What is cold mailing?

Did you know that the average conversion rate of interested leads from the cold email channel is about 8-10%?

Compared to other lead generation channels, this is one of the higher results that can be achieved with a relatively low budget and relatively quickly, as early as 2 months after starting work on a cold email campaign.

This post will help you answer the question of whether it is worth using cold mailing in your sales channel and what return you can expect from it.

From this article, you will learn:

• What cold mailing is and when it is profitable,
• What is the difference between cold mailing and other lead generation channels,
• How to prepare for cold mailing,
• How to assess whether your cold mailing is effective,
• What tools are needed to carry out cold mailing.

What is cold mailing?

Cold mailing is sending messages to people we have not previously contacted. Importantly, cold mailing can only be used in business relationships; we cannot contact personal clients in this way using personal data. By contacting this channel, we want to establish a business relationship, set up a meeting, present an offer. 

Every salesperson and marketer asked about the value of cold mailing will say that it is the generated, interested lead. Partly this is justified, but above all, the value is obtaining a response from the contacted person and determining the sentiment of this response as: 

• interested,
• “maybe later”,
• not interested.

Why is a response, regardless of sentiment, so important?

Because it allows us to determine whether we are directing the right communication to the right target group, whether we should adjust the process, or scale activities.

When carrying out cold mailing, expect four scenarios:

1. No response – the worst scenario because you get no feedback and don't know what to improve in particular.
2. Many negative responses – means that either the target group was poorly chosen, or the message is poorly matched to the recipients.
3. Neutral responses (“maybe someday”) – indicate that the target group is appropriate, but the timing of contact may be inappropriate.
4. Positive responses – mean that the campaign is working, so it is worth scaling it, e.g., to other markets.

The biggest advantage of cold mailing is the immediate feedback that allows you to optimize the campaign on an ongoing basis.

Cold mailing vs. newsletter

The main difference between these two communication channels is that in cold mailing, we communicate with people for the first time directly, while through a newsletter, we have obtained consent to contact via the provided email address. 

Comparison of both communication channels in the table below:

When is cold mailing most effective?

We distinguish several scenarios when cold mailing is most effective:

• In companies that do not have an established market position, no one knows them, and they have no other way to acquire customers.
• In the case of export and expansion into new foreign markets.
• In companies testing a new market or a new target group.
• In companies with a very niche offer.
• In B2B sales to decision-makers (C-level, directors, managers).
• In acquiring business partners and distributors.
• In quickly gathering information from the market directly from the selected target group.

Of course, these are examples of scenarios when cold mailing will be an ideal contact channel with customers, but the actual profitability of the lead acquisition channel should be the determinant of its maintenance. The cost of acquiring an interested lead through the cold mail channel at Vanderbuild, depending on the industry, is 150-2000 PLN, and the average cost of acquiring an interested lead from the last 50 completed cold mailing campaigns is 416 PLN.

What do I need for cold mailing?

A full guide on how to carry out cold mailing can be found in a longer post here.

However, giving a simple answer to the question in the form of a checklist:

1. dedicated sending domain for cold mailing,
2. sending infrastructure - mailboxes for sending messages,
3. properly set DNS records,
4. defined target group,
5. defined value propositions for the target group,
6. defined justification for contacting the target group,
7. short, specific email content and a good message title,
8. defined personalization elements for each prospect,
9. created contact database with verified, correct email addresses,
10. accounts set up on tools for automated sending, e.g., Woodpecker, Instantly or Smartlead.

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What results should cold mailing generate?

At Vanderbuild, we have specific metrics to check the effectiveness of our campaign. If the metrics are not at a satisfactory level, we implement improvements in the campaign, check the target group, email address deliverability, sending mailbox reputation, introduce additional A/B tests, and new message content in the campaign to verify which work best.

In the table below, you will find specific metrics evaluating cold mail campaigns.

Cold mailing tools

For the proper execution of cold mailing, it is necessary to choose proven tools for:

• creating a mailbox: Gmail or Outlook,
• warming up the mailbox and domain: Warmup Inbox, Instantly,
• building a database: Sales Navigator, Clay, Prospeo,
• finding email addresses: Prospeo, FindyMail,
• verifying the correctness of email addresses: FindyMail, Bouncer, Prospeo,
• executing sending: Woodpecker, Instantly, Smartlead.

Our recommended tools for cold mailing, divided by company development stages and their estimated costs, can be found here, in a specially prepared PDF for download. You will also find our dedicated partner links to selected tools, through which we can offer longer trial periods or extra credits for testing them.

If you need help choosing a tool stack or preparing for a cold mail campaign, let us know, we are happy to help!

contact@vanderbuild.co