As a salesperson, you’ve probably read hundreds of explanations about why a cold outreach strategy is your best bet to get the maximum results from your lead generation efforts. 

 

 

But are you really getting the most out of your cold outreach strategy?

 

 

I mean, there are so many ways you can write your cold message and strategize your outreach efforts. So, the next question is: Is there a sure-fire, winning formula for doing cold outreach that can guarantee success?

 

 

The answer is (luckily): Yes.

 

 

Whether your goal is to book a demo, get new subscribers, or recruit high-level talent, the main formula remains the same. The only thing that changes is the language and channels you use.

 

 

In this article, we’ll dive deep into exactly what goes into the anatomy of an effective cold outreach strategy, and show you how you can craft your own winning sales funnel.

 

 

The Science Behind Cold Outreach Messages

 

At this time and day, sending generic messages just won’t do it—it wastes both your and your prospect’s time. More than that, if you sound too salesy and impersonal, it definitely won’t help you increase your email open rates.

 

 

Most cold messages get ignored, because the people sending them make a lot of the same mistakes, like:

 

• The message is too long.
• The call to action is confusing (and sometimes not even there).
• It’s a copy-paste job, with no concrete information on the recipient’s company background and what they do.
• It’s poorly written.
• The offering isn’t relevant to the recipient.

 

So if your cold emails or InMails read like that, you can pretty much guarantee that they’ll get abysmal response rates.

 

 

Components Of A High-Converting Cold Outreach Message

 

Now that you know what not to do, let’s talk about what goes into an effective cold outreach message that prospects will be much more likely to reply to.

 

 

There are 3 main elements that you need to make sure you include in any cold message if you want it to resonate with your target audience:

 

1. You have a personalized introduction that allows your recipients to feel like you’re specifically sending them a message, not copy-pasting it to the whole world.
2. Your overall content (including your tone) engages the recipient and seamlessly guides them to complete your call to action (CTA). 
3. You need to have a simple, clear CTA. It can either be them replying to your message, clicking on a link, or scheduling a call with you.

 

After they accomplish your CTA, now you’re on the final lap, which is to chase that conversion.

 

 

When you add them all together, you create a professional and effective cold outreach message. You can see how it might look in this sample message:

 

 

Hi Amara,   I saw your post on social media about manufacturing challenges and thought I could help. My name is Anthony Anderson, and I’m the CEO of Anderson Industries—an engineering company specializing in creating custom solutions for companies like yours.   I’d love to talk more and show you a few of our projects that could benefit your team. Could we jump on a call sometime this week? You can book something in on my calendar on this link: (link).   Cheers, Anthony

 

 

1. Personalized Introduction

 

As you can see in the example above, Anthony Anderson right away addresses Amara by name. He also gives her an idea of his identity and where he’s from. This helps build trust between him and Amara, as she makes him feel that he’s not cold-calling her out of the blue.

 

 

Let’s further divide the introduction into two parts: the greetings and the intro line.

 

 

Greeting Line

 

[Hi Amara]

 

 

As our inboxes get bombarded with cold messages daily, most people don’t respond to hugely formalized openings like “Greetings!” You should save your characters by using a common greeting like Hi Amara and make your message as short as possible.

 

 

There are three ways you can write your greeting line:

 

• Informal: Hey or Hi + name (e.g., Hi Amara)
• Formal: Hello + name (e.g, Hello Amara)
• Contacting a company: Hey + company name + team (e.g., Hey Google Team)

 

However, don’t make the mistake of sending your messages with just a Hi and not including your recipient’s name. Doing so makes you seem so lazy that you can’t even add your recipient’s name to the greeting line, and it’s clear that you’re recycling the same message for all of your contacts.

 

 

Intro Line

 

[I saw your post on social media…I could help]

 

 

After nailing the greeting line, the next step is to hook their attention. To do this, be as concise as possible while providing enough information to let your recipient know why you’re reaching out to them.

 

 

Remember that all cold outreach messages are about holding their attention, and not just skipping past your email. You can do this by setting the scene, like mentioning how you found them, in one sentence. Don’t include unnecessary details, and ideally show evidence that you’ve actually researched them or their brand.

 

 

2. Engaging Content With A Clear CTA

 

Now that you’ve established a connection, it’s on to the most crucial part of cold messages—the content. 

 

 

Again, your cold outreach message should be short and straight to the point. Your message should help you communicate what you can do for your recipient in two or three simple sentences.

 

 

You can divide the body of your content into 3 parts:

 

1. Story

 

[My name is Anthony Anderson…companies like yours.]

 

 

Don’t take too long to introduce yourself and explain your company and the valuable services you provide, or your reader will start losing interest.

 

 

After establishing your credibility and the value you can offer, go directly to your ask.

 

 

2. Ask

 

[I’d love to talk more and show you a few of our projects that could benefit your team.]

 

 

You need to make it clear what you expect from your readers in a continued conversation. Avoid writing vague and mysterious messages like, “Can I have 5 minutes of your time to discuss how we can help you?”. 

 

 

Instead, go straight to the point and let your prospects immediately know how you can solve their problems with your services.

 

 

3. CTA

 

[Could we jump on a call sometime this week?]

 

 

Your cold outreach message needs to end with a clear call to action. If you want your prospects to reply, then make sure that you’re asking them for something specific and tangible. You have to ensure that they know exactly what the next step should be if they’re interested in your offer.

 

 

In the example above, Anthony ended his cold message by proposing a call at an agreeable time for Amara. You can also suggest meeting at their office or sending them relevant documents via email.

 

 

Add to that, if you’re proposing a call or meeting, don’t give a strict timeline like: Could we jump on a call on Wednesday at 2 PM?

 

 

You have to respect your prospect’s time and attention. After all, most people you’re trying to reach have busy schedules, and any message that’s time-sensitive will likely get ignored.

 

 

3. Chasing The Conversion

 

After Amara books a call, Anthony needs to chase the conversion. For example, if she still hasn’t replied after a few days, he can follow up and remind her (there are automated tools you can use to set these up).

 

 

Sending a first follow-up message can boost your reply rate by 21%, and the second follow-up boosts it by up to 25%.

 

 

Make sure that you’re not being too pushy when you’re sending follow-up cold outreach messages. Instead, try to add more value to each message.

 

 

Also, avoid sending too many cold messages (3-5x a week), as they can be perceived as annoying and desperate. What you can do is send one follow-up message a week until you deem them as an unqualified prospect who’s not interested in your offer.

 

 

Sending A Cold Outreach Message That Converts

 

With cold outreach messages, you have to make sure that you’re executing every part of your content perfectly to achieve your goal of increasing your conversions and boosting your sales. But by following the cold outreach formula we’ve laid out here, you can help ensure your cold messages are more effective and attention-grabbing.

 

 

If you’re ready to launch your cold outreach strategy, but don’t have enough time or resources to perfect it all, you can always partner with experts like ScaleUpSales. We’ll serve as your cockpit and help accelerate your cold outreach campaigns to success.

 

 

Drive your business to success with ScaleUpSales’ cold outreach experts. Contact us today to start generating more leads at scale.