Feeling stuck when it comes to cold emails? If so, there’s a trick I want to share that can majorly boost your response rates.
And by “trick,” I mean “a cold email method that works.”
What’s An Average Response Rate?
It can be very difficult to gain traction with cold emails. This isn’t just me, it’s true for every industry.
For example, the average open rate (not even the response rate) for cold emails is between 15-29%, varying among industries.
The average response rate? One percent.
So it’s no surprise people get burned out on sending cold emails. Why put in all that work if no basically no one is responding?
You see, running a cold email campaign is like taming a wild tiger.
If you don’t know what you’re doing it can be dangerous. But if you know exactly how to do it, you can have a pet tiger — and how cool would that be? (Tiger taming not recommended).
So how do you tame the tiger that is cold emailing?
How To Improve Your Response Rate With Cold Emails
Now I want to cover some extremely effective methods for boosting your response rate. Your cold emails will never be the same.
Build a list of solid leads
The foundation of a successful cold email campaign is research. Getting reliable intel on your contacts will drastically improve your chances of getting responses.
If you know them and they realize you know them, it will be hard for them not to respond.
And the best way to find relevant leads is with LinkedIn Sales Navigator. It’s a premium account that lets you find professionals based on a myriad of filters, like job industry, position, interests, and even keywords.
Then you can use a tool to export those people’s email addresses along with their full name and company.
Email your colleague
Now that you have the email addresses, it’s time to craft your email.
But first, you’re going to start by emailing your colleague (or your CEO). Here’s what you can write:
Hey [colleague’s name],
I came across [name of contact’s company] and thought they’d be a good fit for us.
Try reaching out to [full name of contact] — seems to be the right contact.
Take care,
[Your name]
Then have your colleague forward this message back to you along with their own message. (Make sure your colleague knows what you’re doing).
Automate your cold emails
Next, copy and paste that entire email chain (including your colleague’s response) into your favorite email software.
You can then start automating your cold emails. Just send a mass email to the emails you found from LinkedIn and add the FNAME tag in the greeting.
Make the subject line “Fwd: [subject]” so it looks natural. Feel free to add in custom variables to make it more personal (name, location, or any other personal info you have for the contact).
Does This Trick Work?
Wiza used this cold emailing method as a test. And the results were surprising.
Out of the 560 people Wiza emailed, 490 of them opened the email (88%) and 123 people replied (22%).
Remember, the average reply rate is 1%. The Wiza team got 22x more replies than that. Adjusting for the number of opens, the reply rate is actually 25%.
So does this method work? I’d say so.
Yes, you might have some people who don’t like this technique. Some professionals don’t like getting cold emails at all.
However, there were plenty of people excited to talk to Wiza.
And if you use this technique, you may just get similar results.