They say email marketing is dead.
But they probably don’t know that the number of e-mail users worldwide stood at a record of 4.26 billion in 2022. And with so many users, the potential to connect, engage, and grow through outreach email marketing is enormous.
Email outreach goes beyond just sending messages – it’s connecting with people far and wide and opening up all sorts of new chances to connect.
Today’s blog post explores outreach email marketing. Let’s discover a vibrant, cost-effective way to spread your message, understand your audience, and grow your revenue.
What is outreach email marketing?
Outreach email marketing is when you send emails to people you want to reach out to, like potential customers or people you want to work with. Typically, these are cold emails, which means that the people you’re emailing have not heard from you before.
You write outreach emails to draw their attention and make them interested in your services and products: buying something or joining a project.
📚 Read: How much does outreach cost? The 2024 outreach pricing guide.
source: Designs.ai
Is cold email outreach illegal?
It’s not illegal, but there are strict rules you need to follow.
One big rule comes from Europe, and it’s GDPR/General Data Protection Regulation. It claims you can’t just send emails to anyone without a good reason or without their permission. Also, you have to make sure they can easily say, “no more emails, please,” if they want to. And not following the GDPR law costs fines.
CAN-SPAM is something like the American GDPR. It specifies that you have to be honest about who you are when you send these emails. Provide a valid address so people can find you easily, and let them easily opt out of further emails if they wish.
Be respectful and clear about why you’re emailing someone. And always give them a simple way to get out of getting more emails from you if they’re not interested.
Follow the laws to avoid trouble and keep your emails from ending up in spam folders.
📚 Read more on permission-based email marketing.
The benefits of outreach email marketing
Getting attention from your prospects and a bigger likelihood of more conversion are not the only benefits here. There are more ⬇️
#1 Cost-effectiveness
With outreach email marketing, you can reach more people, spend less, and still make a big impact.
You don’t need a big budget to kick off outreach campaigns. A well-written cold email can get you right in front of your audience without costing like a paid ad campaign.
It’s getting more value for less money.
On top of that, something that makes it even more cost-effective is when you use cold email outreach software like Woodpecker.
#2 Automation
With automation, sending cold outreach emails becomes less of a chore and more of a simple process.
The technology lets marketers schedule and send emails and ensures that successful outreach campaigns can run smoothly without constant manual intervention.
This part of your outreach strategy saves you time and effort. You write your emails, set the schedule, and automation takes over.
It sends your messages at the best times and makes your campaigns succeed with less work.
source: Designs.ai
#3 Personalization at scale
You have the power to turn compelling emails into a powerful tool in digital marketing and sales. The key to success is to reach out to relevant prospects and personalize the message.
When you tailor each email, especially the subject lines, to match the interests and needs of your target audience, engagement skyrockets.
Your message stands out in a crowded inbox. With personalization, you speak directly to the recipient and make each email feel like it was created just for them.
Also, it boosts the chances that your emails will not only be opened but also acted upon.
#4 High return on investment
In a cold email outreach strategy, you’re greeting new people who might like your product or service. Best of all, it doesn’t have to be expensive.
Cold emails are a big deal in digital marketing because they help you generate leads without spending a lot of money. You write a message, send it out, and wait for the magic to happen.
All you need is a basic subscription to a cold email too such as Woodpecker – which starts at $29 per month. This can get you thousands in new deals.
#5 Measurable results
Speaking of results – you might notice that your email outreach campaigns are becoming more powerful, you can see the numbers growing. How?
From the moment you send out your first batch of personalized emails, you’re gathering data. You can track who opens your emails, who clicks on links, and who sends them straight to the spam folder.
With a tool such as Woodpecker, you keep your finger on the pulse of your campaigns. You know exactly which emails drive conversions and which ones should be scrapped.
Best practices for outreach email marketing
As previously mentioned, sending some messages is not enough to get the results. What to do, then? Follow our tips.
01 Create a list of targeted prospects
It’s one of the best practices for any successful email outreach campaign.
Creating an outreach list involves identifying your target audience with precision, as you’re searching for people who will genuinely benefit from your product or service.
Once you pinpoint who these individuals or businesses are, the next crucial step is to find direct contact details. It’s a bit of research to verify that you’re reaching out to the right person with the right message.
You can build your own lists with careful research or you can use services such as Hunter.io or Zoominfo to acquire targeted lists of users to reach out to.
02 Use cold email software
Cold email software is a key part of a solid strategy to generate leads.
It’s a helpful robot friend for sending out marketing emails that handle a lot of the work for you. Want to make sure you remember to send follow-up emails? Software for cold email automation has your back.
It can send them without human intervention, so you never miss a chance to connect with people, gain potential customer trust, and increase brand awareness.
It tracks who got your emails, who took a peek, and who clicked on something interesting.
Looking for a tool like this? You may want to try Woodpecker out.
Woodpecker helps you:
➡️ Automatically send follow-up emails. You keep the conversation going without having to remember to check in manually.
➡️ Personalize emails at scale. You can make each email feel like a one-on-one chat, even when you’re reaching out to a lot of people.
➡️ Validate email addresses. Woodpecker checks your contacts to make sure your emails reach someone. You’re not shouting into the void or sending to non-existent addresses.
➡️ Measure the success of your campaigns. You get to see how well your emails are doing. Are people opening them? Clicking through? Woodpecker shows you, so you can do more of what works.
Adding Woodpecker to your toolkit makes your email outreach campaigns smarter and more productive.
03 Use cold outreach templates and personalize them
An email template is a blueprint for your messages.
If you cannot find any appealing one online, go ahead and create your template. Tweak it, and add your spice, especially in the subject line, to make sure it’s going to hook recipients right when they see it.
They save you time because you’re not starting from scratch every time you sit down to send a cold outreach email. But the magic happens when you customize them. You change bits here and there to make sure it speaks directly to the person getting it.
Every email feels personal and tailored, but you’re not doing a ton of extra work each time. Your subject line catches prospects’ attention, and the rest of your email reels them in.
04 Be short and to the point
Are you planning to launch a cold email outreach campaign? Remember, you’re stepping into someone’s busy day.
Whether you’re reaching out to potential relevant prospects or existing customers, the goal is to be noticed fast and make your point clear. You want to spark interest or drive more sales without making them scroll through paragraphs.
Just respect the reader’s time – keep it short, make it snappy, and watch as this simple strategy helps boost your connections and more sales.
Want to know some numbers?
- Between 6-10 words is the optimal length for a subject line.
- 33% of email recipients open emails based on their subject lines.
- 2-3 follow-up emails are recommended, no more.
- It’s better not to go beyond 150 words in your email copy (however, there’s no strict rule for that, longer emails can be successful as well. It all depends on the content value).
04 Create follow-up emails
Often, it takes some follow-ups to get better results (but no more than 3). When you send that first outreach email, they may not have noticed. People are busy, and even with a catchy subject line, your email might get lost in the shuffle.
Each one of your follow-up emails is a new chance to catch their eye and remind them of why your message matters.
You need to do more than just send marketing emails. Your follow-up should feel fresh and offer something new. Maybe you modify the subject line or add a new piece of information to keep things interesting. You can consider A/B testing for this.
05 Measure your result and split-test different aspects of your emails for the best conversion rates
This is where you get to see what’s working and what’s not. You’ve got your target audience, and you’ve planned your marketing strategy, but how do you know if it’s succeeding? That’s where measurement and testing come in.
First off, keep an eye on how your emails perform. Are people opening them? Are they clicking through to your website? This data gives you clues on what grabs your audience’s attention and what might need a change.
Then, there’s split testing or A/B testing.
You try out different versions of your emails to see which one works best. You might change up the subject line, the email’s layout, or even the call to action.
The goal is to refine your marketing strategy based on real feedback. With each test, you learn more about what makes your target audience tick and how to write outreach emails that lead to the best conversion rates.
Conclusion
Each email outreach campaign you launch is a step towards understanding your audience better and sharing your message.
It’s like having a chat with millions of prospects, one email at a time.
Feeling ready to jump in and send those emails? Check out Woodpecker. It’s the tool you need to make your email outreach campaigns fly high without getting your feathers ruffled.
Give it a go – sign up and see your outreach emails take off!