You want to learn top cold email secrets that will ramp up your reply rate and create more opportunities for your business?
The checklist you're about to see contains MANY cold email tips, including advanced personalization techniques, tips on how to send outreach campaigns, as well as a few time-saving automated workflows you're going to love.
⚠️ Mind the rule. Go step by step, paying attention to every cold email tip. Super important ladies and gentlemen.
[ ] Define your ideal customer profile. Come up with a detailed overview so that you can spend time chasing the right type of clients for your business
[ ] Invest time in research. You will quickly realize that it's 10x easier to write a quality cold email after proper research because it tells you where and how to personalize the message for each prospect
[ ] There are multiple ways to find emails of your prospects and build lists (you can find them here). Make sure to keep those lists highly targeted and segmented according to your business objectives
[ ] Always verify emails before sending your campaign. You don't want to let a huge bounce rate destroy your email deliverability
How-to quickly verify cold emails in lemlist
[ ] Make sure your .csv file is properly structured
[ ] Keep the number of emails sent between 50 and 200 per sender per day. If you need to deliver more emails, it's best to use multiple senders
[ ] Never send all emails at once (e.g. like a newsletter). Instead, spread them out by having your cold email software (preferably, lemlist 😅) deliver emails one after the other
[ ] Set up your SPF
[ ] Set up your DKIM
[ ] Set up your DMARC
[ ] Always, always, ALWAYS set up your custom tracking domain. Here's how
Pro tip: We've run an experiment once. Cold emails with custom tracking domain set vs. without it. Here are the results
[ ] Activate lemwarm and let it warm up your email address automatically
[ ] Make sure your Google Profile has valid information (your name, logo etc)
[ ] Don't use fancy email signature as there's absolutely no need. Your name and title are good enough, trust me 😉
[ ] Avoid using complex HTML... keep things light and simple
[ ] Avoid attachments in cold emails (a big no-no from Google and other providers as they'll send you to spam faster than you can say outreach)
[ ] Don't forget to add an opt-out link for prospects who are not interested
[ ] Don't worry about the perfect day or time to send cold emails. Focus on sending a great cold email instead
[ ] Work in a bigger sales team and wondering if you need two domains for your cold email outreach? Read this guide
[ ] Subject lines should set the tone, get prospects to open the email and then deliver on that expectation. Get creative and test different things
[ ] Always address your prospect by the first name... these are cold email essentials
[ ] If you're working with bigger lists and worry if some prospects don't have the first name, use the fallback value.
[ ] Intro lines are first impressions of cold emails, so use them wisely. Make it about the prospect, not about you or your company
Pro tip: We suggest you play the Tiramisu strategy with your intro lines
[ ] Keep the goal of cold email outreach in mind. It isn't to drive conversions. It's to get replies, start conversations and build relationships so that you can drive conversions later
[ ] It's better to have one clear call-to-action than multiple vague ones that bring friction
[ ] It's proven... follow-ups get you more replies. Always add follow-up emails and send sequences instead of a one-off cold email
Pro tip: 5 strategies to write follow-up emails after no response
[ ] Cold email personalization hack 1 --> add dynamic first names of your prospects onto images... really cool way to get their attention
lemlist tutorials: How to add the {{firstName}} tag onto the image
[ ] Cold email personalization hack 2 --> add company logos of your prospects onto images
lemlist tutorials: How to add company logos to images
[ ] Cold email personalization hack 3 --> add website screenshots of your prospects onto images to hook them from the start
lemlist tutorials: How to add prospect's website onto the image
[ ] Cold email personalization hack 4 --> ramp up your click rate with personalized video thumbnail strategy
lemlist tutorials: How to create a personalized video thumbnail
[ ] Depending on your cold email strategy, you can personalize and send unique links to prospects at scale
lemlist tutorials: How to personalize your links
[ ] Avoid having conversations about what works best (with others or yourself 🤣) and A/B test stuff. Let your audience tell you what they prefer
[ ] Leverage liquid syntax to additionally personalize your cold emails (e.g. adjust the copy for different audiences in your list)
lemlist tutorials: How to use liquid syntax in your cold emails
[ ] Utilize spin syntax to randomly customize your cold emails (e.g. deliver 5 different types of intro lines)
lemlist tutorials: How to use spin syntax in your cold emails
[ ] Create dynamic landing pages to schedule meetings and drive more sales, directly in your cold emails
lemlist tutorials: How to use dynamic landing pages in lemlist
[ ] Before you send cold emails in lemlist, you will enter the review stage. This allows you to check the campaign one last time. If you spot an opportunity, you can further customize specific emails (e.g. change intro line for a prospect you've met before)
[ ] Target LinkedIn prospects, extract emails and send outbound campaigns automatically
[ ] Send campaigns on autopilot as soon as you add a new prospect in your Google Sheet
[ ] Receive auto notifications in Slack as soon as you get a reply to your cold email
[ ] Connect your CRM and keep it synced with lemlist without breaking a sweat
Pro tip: lemlist integrates natively with Pipedrive, HubSpot and Salesforce. See all integrations here
What about automated email ads? Connect with your customers in a much more personalized way by appearing at the top of their inbox.
[ ] Aim to have an open rate above 50%. If it's lower, the main problem is in your email deliverability, not subject lines
[ ] A click rate above 40% is a nice victory to celebrate if you're chasing traffic
Pro tip: Want to know what's the number one strategy to crush your click rate? Go here por favor
[ ] Aim to have a reply rate above 8%. If you see lower performance, the problem is usually in the lack of personalization or you're targeting the wrong audience
[ ] Make sure your bounce rate is quiet... below 5%
[ ] Never let anyone complain and mark you as a spammer. Keep your complaint rate at absolute zero FOREVER
[ ] Use lemlist labels to group your campaigns and gain more context behind reports (e.g. group campaigns for a client or around the same goal). Here's how
[ ] Save your best performing cold emails as templates. If you need inspiration, use the most 🔥 cold email resource hub ever created
And if you're eager to test lemlist after reading this checklist, we'd be honored to welcome you to the family. Two things to do to join:
Big ups! If you've made it this far, it means you're one persistent cold email player.
I sincerely hope this checklist brought you pure value. If you started sending campaigns after reading it or it has helped you in any way possible, be sure to send an email to vuk@lemlist.com (subject line: checklist campaign) and share your success. I'd love to hear more about it.
There are two more checklists that you should check out because they will bring fire to your campaigns, I promise you that. One is about maximizing email deliverability, the other around typical cold email mistakes.
P.S. Make sure you spread the word. ❤️
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