Good morning all! I fancied writing a little article today on a topic I feel pretty expert on.
Writing high converting cold messages i.e. email, LinkedIn, Instagram and all of the rest…
Writing cold copy is becoming some what of a dying art, mainly due to it’s association with spam and countless annoying offers and emails landing in your inbox. However, when done properly and with a little added effort, cold messaging can still be a hugely profitable tool for building your sales pipeline.
In this article I’m going to cover 3 message structures I use on our clients campaigns to trigger high quality responses.
The Problem with Email
The world runs on email.
Tens of billions of emails are sent every day. Yet most of these emails are poorly written — and that includes yours.
You may know how to string words together grammatically, but that’s not the same as using classic persuasion techniques to achieve your target goal — like a response — especially from busy people.
Ahh…busy people. If approached correctly, they can help you change your career and your social life. Yet most emails to busy people are convoluted, impersonal, and lack a clear call-to-action (CTA). And amidst hundreds of other emails every day, those emails will never generate a response.
Imagine the inbox of a busy CEO. He receives 200 emails from his co- workers, investors, and PR people. He fields another 50 emails from his family and friends. And then there are the 30-50 emails from random people — plus the emails he didn’t read the previous day.
Consider your own inbox. Chances are you aren’t a CEO or even a particularly busy person and still you receive dozens of pointless emails each day.
So how do you make your email stand out? The initial email you send to a prospective employer, partner, or customer makes a crucial first impression.
Will you be making a positive one?
How to cold email a business to pitch your services
Sometimes when you’re starting out in business, you need to get your message to your prospective clients fast. Waiting for them to engage with social media posts or advertisements is sometimes hard to rely on when you need consistent results. Reaching out to people who fit the criteria for your services can be super effective for securing your first meetings, but if you front load your initial message with pitch, pitch, pitch… you’ll be sure to scupper your chances of a call right away.
Start your email with an eye catching subject line. I like to something either funny or relatable.
Next, call out that you’re cold emailing the prospect. It makes you seem more human and acknowledges that you’re asking for your prospects attention. A little humour here can also go a long way. Also, try to include some familiarity in the first line, even if its just that you’re based in the same city.
For the first line of your pitch, try to prod a “pain point” i.e. something that is annoying them in their business. In this example, I ask “I wanted to see if you’re happy with your current bookkeeping/accountancy solutions?” which the answer is probably no. They either do their own books that takes lots of time and is incredibly boring, or they pay high manual book keeping fees that also causes them frustration. Highlighting pain points is a great way to keep your prospect reading.
Next, explain what you do and how you help your target customer in three clear points, that also solve problems/pain points for your client.
After explaining your product/service, showcase some results or success stories whilst also including familiarity once again. We’ve helped businesses similar to yours, get these sort of results etc.
Finally, make a clear CTA with a time slot, but also offer an alternative method of contact is the prospect is busy at that time. Keep what you’re asking for short, don’t go in with the offer of an hour presentation here, an introductory chat is fine.
Then, finish off your email with your mobile number at the bottom. Busy people sometimes read your email and will just call right away if they have chance.
How to write a pitch for a consulting gig or a job interview
When you are offering your services to somebody who doesn’t know they need them yet, you want to keep your email short and sweet. Provide a highlight or two about what you can do for the person and then make it easy for them to take the next step with a specific call to action.
Start off with a quick intro coupled with a compliment. Let them know this isn’t a generalised email and is specific to them.
Then, try your hardest to highlight two or three big problems their business is currently facing. Go super specific on this, don’t just write very simple, run of the mill problems almost every business faces. Aim for “Pain Points” i.e. things the CEO faces daily that cause stress, problems or slow progress towards their goals.
After, include some nice humble brags i.e. social validation. What will work best here is well known achievements and previous success stories such as: “I took XYZ Limited to 67% free user conversion rate in 3 months” or “I was featured in Forbes 30 under 30 list” etc.
Finally, finish off with an exact call to action. Offer a time slot instead of giving a vague, “Can you speak this week?” sort of CTA. If they’re a busy person, the answer is probably no.
How to cold email a prospect for advice or feedback
Speaking to your prospective clients can be a great tool to validate your ideas and messaging before you go live in the market. However, you must strike the right tone with your recipient in order to get a useful response.
For your subject line, try to find some point of common interest. Did you go to the same university, do you belong to the same professional body or do you even support the same sports team. Find some familiarity that will get the prospect to open the email.
Keep what you’re asking for simple and straight forward. Don’t pitch a 30 minute product demo or free trial. Ask for 2-5 quick questions that can be hashed out in an email or call.
Once again, keep a specific CTA with a time slot, but also employ the closed/wide technique of: I can speak at X time, or any time of another day.
Finally, finish off your email with a question that encourages reply. Try to make it easy for the prospect to say “Yes, fire it over”. Even if your first “In” is only an email, it’s often all you need to secure further meetings/calls with that prospect/business.
Want to turbo charge your accountancy practice growth?
I’d like to talk to you a little more about a pretty exciting project we have coming up, our accountancy accelerator programme.
We’re currently taking a group of accountants at a similar stage in business size/revenue and working with them to build out their sales pipelines, digital marketing and advertisements and then provide them online training for sales and business coaching alongside.
The programme will last around 8 weeks from start to finish, and the main goal is to sign 10 new high ticket customers off the back of it, so we see that as a client to your business that is worth about £3,000, so usually, a full set of accounts, 4 VAT returns and two director personal tax returns.
If you think you’d like to be a part of the upcoming accountancy accelerator, please use this page to complete an application form.