Interseller and Cold Emailing

Cold emails are still a powerful sales technique. When done right, it’s far more efficient than a cold call to initiate a conversation with your prospect.

While many successful startups have used cold email to obtain early traction for their products, most of us aren’t very good at writing cold emails that our prospects will respond to.

At Interseller, we crunched the numbers on over a million email messages to find out the crucial mistakes that we tend to make when composing and sending cold emails.

Avoid these 19 mistakes to ensure high open and response rates from your target prospects:

Email Subject Line Mistakes

Cold Email Mistake 1: Too Lengthy

Too many words in your subject line will render it useless.

Majority of emails are now read on mobile devices. In the U.S., around 66% of all email is now opened on smartphones or tablets.

Interseller Analysis

Analyzing the emails sent through Interseller, we noticed a significant drop in open rates when the subject line was too lengthy.

Cold Email Mistake 2: Subject line is not Personalized

Putting the name of your prospect in the subject line increases the probability of your email being opened.

Cold Email Mistake 3: Deceptive Subject line

A rookie mistake is to use “Re:” in the subject line when this is your first email and you have never interacted with the person.

Mistakes in the Email Body

Cold Email Mistake 4: No Recipient Name

This is personalization 101. If you are sending cold emails with a generic ‘Hi’ or ‘Hello,’ you can forget about getting any response.

Cold Email Mistake 5: Wrong Recipient Name

Before clicking ‘send’, make sure the recipient’s name matches the name in the email ID.

Cold Email Mistake 6: Long Body Copy

As with subject lines, keep the body copy of the email, short and sweet.

Cold Email Mistake 7: Talking about product features, not benefits

A salesperson-centric email usually lists out various features of the product without emphasizing benefits relevant to the recipient’s company.

Cold Email Mistake 8: Overly Affectionate Tone

Being polite is one thing but false friendliness in a cold email is sure to backfire.

Cold Email Mistake 9: No Call-to-Action (CTA)

The last impression your prospects have of you is through your CTA. If the CTA is missing or is not specific, how will your prospects respond?

Cold Email Mistake 10: CTA Overload

Using multiple call-to-actions only ends up confusing your prospect.

Cold Email Mistake 11: Using HTML, images or bold fonts in email

Many salespeople believe that adding non-standard fonts, colorful images, and HTML text will enhance the attractiveness of a cold email.

Cold Email Mistake 12: No Grammar Check

If your email copy has faulty grammar, it’s a bad way to begin a relationship.

Cold Email Mistake 13: No In-depth Personalization

Invest time to personalize your emails especially when reaching out to a limited number of prospects.

Email Signature Mistakes

Cold Email Mistake 14: No Email Signature

Email signatures are essentially an electronic business card. Lack of an email signature can reduce the credibility of your organization.

First Impressions Mistakes

Cold Email Mistake 15: No ‘From’ name

Getting an email from a real person makes for a better impression and improves your open rates.

Cold Email Mistake 16: Opening Line is About You

A common mistake is starting the email with who you are instead of providing value to the recipient.

Email Deliverability Mistakes

Cold Email Mistake 17: Sending Attachments

Attaching documents to your cold email can lead to your emails being sent to spam.

Cold Email Mistake 18: Using ‘no-reply’ email addresses

Use only business email addresses with the correct full name of the sender.

Other Cold Email Mistakes

Cold Email Mistake 19: No Follow-ups

Sending follow-up emails can increase open and reply rates significantly.

Conclusion

Cold emailing is still a powerful sales technique. Avoiding these mistakes and using the right automation tool like Interseller will greatly improve your cold email success rates.