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Home Uncategorized 14 tips for email prospecting to improve response rates

14 tips for email prospecting to improve response rates

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You may have heard that email prospecting is a waste of time these days because buyers have a lot of information at their fingertips and are more comfortable researching products on their own. Though you need a lot of email addresses before your begin prospecting. For instance, if your campaign is in Sweden then you need Swedish email lists ready to use.

Yet, statistics show that a lot of cold emails still get results.

The fact is, email remains both the most popular and cost-effective way for sales reps to reach prospects, and it can be extremely effective when done right. 

To help you get answers from prospects, we break down best practices for writing, sending, and continually perfecting your email prospecting.

Item Power

The difference between a good subject line and a bad subject line is the difference between an email that is read and an email that is ignored. Here are some tips on creating a subject line that encourages prospects to open your message.

2. Speak like a real person.

If a subject line looks like spam, it will be treated as such, either by the prospect’s email service or by the prospects themselves. Be careful not to use  words and phrases  that often trigger a spam filter, such as the following:

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  • Why pay more?

Another good way to show that you’re not a robot is to use casual slang and a conversational tone. 

No need to overdo it, but “Hey! Do you have time to discuss […]? makes a more user-friendly subject line than “Ask for time to chat […]”.

Some sales reps even include intentional misspellings in their subject lines just to prove they’re human. 

While this tactic may seem too unprofessional to many people, it shows just how much sellers will do to convey authenticity.

2. Include first name.

Whenever possible, you should personalize your subject line to include the prospect’s name, the prospect’s company name, or both.
Our eyes are naturally drawn to our own names, which makes personalized subject lines stand out more than generic ones sent in bulk. Personalizing email subject lines can increase open rates by 50% and increase click-to-open rates by 58%

3. Try using emojis.

Many sales reps make the mistake of writing dry, overly formal subject lines. 

An email that hints at something friendly and entertaining on the inside often has a better chance of being opened by curious prospects. 

For example, a subject line that included emojis in their subject lines had a 56% higher open rate than brands that didn’t.

While you shouldn’t go overboard with smiley faces, including an emoji in a subject line can be a simple yet effective way to convey an idea or emotion. 

Some emojis can also be used instead of words, reducing the number of characters in your subject line. 

4. Have a clear goal

Simplicity is the soul of email prospecting.

For starters, subject lines that are too long can get cut off in the middle of a sentence when viewed on a smartphone. But even prospects who don’t check their email on a mobile device are likely to pay more attention to a short, to-the-point subject line.


The perfect subject should be friendly, genuine, addressed to the prospect by name and as short as possible.

Create an attractive email body for your prospecting

A solid object is the trick to increasing your open rates. But when it comes to getting a prospect to read your email and complete your call to action, it’s the body of the email that matters.

To truly engage a prospect, the body of your prospecting email needs to perform well in a few key areas.

5. Email personalization

At a minimum, the body of an email should include the prospect’s first and last name, job title, and company. A good prospecting email must go even further by also touching on the smallest details of the recipient’s professional life.

For example, you can mention the prospect’s employer and something current about their company to show your interest in their work. 

Research company news, read their recent press releases, and check out blog posts on their site to find a good conversation starter.

You can also search a prospect’s LinkedIn page or social media accounts and find a non-invasive way to reference their colleagues, closest competitors, recent accomplishments or awards, and any relevant industry news or data. or the prospect’s profession.

6. Give specific examples.

When it comes to your pitch, focus less on explaining how your product or service works, and more on how it can work for the prospect and their business. 

This focus not only makes a prospecting email more personalized but also helps the potential buyer imagine exactly how your product would make their life easier.

Use language that clearly indicates how your product or service could benefit the potential customer you are trying to reach. For example, instead of saying, “Our software helps large companies organize important documents,” you can give readers concrete examples of what your product organizes: “You’ll never have to waste time looking for information about your customers or a misplaced note. Another key

way to illustrate the benefits of your product is to link to some applicable case studies in your email. 

Explaining how you can solve a prospect’s specific problem makes your product appealing while linking to case studies documenting similar successes gives it credibility.

7. Quality over quantity.

The body of the email, like the subject line, should never be too long. However, you also don’t want to be so brief that the reader doesn’t have all the information they need to see how your product could benefit them. 

According to an analysis of over 40 million emails, the “perfect” email body is between 50 and 125 words. The study found that messages between 75 and 100 words got the best response rates, with 51% of recipients responding. Messages with more than 125 words or less than 50 had response rates below 50%, and there was a very significant drop for emails with more than 2,000 words or 10 words or less

In short, prospects seem to respond better to emails that are much shorter than the average blog but still longer than the average tweet.

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8. A responsive email for reading on the phone

With email prospecting, what you include in your message is just as important as how that content is presented.

Over 70% of mobile users say they will delete an email if it doesn’t seem suitable for reading on mobile. Add to that the fact that around 35% of people use smartphones to check work email and it’s clear that sales reps need to ensure mobile-responsive email.

The body of a prospecting email is where you get really personal with the prospect, both in terms of starting the conversation and in terms of the sales pitch.

Just try to keep the length of your post manageable and make sure it looks good on a smartphone screen.

Know when and how to send follow-up emails

No matter how hard you put into your prospecting message,  return averages show that most cold emails often go unanswered.

That said, you shouldn’t let disappointing response rates deter you from following up. In fact, you might be surprised how much your persistence can pay off in the prospect’s response.

9. perseverance in your prospecting by email.

Many sales reps fear that sending additional emails to recipients who never responded to an initial message will be desperate or overly aggressive. While you don’t want to be pushy or pleading, there is data to support the idea that sending multiple follow-ups can be effective.

The first follow-up email sent by reps had an average response rate of 18%, which gradually decreased to 10% for the fifth follow-up. However, the response rate went back up to 27% for the sixth follow-up email  , and the seventh email was nearly as effective as the first, at 17%.

As for the follow-up email, it seems like the sixth time is a charm. So while maintaining a one-sided conversation might seem awkward, there are a lot of potential benefits to sending multiple emails to an unresponsive prospect.

10. Vary your approach.

Not all recipients should receive the same type of follow-up emails. Follow-up best practices vary depending on the level of engagement demonstrated by the prospect:

  • Prospects who responded to at least one email but then stopped responding should continue to receive follow-ups until you get another response. Try to get these prospects to accept a call because their email communications are so spotty.
  • Prospects who never responded but opened an email or clicked on a  link showed enough interest to make a serious follow-up worthwhile. In each prompt, try a new speech or address a different issue, and keep going until you find one that gets answered.
  • Prospects who haven’t engaged with an email at all don’t deserve more than six or seven follow-up emails unless they start engaging.

Every lead is worth sending multiple emails, but the ones that have shown some interest are the ones to prioritize and follow up on.

11. Reduce your frequency.

If a prospect doesn’t respond to your first email, reduce the frequency of follow-up messages.

The first follow-up email should always be sent within two or three business days of the initial email. After that, add another day of waiting before sending each email. Once you’ve gotten to your fourth email, you can start sending one a week until they respond or you feel like it’s time to move on.

The important thing is not to give up too soon. Keep trying new approaches in a steady but staggered flow of emails, keeping in mind that sometimes you don’t get a response until the sixth or seventh attempt.

Measure the success of your prospecting emails

The tips we’ve provided are a good starting point for email prospecting, but you may find that some approaches work better than others. Determine best practices for your prospects by tracking your email performance with software and testing.

12. Use your CRM system to measure success.

If you use a  CRM system like Salesforce, or Hubspot to send your prospecting emails, you can track message performance through the tool. CRM systems not only allow you to see key metrics, such as opens and clicks, for individual emails but also allow you to review data from all emails to gauge overall performance. Your CRM  lets you review all emails sent at once to see which prospects have opened your messages and which still haven’t. You can also find information detailing exactly when and how many times an email was opened or clicked.

13. Run A/B testing

Football fans like to analyze a player’s “results”: how well he scores with his foot or with his head. etc Similarly, split or A/B testing involves sending two versions of an email with a crucial difference between the two emails and then analyzing the two to see which performs better.

To find ways to improve your email response rates, run A/B tests that vary the following factors:

  • Object
  • Intro
  • CTA (call to action)
  • Signature
  • Day of the week, an email is sent
  • Time of sending an e-mail

Keep in mind that different variables should be judged by different metrics. For example, you should look at open rates when comparing two different subject lines, while response rates are a better judge of what works best in the body of the email.

14. Keep improving

The testing process for email prospecting needs to be continually refined because experimenting with new ideas is the only way to know what works.

Keep tweaking your emails to find the best response rates. Just because you’ve determined that CTA #1 works better than CTA #2, for example, you haven’t necessarily proven that CTA #1 is the best option available. Take the best of the two and put it in another split test against a different CTA, and so on, to find out if there are other variations that can deliver even better response rates.

Testing a variety of different prospecting emails while using a CRM system to monitor and record the results is the best method to improve their effectiveness and increase your response rates.

Grab your prospect’s attention in a crowded world

Prospecting had to evolve due to a number of factors. 

In order to reduce all the nuisance and build a connection, today’s emails require a lot of length optimization and detailed personalization for individual prospects. And even then, it often takes multiple follow-up emails and endless experimentation to achieve desired response rates. This process takes work, but the effort will lead to more responses from high-quality leads.

Bonus: Best Practices for Email Deliverability

Your sender’s reputation is crucial. Email deliverability is increasingly about your reputation as a sender. The goal is simple, it’s not to fall into spam but more into your prospect’s inbox. . When it comes to modern email delivery, it’s good to know the basics. If you want to know more about email deliverability. 

Be sure to follow this proactive checklist to give your emails the best chance of reaching the inbox.

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