How to Keep Your Cold Emails From Getting Lost in a Prospect’s Ever-Crowded Inbox

by Taylor Karg
October 21, 2020

Your inbox pings. An email has just arrived with a chipper statement: “We’re the premier provider of __!”

Did you open it? Didn’t think so.

According to David Plutschak, content strategist at Outreach, a sales engagement platform, cold emails with messaging that contain these kinds of “unsourced superlatives” render ineffective. 

In order to push out successful messaging that keeps companies’ sales pipeline full, it’s time to forget the everyday exaggerated claims and get strategic. Plutschak has shared a few tips and strategies to keep messaging relevant in the ever-changing sales stratosphere. 

 

David Plutschak
Content Strategist • Outreach

What has been the most successful cold email subject line you’ve ever used? Why was it so successful?

Judging by open rate, the most effective cold email subject line we’ve seen during my time at Outreach has been “Forrester Analysis of Outreach ROI (387% in 3 years).” This worked for two reasons. First, it leaned on a clear metric of success that appealed to senior decision-makers. Second, it included a respected third party. Without this external validation, the ROI claim would fall flat; it would be just another unsourced superlative that prospects hear from companies every day (“We’re the premier provider of ___!”). 
 

Successful sales messaging is a moving target. If you’re not keeping up then your message will sooner or later sink into irrelevance.”


The first couple of sentences or even words can make or break the success of a cold email. What’s an effective strategy you use to hook the reader in once they’ve opened your email?

Begin with a personalized sentence. No prospect wants to enter a sales conversation expecting a pitch from someone who won’t listen. You can do that by referencing a recent and relevant LinkedIn post they’ve shared, mentioning some recent company news, or by acknowledging a particular challenge facing companies in their industry (in that order). 

It’s important to make sure that it is meaningful personalization, and not simply restating someone’s LinkedIn profile back at them. That is all too common, and lazy personalization is worse than none at all. After that, establish your bona fides by acknowledging a likely risk that’s top of mind for them — and be specific. For example, “I’ve been talking to a lot of other medical field sales leaders this year who are struggling to help their teams adapt to inside sales. Here’s how we’re helping….” 

 

MORE ON OUTREACHSales Engagement Platform Outreach Raises $50M, Reaches $1.3B Valuation

 

What’s the most effective formula or approach you’ve used for writing cold emails? What were the results compared to other formulas or approaches you’ve tried?

The first thing I do when writing a new cold email template is to look at what we’ve already learned. That means looking at past results of A/B testing or speaking with sales managers and tenured sales reps on my team. You need to nurture and retain that kind of continuity or else you’ll just end up relearning old lessons over and over again. Once I have that background knowledge, I can create something new, along with a new A/B test. You iterate over time and not only does that get you closer to a message that works, but one that works right now. Successful sales messaging is a moving target. If you’re not keeping up then your message will sooner or later sink into irrelevance. 

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