There are many things that work hand in hand. It seems business and email are one of those things. I did some research on this partnership, and I found that roughly 269 billion emails are sent out per day. Personally, I feel most of those emails come to my outlook email. Jokes aside for a second and let's look at the facts. There is so much noise when it comes to getting a hold of someone’s attention through email. It is like trying to find “where’s Waldo” times a million.
So how do we get seen? How do we stand out from the noise? How do we get people to interact with us?
Here are the common mistakes and how to change your behavior to eliminate wasted email time
Mistake #1:
One mistake I see when people cold email my outlook is the email is not actually an email. The overall look of it seems to come from third-party email blasters or the classic BCC’D ambiguous message. You know the types when you look at it and looks like a webpage or some random newsletter promotional campaign that you “magically” signed up for. This shows the viewer that the sender did not put any thought into making the viewer feel like they took the time to customize the message for their audience. We call this the ambiguous shotgun approach.
The Behavior Change:
Stick to plain emails and customized messaging. I know they are not cool or fancy but simple is better in this case. The reason for that people’s firewall protection software will not flag it as spam.
Mistake #2:
The next common mistake I see in the cold emails that do make it to my inbox is they are very, and I mean very, long. Plus, they have all of these promotional attachments that no one ever clicks on. The average attention span for an email is around 8-11 seconds, as we can see the odds are already stacked against us even if you get your viewer to click on your email.
The Behavior Change:
One of my rule of thumbs once you write your email, look to cut it in half. Most time people have filler words and information that is not relevant to the viewer.
Mistake #3:
The third common mistake I see with emails coming in my outlook is the subject line. A lot of cold emails try to “hard sell” into clicking on the email. All viewers know that’s code for JUNK MAIL. Great examples of these are; quick question, need your help, I can save you money, and your company name.
The Behavior Change:
My favorite that I have found that work is:
• “Appropriate Person”
• “{Referrals Name} said it might make sense to speak”
What I have found is these two subject lines fit all buckets of emailing situation. The “appropriate person is designed to find other people that handle the decision for what you are selling. Even if they are the “appropriate person” it creates a sense of curiosity that gets people to open the email and see what it is about.
The second one about the referrals names is a great subject line because it uses the creditably of the referral to persuade the viewer into preserving that there is something of value. What else is great about this subject line is the strategic cliffhanger that is built into the subject line. By saying “said, it might make sense” gives the viewer a subconscious obligation to look at the email.
In conclusion, make emails look like emails, simpler is better. Subject lines need a call to action but also a curiosity factor. I am curious what other people have found success in using for subject lines. Put them in the description below.
Do you want more information on how you can fix your email strategies behavior? Crash a class and we can help you fine tune your prospecting efforts.
