Cold email marketing or cold email outreach is the David Beckham of marketing strategies – it’s simply unbeatable.
For this sales strategy, the return on investment is 4,200%, so for every spent dollar, you get a 42-dollar return. This beats the ROI from the stock market but doesn’t yet start spending all your money on sales email campaigns, as only 8.5% of email outreach receives a response.
What’s the culprit behind these depressing numbers, you ask? It’s simple. A lot of marketers commit the cardinal sin of irresponsible email campaign strategies. The solution lies in avoiding common email campaign mistakes.
Here’s a list of things NOT to do when crafting your email campaign strategy. Follow these rules, and you’ll turn those clients into qualified leads in no time.
Reasons your email campaigns are not converting:
1. Ignoring The Importance Of Personalisation
Picture this: you’re at a party and someone comes up to you and starts talking about their life story without even bothering to learn your name. That’s rude, right? Well, the same goes for email campaigns.
By not personalizing emails, you are just a stranger selling random stuff to potential customers. However, by taking the time to personalize you become someone who’s considerate, genuine and not just focused on sales. This is why email campaigns with personalization have a 29% open rate as compared to non-personalized ones with only 17%.
That’s a whopping 12% difference! And do not forget that personalized emails have the capability to generate six times higher engagement rate and revenue than non-personalized emails.
Now, we’re not saying you need to stalk your clients and know their every move (that’s creepy). But a simple gesture like using their name in the subject line can boost your open rate by 26%. Don’t spam your clients with generic emails that will end up in their spam folders.
Not enough? If you are eager to take it to the next level and wouldn’t mind some extra work, here’s what you’ve gotta do. Put in the work and find out something specific and interesting about their business and either compose your mail around it or just briefly mention it. There’s a catch though, even after doing the research if your emails don’t seem genuine, there’s a chance your clients will sense it and your entire work will be wasted. Therefore, make sure to personalize without sounding needy and maintain the quality of emails without being too formal. Personalization is one key reason why your emails are not converting.
Remember, never spam your clients with generic emails that will end up in their spam folders.
You won’t believe it but by merely personalizing, you get the chance to develop a genuine connection with your clients. Which might benefit your company initially but could serve you for a lifetime, no kidding. After glorifying personalization so much, let us learn how to do it.
Here are some easy but effective ways:
- Don’t forget to use their name: Isn’t it annoying when you receive an email that’s generic or has your name spelled wrong? The same irritation will be experienced by your clients if you don’t use their correct name to address them. So, always double-check the recipient’s name before sending an email.
- Do your research and use it: It is important to know the client before you decide to send a mail. Look up some information like their company information, industry, latest Linkedin post, review, etc and mention them in the email. This will make your customer think that you genuinely wish to help them.
- Use the point of commonality: Any shared interest or connection with the recipient can be used to build rapport. So, make note of your alma mater, LinkedIn connections and previous jobs to find common ground.
Sales engagement platforms like SmartReach.io make personalization simpler and faster with the help of merge tags. It also provides an option to create unlimited custom merge tags. With SmartReach’s dynamic email content, you can include conditional sentences that would help to hyper-personalize your email content. This feature would help with a good reply rate for your email campaign. So no more wondering why your email campaigns are not converting.
2. Not Clearly Defining Your Value Proposition
In the game of email outreach, vague value propositions are a rookie mistake. Imagine trying to sell someone a car without mentioning its speed, fuel efficiency, or reliability. That’s basically what you’re doing if you fail to communicate the value of your product or service to clients.
According to a recent study, 80% of customers are more likely to purchase if brands offer personalized experiences. So, how can you personalize your value proposition to connect with clients? First, focus on their needs and pain points. What are the specific challenges they face, and how can your product or service solve them?
Once you’ve identified their needs, craft your message in a way that speaks directly to them. Use language that resonates with their industry or interests, and highlight the unique benefits of your product or service. If you can offer a clear solution to their problems, you’ll be more likely to win them over and seal the deal.
Remember, clients are bombarded with countless emails every day. If your value proposition is vague, they’ll likely hit the delete button without a second thought. But if you can offer a personalized, targeted message that speaks to their specific needs, you’ll have a much better chance of getting their attention and driving conversions.
3. Forgetting To Follow Up
Statistics show that 80% of sales require five follow-ups to close a deal. Unfortunately, almost 45% of salespeople throw in the towel after just one email. That’s like giving up on a marathon after the first mile!
Don’t miss out on potential sales by neglecting to set up a drip campaign. A well-planned sequence of follow-up emails can build a strong connection with clients and increase the likelihood of a successful sale.
Just remember, each email in your drip campaign should be personalized and relevant. Think of it like a recipe – each ingredient (email) plays an important role in the final dish (sale). So, keep the momentum going and keep those follow-up emails coming!
Tools like SmartReach.io offers automated email follow-up (cadences) features to address this concern. Users can configure the email content and specify the desired number of days for the follow-up to be sent. This feature reduces the burden of manually sending follow-up emails. It also auto-pauses the campaign for a client on reply detection
4. Not Properly Managing Your CRM Data
If your cold email campaign is the “engine” of your marketing efforts, then your CRM data is the “fuel” that keeps it running.
Emailing without data management is like scrolling through reels when you are sad, which can be completely fruitless or sometimes even dreadful. After composing an entire email with all the pointers mentioned above, you might be exhausted and just wish to hit send. However, going for a double check for your CRM data can help save all your effort from going to waste.
Managing client data is not just about avoiding bounce rates and keeping your mailing list up-to-date. Proper data management allows you to segment your campaigns and create targeted messages that resonate with specific groups of clients. And according to recent studies, segmented campaigns can increase revenue by 760%!
So don’t neglect your CRM data. Take advantage of automated tools and delegation to ensure that your outreach campaigns are as relevant and effective as possible. After all, relevancy is the bedrock of marketing efforts.
There are several tools available to manage and update CRM data for efficient email campaigns. Some popular CRMs are Hubspot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Zoho, etc. SmartReach provides native integration with these CRMs which makes the management of data easier.
5. By Giving too much Importance to ‘What’s Wrong?’
Emails that focus solely on the issues with your client’s business could come off as insulting and overbearing. Instead, highlighting their achievements and potential can create a more positive and productive conversation. Imagine that you are in a fight with your partner and all they do is point out how you are wrong and what you can do to fix it. You wouldn’t like that, right? You would think about all the things you do right which are not being acknowledged. Your potential customer like you also needs a pat on their back.
So, you have to create a balance. Don’t be afraid to mention your client’s pain points and how you can help them fix them. Make sure that they realize that they’ll be stronger with you by their side. At the same time, make them feel that they are already doing good, but can be a whole lot better. Do not look down upon your clients’ current ways and methods, but instead, gently nudge them to see how your product can add value to their current approach.
The trick is to make them feel that you’ll take them to their goals faster.
6. Compromising on Originality
Take the example of social media, trends wear off pretty quickly, but when it comes to original content, we tend to support it with all our hearts. Now, compare the same trends to email templates that have been used for years. The receiver gets tired of it, right?
In order to stand out among the tsunami of emails in your client’s inbox, you need to be different and you can’t do that by following the same template as your competitor. So, try to create a different and interesting mailing style, which is yours and yours alone.
And the good news? It pays off. A research paper by Experian identified that personalized email campaigns have a 29% higher open rate and 41% higher CTR than generic ones. So, take the time to make your email campaigns stand out. Your clients will thank you for it.
7. Forgetting about A/B Testing
Testing is essential in all fields, be it quantum mechanics or skincare and cold email outreach is no exception. It has been proved that through the power of A/B testing, you can increase clicks by 49%. More clicks translates to more paying customers and you do want that right?
Hence, don’t be afraid to try new things, just make sure you don’t forget about A/B testing. Through testing you can easily find out what’s working and what’s not and make the necessary changes before it’s too late.
SmartReach.io provides an A/B testing feature where the user can test subject lines, email content, CTAs, etc. Users can analyze the metrics and find out the best-performing one
8. Sending Unique Emails to the Recipients
Spintax allows you to create variations of your email content by dynamically combining words and phrases. By generating unique email variations, you can prevent repetitive messaging and ensure each email feels fresh and personalized. It helps you avoid sending the same email content to multiple recipients, which can come across as generic or spammy.
Spintax allows you to customize the email content based on recipient-specific factors, such as their industry, role, or previous interactions. Spintax-generated email campaigns have a higher chance of capturing the recipient’s attention and gaining engagement.
SmartReach.io provides spintax as a feature to draft dynamic email campaigns. Spintax increases the likelihood of your emails reaching the recipients’ inboxes and improves the overall deliverability of your email campaign.
9. Timing and Frequency
Determining the optimal time for running the email campaign is very crucial. The optimal timing for sending emails can vary depending on factors such as the target audience, industry, geography, and even the purpose of the email. A/B testing is a valuable approach to determining the most effective sending times for your email campaigns. Split your audience into groups and send emails at different times or on different days. Track metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates to assess the performance of each group.
The frequency of your email sends should strike a balance between staying on your audience’s radar and avoiding overwhelming them. Consistency is important to maintain brand awareness and engagement. However, too many emails within a short period can lead to fatigue, higher unsubscribe rates, or even marking your emails as spam. On the other hand, infrequent communication may cause your audience to forget or lose interest. Maintaining both time and frequency would help to run a successful email campaign.
10. Mobile Optimization
The use of mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, for email consumption has significantly increased. A larger portion of your audience is likely to access emails on mobile devices. Ignoring mobile optimization means missing out on engaging a large and growing segment of your target audience. Mobile optimization involves designing emails that adapt seamlessly to different screen sizes and resolutions. Responsive design ensures that your email content and layout automatically adjust to fit the screen of the device being used.
When your email campaigns are optimized for mobile, recipients are more likely to engage, click on links, and convert. A positive mobile experience removes barriers and friction, making it easier for recipients to take the desired action. This can lead to higher conversion rates and would give better results from your email campaigns.
Conclusion
Small improvements can make a big difference when it comes to email campaigns. By taking the time to craft personalized and creative emails, following up consistently, avoiding unoriginal templates, and running A/B tests to see what works best, you can increase engagement and drive sales.
And here’s another tip: Having a reliable sales engagement platform like SmartReach.io can help avoid common mistakes and improve the effectiveness of email campaigns.
59% of sales development professionals stated that cold email campaign is their biggest source of revenue with the highest ROI. If that combined with all the information in the article doesn’t convince you to start spending more time on cold email outreach then we don’t know what will. However, if you are ready to take your email outreach to the next level, Smartreach.io can help you.
Smartreach.io is a sales engagement platform to run cold outreach campaigns with deliverability as its unique selling proposition. It provides features such as personalization, A/B testing, email validation, spam test report, merge tags, spintax, shared inbox, sales engagement outreach via various channels such as LinkedIn, WhatsApp, email, SMS & call and many more features. SmartReach also provides AI-generated email content by giving specific inputs like email structure, email context, audience detail, etc. Specific lines and phrases can be rephrased or shortened if required. You can also set an AI-based subject line based on the email content. Users can also get AI-generated email replies based on the communication received from the client.
