox. Unfortunately, these kinds of bounces are challenging to avoid. The second bounce is a hard bounce, which occurs when the destination server rejects the address, e.g., the email does not exist.
Consistency & volume
Sending all of your weekly emails at once can raise some red flags with email providers. So avoid sending out 500 emails at once.
There are too many recipients.
You may avoid this by sending individual cold emails to each recipient rather than sending hundreds at once. You can do this with most automated cold email providers, including Instantly alternatives. You will get the best results from cold emails if you send them to one individual at a time, in addition to being less spammy.
No customized greetings
What should you do if you get an email addressed to you as "Dear Sir/Madam"? You might delete or ignore the email, right! That's because the email appears to be from someone who doesn't know the slightest thing about you, such as whether you're a male or a woman. Emails addressed to "To whom it may concern" are the same—another thing to toss in the trash.
The first purpose of your email message should be to demonstrate relevance. You must provide a clear cause for your prospect to read your message. And you can't accomplish that if you sound as if you have no idea who your reader is.
Formatting
Another crucial part of deliverability has a consistently structured email body. For example, if your email has text of various colors, fonts, or font sizes, it will raise many red flags and may end up in spam. Furthermore, emails with inconsistencies in the text appear spammy and unpleasant.
You may highlight key ideas using body language, voice tone, and gestures in a face-to-face conversation. However, it is more challenging to express tone in emails. If your email is longer than a paragraph and contains material that your prospect must read, bold or italicize it to ensure it attracts their attention.
One word of caution: don't go overboard. An email with every other sentence bolded or highlighted is challenging to read and appears unprofessional.
Attaching files to an email without mentioning them in the Body
If you don't mention the presence of an attachment in your email, it'll likely be disregarded or overlooked by the recipient. They may simply read the email's content and return to their inbox without scrolling down. Worse, 53% of all emails are opened on mobile devices, making attachments more difficult to notice on smartphones.
Also, not mentioning an attachment in the email body instead of attaching the file directly might appear spammy. Your reader may wonder, "What if the file is spam and contains a virus?" So, to prevent extra hassles, include it in the email when attaching a file.
Remember to provide an appropriate email signature.
It's all about trust and reliability when it comes to email signatures. And the majority of customers would instead do business with a respected company. And to establish that impression on them, you must ensure that every aspect of your cold email appears legitimate, including your email signature.
Having an email signature also adds social evidence to your profile, boosting your reputation.
Sending crazy long email
Even if an email appears to be engaging and relevant, when someone opens it and sees a wall of text, they immediately evaluate how much effort and time it will consume to read it. Therefore, a cold email should be as short as possible, with no more than 130 words.
If that seems complicated, consider that over 47% of individuals across all demographics read their emails on smartphones. As a result, many recipients will view your email on a tiny screen, making the content appear even longer. Therefore, in addition to being brief, cold emails should be simple to comprehend.
A long cold email should never be written. Your goal is to attract people's attention and pique their curiosity, not offer them much information about themselves. Once the person responds, you will have the opportunity to tell your narrative. If they choose you, as a result, try to shorten it into 3–5 phrases.
Also, avoid writing phrases that are too lengthy. Make sure your email is clear and understandable. Don't waste your prospect's time with excessive information or jargon.
Instead of using a cold email automation service, use an email marketing platform.
We are living in the era of MarTech. There are a plethora of excellent email marketing solutions available. However, there are two sorts of email programs fundamentally different regarding their usefulness for cold emailing.
On the one hand, some platforms can help you with email marketing if you have an opt-in list.
Their whole business model is based on that concept, mainly because they build a superb sender reputation for their own servers and exploit it to benefit their clients. As a result, using their platforms for cold email is entirely against their terms of service.
Everyone on your list must have actively opted in to get your emails. Those products are for you if you use paid advertising or SEO to fuel your own lead generation efforts and want to nurture your leads.
Suppose you have a cold list of prospects to contact. In that case, you'll need to do it from your own inbox, employing automation technologies that connect tightly with MS Outlook, GSuite, or any other third-party SMTP you choose to utilize instead. If you're looking for the ideal tool for the task, be sure it's developed for sending out cold emails.
Make a strong call to action.
You should make it simple for them to continue the conversation if you're interrupting their day.
Everything you've written up to this point has been geared toward getting people to act. You aim to get them to act, whether to react to your email, click a link, or download a document.
There are three things to remember in this situation:
There should only be one call to action. Each email should have a purpose in mind. Because if you request too much, your reader will say no. You may only create content for one objective at a time. A single funnel cannot lead to two buckets.
Make it very obvious. Your prospect should understand what you anticipate from them right away. So make sure it's concise and to the point.
If you wish to schedule a call, offer dates and times. Provide a direct link to the file if you want them to download something. If you want information, send a simple form that they can complete.
This isn't about you at all. Everything revolves around them.
Why is a call to action important:
A cold email's primary purpose is to inspire your prospects to interact and connect with your company. A CTA is the section of an email that asks the reader to take necessary action, such as clicking a link, giving us a reply, or signing up for a trial. As a result, it's an essential component of every cold email marketing.
Follow-up
You're deceiving yourself if you believe that most of your prospects will react to your initial email. Some may, but many replies will arrive between the third and fifth emails. Persistence is crucial in this situation, but it must be done correctly.
Make a strong statement.
Don't say you're "just checking in," and don't apologize. You've decided to email your prospect because you believe you have something helpful to say to them. If you aren't, don't even bother contacting them. Instead, inquire if they have had a chance to evaluate your email and how they would want to continue.
On the other hand, a polite follow-up email keeps you and your email in mind. Furthermore, it adds a personal touch to your message. When a person receives a cold email, they may dismiss it as just another piece of digital trash. Instead, you emphasize their significance to you by delivering a custom-tailored follow-up.
Final thoughts
Lastly, keep the following in mind when you send out your next round of cold emails:
Furthermore, suppose you are looking for professional services to handle your cold email marketing efforts and avoid these mistakes; in that case, PPC Agency is a beneficial alternative if you seek an immediate campaign boost and a quick return on investment (ROI).
PPC agency will help you with email templates, email design, email list building, and even unique B2B cold email marketing. They've got the know-how and the track record to back it up.
