#131: Solopreneurs: 4 Creative Cold Email Marketing Tips (With Examples) to Use in 2023

Show Notes

Have you wondered how effective cold email marketing is? As a tried and tested, inexpensive, and easy to maintain marketing tool, email is very effective. Research has shown that, as a business owner or marketer, you can expect an average ROI of $42 for every $1 spent on email marketing.

In this episode, co-hosts Nola Boea and Lori Vajda share four innovative tips along with concrete examples so you can get started creating cold emails that won’t collect digital dust. ​

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In This Episode You’ll Learn 

• What is cold email marketing, and why should you be doing it?
• How to create the type of emails that readers love and look forward to reading.
• Secrets of successful cold email marketers.
• Why business owners need to embrace cold email marketing.

Key points Lori and Nola are sharing in this episode:

(02:37:90) The vast majority of marketers seem to follow this format. Here’s what you should do instead. 
(04:49:91) Four email marketing tips for cold emails that are sure to be a lot more successful in 2023.
(06:30:23) The number of customer touchpoints needed has increased. This is how and why you should use touchpoints in your email marketing.
(09:02:30) To avoid making this common mistake when sending the first cold email, we recommend you try these 5 recommendations instead.  
(17:42:97) Just like a memorable meal requires a few key ingredients, so does a memorable email.  Try this with your next cold calling email.

Resources 

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Nola: Starting a new side business, although exciting, it's no easy task, especially if you're also working a full-time job. And while your product or service may be amazing, without marketing, people won't know you exist. One way to market your business is by using an email sequence. Now, you may be wondering, is email marketing still even relevant in business today? The short answer is yes. It's no Miracle Marketing Cure, but it is a relevant marketing channel even today. Email is a tried-and-tested low-cost, easy-to-maintain and very effective tool. Stay tuned listener because in this episode we are sharing four innovative tips so you can get started creating cold emails that won't collect digital dust.

[00:00:43] Lori: Welcome to Sticky Brand Lab, where we bridge the gap between knowledge and action by providing you with helpful information, tips, and tools from entrepreneurs and other experts so you can quickly and easily jumpstart your side business. We're your hosts. I'm Lori Vajda, and this is my co-host, Nola Boea. Hello, Nola.

[00:01:03] Nola: Hello, Lori.

[00:01:05] Lori: Hey, Nola. I have a true confession. Which, it's nothing seedy or anything like that, it just has to do with today's topic.

[00:01:12] Nola: Oh, if it's nothing seedy, oh, well, go ahead.

[00:01:17] Lori: Okay, I'll go ahead anyway. I have a specific email address that I use so I can avoid having my personal as well as my business email addresses not fill up with marketing junk. How about you?

[00:01:32] Nola: Yeah, I wish I had done that 20 years ago. What I happened to do is I just try to unsubscribe immediately. And what would you say are your top email marketing complaints in general?

[00:01:42] Lori: One of my biggest pet peeves is when the subject line makes no sense to me. Like I feel I came in at the end of a joke, or maybe if I had been paying attention to their previous email, it would've made sense, but it doesn't make any sense. Do you have anything like that?

[00:01:59] Nola: Yes, I definitely have an email pet peeve, especially coming to my professional email address because it's usually a business seeking to do business, but when it's totally irrelevant, it has nothing to do with my business. It has nothing to do with my function. It's like, what made you think that I would be the right person to send this email to? It's very annoying.

[00:02:20] Lori: And it really just shouts out, did they even bother to check or did they just get a list and you were on it?

[00:02:27] Nola: Exactly. And although again, email offers a lot of benefits, creating the type of emails that readers love and look forward to, it's not easy. Unfortunately, the vast majority of marketers seem to follow a similar prescriptive formula, and this is especially true when it comes to cold emails. I mean, as a reader, those marketing emails, they just sound very much like every other company.

[00:02:50] Lori: Now I have to ask this question. Is there anybody that you follow that sends you emails that you actually, even if it goes to your junk, fake email address, is there anybody that you get that you really enjoy reading their email?

[00:03:04] Nola: Absolutely there is. It automatically goes to a folder. So that it doesn't collect dust. When I'm ready to read their information, I do open it up or I get really excited when I see it. So yeah, there are a couple. One has to do with writing copywriting and another one has to do with creating transformational destination retreats.

[00:03:23] Lori: I too have certain people that send out emails that I look forward to reading, which is what prompted today's discussion. And it's the reason we are sharing tips so you listener can create quick and easy cold email marketing sequences to let people know about your new business.

The tips we're going to share may sound at first a little counterintuitive, but it will quickly make perfect sense. Because the thing you have to keep in mind, or at least at the forefront of your mind is how are your emails going to stand out in your prospective customer's inbox if they aren't sounding unique? So why do marketers and business owners continue to send similar sounding emails to their audience? The short answer is it's easy.

[00:04:13] Nola: Well, let me interject. Yes, it's easy, but frankly it gets results. So,

[00:04:18] Lori: That's true.

[00:04:19] Nola: I mean, emails still, even the bad ones get such a decent rate of response, the marketers will rinse and repeat.

[00:04:27] Lori: You're right.

[00:04:28] Nola: Yep. Absolutely. And in all fairness, if you're not a copywriting professional or if you're already feeling overwhelmed by starting your new business, following a template, well, it's convenient. But if you want to open doors to new business and build long-lasting relationships with your prospects, not to mention sell more, following a generic template, it's not the right strategy.

[00:04:48] Lori: So today, we're sharing four email marketing tips for cold emails that are sure to be a lot more successful in 2023. Tip number one, reverse engineer your emails. Now, typically when developing a sequence, you lay it out in a linear order, starting with step one or email one. Then moving to step two, three, and so on.

However, we recommend that you reverse engineer your plan and start with your last step. Start by asking yourself, what is the final transaction you want your reader to do at the end of your email campaign or your email flow? Do you want them to schedule a call with you? Do you want them to make a purchase? Do you want them to register for your program, buy your book, whatever the case may be?

[00:05:38] Nola: Yes. And while what you just described per pertain to the overarching sequence, you may also ask yourself the question with each individual email in your sequence that you send out. So, for every. You want to ask something like, do you want them to reply? Do you want them to download your free gift? Do you want them to sign up for your newsletter? So each email has a purpose, and that purpose in those emails is your call to action or CTA. Think of each email as a touchpoint. You want your CTA to be something that brings your prospect one step closer to becoming a customer or a client. And by starting with that last step first, your other emails build the path to purchase.

[00:06:22] Lori: Now let me just stop and interrupt for a quick moment here, Nola, because just in case you listener don't know what we mean by touchpoint or how it applies in an email marketing. Marketing touchpoints are any type of interaction or point of contact between a person and a brand. So think of marketing touchpoints. They can be physical as when a customer enters a store and chats with a salesperson. They can be virtual as when somebody visits a website, clicks on a link, or downloads a free gift. It can also be digital when a person engages, for example, on a social platform or responds to your email. What you really want is a variety of touchpoints because each builds on the previous one. Think about moving to a new neighborhood and not really knowing your neighbors, but the more often you see those familiar faces, the more likely you are to say hi or be the first to acknowledge that person. This is the same thing. When you build on those touchpoints, it encourages people to reach out to you. Even on platforms like LinkedIn, for example. Somebody might have seen a comment that you made, they want to know more about you, they've seen your name or your face come up a variety of times, so they go and check you out. Then they start following you. Then they check out your website or your free material. I actually did this today. So personal experience, it really works. Now, before the pandemic, the typical number of touchpoints that was recommended for business was somewhere between seven and nine. Today that number has gone up, and by up, I mean it's a minimum of 12 touchpoints. That's why it's more important than ever to stand out from the crowd because that very first email, that very first cold contact, is a touchpoint that can build a long, successful, nurturing relationship.

[00:08:27] Nola: Very good. Although I will say that when you talk about multiple dozens of touchpoints, I can't help but be reminded of getting followed all over the internet. When I do engage in a website or a Facebook ad, suddenly they are popping up everywhere. And what's even spooky is they'll even follow me like on a billboard on the highway. And I don't know how that happens.

[00:08:51] Lori: It changes and says, Nola.

[00:08:52] Nola: I don't. Yeah. I don't know. It's weird. But after a while, it's very top of mind after so many repetitions.

[00:09:00] Lori: Exactly.

[00:09:01] Nola: Well tip two: write better emails than your competitors. Because one of the most common mistakes that cold emails share, is that they all have that same intention to sell their product. The typical email template starts off talking all about me as the company, who I am and what I do. And of course, you want to introduce yourself, but that approach is not very customer-centric. So what is an attention-grabbing introduction? Here's a tip: tell a story. Now, why does this work better than talking about yourself? Well, for one simple reason. People love stories. Storytelling is a fundamental human experience that brings people together.

[00:09:42] Lori: Absolutely. Now I have five recommendations, we could say, that you, listener, would want to think about to include in your email. Number one, to increase the chance of someone opening your email, start with an interest-driven subject line. And I think I had mentioned at the beginning of getting subject lines that make absolutely no sense to me, and I just move past them and put them in the garbage. So that subject line can be creative, it can be curious, it just needs to be relevant and of interest.
Number two, the first sentence is critical because it builds on the next sentence. But more importantly, in your inbox where you have the subject line, your reader can see that first sentence, or at least a majority of it. So they're getting a heads up as to what might be inside. You really want to think about that first sentence in your email.

Number three, tell a brief story. Now, I actually counted an email that I recently received. She was telling a story and there were 24 lines to her story. Now I know, granted, part of it was a dialogue, so it was an exchange and it was very short, but, or a little more than halfway through, I started wondering where is this going and what does this have to do with anything? I ended up scrolling and I almost missed what turned out to be something of value for me in the email, but don't do that.

[00:11:21] Nola: It was way too long.

[00:11:22] Lori: It was way, way, way too long. Which brings me to tip number five. You want to make sure that you have a segue between your story and the pertinent information that you're sharing to your call to action. What's the bridge? You've told the story. Now tie something in that wraps that up before you move on. Be sure to include a call to action.

There are many emails I get I open up. Not only is there no call to action on the ones that should be there, there's no link. So I can't even go from reading the email to where they want me to go. So, consider that when you're putting in a call to action.

Now we have two bonus ideas here. Bonus number one, should you include visual images or emojis? I am of the opinion, yes. And Nola, what's your thought?

[00:12:17] Nola: I tend to consider whether the person has what's called HTML email in which people can see the images or non-HTML, but basic text, in which the images do not show up, and instead some alt tags or some gobbledygook shows up instead. So I'll be pretty picky as to whether or not to include an image in an email.

[00:12:39] Lori: What about emojis? Are you comfortable with people adding emojis?

[00:12:43] Nola: I think they're juvenile.

[00:12:48] Lori: Nola, don't read any of the emails that I send out from our business.

[00:12:52] Nola: You know what, I take that back. I take that back. Not emojis themselves, just the animated GIFs and emojis. I think the animated ones are kind of, can be juvenile and they're very impersonal and would not do it for a business. I would totally do it among. Emojis themselves, I think also depends on the kind of personality you want to project. And, you know, who is receiving it. So it's a level of formality or informality.

[00:13:17] Lori: So as you can hear listener, there's no one right answer. Trust your own instinct and do what feels comfortable for you, because that's part of your brand when you make that decision.

Bonus tip number two. This tip is about the CTA. In your first email or your first few emails, the goal is to get a response, just not one that asks the reader to book time on your calendar. So, consider this. Instead, find out if the reader is even interested in learning more. You could write something that says, "If this is intriguing to you and you're interested in hearing more about this, simply respond with a yes and I'll send you the download. I'll send you the link. I'll send you fill in the blank, the tip sheet."

[00:14:03] Nola: What I like about that is that something you can do right away, even before you think your website is perfect enough to drive traffic to, because you're not sending a link to go check it out on your website. You're just simply saying, "Respond to this." And it's actually less of a hurdle to do that, then it may be to click on a link and download because there's fewer steps. But I really like that.

[00:14:25] Lori: I do too, because the very first time I saw it, I responded, and crickets. I got nothing. So what it told me is, this company was far beyond being able to respond at the individual level. And now, I don't know how big their email list was, but if you're going to ask somebody to respond or reply to your email, make sure that you are able to respond back, that you get a notification. Because crickets is not good. It's like being ignored. Well, it is being ignored. But you know when you go into a store and you want some help and nobody's around. It's that kind of ignore. It's big.

[00:15:04] Nola: And that's why this is a good tool and a good tip when you're just building your email list. And it becomes manageable to respond. Or, if you have an automated system in place. Which brings me to another tip or idea that I'd like to share, and that is segmentation. And while we can take a dive into that at some other time, segmentation is something that if you are looking for an email provider to help send out email lists automatically, if that provider allows you to segment, then in the example you just gave, somebody who does respond to your email will be put in into one email sequence in which they get that follow up information. Whereas someone who does not respond within a certain period of time to your request for a response will be put into another email sequence.

[00:15:56] Lori: I like the recommendation because when you're a new business, you usually choose one of the free email systems, but not all the free systems grow with you as your business grows. So some of those won't have the ability to do segmentation or even A/B testing. What ends up happening is you have to then export your email list to someplace else or to a different provider, whereas you can kind of stay in place, use the free for as long as you can, knowing that that email platform can expand or grow with you as you grow.

[00:16:32] Nola: That's a good point.

[00:16:33] Lori: Thank you. Tip number three, make it personal. When you're just starting your cold email, one-to-one outreach, you really want to be selective. Does the person or business meet the minimum criteria of your go-to market (GTM) strategy? The reason is simple. Part of your email template will need to include a line or two that lets the reader know you know something about him or her or their business, because you're going to need to call that out. For example, "I saw your post on LinkedIn about looking for a provider for emails, and I just thought you might find this tip sheet that I put together very helpful."

Here's a bonus for you, listener. Don't be afraid to get personal, as in commenting on something that your user wrote that was even personal to them. Somebody might have commented about taking a vacation or attending a networking event and they put something specific in there. By reading that and commenting that you saw that it really shows interest and that goes a long way in building rapport.

[00:17:43] Nola: Yes, it. does. Tip number four, maximize the absorption potential. Just like a memorable meal requires a few key ingredients, so does a memorable email, and the goal is to keep the reader absorbed throughout the body of the email, and so when they're done, it'll lead the reader to a natural conclusion. In this case, that conclusion is your call to action. Assuming that you followed the recommendations we've shared in tips one through three, and that your story speaks directly to your customer's pains or goals, the rest is pretty much about writing style. And this includes elements such as cadence and peaking the reader's curiosity and a concept called the Good Old Show-Don't-Tell your descriptions.
So let's dive into those just a little bit. What do we mean by cadence? Well, that's when you read it aloud, everything should sound just right from the length of your sentences to the use of certain words. For example, choose words that spark imagination or curiosity, such as vibrant life versus balanced life. You can also emphasize a word or even entire sentence by making it bold or italicized or highlighted.

[00:18:51] Lori: It's really a good point that you brought up that reading out loud, your ear hears things that your mind doesn't. So I do that with my emails, I do that with scripts, I do that with things that I'm writing for the website. I say them out loud so I can hear them because it helps with the flow. It also helps when I get to that place where I'm trying to seed curiosity. So what do we mean by curiosity here? Well, let me give you a tip that we use at the start of our podcast episode. Our teaser starts with an idea or thought to grab attention. And then we close with the tease that tells you to stay tuned and what you can expect to find if you listen. And it works because you, listener, are listening. Which is why we also use this technique when we are writing.

Now, here's a few kind of phrases that you can use to build curiosity. One, think about it. "When was the last time... da, da, da." So, the real key there is, "Think about it." And then you can add whatever to the remainder of that sentence.

Number two, "And then it hit me. Why don't I make a podcast about the topic?"

[00:20:07] Nola: And the key phrase?

[00:20:08] Lori: Yeah. "And then it hit me." Number three, "I'll explain in a minute. But before I do,"

[00:20:15] Nola: Uh, cliffhanger.

[00:20:16] Lori: Cliffhanger, yes.

[00:20:18] Nola: All right. Those lines definitely peak curiosity to put me on the edge of my seat to find out what's happening next. So, I'm going to talk a little bit about the show-don't-tell concept. I'll explain that in a second. But first, let me tell you what you'll want to avoid doing.

[00:20:34] Lori: Oh, very clever Nola. I see what you just did there. You added the seed of curiosity with the line, "I'll explain in a second, but first," I like that.

[00:20:44] Nola: Yep, you are onto me. Okay. Okay. I really will talk about that concept. So, what you want to do when you're writing emails is to avoid writing lengthy descriptions. So we're talking about the show versus tell. An example of telling is saying something like, "I was scared." Where an example of showing would be, "My heart was pounding in my chest and when I spoke, the first words came out as a squeak." Sounds easy, right?

[00:21:10] Lori: Yeah. Real easy. Writing story-based emails can be challenging, hence Nola's description there. Especially if you've never done it before. And even when you have done it before, getting started with a new idea, it takes a while to get creative. But once you start doing it, you'll find your voice and your writing style and it will become a lot more fun, not only for you, but for your audience, because you know they're going to love it as well.

So here's one last tip. If you are a person who loves to give gifts people love to receive, you know that the best gifts are the ones that you would want to keep for yourself. The same applies especially to cold email marketing. Do your best to only write emails you would want to read yourself.

[00:21:59] Nola: Yes, I agree wholeheartedly. We hope the ideas and thoughts we've shared here today have sparked your interest, curiosity, and willingness to create your own email marketing outreach, as well as inspired you to become a first-time entrepreneur in the second half of your vibrant life. And remember, starting a business comes with its own set of challenges. So take time to determine if the risks as well as the rewards are right for you. Just don't let your analysis become your paralysis. And listener, be sure to stick around to the very end of the podcast for a little fun.
[00:22:32] Lori: If you found the information we've shared here today helpful and want more tools, tips, and inspiration delivered to your inbox, sign up for News You Can Use over on our website at stickybrandlab.com.

[00:22:45] Nola: Be sure to come back next Tuesday and every Tuesday for another informative, inspiring, and motivating episode. And remember, action creates results. So tap into your desire to create a business and brand you love by taking 1% action every day. Small steps. Big effects.

[OUT-TAKE]
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Nola: Did I did my teeth whistle when I said that?
[00:23:06] Lori: Yes it did. I was like, that is so weird. Well, I hope it, it can be equalized afterwards. Yeah, it really was a whistle. I have no idea how you did that.
[00:23:16] Nola: I felt the whistle come out through my teeth. Like wow. I don't know if I could do that twice.
[00:23:25] Lori: Well, you know, "Whistle while you work."
[00:23:27] Nola: Yeah, apparently.
[00:23:29] Lori: You must be having a good time.
[00:23:31] Nola: Maybe. Alright, take whatever it is, three.