I run a new productized service. Initially, I was focused on sales and cold emailing customer prospects, but it totally failed. I've emailed over 400 prospects with different approaches, using well-tested templates and even custom tailored uber-personalized emails. Not a single cold prospect has converted. The other week I spoke to a guy who runs a similar business model. His main acquisition channel is cold email and is working well for him. When I told him I sent 400 emails and didn't convert a single user, he was like: "Buddy, we had to send 4000 emails to convert 20 customers." That is 0.5% conversion rate. He also mentioned that's the industry standard. Now, in my books 0.5% conversion rate is rather horrible for all type of acquisition channels. But you can't argue with the fact his business has more customers than ours ATM due to that tactic. So two questions here: 1. Is cold emailing a game of numbers, and is really volume crucial? 2. Do you have any stats or benchmarks from personal experience what is the average conversion rate for cold emailing? I know this depends heavily on the type of business, and price points, so let's say we're talking about a service around the $100-400 price range.
Cold emailing can be productive. It works in a number of ways for sales, marketing, joint ventures, pr and more. Just don't expect it to close any deals immediately from it.
The critical points to improve your emails:
1. Who you are targeting - your ideal client (title, firm, revenue size, location, etc.) the more time you spend getting this right the better performance.
2. The volume - how many people are in your sweet spot.
3. The cadence - how often you keep contacting them. Don't expect 1 email to do much. 3-4 follow up emails is ideal.
4. The messaging - If it is all about you than you should look at writing emails about them and their needs first.
I have seen cold emails average 10% response rate - people saying yes, no or go to hell. Up to 40% for great messaging, spot on contacts and the right cadence.
As for "conversion" there are many factors that will impact you. If your product is brand new with no social proof than your responses will be much lower than an established firm.
Best of luck.
Answered 8 years ago
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