10 Cold Email Tips for Outbound Marketing

Outbound marketing just isn’t complete without cold emailing. 

Many people think it’s outdated, but cold emails work. 

So here are 10 cold email tips to boost your outbound marketing — and your sales. 

Start With Solid Leads

The success of your entire outreach strategy is dependent on finding the right people. People who actually want to hear from you. 

That’s why LinkedIn Sales Navigator is such a good tool for cold emailing. 

You can use their Advanced Search feature to find specific professionals and companies based on certain filters, including:

• Keywords
• Job function and title
• Location
• Industry
• Company size
• Job changes in the past 90 days
• Anyone referenced in the news in the past 30 days
• LinkedIn posts 30 days or younger
• And much more…

Plus, you can then add these profiles to your customizable lead lists. This is essentially a way to bookmark certain professionals and companies. You can even get notifications for when there are changes to your leads’ profiles. 

Do Research

Before you even think about sending an email to your leads, you’ll need to research each one. This is possibly the most important step in this whole process. 

Fortunately, you can get a lot of information from their LinkedIn profile. So once you have a list of leads, you can go through each profile to learn things like their political preferences, their opinions on different social topics, and what they post about the most.

And because you used the Advanced Search feature, each lead on your list is more likely to fit your target audience. So you won’t be wasting your time looking through profiles that end up being not at all what you’re looking for.

Get Familiar

The nature of cold emailing is that the recipient doesn’t know who you are. So you’ll want to get familiar with your lead before sending an email.

Follow them on social media and interact with them. Or, using Sales Navigator, get a notification whenever they have a big change on their LinkedIn profile.

Any way you can get to know them better and vice versa will benefit your cold emailing campaign.

Find Common Ground

You may not want to cold email someone if you have nothing in common. Because finding common ground between the two of you will breed familiarity and warm up your cold leads. 

And you can use LinkedIn to find shared interests and experiences. 

You can then use those shared commonalities in your cold email. Mentioning something like that at the beginning of the email can establish how you and the recipient are similar, and that makes them more likely to respond to your email. 

The Subject Line Is The Key

When you start writing the email, focus a lot of energy on the subject line. This is the first impression people get of you and your company. It has to genuinely interest them. 

Here are examples of some good subject lines:

• Quick question for you
• What are your Q1 goals?
• About your recent blog post

Whatever subject line you use, make it short. It should feel like the email is coming from the recipient’s colleague. Friendly, professional, and to-the-point.

Focus On Your Opener

Like your subject line, the opening line of your email needs to be great. It needs to pull them in and make your email stand out from the hundreds of others they’re probably getting. 

So make your opener specific to the recipient. In 1-2 sentences, tell them why you’re emailing and how they’ll benefit from it.

This is where you mention how you found them, what shared interests and/or experiences you have, and anything else to establish credibility and familiarity. 

Your opening line could decide if the recipient keeps reading or sends your email to the garbage. 

Get Emotional

Using an emotional hook is a powerful way to engage the recipient. It can be difficult to do this in a concise cold email, but it’s totally possible. And if you can do it properly, it can lead to a higher response rate.

So try tapping into the recipient’s desire. What motivates them? What angers them?

Here are some effective emotional hooks you could use:

• Tell a story
• Point out their FOMO
• Make them feel special or that they belong
• Use a little mystery
• Promise to help them achieve their goals
• Be humorous
• Surprise them
• Make pop culture references

Use An Indirect CTA

At the end of your email, you want to include a call-to-action. But make sure the CTA isn’t too demanding or overwhelming. So forget about asking the person to “hop on a quick call.”

Instead, try one of these:

• “If you want to learn more, watch my one-minute video of our product/service…”
• “If you have any questions, feel free to reply and I’ll get back to you ASAP…”
• “Want more info on this? I’d be happy to help! Just send me an email…”

Send It At The Right Time

Before you hit send, consider when the best send time is for your recipient. 

Mornings are typically the best time to send an email because that’s when many people check and respond to email. So try sending your cold emails first thing in the morning. Make sure you note what timezone the person is in and send accordingly.

On the other hand, don’t assume mornings are best for every person. For example, if you’re contacting someone who’s building a business on the side, they’re probably more likely to check email in the evenings or on the weekends.

The point is, send cold emails at a time that’s best for each recipient. 

Follow Up

Cold emailing doesn’t involve just one email and then you’re done. The first email is just the beginning. 

A day or so after sending the initial cold email, send a follow-up. Make it even shorter than the first. Mention how you know they’re busy, but then gently encourage them to look at and respond to your first email. 

Don’t underestimate an effective follow-up email.