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21 Comments

What am I missing? Cold emailing strategies

Hi guys,
I recently launched my VA agency.
I got my first clients via facebook but I'm struggling with cold email.
How should I go about it?
I'm using my gmail account and yesware to track the emails.
I'm sending 5 emails per day and removing the links so that they don't end up in spam.
I think my offer is a no-brainer at 5$ per hour so why aren't they signing up :D

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    Cold email is still VERY effective... if you do it right.

    A couple of quick things:

    • don’t pitch! The goal is to start a conversation, not a conversion
    • short, sweet, to the point, dont waste words
    • be valuable, give value before asking for anything
    • its ALL about them, not about you. Demonstrate you understand their problems/goals

    Theres a lot more here including some choice audio, be warned I swear like a sailor bitching about Aaron Ross ;)

    https://www.leadfuze.com/cold-email-template-and-examples/

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      Hi Damian,
      Thank you for these points, I'll add them to my notes :-)
      I'll have a look at leadfuze too, looks like a great product.

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        The blog is FULL of great content on cold email, so worth digging around and that's free.

        I wasn't pitching the product, but if you do want to get it, let me know & I'll hook you up with a discount code :)

  2. 2

    Hi Naida- I'm happy to offer some advice. Cold email has helped me generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue in both my corporate career and entrepreneurial ventures.

    It's impossible to address all of the moving parts of cold email in one comment, but here are some things to consider (assuming that you're emails are being delivered to the inbox and opened).

    1. Pick a niche to focus on at a time (ex: accountants, non-profits, industrial manufacturers, etc.) and a specific problem or set of problems that you solve for them. I suggest looking at your favorite clients now and the type of work you're doing for them.

    2. Lead with empathy. Know you're prospects' challenges well and how you solve them.

    3. Prepare to personalize ~20% of the content of each email (this is easy to accomplish at scale with VA's and software). Nearly everyone receives dozens of crappy outreach messages per week. You must stand out.

    4. Don't try to sell in email # 1. Your goal is to start a conversation. (You mentioned pricing above. I'm not sure if you include your pricing/offer in the first outreach message).

    5. Send thoughtful follow-ups until you're told to go away.

    An example of how to put this together:

    I see one of your services is comment and post repurposing. As an example, you're targeting industrial manufacturers who share videos on YouTube.

    Their challenge: They have a small or one-person marketing team who knows social media is essential to generating in leads but doesn't have enough time to create content for each platform.

    "Hi Nadia,

    Love the new videos Nadia's Cable is sharing on YouTube. The one explaining heavy duty cable ties is fascinating.

    I'm reaching out because you're similar to other manufacturers we've helped generate more leads for by repurposing their YouTube videos for different social platforms.

    If creating enough content for all of the social channels your clients are on is a challenge, I'd be happy to share some ways you can easily produce more content without increasing your workload.

    Mind if I send over a case study?

    Thanks,

    Nadia"

    Your case study should be about how to repurpose videos and turn them into snippets for Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc.

    1. 1

      @BenLau214 Woow is my initial reaction, even before reading it. Thank you for taking the time to break it down for me.
      I'm saving this comment in my notes.
      I like how empathy comes across in your example.
      I'll try this and get back to you.
      Thanks a lot Ben :)
      This is typically the kind of comments that I usually read and feel like the author should be able to share them on another platforms; thoughtful, detailed and actionable.

  3. 1

    Hey @nanatoni I can help you with cold emails. I have generated meetings with VCs and signed up enterprise clients using cold emails. Can you help me understand the person you are reaching out to? Also can you share a copy of the email you are sending?

    Here are few things I learnt, that might be useful.

    1.Have a 7 email cadence
    2.Each email should talk about - a pain point, value, social proof, clear CTA.
    3.You can optimize two things by A/B testing - subject line and content
    4.If you want to improve the open rates A/B subject lines. Look at open rate for the success of the email.
    5.Once you find the right subject line, then A/B test content to optimize for engagement. Look at click rates for the success of the email.

    let me know if you have any questions or need help

    1. 1

      Hi Sandeep,
      Which tool would you recommend?
      I'm sending them from my gmail address right now (hiding my face)

      1. 1

        Hi Nadia,

        I never responded to a cold outreach from gmail (if one is pitching their services). One way to get people to respond if you are using gmail is to put your face out. In that way you are signaling that you are not a spammer.

        Here is a good example of putting up the face in an email - https://biz30.timedoctor.com/freshdesk-poached-us-zendesk-using-remote-sales-team-integration/.

        Let me know if this is helpful.

        Sandeep

        1. 1

          I'd love to connect, can I send you a message?
          Thanks

          1. 1

            Sure. You can DM me on my twitter. I'm active there.

        2. 1

          Thanks for the insight Sandeep, I guess it has worked before so I kept doing it. Many small business owners still use a gmail address as their business email. I used to work in the cycling industry and I can tell you that they all use bikeshopname at gmail :D
          old habits die hard.
          I'll get that sorted out.
          The article about Preethie's approach is really good, I wonder how long it takes them to craft these emails at scale.

          1. 1

            Cool. I never knew gmail is widely used. If that is the case keep using gmail. Don't change something that is working. If only one should try to improve it but not kill it.

            Regarding the question of sending emails at scale, there is a framework I'm putting together and using that you can create such emails at scale. But at this stage don't worry about scale. For every business it is important to find first 10 customers, then see how can you find next 30 customers and then find the nest 60 customers. Until you have more than 100 paying customers don't worry about scale.

  4. 1

    Thank you all for chiming in, it's been great to read of your valuable feedback.
    Have a great weekend

  5. 1

    I don't send cold emails myself but I receive a lot every week. And I ignore 99% of them.

    Why?

    Because they don't provide enough value. People are busy and receive hundreds of colds emails every month. You need to immediately show that that this is not just a spam email and that you have something genuinely useful to offer.

    Maybe you could try to solve a problem for them directly in the email or give them helpful feedback on their website.

    1. 2

      Hi Kielo,
      I understand that we all get cold emails; I'm trying to find a way to make it work because I don't want to advertise at this point.
      I think manual outreach at this point is the way to go to get those first clients.
      I'm trying to understand what makes you open the 1%?
      Do you remember the last one you got that caught your attention?
      As for the feedback about their website I don't see how that applies since we don't do web design or UI. Can you clarify?

  6. 1

    Hi Nadia, I'm pretty good at cold emails. Can you share yours here? And an example of the kind of person you're reaching out to?

    1. 1

      I actually sent you an email two days ago, I was asking if you were still doing the sales for founders podcast. Will send you my cold email for your advice :-)

  7. 1

    Care to share you site url here?

    1. 1

      This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

  8. 1

    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

    1. 1

      Ok Luca thanks for the feedback,
      I'm looking into G-suite, would definitely look more professional.

      1. 1

        This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

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          I tried to set up zoho mail earlier this week but the emails bounce, must be doing something wrong.
          So I'd buy the .co but not use?

          1. 1

            This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

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