Cold Emailing

Not getting responses to your cold emails? Here’s why and how to fix it.

Mihaela Cicvaric
LAST UPDATED
April 9, 2024
READING TIME
7 min.

Spending hours on cold outreach, but not getting any promising responses from your prospects?

Don't panic, you're not alone.

90% of people who send cold emails don't have the right approach, hence, they end up spamming their prospects, or worse... stop using cold emails for their business.

During the last 3.5 years, we analyzed thousands of cold emails to understand what's the best way of doing outreach and what are the most common mistakes to avoid. ⬇️

1. You’re reaching out to the wrong people

If you reach out to the wrong people (or the right people at the wrong time)

⬇️

they won’t have a reason to reply

⬇️

your campaign results will be poor

⬇️

there won’t be business growth opportunities

⬇️

you’ll think cold emails suck.

So, how to avoid that?

Here’s a 3-step process that will help you target the right audience at the right time, and increase your reply chances:

Step 1: Define your Buyer persona

A buyer persona is a detailed description of someone who represents your target audience.

Even though it’s fictional, it’s based on deep research and can help you boost outreach personalization which will help you book meetings.

The goal of a buyer persona is to be able to clearly understand who is your target and what are their challenges so you can offer them the right solution.

Once you have a solution to their specific pain point, it’s much easier to build a relationship, and eventually, sell your product or service.

So, how do you create your buyer persona?

It takes you a few seconds to download this free buyer persona template we created for you, and a few minutes to go through our ultimate How to define your target audience.

Or you can use lemlist's free ICP generator ⬇️

Step 2: Segment the target audience into tiers

This step allows you to identify which buyer personas will be the most profitable, and where you should be spending most of your time.

You can identify them into three tiers, based on the amount of value you’re bringing to them, which will later translate to the amount of revenue they are bringing to you.

Your tier 1 will include accounts generating the most revenue, tier 3 are the ones bringing in the least, and tier 2 clients are the ones in between.

buyer persona tiers

You can use these tiers as indicators of where to put the most effort when it comes to personalization and lead generation.

For example, you will work on every tier but invest more time and resources into the first one as it brings you the biggest ROI.

Step 3: Pay attention to their buyer signals

In cold outreach, it’s not enough just to know your buyer persona characteristics.

Why?

Well, you might have a great list of promising prospects, but if you reach out to them at the wrong time, you still won’t get any results.

That’s why it’s important to pay attention to buyer signals.

A buyer signal is a sign that a prospect can be an ideal fit because they’re in a stage where it makes sense for them to buy your product/service. The secret is to reach out to leads you know are currently facing the pain you solve.

And to identify their pain, we prepared these 25 buyer signal tactics to help you stay relevant and figure out the perfect moment to reach out.

2. Your intro line is not personalized

If you want your prospects to meet you, you should catch their attention and create a connection right from the start.

So, how do you do that?

Through icebreakers!

In short, an icebreaker is the first sentence of your email. The sentence that your prospects read first and the sentence that can make your email stand out from everyone else’s.

The goal of an icebreaker is to let your prospects know that you took the time to do your research and create something personalized just for them.

There are tons of ways to build an icebreaker that we covered in our Intro lines article, but here are the most important ones to get you started:

On a personal level

In this example, Simon watched an inspiring interview with the VP of Sales and wanted to connect with him.

Therefore, he used the shared opinion from the interview as his icebreaker:

icebreaker on a personal level

A personal approach like this:

  • shows you dedicated your time and effort to talk to them
  • helps you find common ground for future conversations
  • doesn’t sound generic which makes your prospect more likely to reply

Based on company news

Here’s another example of how we got in touch with a prospect after seeing their company update.

Prospect wrote about how their business went from a small team to unicorn status in a few years. Since lempire is on the same path, we used company news for the icebreaker:

icebreaker based on the company news

Why should you use this approach?

  • It’s a good alternative to get to know your prospect more in case you can’t find their personal information
  • Mentioning company similarities is a good starting point for sharing growth tips
  • It’s showing you know them well and that your solution might be a good fit

Based on a job post

As we built an email automation software, seeing our prospect posting about hiring SDRs was a good sign for our sales team.

It means that their team is growing and facing challenges where our tool can help. That's why we used the job post as an icebreaker:

icebreaker based on a job post

Why does this approach work?

  • It shows you are a true follower of their work
  • It creates a personal connection through a genuine compliment
Bonus tip: If you’re going to personalize your intro line, you need to make sure the topic is connected to the pitch.
Why?
Because otherwise, you might catch their attention for the wrong purposes. By reading the rest of your email they might find you not relevant and leave you on read.

3. Your pitch is self-centered

Your pitch should be 100% focused on your prospect and not on you. You should avoid talking about your product and focus on discovery questions that confirm there’s pain. Why?

The goal is not to sell, it’s to build a relationship. Once you build a relationship and confirm the interest, it will be much easier to hop on the selling part.

So here’s an example of a prospect-focused pitch you can apply to your next outreach:

prospect-focused pitch

Why does this approach work?

  • By mentioning the prospect’s achievements, the sender sparks interest and proves that this email is unique
  • The focus is on the prospect’s struggles, which will catch their attention
  • It's clear they want to provide value and create a relationship, not sell

Rather than making your prospects hear about your product and company, try to find out more about them.

What are their struggles and pain points, and what do they need help with?

Once you make them feel like you're there to help them, not to sell, they will feel more comfortable booking a meeting.

Bonus tip: If you want to level up your personalization - use custom images, videos, and landing pages! With lemlist, it takes only two minutes to create an ultra-personalized pitch that will make your prospects instantly reply.

4. You aim for a meeting, instead of a reply

Based on thousands of cold emails that we analyzed during the past years, we figured out that the best-performing endings are helpful rather than pushy.

Instead of immediately asking for a meeting, you can try to help them first and confirm if there’s any interest at all.

Why?

When you prove you’re genuinely trying to help, rather than signing one-off deals, your chances of getting an answer only increase.

Let’s check out this prospect-focused example that got Alan a 69% open rate and a 51% reply rate:

aim for reply instead of meeting

Why did this closing line work?

  • Alan didn’t write “Can you add the link, please?” which wouldn’t take into consideration what’s in it for the prospect. Instead, he asked if the link would be useful which completely changes the approach and puts the focus on the customer.
  • No meeting or demo request, but only a value for the prospect is what brought him this high open rate.
  • He sticks to a single, clear CTA that helps prospects understand what’s the next step in less than 3 seconds.

Using a closing line like this, you can get to know more about your prospect, and see if there’s a true interest to get them into the next step of the customer journey.

Key takeaways

Repeat after me: It’s not about me, it’s about them.

Following these steps will help you boost response rates and book more meetings, but most importantly, build meaningful relationships with your target audience:

  • Only reach out to leads you know are currently facing the pain you solve.
  • Customize the intro line to build trust and get them to read the rest of your message.
  • Avoid talking about yourself in the pitch and focus on discovery questions to confirm there’s pain.
  • Don’t ask for a meeting in your CTA, aim for a reply.

The more relationships you make, the more potential customers you have, which will eventually lead to higher sales numbers.

P.S. If you wanna get more replies and conversions, check out this eBook that will give you actionable tips on what to write in each part of your cold email for the best outreach results. 🔥

And for any additional questions, join the lemlist family, the community where you can get daily advice on how to create better cold email campaigns. 🚀

Mihaela Cicvaric
Content Marketing Manager @ lempire | Sharing everything you need to get replies to your cold emails
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G2 Rating
Price
Best for
Standout feature
Con
4.9
star
star
star
star
star
$30/mo
$75/mo
$2,999/mo
Large, distributed sales teams
AI evaluation precision, gamified KPIs
Lack of tracking system
4.6
star
star
star
star
star-half
Not publicly available
Sales operations and finance teams
Powerful configurability
Limited training resources and complex to navigate
4.4
star
star
star
star
star-half
Not publicly available
Mid-market and enterprise businesses
Comprehensive incentive management
Potentially high cost and steep learning curve
4.7
star
star
star
star
star-half
$15/user/mo
$40/user/mo
Enterprise: custom price
Complex sales structures and businesses of all sizes
Complex sales structures and businesses of all sizes
Steep learning curve
4.6
star
star
star
star
star-half
Not publicly available
Collaborative teams
Connected planning
Complexity and steep learning curve
4.6
star
star
star
star
star-half
Not publicly available
Companies with complex sales structures
Complex incentive compensation management (ICM) with high efficiency and accuracy
Complexity for smaller teams and potentially high costs
4.7
star
star
star
star
star-half
Not publicly available
Companies who want to automate commission calculations and payouts
Simplicity and ease of use
Lack of features like redirection
4.7
star
star
star
star
star-half
$30/user/mo
$35/user/mo
Custom: upon request
Businesses that need a comprehensive and user-friendly sales compensation management software
Ease of use and adoption
Lack of ability to configure the product based on user needs
4.8
star
star
star
star
star-half
Not publicly available
Companies with modern sales culture and businesses who want real-time insights
A built-in dispute management and real-time visibility
Users say it works slowly, customer support is slow
4.9
star
star
star
star
star
$30/user/mo
$50/user/mo
Smaller sales teams
Powerful automation
Lesser user base and average user interface
4.7
star
star
star
star
star-half
Not publicly available
Companies with scalable needs
Automated Commission Calculations
Lack of filtering by date, no mobile app
ERP vs. CRM
ERP
CRM
Summary
Backbone of a business's internal operations.
Backbone of customer-centric interactions and operations.
Goal
To centralize and streamline core business processes in a company.
To increase customer experience, satisfaction and loyalty, and boost sales.
Focus
Internal operations and processes across departments (finance, accounting, inventory, supply chain, HR, and sales).
All interactions with leads and customers.
Manages
Internal business data like financial data, inventory levels, production details, supply chain, HR info.
All customer data like contact info, purchase history, communication history, customer preferences and more.
Users
Finance, accounting, operations, supply chain, and HR departments.
Customer-facing teams like sales, marketing, and customer service.
Benefits
Streamlines operations, improves data accuracy, enhances decision-making, boosts collaboration, increases productivity.
Improves customer relationships, increases sales, strengthens customer service, personalizes marketing campaigns, provides insights.
Price
$150 per user per year on average.
$10 to $30 per user per month on average.
PRM Tool
Rating
Feature
Pro
Con
Mobile App
Integrations
Free Plan
Pricing
4.65
star
star
star
star
star-half
Org-wide alignment
User-friendly layout and database
Suboptimal as a personal CRM
square-check
Lack of tracking system
square-check
Team: $20/month
Business: $45/month
4.7
star
star
star
star
star-half
Social Media Integration
Easy contact data collection
No marketing/sales features
square-check
Lack of tracking system
square-xmark
7-day trial
$12/month
4.75
star
star
star
star
star-half
Block Functions
High customization capability
Not a dedicated CRM
square-check
Limited
square-check
Plus: €7.50/month
Business: €14/month
N/A
Open-source
Open-source flexibility
Requires extensive manual input
square-xmark
Limited
square-check
Self-hosted
$9/month or
$90/year
3.1
star
star
star
Simple iOS app
Ideal for non-tech-savvy users
iPhone only
square-check
iOS only
Limited
square-xmark
1-month trial
$1.49/month or
$14.99/month
3.6
star
star
star
star-half
Smart Contact Management
Feature-rich and flexible
Reported bugs
square-check
Rich
square-xmark
7-day trial
Premium: $13.99/month
Teams: $17.99/month
4.4
star
star
star
star
star-half
Customizable Interface
Customizable for teamwork
Pricey for personal use
square-check
Rich
square-xmark
Standard: $24/member
Premium: $39/member
4.7
star
star
star
star
star-half
Integrated Calling
Integrated Calling
Too sales-oriented & pricey
square-check
Rich
square-xmark
14-day trial
Startup: $59/user/month
Professional: $329/user/month
4.8
star
star
star
star
star
Business Card Scanning
Business Card Scanning
Mobile only
square-check
Limited
square-check
$9.99/month
4.45
star
star
star
star
star-half
160+ app integrations
Comprehensive integrations
No free app version
square-check
Rich
square-xmark
14-day trial
$29.90/month or
$24.90/month (billed annually)
Capterra Rating
Free Trial
Free Plan
Starting Price (excluding the free plan)
Maximum Price (for the most expensive plan)
Best for
4.5
star
star
star
star
star-half
square-check
14-day
square-check
€15/month/seat billed annually
€792/month/3 seats billed annually + €45/month for each extra seat
Versatility and free plan
4.2
star
star
star
star
square-check
30-day
square-xmark
But it offers reduced price to authorised nonprofit organisations
€25/user/month
€500/user/month billed annually (includes Einstein AI)
Best overall operational CRM
4.3
star
star
star
star
star-half
square-xmark
square-check
Limited to 3 users
Comprehensive incentive management
€52/user/month billed annually
Small-medium businesses and automation
4.5
star
star
star
star
star-half
square-check
14-day
square-xmark
€14/seat/month billed annually
€99/seat/month billed annually
Sales teams and ease of use
4.1
star
star
star
star
square-xmark
square-check
Limited 10 users
$9.99/user/month billed annually
$64.99/user/month billed annually
Free plan for very small teams up to 10
CRM goal
Increase the sales conversion rate for qualified leads from marketing automation campaigns by 10% in the next 6 months.
SMART Breakdown
1. Specific: It targets a specific area (conversion rate) for a defined segment (qualified leads from marketing automation).
2. Measurable: The desired increase (10%) is a clear metric, and the timeframe (6 months) allows for progress tracking.
3. Achievable: A 10% increase is possible based on historical data and potential improvements.
4. Relevant: Boosting sales from marketing efforts aligns with overall business objectives.
5. Time-bound: The 6-month timeframe creates urgency and a clear target date.
Actions
Step 1: Refine lead qualification criteria to ensure high-quality leads are nurtured through marketing automation.
Step 2: Personalize marketing automation campaigns based on lead demographics, interests, and behavior.
Step 3: Develop targeted landing pages with clear calls to action for qualified leads.
Step 4: Implement lead scoring to prioritize high-potential leads for sales follow-up.
Step 5: Track and analyze campaign performance to identify areas for optimization.
Outcomes
Increased sales and revenue
Improved marketing automation ROI
Marketing and sales alignment
Data-driven marketing optimization
Table
CDP Software
CRM Software
Approach
Data-centric
Customer-centric
Focus
Interactions across various channels and touchpoints, both online and offline.
Sales, marketing, and customer service interactions.
Functionality
Automatically collects, organizes, tags, and makes data available in real-time.
Helps businesses track customer interactions, sales pipelines, prospects, and service requests.
Goals
Personalized customer experiences across all channels.
Better customer relationships, streamlined processes, and improved profitability.
Benefits
Data integration, management, and accessibility, allowing for detailed analysis and segmentation.
Better communication within teams and with customers by organizing information about customer interactions and history.
Data Handling
Handles both identified and anonymous data, stitches together various data points.
Deals primarily with identified customer data.
Use Cases
Personalized marketing campaigns, targeted advertising, content customization across multiple channels.
Managing campaigns and leads, enhancing customer service, providing better customer support, increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Examples
Insider, Bloomreach, Salesforce Marketing Cloud CDP
HubSpot, Salesforce Sales Cloud Lightning Professional, and Zoho CRM
CRM
Free plan
Best feature
Best for
Con
1. HubSpot CRM
square-check
Sales automation
Sales teams
Up to 1,000 contacts
2. Insightly
square-check
Custom fields
Basic needs
Not enough info about the free plan
3. Agile CRM
square-check
Deal and sales pipeline tracking
Small teams
Up to 10 users
4. Zoho CRM
square-check
Lead and contact management
Businesses of all sizes
Limited to 3 users
5. ClickUp
square-check
Unlimited tasks and unlimited members
Personal use
Up to 100MB storage
6. EngageBay
square-check
Live chat
Small and midsize enterprises
Up to 1,000 branded emails per month
7. Bitrix24
square-check
Unlimited users and 5 scrum teams
Big teams
Up to 5GB of cloud storage
8. FreshSales
square-check
Easy to use and simple setup
Beginners
Up to 3 users
9. Mailchimp
square-check
Very beginner friendly
Marketing teams
Send up to 500 branded emails per month
Type of Affiliate Marketing
Unattached
Related
Involved
Format
Paid advertising
Social media or YouTube channels
Dedicated website or blog
Focus
Quick income
Your niche
Your audience
Engagement with your audience
square-xmark
square-check
square-check
square-check
square-check
Very close connection with your audience
Pro
Little effort
Higher credibility thanks to your niche
Long-lasting and scalable
Con
Paid ads cost a lot
Potential for bias since you don’t use the thing you promote
Require time, effort, and dedication

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