Are you still searching for ways to improve cold email response rate?
If the answer is yes, then your search ends here. In this blog, we have curated a list of 11 proven tips to improve email response rate and shared templates that will act as a helpful resource in your cold email outreach.
So, without further ado, let’s get started!
What is an Average Cold Email Response Rate?
Before understanding an average cold email response rate, let’s quickly understand what a cold email response rate is.
Cold email response rate is a metric you consider to decide the success of your email outreach. Your response rate is the number of prospects who replied to your email. It can be regarded as the most influential metric as it indicates that the prospect might be interested in your product.
A good response rate is between 1% to 10%, but this varies from industry to industry. Your email list, content, and target audience play an imperative role in having a good response rate.
Why are Your Cold Emails Not Getting Any Response?
You might have sent cold emails that would have got a good open rate but not the expected response rate (open rate is when your recipient opens your email but doesn’t respond).
The question that constantly hovers during that moment is: why my cold emails aren’t working?
Here is the answer.
We studied the cold emails sent using our platform and compared why some cold emails perform better than others. Here are the 3 major reasons your cold emails are not getting any response.
1. Your cold email is not landing in the primary inbox
2. Your cold email is less about them and more about you
3. They might not find your offer very interesting
1. Your cold email is not landing in the primary inbox
When you start sending cold emails without following any email deliverability practices like not warming up your email account, not authenticating it, and constantly exceeding your daily email quota, your emails fail to land in the primary inbox.
These factors indicate to your email service provider that you might be a spammer or want to market your product.
And this reduces the chances of your emails getting a higher response rate as the read rate of the primary inbox is higher than the other tabs.
2. Your cold email is less about them and more about you
This is where you lose your prospect’s interest when the email speaks a lot about you and your product.
A short introduction is good, but continuously pitching your product doesn’t do its charm.
The purpose of the outreach is to understand the prospect’s areas of concern and offer your product/service as a solution.
Imagine meeting a salesperson who won’t stop talking about his product at an event. You are most likely to pass, and that same thing might happen here.
3. They might not find your offer very interesting
You may have drafted and sent the perfect email, but what you’re offering might not be very appealing to your prospects. One of the factors this happens is because of targeting the wrong audience.
For example, a dog lover wouldn’t benefit from 10% off on cat grooming because of a conflict of interest. The difference in interest level and wrong targeting might be why your emails are not getting any response.
Now that you know why your cold emails don’t have a good response rate let’s move to the actionable part and make your cold emails work.
10 Tips to Improve Your Cold Email Response Rate
1. Use a company email address
Always use your company email address while connecting with your prospects. Your emails quickly get unnoticed when you use domain addresses like Yahoo or Gmail.
For example: If you get an email for a product demo from John@saleshandy.com and John123@gmail.com. Which one do you find more authentic? The first one, right?
Company email addresses play an imperative role in building trust.
2. Add your email signature
Your email signature acts as your business card when your major communication happens online. It makes you look professional and helps in building brand recognition.
The prospect would easily know which team is contacting them and why. It is advisable to keep your email signature short and have a good balance of information. Alternatively, you may use some email signature generators to create your email signature.
Here are a few points you can consider for your email signature:
- Name
- Job Title
- Company Name
- Contact details
- Website
- Add your picture (optional)
3. Write a well-crafted subject line
Your subject line is what catches your prospect’s attention first. Hence, it should be crafted to entice the prospect to open and read your email.
Rather than going for a generic subject line, add some personalization. For example,
Instead of this: A special offer from you
Try this: Hey, Mark, would you like 20% off this month?Adding personalization like the first name, last name, location, or more helps you improve your open rate by 50% (Marketing Dive).
Get here → 21 Email Subject Lines for Sales that Definitely Get Responses.
4. Email Preheader
An email preheader is a summary text after the subject line. It provides a short summary of your email that is not more than one sentence.
Your subject line and preheader have to work together to create interest and push the prospect to open your email. An email with a relevant preheader gets 10% higher open rates.
A good subject line can do its work but adding a preheader improves the chances of your email getting the needed attention.
So, why miss the opportunity when you can grab it, right? A preheader works in complete favor if you use it correctly while drafting your email. Here are a few points to keep in mind while writing a preheader:
- Your subject line and preheader should work side-by-side. If the subject line emphasizes some ongoing offers, your preheader should support your subject line. It can be around; how long is this offer valid? Or how will this offer help?
- We recommend keeping your preheader text between 40 to 130 characters. If you maintain the character limit, your preheader will be perfectly visible to the prospect viewing your email on their phone or desktop.
5. Add emojis to your email
You can make your email fun and interactive using emojis. They are good at catching attention, especially when targeting the younger generation or the millennials.
You can A/B test and add an emoji in the subject line or the email body copy to see if it impresses your prospects.
6. Avoid grammar mistakes or typos
It is always good to check and read your cold emails, again and again, to avoid any grammar errors or typos. It looks unprofessional and can come across as a lack of attention to detail.
You can use an easy tool like Grammarly to avoid such mistakes.
7. Go for a personalized approach
Personalization is a key that opens many doors, and in this case, it will help you improve email response rate. One survey shows 63% of people never respond to non-personalized emails.
But your personalization should not be limited to using first or last name. You can bring in more personalization using the following ways:
- Make them feel valued and special
- Describe your product in a way it solves their problems
- Do your research for social proof and have a solid knowledge about their product (study their website or read their blogs)
8. Add a CTA button (Call-To-Action)
Call-To-Actions (CTAs) are great when you want to improve your cold email response rate. It encourages the prospect to take action that will be beneficial to them.
It doesn’t mean you will fill your email with CTAs. Too much is also not good. Ask yourself what action you want the prospects to take?
It will get easier to place your CTA accordingly when you have this clarity. And it will be helpful for the prospect as they know what exact action needs to be taken.
If you have a special offer, you can create a sense of urgency, “Offer valid for limited time” or “20% Discount for the first 100 customers.”
9. Keep your email length short
We live in this fast-moving world where the attention span is decreasing daily. Prospects are looking to consume a lot of content in a very limited period. Sending a lengthy cold email works entirely against what the prospect wants.
So it is a good practice to send short and simple emails (avoid HTML, please). An email that covers good points, a brief explanation of yourself, and an action-driven CTA is enough.
Pro-tip: Plan a goal before drafting your cold email. A goal-oriented approach will help you write better. It will help you highlight the more critical points than derailing the whole messaging.
10. Send it at the right time
It can be challenging to gauge the perfect time to know when your prospect might respond to your email, but the best time can always be considered depending on your target audience.
It is important to schedule your email at the right time, considering different factors.
For example, weekends are not the most suitable time to send any cold email campaign. The engagement level is low, leading to a low response rate. Weekdays have a good number of engagements, especially Monday and Wednesday. You can run an A/B test to see which time brings the best result for you.
Why Cold Emailing Tool is a Must?
Reading the headline, you must be wondering, do I really need a cold emailing tool to send cold emails to get responses?
The answer is Yes.
If you’re using the traditional method of sending emails from your Gmail account, G Suite account, or any other ESP account, you’re missing out on some fundamental elements.
Limitation of the traditional approach:
- This approach lacks personalization if you want to send an email to multiple recipients. We have already discussed in tip number 3 and 4 that personalization helps you improve your open rate by 50%.
This method reduces your 50% chance of your prospect reading your email.
- One of the major reasons your email doesn’t get a response is that it might not be landing in the primary inbox.
If you frequently exceed your sending quota, your email account can get blocked, or your emails will land in the spam folder. Your email deliverability is at greater risk here.
- This approach can make you look unprofessional while sending your cold email to multiple recipients. Because if you add them in BCC or CC tab, they will be able to view every recipient.
This doesn’t build a good impression in the prospect’s mind.
Using a cold emailing tool like EmailJinny, you can overcome these limitations and explore a handful of quality features that will help you improve your email response rate.
EmailJinny is a cold email outreach tool that helps you send highly personalized cold emails using its power-packed features.
Check this: How to Use EmailJinny to Send Mass Email