Cold emailing is a concept that's been around since, well, emailing first came to be. In the beginning, especially, companies were finding this strategy particularly useful for gaining new clients. Some of the biggest firms to date, owe a great deal of their success to the power of the unsolicited email. That said, times have changed since the heyday of the email—so does cold emailing prospects still actually work? Should small businesses especially stick with this strategy? In some cases, cold emailing can be quite effective—so don't jump ship just yet. That said, some tactics and techniques can help any cold emailing program be more effective.
Plan it out
In other words, the time of day and the actual day itself are key to sending that email. When is your email likely to get seen, when is it likely to appear toward the top of someone's inbox? Ideally, you should send your email between 8 and 9 am. Also, earlier in the week is usually better as people are coming to work with fresh eyes and maybe more willing to look at something unsolicited.
Think hard about the subject line
The subject line is your one chance really to get their attention and make them curious. It needs to be of interest and of course, it needs to be of relevance to them and their immediate needs. Once you do capture their interest, use the body of the email to elaborate—but don't ramble on and on. You want to get to the point and do so in a compelling way. The last thing anyone wants to see on a Monday morning is a boring long-winded email. But again, that subject line will be the make or break moment.
Keep it personal if possible
The more personal you can make your cold email, the better off you will be. Sending off a flurry of generic emails will get you very low open rates—if any. A good way to go might be to target a company in your community. You thus have that local connection that you can mention and build upon in your email. As much as possible too, focus the text on "you." In other words, avoid using "I" too often—you want to center it on them and their needs.
Get that CTA in there
The whole point of any email of this nature is to get the prospective client to take action. However, if you fail to give them a chance to do this, if you don't call them to action, the email will likely sit stagnantly and result in nothing. The most effective CTAs offer a link that they can click. This will then take them to a landing page or some sort of offer.
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