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Cold Emailing
Create a networking email campaign in 5 steps
Mihaela Cicvaric
July 25, 2024
|
7 min. read
Mihaela Cicvaric
LAST UPDATED
May 17, 2024
READING TIME
7 min.
Your network is your net worth. Wondering why?
Through networking you can:
meet potential business partners
get an intro to new businesses
learn from industry leaders
get business recommendations
But the question is - how do you reach out to people? How do you connect with them without feeling awkward?
Luckily, we’ve tested tons of networking campaign approaches in the past years, and in this article, you’ll get:
five easy steps to get in touch with anyone
the secret campaign framework that generated $100,000 in revenue
actionable tips to make your networking email campaigns stand out
The worse you target your audience → the lower the response rate → the more you think that cold emails suck, right?
But, when sending cold emails, your goal is to land in the right person’s inbox and actually get a response from your prospects. That’s why you need to make sure you’re reaching out to the relevant people.
So, how do you find them?
LinkedIn is a great source for finding potential contacts. Here are a few ways you can do it too:
Search for someone’s connections
On LinkedIn, members are usually connected with like-minded users, so searching for someone’s connections helps you quickly find potential people to network with.
The simplest way to do it is to:
Go to the connection’s profile.
Click on the [number] connections as shown below.
From there, you can access the list of members’ connections with additional filtering options such as locations, company, school, industry, language, etc.
Check out a member’s activity
After finding the right person to network with, make sure to check out their activity. Why? As mentioned before, members are usually connected with similar profiles, so checking people’s activity is a way to find new ones to network with.
How do you do that?
Simply go to "All activity" on your prospect's profile:
From there, you can easily spot which posts they comment on and like.
Once you see the posts they engage with, you can start following the same creators, and hence, start building relationships with them. By repeating those steps you’ll be able to build yourself a relevant networking list and create new opportunities.
Step 2: Pick a catchy subject line
Now that you found the person you want to connect with, it's time to actually create the networking campaign. To boost your chances of getting replies and actually meeting with people, you might wanna pay attention to a few elements. One of them is the subject line.
If you wanna increase your chances of getting replies, make sure your subject line is memorable and informal.
Over the years, we've tested many networking email subject lines, and here are the ones for you to try:
The goal? Our CEO, Guillaume, wanted to meet with other people working in Marketing & Growth, in top startups in Paris.
Open rate? 96%
Why it worked?
It's short and specific.
Asking a question in the subject line triggers interest in opening the email.
Lunch is something you usually have with your friends and colleague so it helps to set a friendly and familiar tone at the start.
The goal? Getting a team member featured on a podcast/show.
Open rate? 84%
Why it worked?
It sounds intriguing and makes the prospect want to know more.
Stories are something we listened to as kids and as adults through business storytelling. When people tell stories, other people listen, especially if it's tailored to them.
Goal? Build community through an event.
Open rate? 90%
Why it worked?
It includes a name as a detail relevant to the recipient and gives a sense of exclusivity by having an invitation.
When you customize your content with e.g. the first name, it grabs the prospect's attention more easily and they are more likely to respond.
Goal? Will Cannon from UpLead and his team use this subject line to get founder interviews for their blog.
Open rate? 80%
Why it worked?
Complimenting your prospect’s activity shows your genuine curiosity about their work.
It’s human nature to want to hear positive feedback, especially about their everyday efforts.
It shows you invested time in research and, therefore, doesn’t feel generic.
Goal? Our colleague used this subject line with people who engaged on his LinkedIn to establish a more close connection.
Open rate? 88%
Why it worked?
Complimenting prospects sparks their interest in finding what else you have to say.
Mentioning a specific post shows you’re a true follower and an important part of their personal brand.
P.S. If you wanna go deeper into how to write cold email subject lines to get more replies, check out our ultimate Cold email subject line guide.
Step 3: Break the ice with a customized intro
Wanna boost your chances to get a response from your prospect? Then you should catch their attention and create a connection right from the start. 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 the crowd. 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.
You can use lemlist's AI to create original and personalized icebreakers.
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 if you want to write them yourself:
1. 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:
A personal approach like this:
helps you find common ground for future conversations
shows you put your time and effort to reach out
doesn’t sound generic which makes your prospect more likely to reply
2. Based on company news
Here’s another example of how Simon got in touch with a prospect after seeing his 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, Simon used company news for the icebreaker:
In case you can’t find anything personal about the people you want to network with, you can use this company-focused approach. Mentioning similarities in business can be a great conversation starter for later sharing of growth tips.
3. Based on a job post
As we built an email automation software, seeing his prospect posting about hiring SDRs was a good sign for Simon. It means that their team is growing and facing challenges where our tool can help.
That's why he used the job post as an icebreaker:
As Simon, always try to find common ground and a point that resonates. Show you did your research, and create a personal connection through a genuine compliment. It will make your prospect relate more easily and motivate them to reply.
Step 4: Use personalization to build a connection
Personalizing your campaigns is the best way to make your emails stand out and boost your chances to get replies. And you can do it by adding personalized images, videos, or even landing pages.
Just imagine you’ve received the email below that contains a catchy image with your name on it. It would grab your attention immediately, right?
Personalized images, videos, and landing pages show your prospects that you’re willing to go the extra mile to get in touch with them, which is definitely a point in your favor.
Wondering how you can add personalized images to your emails?
When a lead clicks on the thumbnail, make them land on a landing page that is customized for every prospect individually.
Why is this a great approach?
Custom text and video are unique ways to present value that will catch the prospect's attention.
Embedded lemcal keeps the prospect on the page, without spending too much time figuring out which action to fulfill next.
All important information is on the same page which makes it easy for the prospect to book a meeting.
Here’s a guide on how you can use videos as well to boost your cold outreach and get more replies.
Step 5: Pick a conversation-starter CTA
The purpose of your networking campaign shouldn’t be selling. It should be building relationships. And what better way to build a relationship than to have a good, friendly conversation. To get there, the key is to use CTA that will boost curiosity and make the person click on your video to be able to give you their thoughts.
A little trick to increase the click rate is to add a question referring to the video as “So, what do you think?”.
Why does it work? Questions like this boost curiosity and make the person click on the video to be able to give you their thoughts.
Want to learn how to nail your CTAs every time? ⬇️
Key takeaways
Whether you wanna exchange knowledge with industry leaders or find co-founders, networking opens tons of opportunities for your professional growth.
Moreover, you can use networking to find new potential customers and grow your business.
So, before reaching out to people, keep in mind these five tips:
Make sure you're reaching out to the right people
Use a subject line that will grab their attention
Use customized icebreakers to get them hooked
Personalize with images and videos to build a connection
Insert conversation-starter CTA to increase reply chances
These will not only help you expand your portfolio of professional connections, but also help maintain a positive reputation.
Happy networking!
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We've made a mistake with cold emailing! Luckily we've also found a solution: Warm outreach! Learn how to implement a warm outreach strategy in this guide.
How you end your cold emails creates an impression about you and your products. Sign-offs can push prospects to take action and reply. This sign-off list will help you increase reply chances and book more meetings.
So, your next marketing strategy is to arrange partnerships with popular influencers in your industry? But - how are you gonna reach out to them? Read this article to find out!
lemlist team
Jul 25, 2024
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