While it may not be the most popular method, a cold email marketing campaign can be an effective strategy for generating promising leads for your eCommerce business.
The trick is knowing the right approach, processes, and tools, and employing them in your campaign.
The primary advantage of cold emails is that it puts you directly in front of your target audience and potential customers.
So, if you play your cards right and employ proven tips for cold email marketing, you can:
- Improve your open rates
- Convert some of those recipients to subscribers
- And eventually get them to become customers.
This is where we come into the picture.
This article will find insight into what a cold email marketing campaign is and how it works. More importantly, we’ll share some pro tips on executing effective cold email marketing.
So, let’s jump right into it!
What is a Cold Email Marketing Campaign?
Cold email marketing campaigns involve sending emails to leads and prospects with whom you have had no previous communication.
In other words, recipients of your emails are likely getting to know about your business and its offerings for the first time.
Fun fact? The ‘cold’ is because you’ve not had prior contact with the person before, and so they’ve not ‘warmed’ to you.
With cold email marketing, you’re trying to get brand new leads into your sales funnel. So, you’d have to build an impression and a relationship with each recipient from scratch. This is likely not one of the most popular forms of email marketing.
However, cold email marketing usually yields the most loyal customers if you do it well.
Why Your eCommerce Needs a Cold Email Marketing Campaign
Before we walk you through our cold email sequence template, let us examine some of the advantages of running a cold email marketing campaign.
Brand awareness
A cold email marketing campaign can be the perfect way to tell more people about your business.
This is because you get to carry out your introduction and highlight your appealing value points.
Lead generation
Leads are the beginning of any sales journey. Admittedly, not all leads not eventually lead to a sale. But, they increase the chances of getting some.
Thankfully, cold marketing can help you generate plenty.
Informative content for new leads
You can always add information about your services, products, passion projects, etc., in your cold email.
Remember, the purpose of your cold email is to build a relationship with the prospect, and what better way to build a relationship other than by providing valuable information.
How to Create a Cold Email Campaign: A Step-by-step Guide
Now that you know the benefits of a cold email campaign for your business, you’re probably wondering how you can incorporate it into your next marketing strategy.
Keep reading to discover our 10-item cold email sequence template that works.
1. Use an email address on a different domain
A cold email campaign is more or less an experimental type of marketing operation. While you’d eventually get some leads, it usually will not happen the first time you email your receivers.
Therefore, if you use your company email address or an email on the company’s domain, you may risk ruining your business mail reputation and all email addresses registered on its domain.
2. Fill up ‘From’ fields and personal data
Remember, you are sending an email to someone with whom you have had no previous communication.
So, if you want to improve the chances of your email being opened and then read, you need to tell the receiver who you are. Essential details to include are your name, business name, position, etc.
3. Warm up your new email address
Warming up an email address implies establishing a good reputation for that email address. This way, when you send emails to multiple people, your mail doesn’t end up in the spam folder.
You can warm up your new email address by using the email address manually before you start to automate the campaign.
4. Collect quality leads
Sending emails to a random group of people who have no interest in your business can increase your bounce rate, which means few people even open your emails.
Instead, define your target audience and collect quality leads. This way, you don’t waste time and resources on the wrong people.
5. Verify email addresses of prospects
After collecting quality leads, you always want to verify the email addresses you collect.
Doing this increases the chances of seeing better open and click-through rates in your cold email campaign.
6. Ensure to segment your list of prospects
Segmentation in cold email marketing means dividing your list of recipients into small pieces based on some criteria.
Hence, segmentation allows you to deliver more personalized and relevant emails to your prospects based on different criteria, such as:
- Age
- Gender
- Geographic location
- Etc.
7. Create a cold email sequence template
As soon as you’ve organized the list of your cold email recipients, the next step is to create a template for your emails.
Remember, you want to give a quick but concise introduction of who you are and what you offer. Also, try to highlight the value your recipient can get from your business as early as possible in your emails.
8. Personalize emails
Statistics show that the average response rate for personalized emails is 17% instead of 7% for emails without personalization.
Therefore, always add some personalization to the emails you send. For one, always address your recipients by name.
9. Limit the number of images and HTML
Unless otherwise necessary, overcrowding your cold email with images can make it look too much like a sales pitch, which can put off recipients.
10. Plan to follow up
More often than not, receivers will not take action after the first cold emails. So, you have to follow up on them to encourage and inspire them to become subscribers and eventually customers.
However, try not to pester them.
Pro Tips to Help You With Your Cold Email Campaign
- Define your target audience
- Create a gripping subject line
- Catch attention quickly
- Propose value
- Keep email short
- Ensure to personalize email
- Add CTA by presenting a clear path of action
- Remember your follow-up email (3 days after the first email has been opened)
- Don’t spam
Now That You Know
A cold email campaign may just be the thing you need to generate more leads for your eCommerce business.
Remember, leads that you develop with cold email marketing can grow to become large customer bases that keep those profits rising. And now, you know how to make it work!
Further Reading
How to Craft an Email Drip Campaign for eCommerce
What Is an Email Nurture Campaign? The Complete Guide
Average Email Campaign Response Rates
What Is the Best Time to Send an Email Campaign?
