You’ve built your startup business and have a fantastic product or service to offer. But now what? Growth and success are an uphill battle, and leads are your ropes to reach the summit.

 

 

Getting the word out is no easy task, but there’s one strategy that could provide much-needed help for small businesses in this situation—cold emailing.

 

 

Cold emailing isn’t new, but many business owners who have never done it before hesitate to give it a go. So, today, we’ll explore how startups can leverage cold emails and maximize their return on investments better than social media marketing. Read on!

 

 

What Is Cold Email?

 

Cold email is a marketing email sent to a potential client who hasn’t interacted with you before. It sounds like spam, but cold outreach is not illegal and certainly not spam. 

 

 

Cold email is personalized and aims to create meaningful relationships with potential clients by connecting them with your company, products, and services. In contrast, spam is illegal and solicitously or maliciously sent in mass to recipients that may or not be interested, often to insert malware into computers or to obtain information without consent.

 

 

Integrating cold emailing into your growth strategy is one of the best ways to generate leads. As a startup, you can leverage cold email to:

 

• Drive more sales
• Find your first customers
• Build relationships with key partners
• Find new investors

 

You can leverage these benefits to your advantage to get your first customers and start making your business profitable without spending time and money on costly traditional marketing methods. It doesn’t get any better than that.

 

 

Why Not Use Social Media?

 

Social media is one of the most popular ways startups market their products and services. So why isn’t it the best space for cold outreach? It can never come close to emails because:

 

• • It’s less personal: Social media marketing doesn’t provide the same level of engagement with potential customers or clients as cold emails.
  • You fight against the algorithm: It’s hard to compete with other brands on the same platform, which may result in your messages getting overlooked by your target audience.
  • You have limited reach: It’s easy to believe that everybody is on social media, but the fact is they’re not. You can spend all your money on Facebook or Instagram, but your target market may never be able to see it.

 

Emails, however, are part of people’s daily lives—especially B2B leads. 

 

 

Most people check their email inboxes at least once daily, and 19% check emails as soon as they receive them. With email users worldwide expected to reach 4.4 billion this 2023, 19% is around 836 million people—that’s a lot!

 

 

By using cold emails, you’re more likely to develop relationships with high-quality leads, which can lead to higher conversion rates in the long run. Plus, if you track who responds and how they respond to your messages, you can tailor your future messages accordingly to improve response rates.

 

 

That’s why cold emailing is the best way to reach potential customers or clients before they know your name. It’s a great opportunity for startups to make an impact and break into their niche markets without breaking the bank. Plus, it requires only minimal effort, and it can be done within minutes.

 

 

How Do You Launch a Successful Cold Email Campaign?

 

Startups are just that—they typically start a business from a bright idea, the guts to try, and not many industry connections. So here’s how to use cold email to scale your startup and get your first customers within your means:

 

 

Step 1: Have Dedicated Email Addresses for Cold Emailing

 

The most crucial step when sending cold emails is to have an email address. You can start by creating two different email addresses:

 

• [email protected]
• [email protected]

 

The reason for having two different email addresses is to compare which of the two has better open and response rates. 

 

 

The performance of your email address highly depends on who you’re emailing. If you’re contacting prospects to recruit early adopters, a personal Gmail account works fine. But if you’re ready to sell your products or services, you need a dedicated business account domain. 

 

 

Step 2: Identify Your Ideal Customer Through Elimination

 

Most startup businesses don’t have a clear picture of their perfect customer, and that’s what gets them stuck in the mud, so to speak. Elevate your campaign by identifying  your ideal buyer persona and where to find more people like them. 

 

 

But don’t stop with one. Identify the demographic, behavioral, and psychographic information of several buyer personas, then use the process of elimination by reaching out and seeing which reply.

 

 

Then, follow the elimination process by focusing your follow-ups and future campaigns on the personas that show interest in your business. This way, you’ll be able to save time and money by targeting the people more likely to engage and purchase.

 

 

Step 3: Craft Your Cold Email Templates

 

A personalized template might seem like an oxymoron, but we’ve found that while many parts of your emails have to be curated to your audience, there are some formulaic steps you need to take to boost your conversions.

 

 

For example, you should include the following elements in your cold emails:

 

• Attention-grabbing subject line
• Personal introduction
• Concise and clear email body content that’s easy to read
• Straightforward call to action (CTA)
• Compelling signature that encourages replies

 

Writing your own cold email templates can make reaching success with your cold outreach campaigns simpler. Plus, you can quicken the process of writing cold email templates by using our 7 cold email templates to enhance your marketing campaign.

 

 

Here are 3 cold email templates to give you an idea:

 

 

#1 Direct-Approach Cold Emails

 

The most basic of all cold emails. Ideal for campaigns that aim to reach and connect with business owners and potential suppliers. In this type of cold email, you directly tell your readers why you’re reaching out and what you want them to do. Here’s an example:

 

 

Hi John,

 

 

This is Michael from Smart Weights.

 

 

Our company specializes in improving gym operations to maximize efficiency. After studying your website/gym, I believe we can help you manage your gym with less stress and make more money.

 

 

Would you be interested in a 15-minute call so that we can discuss how we can help?

 

 

Thanks,

Michael

 

 

#2 Follow-Up Cold Emails

 

This is the email most marketers fail to send, but it’s necessary.

 

 

Most cold emails fail because marketers stop after sending one email. But you’ll need to follow up on your leads, especially given that 60% of customers say yes after four offers. Here’s an example of a follow-up cold email:

 

 

Hi John,

 

 

I just wanted to follow up. You might’ve missed it in all the emails you receive on a daily basis (same here!).

 

 

So I’m sending this email hoping to set up a quick call with you to help you maximize the efficiency of your gym operations, which our software can help with.

 

 

If you’re free anytime this week, let me know.

 

 

Thanks,

Michael

 

 

#3 Quick-Question Cold Emails

 

These cold emails use smart one-liners to pique the interest of your target audience. You can use this template to email a referral or address a specific pain point of your prospects. For example:

 

 

Hi John,

 

 

Quick question: Are you having trouble building your team?

 

 

Here at Smart Weights, we offer software that helps manage your employees’ time to maximize efficiency while preventing burnout. With us, it’ll be easier to build your team with the right people that can improve your business operations.

 

 

I’d be happy to chat more on a quick 5- to 10-minute call to explore how we can help you and your company.

 

 

Thanks,

Michael

 

 

Step 4: Send Your Cold Emails

 

Now that you know your target audience and have cold email templates on hand, it’s time to send them out. But before you do, double-check that your emails comply with your recipient’s country’s cold email laws to ensure your messages don’t get banned from your recipient’s email provider. Here are the cold email laws to abide by in Europe, USA, and Australia.

 

 

If you’re doing cold outreach for the first time, you may find it easier and cheaper to send your first campaign manually. But, as your email list grows, you can use email automation tools to send them out in large quantities while keeping track of replies and opens.

 

 

Step 5: Optimize Your Cold Email Campaign

 

After sending your emails, the next step is to track your email metrics and make necessary adjustments based on the results. Your email metrics should include your click rates, open rates, response rates, and unsubscribe rate. If you’re using Gmail, you can track your email using their built-in email tracker for free. Otherwise, there are other free email trackers available online—you just have to search on Google.

 

 

So, how do you analyze your metrics?

 

 

For example, if you notice that your unsubscribe rate is getting too high (above 0.5%), you can adjust your subject lines and ensure they come off as more personal and not aggressive or spammy. 

 

 

The goal is to improve your campaigns to get the best results consistently. And once you’ve reached that point, your cold email strategies can start helping you scale your business.

 

 

Grow Your Startup with Effective Cold Emails

 

Cold email is an effective way to reach your prospects and convert them into customers. But it takes more than just writing emails and sending them out.

 

 

As a startup business owner, you must identify your target market and ensure your email content resonates with them—from subject line to CTA. You also have to create cold email templates and track and optimize your campaigns’ results to ensure they stay successful.

 

 

If you feel you’re not too confident about doing all these on your own, you can always ask for help from cold email experts like ScaleUpSales. With us, you no longer have to worry about collecting your prospects, crafting compelling content, and boosting your sales–we’ve got it all covered for you!

 

 

Scale your startup business quickly and effectively through cold email. Contact us today!