Hyperbound's Cold Email 101

All you need to know as a Founder about Cold Sales Emails

Atul Raghunathan and Sriharsha Guduguntla

Jul 03, 2023

A lot of founders have been asking us for simple actionable cold email tips that you can employ in your own outbound campaign today. There is a lot of contradictory and confusing information out there, so we wanted to gather the most relevant stats and resources for founders in one place! We bolded all the key bits for you.

This was collected from speaking to dozens of founders and sales leaders, and backing up their anecdotes and opinions with research where available.

Outline:

Why Cold Sales Emails
3 Unintuitive Gotcha’s about Email Outbound
1. Effects of Mail Privacy Protection
2. Inbox Warmup
3. Email Authentication
Outbound Quality Matters (Personalization Too)
1. Why Personalize?
2. Personalization Strategies to Mix and Match
Cold Email Content Tips
1. Email Subject Line
2. Email Body
3. Segmentation and Personalization
Cold Email Campaign Tips
1. Cold Campaign Funnel Metrics
2. Touchpoints
3. 30-30-50 Rule
4. Open-Rate Stats
5. Email Timing
Sources
1. Hard Research
2. Articles

Why Cold Sales Emails?

You probably don’t need us to tell you this!

77% of B2B buyers prefer to be contacted over email – more than double any other channel
87% of B2B marketers use email channel for distributing content
Email is the first check of the day for 58% of users
People still spend on average ~3 hours on their phone each day, and email is the best way to capture their attention
Email is alive and kicking and has an average ROI of 4,200% on targeted campaigns

3 Unintuitive Gotcha’s about Email Outbound

1. Effects of Mail Privacy Protection

This is something you should know when analyzing your open rates and reply rates, especially if your audience predominantly uses Apple Mail

Apple released a feature that prefetches media in emails, this triggers the user’s open pixel and makes most email tracking irrelevant, leading to misleading numbers for you
If your open rate to reply rate stats don’t match up, this could be why
One upside is that you know that the email address is valid. In general, you should be more open to following up. Your prospect might not be leaving you on read!
https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/email-marketing-benchmarks/

2. Inbox Warmup

Inbox warmup is the act of starting with a small number of emails and gradually increasing the number of emails you send from a new email address to establish a positive reputation with email providers

Avoid spam triggers and target engaged recipients. The goal is to:
- avoid being marked as spam
- increase the likelihood of emails being delivered to the recipient's inbox

3. Email Authentication

Email authentication verifies if an email is sent from the domain it claims to be from

Spammers and phishers use fake "from" addresses to trick people into opening their messages, clicking on links, or downloading attachments that can harm their computer or steal their personal information
Methods such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC prevent email fraud and protect people from malicious messages

Outbound Quality Matters (Personalization too)

1. Why Personalize?

Personalized cold emails can increase response rates and engagement from potential clients in B2B sales if you tailor the message to the specific needs and interests of the recipient to encourage them to take action
Personalization can help establish trust and credibility with the recipient
Demonstrating that the sender has done their homework and understands their business is critical for smaller companies, especially startups, to get the attention needed to close deals

2. Personalization Strategies to Mix and Match

Send a personalized video of yourself speaking to them directly
Send a customized slide deck
Find uncommon shared experiences
- A conference you have both attended
- Alumni of same school (this one has worked for us well, as Cal and CMU alumni)
Make a joke that they will definitely understand, but the general public would not
- i.e. Joking about cereal sales at Airbnb
- i.e. Asking a google employee about their lobster lunches
Do your research and compliment them
- Look at their most recent social media posts (LinkedIn, Twitter, Medium, Substack, etc.) or read their comments on others’ posts
- Read their newsletters/blogs/books and point out specific relevant parts, mention that you signed up for those
- Listen to their podcasts/youtube videos or get ahold of the transcripts to read
- Congratulate them on a recent promotion, recent/upcoming job anniversary, a job change, or a new product launch
Ask them a very involved question about something they have done
Ultimately, make them feel like you’ve spent at least 30 minutes internet stalking them
- make them question how you know the thing you have found, and want to ask you about it

Email Content Tips

Now for the best part!

1. Email Subject Line

Your two goals in a subject line are to

Get clicks
Get the target in the positive/right mood to respond to the email

Open rate is dictated entirely by the subject line

Open rate by the number of words in the subject line:
- 6-10 words (21%)
- 0-5 words (16%)
- 11-15 words (14%)
- 6-20 words (12%)

Personalized/custom subject lines
- Personalized subject lines increase email open rates by at least 50%, and up to 100% depending on quality
- Use natural language in the subject line, as a sentence helps
- Ensure the subject line sounds natural when spoken
- Emotional content has proven to be 94% more effective than rational content
- Find a personalized correlation, such as if your sales target is a Steph Curry fan and you're selling an ad-targeting tool, use "We build Steph Curry-like precision for your targeted ads" as the subject line
- Examples (many more here)
  - Safe email subject examples:
    - “I have leads to send you” (offer value to the recipient)
    - “I found you through X person” (Social Proof)
    - “X’s Friend/coworker reaching out” (A personal favorite of mine, Social Proof)
    - “I love your initiative on X” (show due diligence and effort)
    - “I’m also a Cal alumni building X” (build a connection immediately)
  - Risky but successful examples from founders
    - “Thursday Meeting at 2:00”
    - “This is my last email” (very useful at the end of a drip campaign, has significantly higher rate of response)
Template Subject Lines (if no data with which to personalize)
- Specific: Define what you expect, Determine who will do it
- Measurable: Including numbers in a subject line increases open rates by an average of 57%
- Attainable: Don’t be unreasonable, promise things you can give
- Relevant: Relevant to the prospect being reached out to
  - ** Attention-grabbing subjects are good, but it is important to not completely detract from the content in the email body
- Time Bound: Create a sense of urgency by setting a deadline (i.e. “This is my last email”)

2. Email Body

Your goal in the body is to:

Have the user understand why you are talking to them
Make them interested enough to respond
Start a healthy relationship

Basic structure advice

Intent
- I am emailing you because:
- Social proof is excellent here
- Make this its own sentence
SCIPAB
- Situation - Start by setting the context for your email, describing the why you are reaching out to them, and the painpoints they may be facing.
- Complication - Introduce a complication or challenge that the recipient may be experiencing, which is related to the situation you described in the first step.
- Implication - Explain the potential impact of the complication on the recipient's business or goals.
- Position of your solution - Introduce your solution to the complication, positioning it as the best way to overcome the challenge.
- Benefit - Explain the benefits of your solution, focusing on how it will help the recipient overcome the challenge and achieve their goals.
- Call to Action - End with a clear call to action, such as a request for a meeting or a phone call, to encourage the recipient to take the next step.

Depending on your market, asking for a meeting on the first email can lead to lower overall conversion rates (best way is to A/B test it yourself)
If you have a vague call to action, it causes people to have to think about what they have to do next, which results in reply drop off
If you have to request a meeting, be very clear about what it is for, specify solving their painpoint

3. Segmentation and Personalization

Segment emails by persona type, including but not limited to
- C-Level
- VP
- Director
- Manager
- Individual Contributor
- Conference/event they attended
Optimize tone and sentiment for the segment and the customer's age
Don’t be transactional and appeal to their job title
Remember that you're writing to people, even if your targets are brands
Nice to haves
- Short email signature
  - Professional, with your contact details and website
Hacks for increased response rate:
- Pop culture references based on age can be effective
- Weather in their locality
- Restaurants you like around them
- Alumni of the same school (we personally use this one a lot)

Cold Email Campaign Tips

1. Cold Campaign Funnel Metrics to Track

From top to bottom:

Delivery Rate: # of emails delivered (not spam) / total emails sent
Open rate: # of unique customers who opened emails / # of unique customers who received emails
Link click rates
- Click-through rate (CTR)
  - percentage of recipients who clicked on one or more links in your email
  - For example, track people visiting your website through the email you sent.
  - CTR = Number of People Who Clicked A Link / Number of Emails Delivered Successfully x 100
- Click-to Open Rate (CTOR)
  - percentage of people who opened your email who then clicked a link within that email
  - CTOR = Number of unique email opens / Number of unique email clicks x 100
Response Rate: # of responses (any response) / # of emails delivered
Conversion Rate: # of leads that do call to action step in the email / # of emails delivered
Close rate: # of leads that actually turn into revenue / # of emails delivered
ROI: revenue attributed to email campaign / dollars spent on email to leads

2. Touchpoints

This is the number of times you email a single customer (including follow-ups)

You should have no more than 7 touch points and no less than 3. Following up 3-4 times will earn you the large reply rate you're looking for. No matter what, you should always follow up after your first email
80% sales require an average of 5 follow-ups
In a review of over 20m+ outbound sales emails, the Woodpecker team found that cold email campaigns with 4-7 follow-ups had a reply rate of 27%
Mix mediums, phone calls, emails, LinkedIn InMail
Optimize the time between touchpoints experimentally

3. 30-30-50 rule

A minimum open rate is at least 30%
A minimum reply rate is between 30-50% of the opened emails
A minimum conversion rate (them doing the email’s call to action) is 50% of the replies

*Email statistics across continents (Source: Smart Insights)*

4. Open rate stats

Open rate is dictated entirely by the subject line
Open rate has trend by industry https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/email-marketing-benchmarks/

5. Email Timing

Respond to responses fast to ensure leads stick
The variance between days (on which to send emails) is not as pronounced as it used to be in previous years. Monday used to be the clear winner, but now is just slightly better than other weekdays.

Sources

1. Hard Research

2. Articles

A guest post by

Sriharsha Guduguntla

Building Hyperbound // YC Founder S23

Atul’s Substack

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