#25: How to 10x Your Success Rate With Cold Email Campaigns

Read time: 4 min

Today I’m going to talk about sending cold emails and why early stage startups struggle with it.

If you’ve been reading and implementing the frameworks discussed in my newsletters, then you should have seen solid results in your ability to qualify and close new business.

However, everything I’ve ever told you about selling is useless without one thing… Leads.

And what’s the best way to generate leads? You guessed it — cold email.

Today, we’ll discuss how to fill your pipeline with leads using cold email, why cold email is essential to filling your TOFU, and what you need to know to send the best cold emails possible.

Simple Scales. Fancy Fails

~Chris Guillebeau

So, why is having consistent top of funnel so critical for an early stage startup? And how does cold email fit in?

Because it allows you to get the reps in. You need the reps to build up your ability to sound confident and close new business.

If you do not have enough leads coming in, it makes it very difficult to aggregate the data you need to iterate on product and understand what needs to be optimized in order for you to find indications of PMF.

Cold emails have two huge advantages.

1. Everyone has an email, so everyone can be reached.

2. It's VERY cheap (even free).

Some of the reasons why people fail are:

1. Using standard lead-sourcing tools and put them into a cold email tool.

2. Having salesy / corporate emails will get a low open and response rate.

3. Not testing subject lines and body copy, via single variant testing.

4. Too complex. Simplicity sells. Explain it to me like I’m a child.

5. Low volume. You need a lot of volume. Your TAM is critical.

Let’s look at best practices when it comes to achieving the results you desire.

1. The success of your campaign is directly proportional to the amount of effort you put into sourcing the correct contact information.
   

2. The more you personalize an email, the higher the chance it lands in the inbox and the more likely it gets a response. You only need to personalize the first sentence of your email, then rest can be templated. Here’s an example:
   
   “{Name,} I love what you guys are building at {company}. I was a PM at {previous company} in charge of building out {whatever it was}. I have a deep appreciation for companies solving interesting problems.
   
   I was reaching out today because…”

   
   

3. The subject line is ten times more important than the body copy. Spend time creating a simple subject line. For ex: We sent out an email campaign to the most recent YC cohort. The subject line was “demo day.” Our open rate was 92.9%. Insane!
   

4. Make your email short, sweet, and direct, with a clear CTA at the end.

The breakdown of a successful cold emails usually looks like this:

• A 1-4 word subject line (it should be enticing and authentic).

• A 3-sentence email with personalization (no fluff).

• One clear CTA (your readers should know where they’re going when they click it — if your CTA and landing page are misaligned, you’ll lose the lead every time).

• 3-4 total emails in the campaign. (2-3 follow-ups plus the original).

• The whole campaign cycle is 2-3 weeks (if you haven’t closed by then, move on).

Once you nail down an initial campaign, you’ll want to build off it by keeping what works but also striving for better results. Use single variant testing to improve your cold emails continuously.

Once your cold emails have been perfected, you’ll find that the more you send, the more people get back to you. After pumping out high volume, eventually you will get the cold email open rate, response rate, and close rates you desire.

Key Takeaways:
- Simple scales, fancy fails.
- Write like you would to a friend.
- Spend 10x more time on your subject line.
- Always send follow ups. At least 3-4 emails in total.
- You have to pump out volume to get the desired results.

That’s it for today, folks.

See you all next week!

Darren

P.S. If you’re ready to level up you can book a call with me here.