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I know what you might be thinking: “Cold emailing is no different from cold calling and how I hate cold calling.” And with only 1% of cold calls actually resulting in meetings why wouldn’t you? However, if you want to step into 2017 for a second, it’s time to turn your attention to cold emailing. Or perhaps back to it.
Like many, you only have one fear: the fear of the unknown. You don’t know where to start. You don’t know what to say. And you don’t know what to do if things don’t turn out as expected.
It’s natural to be intimidated by any new or dusty strategy that hasn’t been used for a while. Do you remember how nervous you were when you sent your first Tweet? If you’re still on the fence, below are five reasons why cold emailing is worth at the very least taking a look at.
Just remember the CAN-SPAM Act, which according to the official website “establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have you stop emailing them, and spells out tough penalties for violations.” Burke Harvey, founder of the Burke Harvey law firm which was named as one of the best law firms by U.S. News & World Report, says he see emails all the time that are in direct violation of the CAN-SPAM Act.
“It never ceases to amaze me,” says Harvey. “I’ll get emails that are clearly deceptive right from the header and subject line. And many do not offer a way to opt-out, which is blatant violation of the Act.”
And lest you think this tactic is only for smaller brands consider the case of Birchbox. As Sujan Patel wrote on the webprofits agency blog earlier this year, co-founders Katia Beauchamp and Hayley Barna used cold emailing to get the proverbial word out. And it worked.
It’s Scalable
Have you ever spent time, money, and resources on a marketing strategy that eats up entirely too much time? How did this make you feel?
You can’t continue down this path, as it’s not the best use of your time. With cold emailing, this is never a concern. Here’s why: It’s one of the most efficient sales strategies, as you never have to leave your computer or get on the phone.
Heather R Morgan, CEO of Salesfolk, who actually teach a Cold Email Mastery Course, sums it up perfectly. “You can mail merge out 1,000 emails a lot faster than you can make 1,000 cold calls and once you nail the right email template for your audience, there’s no difference between sending one, 100, 1,000, or 10,000 emails, assuming you have a good quality list with proper targeting.”
Easy to Track Results
One of the biggest beefs with social media is the inability to track what’s working and what’s not. With this challenge, you never know where to spend your time and money. Worse yet, it can be next to impossible to pin down your ROI.
You won’t have this problem with cold emailing. As is the case with any email campaign, you can track everything from the number of emails you send to the open rate to the response rate. And since you’re not spending much (if any) money on this strategy, you know that every sale you make is mostly profit.
More Receptive Recipients
There used to be a time when people were receptive to receiving phone calls. This wasn’t true of everyone, but you at least had a “puncher’s chance.”
Now, however, business professionals are busier than ever before. On top of this, many people don’t spend all day, every day in their office. This makes it even more difficult to succeed with cold calling.
With cold emails, you give the recipient the ability to read, review, and answer your message as it fits into their schedule.
Martin Sims, CEO at Coin Geek, often uses cold email when seeking new partnerships. “With cold emailing, I know I am getting my message in front of the people who matter most,” he explained. “While some people don’t open and respond right away, by customizing each message I achieve a better than industry average response rate. It’s definitely better than cold calling.”
Make Changes On the Fly
It’s nice to know that you can make changes on the fly, as this ensures that you are spending your time and money wisely.
For example, if you find that a particular “tone” is falling on deaf ears, you can adjust your pitch in hopes of achieving greater success with your next campaign.
Just the same as any marketing strategy, you must track your every move. From there, you should never hesitate to make changes that could generate better results. Christopher Dziak co-founder of Pure Nootropics says they analyze and adjust their emails all their time based on results.
“It is vitally important that we look at open rates and other KPIs to see what is working and what is not and go from there. You have to make changes if something is no working. It’s really that simple.”
An Email is the First Contact
Your goal with any cold email is simple: you want the recipient to reply at some point in the future (hopefully sooner rather than later).
From there, you can move the person into your pipeline. Maybe this means you send a few messages back and forth. Or maybe you move the conversation to the phone. If you’re lucky, you may be able to move from cold email to a face-to-face meeting.
Think about it this way: a cold email is meant to get your foot in the door. Once you accomplish this, your marketing skills kick in.
There are people out there who are achieving great success with a targeted cold email strategy.
You may have taken some steps in this direction in the past, but now’s the time to go all in. You’ll never know what this can do for you until you give it a try.
This article originally appeared on Forbes.
