Email prospecting is the process of finding and qualifying potential prospects for the purpose of building a rapport with them and making them a loyal customer.
Email prospecting is part of the cold outreach campaigns employed by salespeople. It is important to include email prospecting in your outreach campaign because it helps identify qualified prospects, saving time from being wasted on irrelevant subjects. Another benefit of email prospecting is how it helps you track down key information about prospects which enables sales professionals to personalize emails for increased response rates and conversions.
This cold outreach campaign is centered on the idea of reaching out and interacting with recipients that the salesperson may or may have not interacted with before. During such campaigns one might have to send cold emails to unknown people but it is recommended to send prospecting emails to people you know. When there is familiarity amongst the two parties, there is a better chance of conversions and response rates improving.
However, the question that arises now is, how do you write an engaging prospecting email that brings in results?
Golden Rules for Best Prospecting Emails
These rules on structuring and crafting the best prospecting emails will help your emails stand out among the rest, leading you to secure more meetings.
· Don’t Speak Like A Robot
Sending mass emails can seem like a good option because of how it can affect your work but that does not mean it works. The second a prospect feels like the email is not catered to them personally, they will lose interest.
The optimal way to seem approachable is to customize the email so it does not seem like it was automatically generated. Use emotion words like wonderful, delighted etc. to get 10-15% more responses. Inject humor in your phrasing and share personal details to be engaging.
· Keep it Simple and Concise
Want to give your emails a shot of being successful? You need to keep them short and precise, cut out the generic and irrelevant information.
Everyone has a busy schedule these days and reading long and boring emails does not attract anyone. Long emails either get deleted by the recipient or are completely ignored. Using words that are simple and easy to understand and having short sentences is a great way to go about your email prospecting!
Tip: To have an understanding of how long your emails are, draft it in your phone and get a realistic idea of how your prospects will read the email.
· Be Buyer Centric
Highlight through your email the value proposition for the buyer. Rather than boasting about your company or product, showcase how the buyer will benefit off of it. Instead of leading with the word ‘I’ use ‘you’ and see if the email you write focuses on the prospect within the first 3 seconds.
For example: ‘Your post on meeting inbound lead targets got me thinking…’.
· Use Numerals
Numbers tend to capture the eye of the reader. Whenever you are talking about digits, whether it be year or any profit estimate, make sure that you use numerals.
When reading emails with a lot of words, people can tend to get bored. Digits can make the prospect’s fixate on the content and make them read the text closely.
For example: ‘80% of buyers agree that they ______’ or ’14 ideas to make your campaign get a higher conversion rate’.
· Personalize Emails By Using Their Name
People are automatically attracted to their names. Their eyes recognize and follow the name in print. By using the recipient’s name in the subject line or multiple times in the body of the email, you can gain their attention. By personalizing the email and making your proposition or offer approachable you can increase the chance of your email being opened by 26%.
For example: ‘I am looking forward to meeting with you in person Jane. Any good time that we can connect this week?’
· Give Your Prospects A Choice
Sometimes when people receive a prospecting mail they may feel like they are being pressured to act a certain way and may choose not to respond to your email at all. The best way to avoid the recipient feeling this way is to give them an out. By providing options and choices, you can remind them that they have the final say. This way you gain their compliance and increase the chance of the recipient saying yes to your proposition.
For example: ‘Your feedback on the services would be very helpful, but you are free to simply share the details to your team.’
· Ask Questions
Questions are a great way to engage your prospects and statistics show that emails that ask the recipient around 1-3 questions are 50% more likely to get a response. Asking questions makes the recipient feel that you are interested in their response and that their opinion matters.
For example: ‘Are you currently working on improving your brand visibility?’
· Highlight Your CTA
Every prospecting email that you send out should have a clear call-to-action included in it. The recipient should clearly understand what you want them to do.
An important thing to keep in mind is to not overwhelm your prospect with a multitude of CTA’s in your email. Asking them to follow, like, and also schedule a meeting is too much. It is best to keep it to one ask per email.
For example: ‘Get the App’, ‘Shop now’, or ‘Read more’, etc.
Conclusion
Making the necessary changes and crafting your emails around tried and tested techniques will do wonders for your cold outreach campaign. Before you embark on your journey to start your prospecting campaign, it is important to conduct research and customize your email accordingly to capture the interest of the prospect and get the best results.
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