It's easier than ever to connect with your target audience and generate leads, whether you're an individual entrepreneur or a massive corporation. One of the oldest and most effective ways for businesses to reach prospective customers is through cold email outreach. Cold outreach isn't just about sending out a bunch of emails and waiting for replies: it's a process that requires strategy, research, and testing.

When done right, however, cold emailing can help you nab new clients across the globe without needing to travel around the world or attend conferences in person. Here are some tips that will get your business started with cold email outreach.

Start with the Right People

The first and most important step when doing cold outreach is to start with the right people. The best way to find those people is by knowing your buyer persona, your target audience, and who you are talking to. 

First, you need to be very familiar with the demographics of your buyer. This includes things like age, gender, and interests. Next, you must know the pain points they are experiencing in order to solve them.

You will then want to know the language they use when it comes to talking about these issues and what phrases they use most often when discussing their problem or solution needs. You can do this through research on social media sites such as Facebook groups where people who are likely to become customers congregate.

Finally, knowing which buying process is most likely for them will help guide how you go about reaching out once you've identified them as a potential customer – both online and offline!

Want to learn how to develop your companies buyer personas? Download our free template below. 

Craft the Perfect Subject Line

When crafting your subject line, you'll want to keep in mind that it should be short and sweet. You want to pique the recipient's interest, so don't go overboard with the details—just give them a general idea of what they can expect from your email.

It's also important that you personalize the subject line as much as possible. This means using something along the lines of "[First Name] RE: ""[Topic]""." (Or if you're not sure what their name is, just say "Hi [Boss/Client Name].") If you have more than one boss or client who could read this particular email, then by all means include all relevant first names! But if there's just one person who will read this particular email, try saying something like "RE: My Account" or “RE: Marketing Plan." This helps let recipients know exactly which messages are addressed specifically to them without having them open each one individually—which is essential for avoiding SPAM filters and keeping things clutter-free on their end!

Write to Tell, Not to Sell

Always remember your initial purpose of writing a cold prospect. The hard sell has a place and a time and an intro email isn't where it belongs. Focus on providing value and building relationships. 

There are two key things that you need to do in order to build a relationship with someone over email: you have to build trust and establish your expertise. If you fail at either of these, it’s unlikely that they will be interested in meeting with you or working with your company.

Make Your Email Scannable

When you're reaching out to potential customers, it's important that your emails are easy for them to read and understand. That means using bullet points instead of long paragraphs, short sentences instead of complex ones (no more than 30 words per sentence), and short paragraphs (three lines or less).

In addition to making the email scannable visually, make sure you include an action-oriented call-to-action at the bottom of each email. This is a great way to get more clicks and build a relationship with your leads while they're in contact with your brand. This could be as simple as having a photo of something they are familiar with so it catches their eye.

Always Follow Up

Besides the subject line, this might be the most important step in your cold email outreach. Prospects rarely respond on the first email, in a world where we are sent 100's of emails per day your first email should be meant to catch their eye, and then your follow ups are general what convert.

I like to factor in one initial email and then 4 follow up emails. Additional ways to grab attention is to connect with the prospect on LinkedIn and then sending a friendly note in LinkedIn to see if they got your email is another effective way. 

Plan for Failure

The most successful outreach campaigns are those that plan for failure. If your plan is to get one new client by reaching out, but you only get one rejection, you’ve still succeeded in your objective. You’ll be able to learn from this experience and apply what you've learned going forward.

As sales expert Colin Campbell says: “You should not be afraid of asking for help when making cold calls. You may feel awkward at first, but remember that the person on the other end is just as nervous as you are—if not more so because they don't know who's calling them or what they want from them. By simply being honest about why you're calling and asking whether or not now would be a good time for him/her (and even offering some time later if needed), most people will welcome the opportunity for a conversation and offer advice on how best to proceed with whatever it is that brought them there in the first place."

Don't give up after one try - do another! Don't be afraid to ask for feedback - do another! Don't be afraid of getting rejected - do another! We all fail sometimes but giving up means never learning anything new or gaining any valuable skills."

Conclusion

If you’re serious about cold outreach and you want to be successful, start by targeting the right people. Instead of sending out hundreds of emails, target your efforts toward leads in your ideal buyer persona who will be genuinely interested in what you have to say.

Next, craft a subject line that captures their attention and make sure your content is scannable. Give them plenty of white space so they can easily skim through your message and find a call to action. And finally, always follow up if they don’t respond or if there’s an obvious reason why they didn’t (for example, an error in the email recipient field).