What goes into writing cold emails for B2B technology prospecting?
Here are eight best practices that you can use for learning how to write cold emails that generate better B2B technology prospects:
- Set a SMART goal for your cold email campaign -- A SMART goal is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timebound.
- Define your buyer persona and ideal client profile (ICP) -- This way, you’ll know what kind of person and what kind of company you're cold-emailing.
- Focus on one goal or challenge in each email message -- While your buyer persona research should identify several different goals and challenges you could use in your email copywriting, pick one at a time to test in the subject line, body text, and call to action.
- Position yourself as an expert and trusted advisor with unique insights to share -- No one's up at 2:00 a.m. worried that they won't have enough salespeople to speak with this week. But if you have some unique insights you've learned about their industry, business model, and what other companies in their space are doing (that they're not), that's the kind of hook you need.
- Use your name and email on the from line -- Prospects are much more likely to respond to a person (First Last) from a personal email address at your company than some brand alias (info@, sales@,). And don’t use freemail addresses either if you care about your credibility.
- Keep it short -- Two or three short paragraphs should be more than enough.
- Ask a question -- Immediately before your call to action, ask a question that's directly related to the persona-based goal or challenge mentioned in your email.
- Use basic LinkedIn research to personalize your message -- Rather than spray and pray, spend three to five minutes per recipient. Look at their LinkedIn profile and find something in how they describe themselves or that they've shared recently to anchor your email message to. Personalization matters, big time!
What’s been most effective in how you write cold emails for prospecting potential B2B technology clients? Let me know in the comments.