What numbers to aim for cold email metrics?
I'm going to launch my first saas startup (idea is validated), since I'm a bootstrapper I'm thinking to use "cold email" as sales channel for first few customers.
I want to know what numbers (in percentage) to aim for following metrics, given that my list will be targeted:
- Open Rate
- Link Clicks
- Response Rate
- Sales Generated (aiming for 10 customers initially)
I need only 10 monthly paying customers in order to replace my day-time job, so if I reveres engineer it from here I want to know how many recipients I would need in my email list to achieve this number.
For this I need to know what is the market avg. for these 4 metrics.
I know it depends on a lot of factors (e.g. list quality, email quality, product quality, sales skills etc) but I'm looking for a rough estimate in order to proceed further with my cold emailing strategy.
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There are a LOT of factors to consider here. The key is how targeted is your niche and message. Also, I assume these are more personalized emails.
I get about 1 meeting for every 15-20 people that I message on Linkeidn. I'm hoping to get one new deal for every 10 meetings. So one new deal for every 150-200 people that I reach out to. However, I could see my metrics getting better as I bring on a few new customers (more demand gen and customer referrals).
Thanks, that's what I'm looking for. I know it depends on a lot of factors but having some numbers in mind just works as an anchor. If I knew many other people are achieving these numbers I can aim for the similar numbers, if I fail, at-least i'll know that I need to improve some thing in the funnel.
Yes, correct. The biggest thing is that your value proposition is niche/targeted enough that you know who to reach out to and what message they should be interested in.
For instance, for me, I know to reach out to someone with the title CISO/VP InfoSec at companies with between 100-300 people. My message and ultimately what I deliver is specifically tailored to them.
Hey Faisal,
I've been working in B2B sales in SaaS and in general we were aiming for these numbers:
Open rate - 70%
Link clicks - 20%
Response rate - 8%
Sales generated - 2%
However that was already established company with already established product. If you're looking for a better way of closing a deal - try to meet your target group: conferences, meetups, coworking space, etc. For me that was always the best converting channel, a personal interaction. Everything was revolving around building a personal relationship and afterwards I got many intros cause they were happy about our partnership.
Right now I'm launching a B2B SaaS and my sales strategy (the first step) is selling it to the people from whom I was getting constant feedback, as the product is tailored based on those conversations. I'm also getting intros from them with their connections.
Good luck.
The stats looks promising, were you also able to achieve these stats?. Also I agree the closer you are to your prospect the better it is i.e.
physical meeting > phone call > cold email
I haven't launched my product but I'm looking for higher conversion as most of it will be based on in-person approach.
Btw, a great sales strategy in the beginning - identify ~20 people that would be your target people on LinkedIn and really tailor every single message what are you doing and how it can help them and ask them to give you feedback on what you're building. People are way more open to give you a feedback for a product that you're about to launch than if you're selling to them. If it's something that they have value from, you would have higher conversion rate than cold emailing.
However for these people that you would approach study them in details. What they post on LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. Have they encountered a problem that you're trying to solve. In sales everything is about preparation and building a good relationship with your prospect.
+1 for reaching people out on LinkedIn. It is definitely something which I would consider.
Factors to consider that will affects your cold outreach numbers. Some you have already brought up:
We target bigger pipeline size per deal (bigger companies) to make our ROI numbers worth our time. These OUR goals we've set for ourselves with the factors considered:
Open Rate - 50% (hitting our goals)
Click Rate - Not tracking to improve deliverability
Reply Rate - 6% (currently at 3%)
Interest Rate - 2% (currently at 1%)
Working my way backwards with my goals, if I email 1000 unique contacts in a month:
If I am selling a product that is $5-50/month, the numbers are not working out in my favor in terms of opportunity cost and possibly $$$ invested into a platform for cold outreach. However, since our target pipeline size is large, even at our current low 2% interest rate and if we can close 1 or 2 of those deals, that would be positive ROI for us.
Early on, I would recommend focus less on the commercial opportunity (replacing your job), but gathering additional feedback to improve your product.
It has taken us a year to get to where we are at with cold outreach and I still feel we're nowhere near where it should be / can be. Hope that helpps a bit.
Thanks for your insight, it really helped. One question though, why would tracking click rate would affect your deliverability?
Hi Faisal,
What you are asking doesn't make sense. The first 10 customers are very different from all other customers and market average does not apply to them. Early adopters are a special breed as they are taking a large risk by using your product.
I've been suggested that cold emailing is a decent strategy if you want to get early few customers. What factors determine that market avg. wont apply to them because they won't really know if we had any existing customers already unless they ask for it, obviously.
Of course they will know. Do you have testimonials from other customers? Do you have reviews on G2? Does your product at all levels look so polished?
I don't really have reviews but my marketing site as well as initial version of the app is quite polished (compared to the competitors) and competitive feature-wise.
Without reviews and referrals they know that you are new. On top of which there are two cases:
Uclusion is in category 1) and so currently we are not even charging until we have enough feedback and reference customers.
I'm not really meaning to get in a dispute here - for the most part I'm just stating SaaS industry facts.