Find out how you can write effective cold emails using your Gmail mass email tool and our tips

Sending cold emails for sales purposes has long been an effective way to garner new leads. But, that does not mean that cold emailing is stagnant or that the same rules from yesteryear still apply. These days, people are receiving more emails than ever before, meaning sales emails have to do more to stand out. If you are starting your first mass cold email campaign, then you’ve made it to the right place!

Today, we’re going to be discussing how to write the best and most compelling emails that will maximize your engagement and responses. We’re going to be taking a step-by-step look at how to optimize every element of your email and make sure that you are making the right decisions to run a successful campaign. Plus, we’re going to be going over how you can use a Gmail mass email tool to maximize your reach. Let’s get started!

What is a Cold Email?

Before we start exploring how to best utilize your Gmail mass email tool, we should define what a cold email is and what a cold email is not

If you haven’t used cold email to grow your sales leads and grow business relationships, you’re missing out! A cold email is any sales email sent to a prospected address. In layman’s terms, it means you are starting a conversation with a potential sales lead. A prospected address is an address that you have found publicly online. These addresses are what will build out your address list and allow you to send your cold emails to large groups of people at once with the help of your Gmail mass email tool. 

When you craft effective cold emails to send to these addresses, you can start building strong business relationships that will help you further your company’s mission.

How Has the Cold Email Process Changed?

Cold email best practices change all the time. Luckily, there are Gmail mass email tools to help you keep up

When cold email began, it was used exclusively for sales pitches. While it is still used in this way today, the purpose of cold emails has vastly expanded. Before the advent of critical assets like Gmail mass email tools, cold emails were sent as generic messages to large groups of people. As these messages flooded people’s inboxes, recipients began to recognize that these generic messages were not really intended for them, and started to report these messages as spam. 

So, cold emails had to evolve to stay compelling to recipients. Over the years, that target has moved considerably, making cold emails far more segmented and personalized. A lot of this development is thanks to the Gmail mass email tools that have made it far easier for companies to send out eye-catching and relevant messages. 

These days, mass cold emails are designed to feel more personal and are intended to build a relationship with a prospect—as opposed to outright selling. If you try to send a cold email using old methods, your message will likely get marked as spam. Think about it, if you received an email with an explicit sales offer as the subject line, then you are bound to assume this is a mass-produced message and mark the message as spam. As all mass cold emailers know, getting marked as spam will considerably hurt your campaign.

The way to avoid getting marked as spam is through segmentation and personalization. By segmenting your email list and using a Gmail mass email tool to automatically personalize your messages, you can start creating sales leads and building relationships with your prospects. If you want to find out how all of this works and how you can start sending better cold emails today, keep reading!

Step 1: The “From” Line

Before you start using a Gmail mass email tool to send your messages, you should first take a look at the “from” line in the message

Our first step is one of the most frequently omitted—taking time to edit the “from” line. This is an often overlooked, yet powerful strategy to build trust in your prospects. The first thing people will notice when reading an email is who the email is from. If the sender name looks like it was sent as part of a mass email blast, then it’s more likely that your message will go unopened or end up in the spam folder.

This is a tricky subject because your prospect does not know who you are, so you need to use the “from” line to make them feel comfortable. You can even edit your “from” line depending on the campaign or the campaign segment, as there may be certain groups that respond well to certain “from” lines. For general best practices, you want to make sure that you are using someone’s first name. If a recipient doesn’t see a first name, they will likely assume that they’ve received a copy & paste message sent from a corporation—not exactly a compelling first impression on your audience. You can use any combination of first name, last name, company name, or job title, but it is important to make sure that the address looks natural, friendly, and legitimate.

There is no one-size-fits-all kind of solution for your “from” line, but there are a few more things to consider before you start drafting your first cold email. Let’s take a look:

• Consistency is Key – Make sure the “from” line matches the tone of the rest of your message.
• Imagine You Are Receiving the Message – Write a “from” line that you would like to open.
• Write for Your Prospects – Think about the industry or audience you are trying to target and try to predict what would cause them to trust your “from” line.

Once you’ve taken these considerations into account, it’s time to move on to the next step, your subject line!

Step 2: The Subject Line

Don’t hit “send” on your Gmail mass email tool until you’ve written a compelling subject line

After your prospects see who the email is from, what is the next thing they’ll assess? The subject line! Writing a compelling cold email subject line is one of the most important—if not the most important—aspects of writing a cold email that your prospects will want to open. 

Making a mistake in your subject line means that your message will most likely go unopened or end up in the spam folder. This is your chance to encourage your prospect to open the message by creating interest. But, how can you create interest in the few characters allotted for a subject line? Here are a few common rules you should keep in mind when writing your subject line for your next cold email campaign:

• Find Value – If you want your audience to engage with your message, you can’t rely on good faith—you need to offer something. Make it clear in your subject line how your recipient can benefit from interacting with your message. 
• Personalization – We’ve talked about personalization briefly, and we’ll discuss more later on, but for now it is important to mention that you need to personalize your subject line. When people see their name in the subject line, they are far more likely to open your message. It also shows that your email is actually for the recipient—not just for anyone. 
• Keep it Natural – Since we all receive so many mass emails, it is easy to spot language that sounds like it is coming from a corporation—or worse, a robot. Because overly formal or choppy language is a signal of a depersonalized, mass-produced message, you need to make sure your subject line sounds like it is coming from a human. 
• Relevance –  It doesn’t matter if you write the most compelling subject line of all time, if there is a disconnect between your subject line and message content, your message will likely get reported as spam. Writing a misleading subject line is similar to “click-bait” which is a common—and deceptive—tactic to get clicks online. However, for mass emails, it is always best to keep your message straightforward and to the point. 

Using your Gmail mass email tool, you can test your subject lines before sending all of your messages to see which ones get a higher open or reply rate. A/B testing is just one of the many powerful features included with most Gmail mass email tools. 

Step 3: Drafting Your Cold Email Introduction

Maximize your open and reply rates by writing an attention-grabbing intro to your message

Once you’ve come up with a compelling enough “from” line and subject line, it’s time to move on to the body of the email. When a recipient opens your message, you only have a few seconds to grab their attention and make them want to interact or reply to your message. So, before you can really get to the meat of your subject matter, you need to prime your audience with a clever and compelling introduction. Here are a few things that you need to keep in mind while you’re writing your email introduction:

• Keep it Brief – Your email introduction should not be more than 2-3 sentences long. If your intro is too long, your prospect will likely get bored and move on to another, more enticing message in their inbox.
• Be Specific – Just like when you are writing your subject line, it is important to directly address the recipient and let them know you know who they are. This is the point in your email where personalization is the most important. In this section you want to use a little bit of flattery, but not so much that it comes off as pandering. For example, you can include a personalized sentence about one of your prospect’s recent accomplishments. This is a good way to let them know that you know who they are, you have a specific purpose in sending your message, and you are interested in their work.
• Don’t Overdo Personalization – Though personalization is a powerful way to gain your audience’s trust, there is a limit. You want to be selective about which personalization elements you use in your first few sentences. If you use too many personalization elements, you risk putting off your recipient—or worst of all, you might creep them out.

Now that we’ve covered your introduction, it’s time to move on to the body of your message. 

Step 4: Your Email Body

After you’ve completed your intro, it’s time to start writing your body paragraphs and testing them using your Gmail mass email tool

Now that you’ve used all of your best tactics to grab your audience’s attention, it’s time to move on to the body of the email. This is where you make your pitch, but be careful—people can still click out of your message if they feel that your message is too aggressive, too corporate, or they feel that it isn’t relevant enough. Let’s examine a few ways that you can make sure that your email body gets your point across, without putting off your prospect.

• Don’t “Sell” too Hard – As we’ve been discussing, people are more adept than ever at identifying when you’re coming on too strong. Prospects will be immediately skeptical if you are too insistent that they respond to your message or visit your website. To create sales copy that doesn’t come off obviously as sales copy, imagine that you are asking a friend for a favor. You are communicating the desired action, but not in a way that seems pushy or like you are a salesperson going door to door.
• Focus on the Prospect – When writing your body for your cold email, it can be tempting to focus on everything that your company has to offer. However, this can quickly become a sales pitch, which is not a good way to start a relationship with your audience. Instead, you need to focus on how they will benefit from clicking or responding. Remember to focus on how they stand to benefit, as opposed to bragging about your product or service.

As always, the tone and style of the message body must match the subject line and introduction. If you have trouble assessing your own writing, it is helpful to get a second set of eyes to assess if the body paragraphs match with other elements of the message.

Step 5: Your Call to Action

The last step before you hit send on your Gmail mass email tool is to write a clear and concise call to action

Now that we’ve taken care of the “from” line, subject line, intro, and body of your cold email, it’s time to talk about the call to action. Your call to action will express exactly what you want your prospect to do. Depending on your industry and the intent of your campaign, there are a lot of different actions you can encourage your audience to take. For example, you might want your audience to visit your website, download your app, give you feedback, schedule a meeting, or some other action. Though there are endless possibilities for what your call to action might be, there are a few tried and true rules to follow:

• Keep it Brief –  Your call to action should not be more than a sentence.
• Make it Clear – At all costs, avoid vague language when writing your call to action. It is super important to be as direct as possible so your recipients know what to do after they’ve read through your message.
• Consider Time – Make sure that your call to action is something that can be done quickly. If your call to action seems like it will take a long time to complete, you may not get the results you want.
• Make it Easy – Your call to action should not be difficult or confusing to complete. After all, when people check their email, they are usually only able to devote a few seconds per message. So, when writing your call to action, make sure that you aren’t asking too much of your audience.

Just like you did with your subject lines, you can A/B test different calls to action by using your Gmail mass email tool. By testing, you can feel confident that you are sending the most effective message possible. After all, cold emailing is all about getting positive engagement! So, to avoid wasting time, we recommend testing different parts of your email to make sure you are sending out the best option possible.

We hope you feel more confident writing cold emails! Remember, cold emails are not an exact science and it could take a few tries before you really hit the mark. Luckily, we have Gmail mass email tools to help improve each campaign. Good luck and happy emailing!