Sending cold outreach messages is an efficient and cost-effective marketing strategy. However, obtaining leads from these messages is dependent on several factors. If you’ve been having a below-par response rate from your messages, keep reading to learn why.
Common Reasons for Unresponsive Mails
These are some causes you should address
A bad subject
Mostly, the recipient sees the subject first before opening the message on their notification bar. The subject’s quality creates a first impression of the content. Do not promise the world with the subject when the body fails to fulfill the promise. Doing this will only make the recipient pissed after reading. The best practice is to write the subject by addressing a pain point, making it brief and catchy.
Lack of adequate follow-up
People need and appreciate reminders, especially concerning a solution to their problems. The same philosophy applies to emails. You’ll need to send up to five different emails to a single recipient before you get an actionable response. This is not always due to poorly written mail, but the lack of constant reminders might be a contributing factor. Hence, always send a reminder message to recipients who are not responding, but ensure it is appropriately spaced. A platform like Lemlist can help you to automate the whole process.
Excessive sales tone
Getting too business-minded when writing might prevent a recipient from responding. It sometimes gives a feeling that the sender probably has only their interest at heart and can’t solve a genuine problem. The trick is to balance selling your product or service and passing a valuable message.
Wrong opening sentence
Just as with the subject line, your opening line in the text’s body matters a lot. They’re the first pointers that determine the fate of a mail. Common mistakes in the opening sentence include using a generic line and not addressing the reader by name. You’re meant to create a rapport with the recipient, but using small talk to implement this is not the way. One salient tip is to start with the recipient’s pain point and follow it up with how you are prepared to solve it.
Bad timing
Timing is an essential parameter in any endeavor. Wrong timing can essentially defeat the purpose of a well-written email. The first consideration concerning timing is to choose a suitable day. It is recommended that you send your emails on Mondays or Tuesdays. This is because people often make drastic decisions at the beginning of a week and not vice versa.
You should also schedule the email when the recipient will be free to read and act. This means that taking the recipient’s profession, position, and work time into consideration is paramount. Hence, sending a message to a prospect at an appropriate time will likely generate a response.
Final Words
To summarize, getting a reasonable response rate from cold emailing depends on several factors. However, it is pertinent to avoid the pitfalls noted above. Make the message brief, relevant, and catchy.