How to become a cold email ninja with Heather Morgan
There is power in simply asking for something. That’s what Heather Morgan discovered when she was hired to do biz dev at a mobile games company after leaving her job as an economist at World Bank. With no knowledge of biz dev or mobile games, Heather impressed her CEO by successfully connecting with big name executives in the gaming industry, including the CEO of Guitar Hero.
Fast forward to today and she’s now known in Silicon Valley for her expertise in cold email strategy, and has helped 450+ companies grow using cold email. We loved Heather’s advice and honesty (and her awesome Crowdcasts!) so we invited her to Talks to share some advice. Read on to learn what she shared.
7 keys to using cold emails to grow your business
“You have to be really careful how you’re speaking so that it doesn’t alienate your audience. You have to think more about how do these people talk with their colleagues, what terms do they use with their colleagues, what KPIs are they measured on, what will get them a raise, what would get them fired. These are the kinds of things you should be thinking about.”
- The best emails sound like you’re writing to a friend. The secret to copy that gets results is to write like you’re emailing a friend. The goal is to make it less sales-y and more conversational so you can earn your reader’s trust.
- Don’t make it about you. You’ve probably heard this before but it bears repeating: the best way to get your email dumped into the spam folder is to talk too much about yourself. The key is to make it all about them. What problems do they want to solve in their work and life? The more you focus on being of service, the better your results.
- Reduce the jargon. Yes, I’m talking to you, startup folks. You will bore and disengage your reader if you don’t de-jargon your messaging. Instead, try this trick: do some digging and look at blog comments on sites they love, messages in forums, and reviews of competitors’ products by customers like them. Then make a list of what words you commonly see. This is the language that will bring your emails to life.
- Focus on one thing per email. It’s counterintuitive, but the data doesn’t lie. Heather has conducted countless A/B tests over the years and has found that you are much more likely to get a response if you focus on one benefit, use case or pain point per email. Why? One theory is that a list feels like a marketing message, but one main idea sounds more human. Whatever the reason, test it out for yourself.
- End with a call-to-action. How you hook your reader and how you persuade them are up to you. But at the end of your email, your ask must be clear. That being said, the earlier your email in a campaign (or the less trusting you think your reader might be), the “softer” your CTA should be. Instead of asking them to sign up for your product, try asking them if they have 15 minutes for a free consultation.
- Email campaigns should have 5–8 emails for real results. A third of total responses tend to come from emails 5 through 8. The first few may win you the “low-hanging fruit” but emails 6 and after will be the ones that can capture the readers who may be interested but too busy to respond at first or too skeptical until they see the right messaging. Remember, though, to switch up your main idea and calls-to-action in each email to cover more ground.
- Understand your data. If you’re getting more than 4% bounce rate, you may need to check what tool you’re using or clean your email list. If your open rates are below 35%, your subject lines need work. And if your response rate is below 10%, your email content should be rethought. However, anything between 10–35% is pretty good — though it depends on your audience and your emails.
The most important thing, emphasizes Heather, is to test your results to adjust your strategy. Only you can know which of these methods work for your business, so try them out—and share your results with us. :)
