6 Steps to Skyrocket Your Cold Email Response Rates

Navigating today's bustling and competitive B2B sales landscape can feel like scaling Mount Everest without an oxygen mask. Prospects are constantly under siege from a flurry of advertisements, social media posts, and unsolicited emails about new products.

These savvy buyers are targeted aggressively by numerous companies, resulting in an avalanche of at least 25 emails per week, not to mention daily interactions with a plethora of digital ads. The unfortunate reality? Much of this bombardment is irrelevant noise – they don't need 99% of the solutions being presented.

Thus, it's no surprise they engage with less than 1% of these proposed touchpoints. You may find yourself in a relentless and often fruitless chase, battling against apathy towards webinars and an overall lack of responsiveness. You might even question why your webinar engagement is dismally low.

But let's switch gears and chase away the clouds for a moment. There's a silver lining here: email remains the most effective touchpoint in the labyrinth of multi-channel, multi-touch marketing strategies for sales and SDRs. Why? Buyers still prefer the non-intrusive nature of emails and messages, which offer clear context and are relatively distraction-free. The proof is in the stats: email open rates in Q2 soared 10-20% above the benchmark and currently sit at 18% above pre-COVID levels.

Yet, it's crucial to understand that the email landscape has significantly transformed in the age of social media. With most companies harnessing the power of email automation and increasing their touchpoints – from 7 two years ago to a staggering 17 post-pandemic – the competition is fierce. In fact, a HubSpot report reveals that SDRs sent 21% more emails in Q2 than Q1, with sends recently peaking at 36% above the benchmark.

In such an environment, if you're planning to send cold emails, it's vital to ensure the recipient doesn't feel targeted by a spammy stranger who somehow got their hands on their contact details.

So, how do you craft a successful cold email? At oneshot.ai, we've partnered with numerous companies, helping them elevate their open and response rates through content personalisation and customisation. We've analysed thousands of manual emails, and here's what we believe are the crucial steps for a successful cold email:

1. Research: Understand your prospect and their company intimately. From websites, LinkedIn profiles, Crunchbase, Twitter, to 10K reports, gather as much information as you can.
2. Personalized Subject Line: Craft a concise, personalised subject line to boost your open rates. Six to eight words is the sweet spot.
3. Striking Intro: The first 30 words of your email can make or break the reader's interest. Create an enticing intro to grab their attention.
4. Relatable Pain Points: Understand and articulate the pain points of your prospect in a relatable, concise manner.
5. Pitch it Right: Craft a pitch that resonates with the prospect and highlights benefits like cost savings, efficiency, or reduced administrative effort.
6. Proof Point & CTA: Close your email with an appropriate call-to-action (CTA) that matches the stage of your multi-touch, multi-channel approach.

Don't be disheartened by a modest list or a beginner mindset. With a wealth of software and automation tools at your disposal, every company can leverage the power of SDRs to achieve email marketing success. Follow the process, plug in your content, and watch your email open rates take off!

To streamline this process further, tools like Oneshot can automate the personalization and customization of your emails. Try it out