Cold Emailing

5 Cold Emailing Myths!

Mihaela Cicvaric
LAST UPDATED
August 29, 2024
READING TIME
7 min.

Cold emailing is a technique to reach out to potential customers, build a relationship with them, generate interest, and ultimately convert them into paying customers.

If you target the right audience with a well-crafted message, it can help you build trust & credibility, increase sales, and boost business revenue.

But, despite its widespread use, there are still many misconceptions about cold emails that lead to missed growth opportunities…

Myth #1: Cold emails are considered spam

If your email is just a copy-paste of a generic template, your prospects will ignore your message. This makes people think that cold emails are spamming other people, as this kind of approach never gets results.

But, if you target prospects who can resonate with your cold emails, they will perceive them as helpful rather than spamming.

By researching and understanding your target audience, you can spot their challenges, offer value, and get replies.

Here's a 3-step checklist to defining a qualified audience that will engage with your cold emails:

Step 1: Define your buyer persona

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

You can use buyer personas to personalize your cold emails to fit their needs and preferences, which helps you build relationships and book more meetings.

👉 It takes a few seconds to access this 3-step target audience guide and get your free buyer persona template for more replies!

Step 2: Segment your buyer persona into tiers

Identify which buyer personas will be the most profitable, so you know where to put the most personalization efforts to stay efficient.

For example, you can identify them into three tiers based on the value amount you're bringing to them, which will later translate to the revenue amount they're bringing to you:

target audience tiers

Step 3: Pay attention to the target audience's buyer signals

A buyer signal is a behavior or action that indicates a prospect's interest in buying your product or service.

They'll help you identify "hot" leads currently facing the pain you can solve, making them more likely to reply.

👉 To determine the best moment to reach out to your prospects and get replies, get 15 sales targeting tactics and boost your outreach results!

Myth #2: Only pushy salespeople send cold emails

Cold emails can help you start a conversation with anyone and establish new relationships to grow your business.

Therefore, it's not limited to salespeople, as it can be helpful for anyone looking to network, collaborate, or open new business opportunities.

For example, you can use cold emailing in different departments and industries to boost business growth, such as:

Marketing use cases

✅  Announcing a product launch

e.g., highlight the benefits and offer an exclusive discount or early access to create a sense of urgency and generate interest

Promoting an event

e.g., give information about the event and highlight the key benefits that will encourage people to register and attend

✅ Asking for customer feedback

e.g., offer an incentive, such as a discount on a future purchase, to encourage valuable insights that can help improve your offering

Growth use cases

Generating leads

e.g., send a relevant message that targets prospects' pain points and offers value to capture their interest and start a conversation

✅ Building partnerships

e.g., identify complementary businesses or influencers in your industry and reach out to them to propose a partnership or collaboration

✅ Cross-selling & upselling

e.g., analyze prospects' purchase history and promote complementary or upgraded products to increase their lifetime value

Recruiting & HR use cases

✅ Building a talent pipeline

e.g., you can save time and money on recruiting in the long run, as you'll already build a relationship with highly qualified potential candidates

✅ Networking with industry professionals

e.g., reach out to people who work for companies you admire, attend industry events, or gain expertise in a particular area that could be valuable to your organization

✅ Promoting your employer's brand

e.g., reach out to potential candidates and highlight your organization's culture, mission, and values to build a positive reputation and attract top talent

… and many more!

👉 To grow your business across multiple departments, get  20+ successful cold email templates and achieve your best outreach results yet!

Myth #3: Cold emails are illegal

Cold emails are not illegal, and in fact, they are a common and legitimate way to grow a business.

However, there are some regulations and best practices that you need to follow to ensure you aren't breaking any laws or damaging your reputation.

Here are the top 5 tips that will help you stay compliant with anti-spam laws and ethical practices:

✅ Provide accurate and clear sender information

✅ Get consent before sending marketing emails

✅ Don't send emails with deceptive or false information

✅ Personalize your emails and always add value

✅ Include an opt-out option in your emails

👉 To build a strong sender reputation by following best legal practices, check out  5 ways to boost your email sender reputation and avoid the spam folder!

Myth #4: Personalizing cold emails is time-consuming & pricey

Cold email personalization helps you catch prospects' attention, build trust, and get more replies.

And, if you use the right tools and strategies, you can personalize your cold emails at scale without spending extra time or money.

Here's how lemlist users automatically personalize their cold emails thanks to custom variables:

Use text variables

→ No matter how many emails you send, you can automatically personalize any part of your message to grab leads' attention and build trust (e.g., intro line, pitch, CTA).

custom text variables

Use image variables

→ Stand out with personalized images by automatically adding your leads' names, logos, website screenshots, etc.

custom image variable

Use video variables

→ Give value to your prospects on a more personal level and grab prospects' attention with custom video thumbnails.

custom video variable

Use website variables

→ Build personalized landing pages just for your leads where you can embed your calendar and include assets or calls to action.

custom video variable

👉 If you want to generate more replies with personalization on auto-pilot too, try lemlist for free and book meetings with 17% of your prospects!

Use AI Variables

→Automatically personalize your campaigns based on your leads’ info.

lemlist’s AI Variables allow you to quickly personalize your emails in ways that are bound to blow your mind.

You can generate custom icebreakers based on your leads’ information. Or generate a P.S. tailored to every lead:

AI Variables uses GPT through a single prompt that works on all or selected leads.

You can then add this personalization to your campaigns, saving you hours of manual work.

Myth #5: All cold emails land in the spam folder

Email deliverability is the email's ability to the prospect's inbox without being flagged as spam.

That means that if you increase and maintain your email deliverability, there's no reason for your cold emails to land in the spam folder.

Here are the top 3 tips that will help you achieve high email deliverability and ensure your messages always reach your prospects:

Tip 1: Complete your email authentication

Implement these 5 settings to ensure your campaigns land in the target audience's inbox:

  • DKIM → guarantees that your emails are not changed after they're sent
  • SPF → guarantees that your emails are sent from your domain
  • DMARC → helps protect your domain from attacks, phishing emails, etc.
  • MX record → allows email providers to know what servers accept your domain's emails
  • Custom tracking domain → allows you to track open and click rates in your emails safely

You can use your warm-up and deliverability booster like lemwarm to check your technical setup:

https://assets.website-files.com/63033b2727185d94817e210d/63da2a3c10fd5e1e5b1ccd2c_Screenshot 2022-12-23 at 15.31.png

Tip 2: Verify your subscriber or email list

Your email list is all the people you're reaching out to via your emails.

Sending emails to invalid addresses increases your bounce rate, which ruins your email reputation, lowers your deliverability score, and sends your emails to spam.

Verifying your email list prevents this by telling you which email addresses on your list are undeliverable or invalid.

You can find and verify your emails with lemlist!

Tip 3: Warm up your emails

Email warm-up gradually increases the emails sent from your account to boost your email engagement and deliverability.

Think about the warm-up process as a protection for your emails that prevents them from landing in spam.

However, warming up your email manually can be a time-consuming process.

Plus, you must ensure you do this every time you send campaigns.

The best way to warm up your email is to use a warm-up and deliverability booster like lemwarm.

It creates a personalized deliverability strategy based on your goals and email characteristics to build a strong email reputation and improve deliverability.

Check out the improvement in this user's deliverability score within 3 weeks of using lemwarm:

https://assets.website-files.com/63033b2727185d94817e210d/63da2a2dbd9e6f55dc4e36d8_Deliverability score (1).png

👉 To get even more tips on keeping high email deliverability and avoiding spam folders, get free access to Email deliverability eBook and always reach your prospects!

So, should you use cold emails to grow your business?

Yes! With the right approach, cold emailing is still a highly effective, cheap, and scalable way to increase your business's revenue.

You can test it out in any department and get amazing results by applying the above tips.

P.S. If you're interested in growing your business with outreach, you can join 14k+ salespeople, marketers, and founders in the biggest outreach community and get free advice, templates, and much more 🚀

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
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$2,999/mo
Large, distributed sales teams
AI evaluation precision, gamified KPIs
Lack of tracking system
4.6
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Not publicly available
Sales operations and finance teams
Powerful configurability
Limited training resources and complex to navigate
4.4
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star
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Not publicly available
Mid-market and enterprise businesses
Comprehensive incentive management
Potentially high cost and steep learning curve
4.7
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star
star
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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
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star-half
Not publicly available
Collaborative teams
Connected planning
Complexity and steep learning curve
4.6
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star
star
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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
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star
star
star
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Not publicly available
Companies who want to automate commission calculations and payouts
Simplicity and ease of use
Lack of features like redirection
4.7
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$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
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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
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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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