I would like to tell you a story about a friend of mine that took a job on campus cold calling from a long list of alumni to ask for their support by donating to their alma mater. The range of reactions that they received while on the phone with potential supporters was amazing.
He told me about how he remembered tuition for one semester being about $20,000 (which is as long as he attended). He said that he couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to give MORE money to the school after they had finally paid off their student loans! Apparently this was a fairly common reaction that he got while making the cold calls. In fact, there were so many different ways that people said, “No!” that it was impossible to guess which way they would turn him down!
As it turns out, though, a lot of people said, “Yes. Put me down for a pledge of “x amount of dollars, please.” Some people seemed to have a genuine interest in how he was enjoying the school! They asked if “so and so” professor was still there and told him that if he ever had a chance he should absolutely take a class that they took when they attended.
He told me that what he learned from that experience is that not everyone is going to say yes every time. Sometimes it didn’t matter what our tone was or how polite he was… the person on the other end of the phone was going to be rude with their answer.
One other way he got his answers from alumni is by not getting an answer at all. This was about the time caller ID was getting big, so he suspected that was because they knew exactly who he was and why he was calling. Or they weren’t home or able to answer the phone. Either way he said that mostly it felt like purposeful rejection when they didn’t answer.
When comparing cold calling to cold email leads you might think there are not a lot of similarities. You’d be right. So why is it relevant to this article? Inspiration! Emailing cold leads doesn’t come with the kind of rejection or even angry voices on the other end of the line! But remember, not everyone on the phone said no! The key was that he made the calls every day. In spite of the reactions he got, he just kept on calling.
Emailing gives us lots of advantages over cold calling because we can see where the problem areas are (emails with this subject line got bounced back 15% more than this other subject line…). You can also send out hundreds of emails at once (instead of one call at a time). Another pretty important difference is that emails usually offer something of value! There is no pressure on the recipient to make a decision right then and there either.
So, now we want to try and get better conversions on those cold leads. But how? Well, they say that for every problem there is a solution and lucky for you, I’m going to share with you 10 Email Marketing Strategies to Convert Cold Leads. You’re welcome.
#1 is to EMAIL DAILY!
Emailing every day can be tedious, but anything worth doing (and doing right) is going to require some effort! So change it up every day! Make your emails look fresh. Use the subject line to tell part of the first sentence so they can’t wait to open the email and see what the rest of the sentence is! If you can tell a story with your subject line so that it would look like its own email when lined up, even better! I can’t recall which magazine it was (Maxim maybe?) but every issue’s spine was part of a picture and after you got all 12 issues that year, when you put them together, you could see the whole image. It was a great reason to hang on to the issues each month! Try something like that when you send out your emails.
#2 is to WRITE IN A CONVERSATIONAL TONE.
As you might have noticed, I am writing this as if I were sitting here talking to you. I’m conversing with you. Think about it. What kind of an email does a person like to read more – a boring sounding email from a big company OR an email from a friend telling him about his day or vacation?
Of course, it’s the latter. When you write friendly emails in a conversational tone, you can build a strong connection with your prospects by making them feel like you are just talking to them one on one. This helps you develop a deeper bond with your prospects which in turn produce sales.
# 3 is to USE STORIES.
This one is a little bit tricky. I’m sure you noticed but at the beginning of this article, I started with a story! Hopefully, you enjoyed it and wanted to keep reading; if not, then I hate you and I hope you run out of milk before your next bowl of cereal. I’m kidding… I would never wish that or hate anyone for having bad taste! (Yep. That was a joke too!)
Question: What engages people from all walks of life the most? You guessed it…stories. Stories are emotional, they suck people in. Everyone is a sucker for a good story. A very powerful storyline to use in your email copy is the ‘us vs them’ framework. In this story, you would position yourself in favorable light over your competitors.
Sometimes people go too far though in order to stand out from the crowd. A lot of people try to get overly creative when writing emails and that’s a wrong approach. While boring emails don’t work…overtly creative emails don’t work either. Nobody likes a wannabe or a try hard.
Try to create an enemy and rally people against that enemy. When people feel they are part of a community fighting against injustice, it spurs them to take action.
For example, in network marketing, you can create an enemy out of cold calling/hotel room meetings/ offline prospecting and rally people against them.
In internet marketing, you can create an enemy out of crappy traffic strategies/poor funnels/ineffective training and rally people against them.
The stronger the enemy, the closer the bond people will have FIGHTING that enemy. And when you present your product as the solution to vanquish the formidable enemy, you will see more sales.
#4 is to TARGET DIFFERENT PRODUCT ANGLES.
Every product will have various features & benefits. So write different emails targeting various angles.
For example – If you are selling Facebook Ads Training, you can write different emails about finding the perfect audience, crafting good ads, finding good images, setting up campaigns the right way, bidding strategies, scaling methods, landing page secrets, etc.
Each email can focus on its specific topic with the end goal of selling the Facebook Ads Training to your subscribers.
What I just listed out are just product angles. There are so many emotional angles you can target too with emails.
#5 is to PROVIDE VALUE PLUS SELL AT THE SAME TIME!
Write your emails in a way that you deliver value and ask for the sale at the same time. Going for pure pitch emails are fine as long as they are done occasionally. But generally, your emails need to do some pre-selling (light education) for the product you are promoting. Showcasing whatever you’re selling with a graphic is handy too… especially if what you’re selling looks super cool.
#6 is to ADD YOUR PERSONALITY!
Everyone has their own unique personality and style of approach.
Some people like to be blunt and honest…others like to take a more diplomatic tone when conveying a point.
Some like to swear and be outrageous (while being honest) … and others don’t like swear words and prefer to keep it clean.
Some like to take a no-nonsense “I don’t care what you think” approach… others like to take an “I understand your situation and let me guide you to the right path” kind of approach.
Just like everyone else, you too have a unique personality.
Make sure your emails reflect your personality. When you do that, your emails will STAND OUT from the crowd and you will be able to bond well with your prospects.
#7 is to TEST SUBJECT LINES, BODY COPY, CALL TO ACTION LINKS. (See what produces more sales in what scenarios)
You want all your emails to flow smoothly. So after writing an email, make sure you read it again and reword it to get the flow. But don’t obsess over getting the flow. The more emails you write, the better your flow gets.
Another tip to get flow is by using connecting words, phrases, and sentences.
For example:
- As you can see,
- Which means,
- Therefore we can say that
- But here’s the problem…
- To be honest/To be frank
- Of course,
- Hence
- Bottom-line is that
- So why do I say that
- What does this really mean
- So what this really means is
- If you think about it,
- Simply put,
When you write emails, imagine that you are writing an email for your ideal prospects. So speak the language that your prospects would use.
For example, Internet marketers use terms like “list building”, “oto”, “upsell”, etc.
Network marketers use terms like “sponsor”, “recruit”, “downline”, “duplication”, etc.
If you don’t know these terms, don’t worry. Read a lot of industry blogs and articles and slowly you will get the hang of it. It’s not a big deal.
#8 is When Selling, You Need Proof, Proof, Proof!
People buy from a person or company they know, like and trust. The trust is key. Do you have proof or your product or service working for you? For someone else? For another company? Get that proof and testimonials and stack it in your emails and offers.
#9 is to Use the Power of Demonstration.
The most powerful sales technique is demonstration. When you give a demonstration (by explaining how your product works step by step), it persuades people way more than anything else. Also demonstrate your competency by giving value in your emails. When people get value, they start trusting you more and this leads to sales.
#10 is last but not least, and it is to include Relevance.
If possible, try and tie in something happening in the news or a popular topic of discussion in society to make your content even more relevant and create curiosity. You’ve seen those ads. “Click here to get access to the workout that sculpted the cast of 300!” (I clicked it… I won’t lie!)
Let’s say a celebrity screws up or someone dies or someone says something funny… when you use the latest news, gossips, stories in your emails, you will notice a higher engagement from your prospects. Sales will be up too.
That’s the 10 I promised. Are there more? Of course! How do you find out what they are? Subscribe to our newsletter and wait for the email to come that has another list. If you’re not that patient and need this information right away, I don’t know what to tell you. Good things come to those who wait! Now that you know what it takes to write good emails, go ahead and start practicing it. Crank out emails. The more you do, the better you will get. And soon you will become so good at it that sales will keep rolling in non-stop.
Now go out there and make it happen!