Gone are the days when a simple cold email could easily land in your prospect’s inbox.
Cold emailing is no longer just about sending messages — it’s about hacking around the increasingly sophisticated shields. This shift also turned the cold email from a simple marketing technique to the life skills merely required for survival.
But today, if you want to get results, do A-Z right and you’re virtually out of the game.
In this special edition, I am going to share with you an article written by my co-founder, Pranam Lipinski. I only hope you glean as much from it as I did.
Here’s what you can anticipate:
- 📉 Declining Reply Rates: Heads of industries reveal the reply rate has declined by 75% due to overuse of artificial intelligence calling for better email strategies.
- đź“ť Three Essential Elements: To achieve goals in emailing, copy, deliverability and particularly list quality, you have to carefully maintained so that messages are good. Get to the right inbox and are sent to the right people.
- ⚙️ AI Tools & Techniques: Try different approaches such as using of AI to improve personalization, inplace warm-up. List validation must still be combined with the human touch.
Have you asked these questions recently:
“Did you get my email?” or “Can you check your spam folder?”
As I’ve been focusing more on email health scores at Email Outreach Company, I’ve been amazed at how much has changed. It seems that many, including myself, are longing for the days when our emails would hit the inbox. I’m hearing from industry leaders that their reply rates have fallen by 75% in just the past six months, due to the saturation of AI. So, as a guide, I’m sharing the 3 keys to emailing as I see it today.
Whether you’re trying to sell something (outbound) or responding to people (inbound), there are three big keys you need to get right: copy, deliverability, and list quality. Below is an overview to help you understand these keys better, based on my experience of sending 1 million emails per month and managing 2,500 inboxes for our current clients.
1. Copy Market Fit: Writing the Right Message
Your email’s message, or “copy,” is extremely important. You want people to read it and respond. Here are some tips for writing great email copy:
Clear Structure
Make sure your email has a clear structure:
- Purpose: Start by explaining why you’re writing. Make it clear and concise.
- Problem: Talk about a problem your reader might have. This shows you understand their needs.
- Solution: Offer a solution to that problem. Explain how your product or service can help.
- Social Proof: Share examples or stories of others who benefited from your solution. This could be testimonials or case studies.
- Ask: End with a question or a call to action, like asking them to reply, book a meeting, or visit your website.
Adding a little note at the end (a “PS”) can help too. You can even mention something nice, like how you’ll donate to a charity if they reply. We’ve donated over 40,000 bowls of dog food to shelters recently using this method! The data shows that it 2x’d our reply rates. This makes your email stand out and shows you care about more than just business.
Using AI Tools
Today, we have amazing tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Clay to help write emails. These tools can make your emails more personalized and interesting. For example, they can help you tailor the message to each recipient’s needs and interests. But it’s still important to know how to write well without them. Use AI to enhance your emails, not replace your own touch.
2. Deliverability Market Fit: Getting into the Inbox
Even if you write a great email, it won’t matter if it ends up in the spam folder. Here’s how to make sure your emails get delivered:
Proper Setup
Your email system needs to be set up correctly:
- DNS Records: These are settings that help your emails look trustworthy. Make sure you have SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records set up properly.
- Reputable Services: Use well-known email providers like G Suite or other reputable email marketing services. These services have better reputations and are less likely to be marked as spam.
Warming Up Inboxes
Currently, we’re managing over 2,500 inboxes and find it to be our “lab” to learn about warm-ups. When you start using a new email account, it’s important not to send too many emails at once. This is where an AI warmup tool comes into play:
- AI Warmup Tools: Use an AI tool specifically designed for warming up email accounts. These tools gradually increase the number of emails sent from each inbox over a minimum period of two weeks, ideally three. This helps your email account build a good reputation without the risk of being marked as spam. Instantly.ai has a great tool.
- Start Slow: The tools typically start with a small number of emails (1 per day) and increase the volume gradually to 20 per day. The AI handles this automatically, ensuring a natural and effective warm-up process.
- Monitor: Even with an AI warmup tool, it’s crucial to keep an eye on how your emails are performing. Check if they’re being delivered and not marked as spam. Adjust your strategy if you see any problems.
Using AI warmup tools allows you to manage a large number of inboxes efficiently, ensuring each one maintains a good sending reputation. Regularly check and update your settings to ensure everything runs smoothly.
3. List Market Fit: Having Good Quality Lists
Having the right list of people to email is crucial. Here’s how to get good email lists:
Finding Contacts
Getting contacts used to be expensive, but now it’s cheaper and easier:
- Modern Tools: Instead of old services like ZoomInfo (which used to cost $1 per contact), use newer, cheaper options. Tools like Apollo.io and Instantly.ai can provide contacts for just $0.01 to $0.05 per contact. These platforms offer high-quality lists at a fraction of the cost.
Verifying Contacts
Make sure the contacts on your list are real and active:
- Verification Tools: Use tools to check if the email addresses are valid. This step helps you avoid sending emails to bad addresses, which can hurt your deliverability. Tools like Instantly Verification and Zero Bounce can double-verify your lists to ensure accuracy.
Outsourcing
For larger-scale needs, consider outsourcing your list generation. Working with trusted partners can lead to acquiring hundreds of thousands of high-quality names and emails. This approach ensures you have a robust, accurate, and reliable list for your email campaigns. We’ve been using an outsourced provider for a couple years now.
Achieving a 1% Reply Rate
A crucial metric in email marketing is the reply rate. For cold emails, the goal is to achieve a 1% reply rate, which includes follow-ups. This means that for every 1,000 emails sent, you should aim to receive 10 replies. Out of these ten replies, your objective is to secure at least one positive reply that leads to a meeting. This 1% reply rate is a good sign that your email strategy is working.
However, when you’re working with warm lists—people who have shown some interest or engagement before—you can aim much higher. For warm lists, reply rates can reach up to 10%. These higher engagement rates make warm lists extremely valuable and highlight the importance of nurturing your contacts over time.
Real-World Success
These three steps—good copy, making sure your emails get delivered, and having quality lists—apply to all kinds of emails, not just sales emails. For example, I recently grew a small newsletter from 5,000 to 200,000 subscribers by focusing on these basics. It worked because the emails were interesting, reached the inbox, and we used high-quality lists. By maintaining a 50%+ open rate and a 2% click-through rate, the newsletter has become highly successful.
The Future of Email Marketing
Email marketing is changing fast, especially with new AI tools. Here are some things to watch for:
- AI Tools: These will get even better, helping you write and send emails more effectively. They can provide insights and suggestions to improve your email campaigns.
- Personalization: Making emails feel personal will be more important than ever. Use AI to tailor messages to each recipient’s needs and preferences.
- Cleaning: Keep a regular eye on the cleanliness of your lists and inboxes, focusing on the key metric of reply rate.
My Last $.02
Cold emailing today is not easy at all, and my team and I know this first hand. We are committed to understanding the shifts and analyzing them. Today’s strategies and best practices for solving practical tasks to provide real outcomes for clients.
If you have any questions or you need any more information, do not hesitate to contact me. My goal is to advance the industry, ensuring that our inboxes are filled with emails that are both high-quality and relevant.
Consider me your go-to resource for all things about cold email.
Until next time, happy emailing!
Adam