B2B Cold Email Mastery: Turning Leads into Conversions

5
Min
Created On:
December 22, 2022
Updated On:
February 19, 2024

A modern-day email user receives around 120 emails a day. You can understand that standing out from the crowd in the fiercely competitive B2B field is hard with cold emailing.

So, how do you do it? Email users go for emails that are relevant to their needs, convincing enough to spend precious time, and promise solutions to their pain points.

Besides finding the ideal prospects, sales professionals and business owners need to write compelling email copies that no one can refuse. So, how do you improve your cold email writing skills for B2B prospects?

In today's blog post, we'll talk about how to write cold emails for the B2B industry to generate maximum revenue. We've also discussed how your cold sales email outreach campaigns can stay out of the spam folders to maximize response rates for your cold email campaigns.

Without any further ado, let's dig in.

How to Write Excellent B2B Cold Emails to Make Money?

1. Catchy Email Subject Line to Hook the Audience

Invesp data shows that 47% of all email recipients open emails solely based on the email subject lines. Subject lines give a quick overview of the email, so it must be catchy to draw attention.

If you fail to convince your audience to open the email, the chances of conversions almost come down to zero.

Here are the three essential steps to creating a compelling email subject line:

Focus on the Length

According to an Aweber study, email writing and marketing experts have revealed that a cold email subject line should be around 60 characters (not more than nine words).

On the other hand, Campaignmonitor research shows that the best-performing email subject lines are around 41 characters.

Short subject lines intrigue curiosity and are suitable for mobile screens.

For example,

  • "Where do I start?"
  • “Let’s talk {product/business/service}”

Arouse Curiosity; Use the FOMO Tactic

As we've mentioned earlier, intriguing prospects' curiosity is a great way to increase email open rates. For instance, "Let's meet at 10 AM?" is a way better subject line than "Let's meet at 10 AM for the seminar".

The former subject line is short, conveying the same message as the latter, maintaining an informal and friendly tone, and arousing curiosity.

Also, triggering the FOMO in your audiences is a great tactic to make your emails stand out.

For example, "Did you know….", "You just missed it", or "The clock is ticking" can make your audience feel missed out or curious.

Personalize Your Subject Line

LeadGenius changed their subject line from "Your sales process" to "I found you through {mutual contact's name}", and their email open rates increased by almost 50% for using a personalized email subject line.

Personalize your subject line to see more click-through rates, monthly run rates, and email open rates. Using your prospect's first name in the subject line is good practice. But if you don't have a name, personalize email subject lines based on audience demographics, client case study, ideal customer profile, connection name, or any data available.

2. The Length Should Be Around 100 Words

B2B sales emails that consist of 50 - 100 words get higher reply rates than the rest – Boomerang study.

As an average email user receives around 100 - 120 emails every day, the average attention span of an email is around 7 - 8 seconds. So, you have to convey your message successfully within that time span.

Make sure your email body is within 50-125 words. In some cases, it might go up to 150 words, but never more than that.

Respect your prospect's time by keeping it short, sweet, and to the point.

3. Personalization is the Key to Your Prospects' Hearts

Whenever you receive an email starting with "Dear customer," you know it's going to be a boring message. And boring (read, impersonal) emails never see conversion rates increase.

Instead of copy-pasting generic cold email templates, customize them with your cold prospect details such as first names, prospect company's achievements, job roles, and any other additional resources you can possibly find.

Congratulating your prospect for their recent achievements, sending genuine compliments on their work, or mentioning their pain points and possible solutions in the cold email introductions are great examples of email personalization.

4. Optimize Your Emails for Mobile Screens

Four out of ten emails are opened from mobile devices, so you should optimize your B2B cold emails for mobile screens.

Use responsive B2B email templates so that your prospects can see the complete message. Also, go easy on images, as image-heavy email content can take a long time to open, and use smaller and fewer images with fewer designs.

Also, avoid long paragraphs and complicated fonts.

5. Proofread Your Messages

Never get your basics wrong. Once you are done writing your B2B cold emails, proofread them carefully for typos, spelling errors, grammatical errors, and any other inconsistencies.

It's best if you let a colleague or friend proofread your message.

Also, check if you have entered the correct email addresses for your prospective clients.

6. Add a Compelling CTA

Having more than one call-to-action in your cold email may mislead the audience, making it hard for them to take action. It also decreases the value of the most important CTA.

Also, your email may get flagged as spam if you add too many attachments or links, resulting in low email deliverability rates. According to marketing experts, you should funnel your message to a specific point and present your audience with a precise CTA.

Here are some examples of compelling CTAs 👇

  • "Let us know if you are interested in a quick 10-minute call."
  • "Click on this link to learn how you can improve efficiency in your team."
  • "We are happy to help. Reach out to us anytime, any day."

7. Add Images, GIFs, and Branding

A visually stunning email >> A Wordy Email.

To make your emails perform well, you have to add something other than the value you are providing. Images, relevant GIFs, and various fonts are great ways to make your emails look attractive.

Never shy away from using emojis in your emails. 😁

Besides images and GIFs, you should add your brand logo and tagline to the email to make it look more professional. Don't forget to make the color scheme based on your brand voice. For instance, if you are sending cold emails during Christmas, you may think of a red color scheme.

Above all, add your professional signature to the emails.

How to Follow Up for B2B Cold Emails to Maximize Conversions?

Assuming you have launched your emails, your job is done, right?

 

The actual effort for converting a lead to a customer starts from following up for the first time.

HubSpot data shows that 44% of salespeople give up after sending only one follow-up email, while 80% of sales are made after five follow-up emails.

However, following up doesn't mean mindless pestering. Instead, you should offer value through email follow-up to build your prospects' trust and get more replies. Ideally, you should send the first follow-up email within 24 - 48 hours of the cold email.

Send a summary of the first email to maintain context and be patient. You can offer free-trial PDFs, eBooks, or informative articles.

You can also follow up using various channels such as phone calls (cold calling), SMS, LinkedIn outreach, etc.

Be humble, stick to following up repeatedly, and build trust among your prospects; this way, you can generate maximum conversions for your business.

What is SPAM for B2B Outreach?

An unsolicited email (generic) that is applicable to many people, irrespective of the recipients' personal info or context, is called a spam email. The term "spam" is not a legal term. And an illegal email may or may not be a spam email. Likewise, not all spam emails are illegal.

Many people, especially beginners, are confused about the two terms: spam email and illegal email.

Real-time threat intelligence supplier Spamhaus categorizes certain emails as spam when "the recipient's personal identity and context are irrelevant because the message is equally applicable to many other potential recipients."

Is Sending SPAM Emails Legal?

Spam emails are the unsolicited impersonal messages we all receive in our inboxes or, more likely, in our spam folders. For example, messages from fitness institutes, investment opportunities, clothing sales, weight loss instruments, credit cards, and whatnot.

It might surprise you, but according to US laws, SPAM IS LEGAL.

And it doesn't matter whether it is highly targeted or not; you can send solicited and unsolicited commercial emails.

However, you must go by certain rules and regulations while sending bulk emails to comply with the CAN-SPAM act. Otherwise, you may face unwanted CAN-SPAM lawsuits.

CAN-SPAM Compliance: How to Stay Away from Spam Filters?

The CAN-SPAM act (established in 2003) is applicable for "any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service."

Stay Out of Spam with Smartlead

Here are the requirements you must comply with to stay away from spam folders and avoid legal violations:

1. Give Recipients Freedom to Opt-Out

Whether you are sending solicited or unsolicited commercial emails, your recipients must have the opportunity to opt-out of your mailing list. The simplest way to do it is by adding "unsubscribe link/opt-out" links in your emails. Also, you can ask your prospects to reply to your email for email list exclusion.

You may also ask your potential clients why they want out from the list to better understand your target audience.

Whatever the opting-out method, you must clearly notify your audience that they can opt out from receiving your email anytime.

2. Enact Opt-Outs Within 10 Days

Although most opt-outs happen automatically, implementing them might take 24-48 hours. Some recipients may get irked by the delay, but as long as you are enacting the opt-outs within ten days of the request, you are in line with the CAN-SPAM act.

It's best if you enact it immediately, as it cleanses the lead lists and maintains your brand's goodwill.

Processing the unsubscribes manually is neither practical nor cost-effective. So, you should use a sales automation tool or cold email software to automate the entire process.

3. No Misleading/Inaccurate Subject Lines

The subject line is the single most important factor for email open rates. To make it catchy and draw their prospects' attention, many email copywriters write misleading subject lines.

This is a clear VIOLATION OF INTERNET LAWS.

For example, subject lines like "$10,000 if you open this email" or "URGENT: Update about your father's health" may draw serious repercussions within prospects. These kinds of disgraceful marketing tactics (misleading subject lines) can land you in trouble.

Remember to be clever/funny/witty while being true to your message and without misleading your audience.

4. Be Real

Ensure your "From" and "Reply to" fields represent you and your business truthfully. Do not trick your prospects by sending emails from multiple generic domains (duplicate email addresses) to bypass email filters or mask your identity. Stick to valid email addresses only.

5. Add Company's Physical Address

You must include your business's physical address at the bottom of the email to be in line with the CAN-SPAM act.

The address can be the physical office address or the address you have registered with the US Postal Service.

CAN-SPAM is only applicable in the US. So, while sending cold emails to different countries, make sure you follow the relevant internet laws. For example, if you are launching an email marketing campaign for potential customers in Canada, you have to follow Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation.

B2B Business Email Templates: Cold Email Templates to Make More Money

Customer Testimonial Cold Emailing Template

Subject line: {Prospect's name}, here's what people said about us!

 

Hi {prospect’s name},

 

I hope this week's been treating you well so far! I am {sender name}, and I work at {company name} as {job role}.

I have seen you are searching for an email automation tool for your account-based marketing efforts.

Check out what our clients had to say about us:

{customer review #1}

{customer review #2}

{customer review #3}

Do these intrigue you? Let us know so we can get on a call and demonstrate how our solid email tool can improve your cold email engagements.

 

Best regards,

{sender name}

{Professional signature}

Cold Sales Email Template for LinkedIn Prospect

Subject: {Name}, it's great to have you on LinkedIn

 

Hi {prospect’s name},

I wanted to reach out and say hello, in case you don't remember me. I'm {prospect name} from {company}. I noticed you're on LinkedIn, and I wanted to offer you some helpful advice on growing your business.

I saw that you're looking at our platform as a potential solution for your business. Let me tell you why we think so highly of ourselves! If it weren't for our cold email marketing tool, some of our customers would be out of business by now.

We've helped them grow their business by 20% or more in just a few short months. Some of them have even doubled their customer base with the powerful features of our tool!

We'd love it if you took a look at what we've done for others and see if it fits your requirements.

Check our video demonstration here: {link}

 

Thanks,

{sender name}

{professional signature}

Product Launch Cold Email Marketing Template

Subject: We have the perfect solution to {pain point}

 

Hi {recipient name},

 

I see you are looking for {product} solution. We have a great product that can help you.

I am reaching out to introduce you to our company and product, {product name}. We want to offer you the opportunity to be one of the few exclusive people to try it out.

If this sounds good to you, please reach out, and we'll set you up with a free trial. Our cold email software is free, it's easy, and there's nothing for you to lose!

 

Best regards,

{sender name}

Link to Webinar Registration Email Template

Subject line: {webinar} for {solution to a pain point}

 

Hey {recipient name},

 

It's {name} from {company}. I came across your business and wanted to introduce myself. I hope you're having an awesome day so far.

I saw you checked our website and was wondering if you had a minute to chat about our company. We're a small team of marketers that have been doing this for eight years and have helped some of the fastest-growing B2B companies in the world.

We'd like to invite you to our next webinar on {topic}. Some of the topics we'll cover are:

{topic #1}

{topic #2}

{topic #3}

The seats are filling out fast. If you're interested, just reply with your preferred time for us to give a brief walkthrough and book your slot.

 

Take care,

{sender name}

{professional signature}

Genuine Compliment Cold Outreach Email

Subject line: I'm so impressed with your work

 

Dear {recipient name},

 

Your website is amazing! I love how well-designed it is. It is a pleasure to visit.

I am also very impressed with your work. I found it very insightful and educational. It's great to see someone putting so much effort into their work, and it pays off!

I would love to be able to support you by providing you with our email marketing software at {company name}. Our system will help your business grow and will allow you to focus on what matters most - the design of your website.

Take a look at our live training tutorials here, or just reply back if you have any questions or concerns!

Thanks,

{sender name}

{professional signature}

Conclusion

Writing cold emails for each prospect can waste a lot of time. Instead, it's best to invest in an email writing tool like Smartwriter for automatic email personalization so that your sales reps can focus only on closing more deals and making your cold outreach campaigns a success.

Now that you know how to write a cold email for B2B businesses, it's time you use an email marketing automation tool to scale your cold email efforts.

Smartlead offers 8x more leads, advanced email sequences, A/B testing, a dedicated IP address, a built-in CRM, and timely analytics and reports to scale your business and generate more sales than you can handle!

See you soon, goodbye!

What’s a Rich Text element?

The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.

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Static and dynamic content editing

A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!

How to customize formatting for each rich text

Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.

Author’s Details

Sattwik Das

Sattwik is a Digital Marketing professional at Smartlead. He is a dedicated content writer who focuses on juggling words to bring out meaningful content. He is experienced in well-researched and SEO-optimized content creation, content editing, and copywriting for various businesses throughout the globe. His expertise in SEO, SMM, and SMO with a touch of creativity helps businesses grow and maximize their credibility and sales.

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Frequently asked questions

General Questions

What is Smartlead's cold email outreach software?

Email automation FAQs- Smartlead

Smartlead's cold email outreach tool helps businesses scale their outreach efforts seamlessly. With unlimited mailboxes, fully automated email warmup functionality, a multi-channel infrastructure, and a user-friendly unibox, it empowers users to manage their entire revenue cycle in one place. Whether you're looking to streamline cold email campaigns with automated email warmups, personalization fields, automated mailbox rotation, easy integrations, and spintax, improve productivity, or enhance scalability with subsequences based on lead’s intentions, automated replies, and full white-label experience, our cold email tool implifies it in a single solution.

How does the "unlimited mailboxes" feature benefit me?

Email automation FAQs- Smartlead

Our "unlimited mailboxes" feature allows you to expand your email communications without restrictions imposed by a mailbox limit. This means you won't be constrained by artificial caps on the number of mailboxes you can connect and use. This feature makes Smartlead the best cold email software and empowers you to reach a wider audience, engage with more potential customers, and manage diverse email campaigns effectively.

What do you mean by "unibox to handle your entire revenue cycle"?

Email automation FAQs- Smartlead

The "unibox" is one of the unique features of Smartlead cold email outreach tool, and it's a game-changer when it comes to managing your revenue cycle. The master inbox or the unibox consolidates all your outreach channels, responses, sales follow-ups, and conversions into one centralized, user-friendly mailbox.

With the "unibox," you gain the ability to:
1. Focus on closing deals: You can now say goodbye to the hassle of logging into multiple mailboxes to search for replies. The "unibox" streamlines your sales communication, allowing you to focus on what matters most—closing deals.

2. Centralized lead management: All your leads are managed from one central location, simplifying lead tracking and response management. This ensures you take advantage of every opportunity and efficiently engage with your prospects.

3. Maintain context: The "unibox" provides a 360-degree view of all your customer messages, allowing you to maintain context and deliver more personalized and effective responses.

How does Smartlead ensure my emails don't land in the spam folder?

Email automation FAQs- Smartlead

Smartlead, the best cold email marketing tool, ensures your emails reach the intended recipients' primary inbox rather than the spam folder. 

Here's how it works:
1. Our "unlimited warmups" feature is designed to build and maintain a healthy sending reputation for your cold email outreach. Instead of sending a large volume of emails all at once, which can trigger spam filters, we gradually ramp up your sending volume. This gradual approach, combined with positive email interactions, helps boost your email deliverability rates.

2. We deploy high-deliverability IP servers specific to each campaign. 

3. The ‘Warmup’ feature replicates humanized email sending patterns, spintax, and smart replies.
 
4. By establishing a positive sender reputation and gradually increasing the number of sent emails, Smartlead minimizes the risk of your emails being flagged as spam. This way, you can be confident that your messages will consistently land in the primary inbox, increasing the likelihood of engagement and successful communication with your recipients.

Can I integrate Smartlead with other tools I'm using?

Email automation FAQs- Smartlead

Certainly, Smartlead is designed for seamless integration with a wide range of tools and platforms. Smartlead offers integration with HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Clay, Listkit, and more. You can leverage webhooks and APIs to integrate the tools you use. Try Now!

Email automation FAQs- Smartlead

What type of businesses sees the most success with Smartlead?

No, there are no limitations on the number of channels you can utilize with Smartlead. Our multi-channel infrastructure is designed to be limitless, allowing you to reach potential customers through multiple avenues without constraints.

This flexibility empowers you to diversify your cold email outreach efforts, connect with your audience through various communication channels, and increase your chances of conversion. Whether email, social media, SMS, or other communication methods, Smartlead's multi-channel capabilities ensure you can choose the channels that best align with your outreach strategy and business goals. This way, you can engage with your prospects effectively and maximize the impact of your email outreach.

Email automation FAQs- Smartlead

Do you provide me with lead sources?

Smartlead distinguishes itself from other cold email outreach software by focusing on limitless scalability and seamless integration. While many similar tools restrict your outreach capabilities, Smartlead offers a different approach.

Here's what makes us uniquely the best cold email software:

1. Unlimited Mailboxes: In contrast to platforms that limit mailbox usage, Smartlead provides unlimited mailboxes. This means you can expand your outreach without any arbitrary constraints.

2. Unique IP Servers: Smartlead offers unique IP servers for every campaign it sends out. 

3. Sender Reputation Protection: Smartlead protects your sender reputation by auto-moving emails from spam folders to the primary inbox. This tool uses unique identifiers to cloak all warmup emails from being recognized by automation parsers. 

4. Automated Warmup: Smartlead’s warmup functionality enhances your sender reputation and improves email deliverability by maintaining humanized email sending patterns and ramping up the sending volume. 

5. Multi-Channel Emphasis: Smartlead places a strong emphasis on multi-channel outreach. You can reach your prospects where they are with the LinkedIn outreach feature.   With Smartlead’s cold email automation software, you're always one step ahead in your outreach efforts, enjoying the freedom to scale your initiatives and seamlessly integrate with other tools—all while maintaining a focus on maximizing the impact of your outreach.

Email automation FAQs- Smartlead

How secure is my data with Smartlead?

Ensuring the security of your data is Smartlead's utmost priority. We implement robust encryption methods and stringent security measures to guarantee the continuous protection of your information. Your data's safety is paramount to us, and we are always dedicated to upholding the highest standards of security.

How can I get started with Smartlead?

Email automation FAQs- Smartlead

Getting started with Smartlead is straightforward! Just head over to our sign-up page and follow our easy step-by-step guide. If you ever have any questions or need assistance, our round-the-clock support team is ready to help, standing by to provide you with any assistance you may require. Sign Up Now!

How can I reach the Smartlead team?

Email automation FAQs- Smartlead

We're here to assist you! You can easily get in touch with our dedicated support team on chat. We strive to provide a response within 24 hours to address any inquiries or concerns you may have.

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