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8 Most Common Mistakes Made During Cold Email Outreach

Cold emailing can be one of the best marketing strategies if done right. There are many reasons why it’s still popular and so many individuals and companies stick to it. To understand cold emailing better let’s first see the definition of cold emails.

What is a Cold Email?

Any email sent to a receiver for a particular reason or gain without any prior knowledge or contact is known as a cold email. Cold emails are mainly used for sales and networking. 

While cold-emailing can turn out to be a successful campaign for your company, it is important to avoid some common mistakes which most people make to prevent your campaign from failing.

Below are the 8 most common mistakes made during cold email outreach

Lengthy subject line and email body

Today, the majority of emails are read on mobile devices. Writing long subject lines can make it unreadable as the extra text will be hidden by the email application. If the prospect does not find the subject interesting they are unlikely to open the email.

Similarly, before finalizing the body of your email you need to keep in mind that this is a cold email and the user will have a short span of attention. You need to keep the email short and to the point to attract the reader’s attention and generate his interest.

Too many calls to action

It is important to have only one call to action per email. By adding too many the reader will likely get confused and end up not doing anything at all.

Grammatical or spelling mistakes

Nothing will turn off the reader more than a grammar or spelling mistake. You need to proofread the email before sending it and avoid any grammatical or spelling mistakes. Having such mistakes in your email makes the company look unprofessional and amateur.

Designing the email using HTML, images and bold fonts

It can be tempting to design your email as something fancy but your email could end up triggering spam filters due to the usage of HTML and images. Also, email bodies with bolded words tend to have a low reply rate.

No follow up emails

On average, a person receives more than 80 emails per day. Your potential client might have overlooked your email altogether. Many times the person might be interested in your email but decides to reply to it later on and forgets. A follow-up email is going to be beneficial in both cases.

Making automation mistakes

The main goal of cold emails is to reach as many potential clients as possible. To do so email templates are used that automatically replace the name of prospects. Many times the automation fails and what the prospects receive is something like

{Company Name}
Hi {name}

and so on. This will instantly guarantee no response from your prospect and the campaign ending up in a failure.

Sending the emails at the wrong time

The hours at which you send the emails are going to have a huge impact on their open rates. If you want your emails to be noticed by your prospects then it is best to send them at around 10 am EST. Sending the emails at random hours will most likely leave the email ignored and later mixed with other emails.

Sending attachments with the emails

Attaching reports and informational documents in your emails can be a great way to provide information to your prospects. But the attachment is likely going to trigger virus filters and send your email directly into the spam folder of the recipient. It is best to upload the document file somewhere else and share the link in the email.

Final Thoughts

To run a successful cold email campaign it is important to avoid the above common mistakes. You will start noticing the changes in conversion rates instantly. In the end, the most important part to keep in mind is getting the prospect to reply to your email, and avoiding the above mistakes will directly help in that.