Cold Emailing in 2024: Best Practices to BOOST Your Response Rates

‍Everything you need to know about cold emailing

Cold emailing, or cold emailing in French, refers to sending an email to a prospect who has not had prior contact with your company. This digital prospecting technique, widely used in B2B, aims to initiate a dialogue with targets potentially interested in your products or services.

Despite the rise of social networks and the constant evolution of consumer habits, cold emailing remains an extremely effective channel for generating qualified leads in 2024. With an average ROI of 3800% according to a Campaign Monitor study, email greatly outperforms other acquisition practices.

However, to avoid the pitfalls of spam and the indifference of prospects, a cold email must be personalized, relevant and provide value. A “spray and pray” approach won't work. Only a targeted approach, based on best practices and the right tools, will allow you to significantly boost your response rates.

In this article, discover the keys to a successful cold email campaign, from the selection of prospects to email templates, through tech solutions to automate and optimize your actions.

The Key Steps to a Successful Cold Email

1. Finding the right prospects and their emails

It all starts with sourcing your targets. To avoid wasting your time contacting irrelevant people, you need to precisely define your ideal persona: function, sector, company size, location, etc. Then build up your prospect base using tools like Hublead. Be sure to collect only nominative business addresses.

2. Write an eye-catching object

The subject is the determining factor in the opening rate of your cold email. It should arouse the recipient's curiosity without being soliciting. Choose a personalized approach by mentioning, for example, the name of his company or one of his recent posts on social networks. Limit yourself to 50 characters to ensure optimal display on mobile.

3. Personalize content

A generic email sent in bulk will not work. Your message should be addressed specifically to the prospect, showing that you have learned about them and their business. Mention a challenge he is facing, refer to one of his achievements... The aim is for it to feel unique and not just like a name among others.

4. Bringing added value

Your cold email should bring something to the prospect, whether it's exclusive content (white paper, case study, etc.), personalized advice or useful information for their business. Avoid putting the spotlight on your business and your offering. Focus on their needs and prove your expertise and legitimacy to them.

5. Include a clear call to action

End your message with a specific action to take: schedule a call, answer a question... Your CTA should be unique, explicit, and easy to accomplish at the click of a button. For example, suggest 2 or 3 predefined appointment slots via a Calendly link. Do not ask for too much from the first email, the objective is to initiate a dialogue.

6. Reminders and follow-up

A single email will not suffice. Set up automated follow-up sequences (3 to 5 emails spaced a few days apart) to increase your chances of getting a response, without being too intrusive. Your follow-up emails should provide a new element (content, customer case...) and vary the angles of engagement. Analyze engagement metrics to identify the best performing models.

5 Examples of Effective Cold Emails

Here are 5 tried and tested cold email models, to be adapted according to your target and your objective:

1. Cold contact email

Hello [First name],

I am taking the liberty of contacting you because I noticed that [Company name] had recently [company highlight].

Specializing in [Field], our company supports players such as [Similar Company] to [Customer Benefit].

Would it be relevant to discuss your [Topic] strategy? I think we could give you some interesting insights.

Let me know if you are available for a quick 15 minute call next week.

Sincerely,

[Your name]

2. Cold product/service presentation email

Purpose: [First name], a solution to boost [Metric] of [Company name]

Hello [First name],

I know that lead generation is a key issue for [Company name]. This is precisely the specialty of [Name of your company].

Our [Product/Service] has allowed companies like [Similar Business] to increase their incoming leads by [Percentage] in just [Duration].

I would love to share with you some best practices that could quickly bear fruit.

Are you available [Date] at [Time] for a 20-minute call?

Thanks,

[Your name]

3. Cold email requesting feedback

Purpose: [First name], need your expertise on [Subject]!

Hello [First name],

I am [Your name] from the company [Your Business Name]. We are currently developing a new [Product/Service] to help businesses like [Company Name] at [Benefit].

Your feedback as a [Function] would be very valuable to me to ensure that we best meet the needs of the market.

Would you agree to answer 3 quick questions by email? Or we could discuss it over the phone if you prefer.

Your opinion would be really useful to us and I would love to have your feedback.

What do you say?

Good for you,

[Your name]

4. Cold reminder email

Subject: Re: [Subject of the 1st email]

Hello [First name],

I am taking the liberty of coming back to you following my email last week about [Topic].

I wanted to share with you this case study that illustrates how we helped [Similar Business] with [Achieved Result] with our [Product/Service Name] solution. You will find the document in the attachment.

Does this inspire you to find ways to optimize [Company name]?

If you are interested in the subject, do not hesitate to offer me a time for a quick exchange.

Sincerely,

[Your name]

5. Cold reactivation email

Subject: [First name], still interested in [Subject]?

Hello [First name],

We had exchanged views last [month] about [Topic], but we did not have the opportunity to make the discussion a reality.

I just wanted to hear from you and see if [Benefit from your solution] was still a priority for [Company name] right now.

We have just released a new feature [Detail of the novelty] that may be of interest to you in this context.

Let me know if you want to know more or if you would prefer me to get back to you later.

Good day,

[Your name]

These cold-emailing are to be adapted according to your sector. These are just general examples.

With our solution, Hublead customizes and adapts each message to make your prospect feel unique.

Hublead: The Solution to Optimize Your Cold Emailing Campaigns

While the best practices mentioned above are essential, relying on a specialized tool like Hublead can significantly improve the performance of your cold email campaigns.

Introduction to the Hublead tool

Hublead is an automation tool that allows you to find the right leads, personalize your messages at scale, and accurately track your results.

With its advanced search algorithm, Hublead identifies the most relevant leads according to your criteria (function, sector, company size, etc.) and automatically finds their contact details.

No more wasting time manually looking for the emails of your targets!

How Hublead finds the perfect leads

The secret of Hublead lies in its ability to target with extreme precision the prospects that match your ideal persona. Its intelligent search engine aggregates data from multiple sources (LinkedIn, professional databases, websites, etc.) to create highly qualified lists.

You define your criteria, Hublead is in charge of finding the profiles that match and verifying the validity of the email addresses. So you can focus on creating your email templates, knowing that you are talking to the right people.

Key features

In addition to its powerful lead search tool, Hublead offers numerous features to facilitate and optimize your campaigns:

- Large-scale personalization of your emails thanks to dynamic fields

- Programming of automated emailing scenarios with reminders

- A/B tests to identify the most efficient templates

- Monitoring of key metrics (opening rate, response rate, etc.) with detailed reporting

- Integration with your CRM for easy lead follow-up

Case study: The results achieved by Hublead customers

Businesses that use Hublead for cold email campaigns see on average:

- A 30% increase in their opening rates

- A doubling of their response rate

- A time saving of 5 hours per week on the search for prospects

- A 20% increase in their sales

This is the case, for example, of the company Let's Go Fitness, which was able to generate 10 new qualified appointments in just one month thanks to Hublead, where their manual methods were struggling to deliver results.

By automating lead identification and email personalization, Hublead allows businesses of all sizes to deploy cold email campaigns at scale, without sacrificing message quality and relevance.

Hublead is thus a valuable ally to boost its prospecting and generate more leads and sales.

Now let's move on to the penultimate section of the article: the FAQ on cold emailing.

Cold Emailing FAQ

Is cold emailing legal?

Yes, as long as you respect certain rules.

In France, the RGPD regulates the sending of commercial emails. In particular, you must obtain the explicit consent of the recipients, provide them with an option to unsubscribe and include mandatory legal notices. Also remember to check if your target is on the Bloctel list.

In Switzerland, the Federal Data Protection Act (LPD) regulates the sending of commercial emails.

How many emails should you send and how often?

There is no one-size-fits-all rule, it depends on your target and your objective. In general, it is recommended to send between 3 and 5 emails per sequence, spaced a few days apart. The idea is to follow up enough to maximize your chances of response, without spamming your prospects' inboxes. Analyze your engagement rates to adjust the pace if necessary.

How to avoid ending up in spam?

Several best practices can limit the risk of your cold emails being classified as spam:

- Use a professional email address with a proprietary domain name (no @gmail .com)

- Personalize your email subject and body for each recipient

- Avoid “spammy” keywords like “Free”, “Promo”, “Special Offer”...

- Include a clear unsubscribe option in each email

- Limit the size of your images and give priority to text

- Send your emails in small batches so as not to arouse the suspicion of spam filters

What metrics should you follow to measure performance?

The main KPIs of a cold email campaign are:

- The opening rate:% of emails opened compared to emails delivered

- The response rate:% of recipients who answered your email

- The conversion rate:% of recipients who have carried out the desired action (making an appointment, selling...)

- The unsubscribe rate:% of recipients who unsubscribed following your email
- The click rate:% of clicks in relation to the number of emails sent

Follow these metrics over time and for each email template, in order to identify areas for improvement. A tool like Hublead will provide you with detailed reports to precisely manage the performance of your campaigns in order to optimize.

Cold Emailing: the lethal weapon to ACCELERATE your GROWTH in 2024

At the end of this article, you have the essential keys to conduct effective cold emailing campaigns in 2024. By applying the best practices detailed here, you will be able to capture the attention of your prospects, initiate a dialogue and generate new business opportunities.

Remember that a successful cold email must be personalized, relevant and provide value for the recipient. Take care of your subject, show that you understand the challenges of your target audience and offer a clear and engaging CTA.

To go further in optimizing your campaigns, consider using a dedicated tool like Hublead. Its ability to identify the right prospects and automate your email sequences will save you precious time and increase your response rates.

Finally, keep in mind that cold emailing is one channel among others. Its effectiveness will be maximum within the framework of an integrated multi-channel strategy, combining marketing automation, social selling, events... The objective: to multiply the points of contact with your targets to accelerate their conversion. (Linkedin and/or email)

So, ready to take action and boost your prospecting thanks to cold emailing?

Create your first campaign now by following our advice, and monitor your metrics to optimize it continuously. With practice and the right tools, cold emailing will quickly become one of your best lead generation levers!