4 Steps to Not PHONE It In On Emails
20% = 0%
Alright, I admit it: I’m a firm Pareto Principle acolyte.
Whether it be prioritizing bench press and squat over a variety of isolation movements when working out; sweeping and doing dishes over a full-house deep clean; listening to only the songs I like from a newly-discovered artist rather than doing a deep discography dive; I’m a firm believer that, when facing a problem, finding and executing on 20% of the most mission-critical work for 80% of the possible results is the obvious choice.
Now, I know what you’re (probably) thinking: “Gray’s lazy.”
If you are, in fact, thinking that…you’re right! However, for all of the corners I tend to cut, there’s one corner that, if cut, would debunk the Pareto Principle. Cutting this corner would mean that, rather than putting in 20% of the available work into the soon-to-be-mentioned action and expecting 80% of the results, that, instead, 20% work would get you a 0% return. Actually, scratch that: it would get you (digitally, not literally), thrown in the trash.
What task am I referencing? Rather than tell, let’s show…
“Look at that lack of personalization. The untasteful robotic tone of it. Oh my god, it doesn’t even mention my company name” — Patrick Bateman looking at this email
While the above email was sent out to me and only me (I’m sure), chances are you get hundreds of similarly-structured ones monthly.
So, let me ask you two questions:
How many have you responded to?
How many have you responded to positively?
Numbers will surely vary to each, but I bet a general consensus would end up somewhere around 1 and 0, respectively. On the off-chance that one of you has actually taken the desired action the sender of emails like the one pictured above wants…wait, none of you have.
Though I hate to “shoot the messenger” in most cases, the senders of emails like these deserve reprimand…they’re in Sales & Marketing for goodness sake!!! Literally, you were hired for one job: to sell (or market).
Shameful as I am to admit, I used to be part of this woeful crowd. As a BDR, I relied on LinkedIn & the phones to drive meetings; earlier on in my Marketing career, I prioritized scaling email outreach in the hopes of playing the #s game over humanizing and leveling-up email copy.
However, like Justin Bieber in 2014, it’s never too late for me, or you, to say “Sorry” for our putrid emails. Furthermore, with good cold Sales/Marketing emails fetching response rates of 5-20%, it makes business sense for all GTM folks out there to confess their sins like the Biebs and start sending better emails.
To start, read on for 4 tips on how I’ve been able to craft better emails of my own, at scale!
Tip 1: Let your freak flag fly and use your voice!
“Would I rather be feared or loved? Both: I want people to fear how much they love me” — Michael Scott.
While the above moment of quasi-profundity is too black-and-white, notice what Michael neglected to list an employee sentiment option: forgotten.
Unlikely as they are to ever engender real love, hatred, fear, etc., the last thing you want your emails to be are boring. What makes an email boring? Voice…or, more specifically, a lack of it.
So, above all else, don’t send out listless and lifeless emails…be loved, feared, or both by being you!
Be like William Hung and use your voice!
Examples of voice-insertions include (but not limited to):
A picture/video/etc. of you, your dog, ferret, etc.
Carrying an empathetic tone depending on current events, what you know about your prospect/their company, etc.
Speaking like you were in the room with the prospect in question
Informality…again, you’re not a robot, contrary to what so many sellers want their prospects to believe!
Tip 2: “I don’t know what it means. It’s provocative, it gets the people going!”
First of all, I really need to come up with more varied and clever passage intros than quotes.
ANYWAYS, and speaking of intros, you really need to come up with shorter and more clever subject lines.
Sure, a common rule-of-thumb is 70 characters or less. But, before we blindly follow said-rule, here’s 65 illegible characters:
faefhefeuhfeufheufhseufheufhewufhwuefhweufhweufhweufhefuehwfuehuf
(in fairness, that might actually get me to open an email lol).
With most prospects opening the majority of their emails on mobile and looking to cut down on their unreads, subject lines are quite literally the end-all-be-all of your email success. And, with the two unavoidable email truths above comes the need for ruthlessly efficient and impactful subject lines: AKA, be short, be sweet.
How to do this? Consider taking one of the following angles:
Action-triggering question: ask your prospects a question they feel compelled to respond to (i.g. “Does X sound good Gray,” “Want to meet X Gray?”, etc.)
Keywords/a use case that is on-point for your prospect: self-explanatory here but research is research!
Scarcity: humans are governed by FOMO, so have your subject lines induce it in your prospects (i.g. “Don’t miss out on X”)
Within each angle, consider incorporating the following elements:
Emojis 💵: with lines becoming increasingly blurred between formal and informal comms, work and personal comm apps (Slack = texting these days), don’t be scared and use em (but limit to 1 per subject line)!
Company + prospect names: these immediately add a bit of credibility/perceived personalization
Prospect relevant research: if they list their favorite movie on LinkedIn, use that info!
Finally, whatever subject line angle you choose, avoid using ALL CAPS — it’s off-putting for both your prospect and their company’s spam filters.
Tip 3: A great set-up is nothing without an even better punchline
Ok, so we now know to use our voice when writing emails and to write a seductive (not in that way, c’mon now) subject line…but where’s the follow-through?
Like a great joke set-up with a terrible punchline, your email will be dead-upon-open if you fail to follow-through on the promise of your subject line.
What a bad intro looks like
Sadly, this is where so many promising emails fail. Intriguing subject line —> email opened —> “Hi NAME, I hope this finds you well. I wanted to share this BORING A** resource…”
Momentum = crushed.
So, how do we sustain the momentum our subject line generates?
Simple: we play off our subject line in one of the following ways:
Pay-off: if your subject line poses a provocative (drink every time I use that word) question/scenario/etc., pay it off with your first line or two.
Disarm: listen: nobody asked to be emailed by a corny GTM professional like you and I this AM. Break the fourth wall and let them know you know that your subject line’s a bit cooky and that you appreciate their attention.
Continue building suspense: not ready to release the tension your subject line sets? Continue building on it with another set-up!
Finally (and I realize this might be a bit controversial), I’d ensure that one of the above methods comes before your official greeting. As long as your tone is pleasant and you’re engaging enough, your prospects can wait to hear that you “hope all is well” and yadda yadda yadda.
Tip 4: 250 words <, 1 CTA
Just like 5’7 me and your subject line, make your email short and sweet.
I get it I get it: your solution’s complicated and requires context. Great. You know where that should come in? I’ll give you two options:
Option A: on the cold email your prospect’s reading on the Stairmaster, drained, after work
Option B: on the discovery call you get your prospect on after a hopefully-successful cold email where you have 30 min to talk, live
Please don’t be snarky and pick Option A!
Keeping with the theme of this blog, prospects are looking for reasons to put your email in the trash and nothing will make them do that faster than opening it up and seeing an essay.
Short and sweet like Samwise, baby!
How to keep your email short?
There’s a myriad of ways to do so and, speaking of length, this blog is already too long to permit discussion on them; in lieu, use the catch-all reminder that your emails should have one call-to-action (CTA).
When you ask your prospects to download an ebook and book a demo, you open yourself up to a multitude of failures, including the fact that 1) it requires much more writing to intro and close both CTAs and 2) it can confuse/put off prospects and make them choose neither.
So, when in doubt: 250 words <, 1 CTA!
100% = 200%
In the intro to this too-long-blog, I argued that putting less-than effort into your cold emails will produce a disproportionately low result.
Well, in the opposite fashion, putting in real and concerted effort into those same emails will lead to results greater than the sum of your efforts.
Don’t believe me? Try it yourself over the next few months and let the pipeline flowwww.
