A cold e-mail is a part of the mail based marketing-sales campaign which implies the sending of unsolicited e-mail to a network of a few thousand receivers without having them in their contact list.
While this way of marketing is highly recognized, it has its own fair share of criticism as most of the time it ends up being spammed. However, it should be noted that when executed with proper precautions and sent on a personalized one to one basis, it boosts the growth of a business.
Lastly, cold e-mails tend to aim a specific set of users and the aim is to get into a business conversation with that individual without promoting a product or a service.
Why email campaigning is important in content marketing?
Email marketing is often considered as the essence of content marketing as it provides marketers with a personal way of reaching your target customers.
With 2.5 billion users, email campaigns are considered to be the cheapest and most effective way of preparing personalized marketing strategies, based on the likes and preferences of the customer.
One of its highest significance is it is an effective and inexpensive approach that allows gaining more reach at a limited expense as compared to the spending over the traditional marketing approach.
Additionally, email campaigns help marketers to get an insight over the improvement and effectiveness of the strategy via various charts and figures.
Why it is necessary to check before sending a cold email campaign?
Checking a cold email before sending them to the suggested recipients is one of the most necessary steps that should be considered in a mail marketing campaign.
While you are proofreading a set content, it is highly expected that you might come across a better idea at the grammatical and textual errors which might increase the chances of success of the campaign, avoiding it to ending up in spam.
Often, users refer to a singular checklist before finalizing the mail, usually referred to as the VESC. The VESC is an acronym that represents the Validate Prospect list, Ensure Clear CTA, Set Automated Followup, and finally the Check Email Spam score.
One should always revise the list of the audience over the contact list before sending the final mail. Coming over to the second part, the strategist of the mails should always ensure that it ends up with a CTA (Call To Action) button for improving the customer actions towards the mail.
Another interesting thing to check before setting the mail is to check for the automated followup option for improving the client’s reaction to the product. Lastly, it is always advisable to check the e-mail spam score before finally sending it as a cold mail campaign.
15 Deliverability Checks to Remember:
As content marketing is an important part of your business, every strategy to grow the business smoothly is also important. A cold email campaign is considered as an essential part of content marketing. Thus, the campaign needs to be performed smoothly as well as without any mistake.
We get you covered on that note. Here are 15 deliverability checks you should always remember before initiating a cold email campaign. Check out the following:
1. Do not use all uppercase in the body or subject line of the email
The first and foremost essential deliverability check to remember while carrying out your cold marketing campaign is to avoid the use of all uppercase letters in the body or subject line of the email.
You should never be thinking of using uppercase because honestly, ‘IT’S LIKE YELLING’. This is one of the riskiest tricks to go with as overusing capitalization in your subject lines will harm the essence of the mail and makes it look shady.
Another big reason why the use of capitalization is prohibited is that it triggers spam filters. Lastly, it is to be noted that by capitalizing even one full word in your subject lines significantly increases the chances of the entire mail to end up to spam without ever reaching the eyes of the recipient.
2. Write the email in a simple form
Writers should always make a point to write the email in a simple form. By writing the subject of the matter in a simplified manner increases the chances of interaction with the customers.
Using a complex set of vocabulary for a cold mail often tends to confuse the reader and makes them lose track of the actual matter of the mail.
By writing the mail in a simple form, the strategist improves the chances of doing business with the recipients. As psychology says that people often lose track of what they are reading if they find it difficult to relate and understand the thing they are reading.
Lastly, using simple but effective and strong content is the key to ensure successful conversions via cold emails.
3. Do not use red fonts
Fonts play a major role in the overall appeal of a mail. As per the human psychology, the different form of colors represents various meaning, trigger memories, and evoke emotion in the recipients of the cold mail.
As a matter of fact, colors have been found to increase brand recognition by up to 80 percent. The correct color fonts are highly recommended while carrying out a cold mail campaign as the recipients convey the meaning of such fonts with their daily life.
You must always avoid using red fonts as it represents aggressive nature due to its high visibility.
The use of red fonts in a mail indicates extra efforts took by the sender of the mail which is considered to as a marketing trick, often avoided by the customer base.
4. Do not send attachments
It is always advisable to not include attachments in the cold mail because it has high chances of being treated as spam.
The reason behind emails with attachments don’t meet the reader’s eye is because it is very often that spammers send mass emails which include very little text but get attachments, treated as spam by many email providers.
Additionally, by sending attachments in your email campaigns, you risk the deliverability of your messages and end up risking your sender reputation.
Coming to the recipient’s point of view, it becomes a risky move to open such files when sent by an unknown sender and also puts the risk of exposing the system to viruses or malware.
That is why we advise not to use attachments in cold email messages.
5. Do not use Flash, video, and Javascript within the email
For a smart content marketer, it is one of the ‘NOs’ to check in the list before sending out a trail of cold emails.
The addition of flash, videos, and Javascript in a mail might make you feel smart and a way ahead of the curve for once but then it could be unsafe.
The reason is, the firewalls of a secured server always block out such emails with code written within, and axe down your chances of reaching your desired recipients, making the entire marketing strategy dubious.
Thereby, it is always advisable to not use a flash, video or Javascript in your email and try to be very selective about the extra and innovative measures you take to make your campaign stand out of the crowd.
6. Do not use the exclamation point
Being business-related emails, cold emails are always expected to be short, to the point and to portray the depth of the matter.
According to experts, using exclamation marks towards the end of a statement shifts the focus of your entire message from directive to casual.
You should always keep in mind that the majority of official pitches in a mail, end up making a proper statement.
One should never use exclamations in a mail because exclamations don’t represent professionalism and do not help in making a point.
By avoiding the use of exclamation marks very often, you do not deviate the attention of your receivers and enable them to understand the nature of the mail.
7. Check the list of the already bounced subscriber
Nobody would want to waste their money on setting such a campaign where most of their cold emails get bounced back.
Thereby, it is a smart precaution measure to check the list of the already bounced subscriber before sending a cold email, to ensure the complete success of the campaign.
However, it’s important for the users to understand that a small number of bounces are to be expected over a period of campaigns in the curated subscriber’s list due to the changes in addresses or job posts.
The benchmark for bounces is less than 2%. Anything above a 2% bounce rate for your email campaign is worthy of your attention.
8. Do not rent or buy an email list
Renting or buying an email list is the worst possible move a content strategist could be making while planning for a cold email campaign. There are a number of reasons why you shouldn’t opt for this easy yet ineffective way.
First, you’ll be violating the rules of consent under GDPR in most countries because the recipients of a mail have the right to sue the sender.
Secondly, if trying to build a brand image, it is the worst move to take as ESPs on shared IP addresses.
Lastly, the people on a rented or bought email list aren’t really in your contacts and thereby you will suffer a high chance of bounce back, which in turn affecting your domain authority and ultimately turning down the campaign.
9. Set up a different account for outbound
Since there are a lot of users sharing a company mail, it should be noted that it becomes impossible to keep a tab on the quality of the outbound mails sent.
Further, if you keep using the same domain which you have been using for the office space, there would be a chance for you to drop your domain and IP’s authority.
Therefore, by setting an entirely different mail for the outbound campaign, you get access to manage the contents you deliver.
10. Do check spam trigger words
Yet another to-do list before sending the mails widely is run a check for spam trigger words as they are the direct gateway to spam.
If your campaign is well planned and has everything set up perfectly but has somewhere around 5% of spam trigger words, there is a high risk of a widespread failure of the entire campaign.
Therefore, it is advisable to always run a check on words, texts, or phrases that cause triggering of spam.
11. Set SPF and DKIM
SPF allows email senders to define which IP addresses are allowed to send mail for a particular domain, ensuring that only the target audience gets the mails, ensuring the success of the campaign.
On the other hand, it is also necessary to set DKIM as it provides an encryption key and digital signature, verifying that the sent messages aren’t forged or altered.
Setting up the SPF and DKIM is easy but if you face problems in setting up the same, contact your mail operator for the same.
12. Add personalization for uniqueness
Personalization adds to the essence of the entire cold email campaign as it provides the readers with a more prospect oriented view towards the subject of the mail.
Other than providing a stern aspect, it provides a similar body template with a different look and appeal. Also, adding a personalized touch to your mail lessens the risk of being treated as spam.
13. Upload contacts in batches
By uploading contacts in batches, you can ensure a check on the quality of the campaign. Buying a bulk number of contacts and then processing the cold emails would be a stupid thing to do as you would not be having any control over the areas that need to be covered including the types of recipients who need to be targetted.
Thereby, it would be smart to manage and run the campaign using short batches of maybe 20-50 receivers at a time, ensuring efficiency and positive results.
14. Make a professional HTML signature
There is nothing better than a professional HTML signature to improve the chances of success of a mail. Providing the mails with an HTML signature proves its authenticity at certain levels, making an impact on the receiver and leaving a good chance of further communication.
Additionally, a messy and larger HTML footer takes much more space than the text of your message, thereby triggering the spam filters. To ensure the best HTM signature over a mail, always seek advice from your developer.
15. Check the email provider limits
Checking the email provider limits allows the strategist to know the limits of the total deliverable mails as, if exceeded, it might lead to mass spamming. When the correct limit is kept in mind, you can ensure successful conversions of the mails sent during the campaign.
Lastly, to avoid maxing out on the bulk emails during cold campaigns, it is a smart move to send the message to a smaller group of people and wait for an interval of 24 hours before moving on to the other group.
Conclusion:
Well, the given deliverability checks might seem a lot of work to do but, if done properly, the success of the campaign is assured. These are some of the most essential steps to consider because failing in any one might lead to a waste of effort, time and the entire money spent on the cold campaign.
We know that no one can assure a complete successful campaign because bounce backs are a part of the game but, we always have ways to contain our losses and drive things for better.
Lastly, the surroundings around us are ever-changing and so are the humans and tech.
Thereby, these are the smart moves to consider the ongoing trends for the success of cold email campaigns to grow better.
