Why aren’t people responding to your emails?
Such a common question has such an easy response… the trick all lies in who you ask.
In my case, I asked and learned from the best copy professional I know, Shaan Puri, you may know him from the Hubspot hit podcast My First Million.
4 years later – and Shaan’s Power Writing course still lives strong on a sneaky website that sells it all for a wapping $15 bucks! That’s quite the steal for a 20-year-old.
Shaan’s lessons mixed with a beginner’s real-time examples is the perfect recipe to increase your cold email outreach.
Grab a pen and a napkin – and let’s put the reps in together.
Shaan’s Lessons:
Cold emails are for every and all scenarios you can imagine:
All the way from Investors -> New Hires -> Potential Life Partner? The answer is YES
Now the best part of the pizza awaits ** highly opinionated take **
The Sauce:
Subject Line: Attention Grabber
Nailing your subject line is the most crucial part of your email – its the difference between you in the inbox or in the promotion folder.
Quick Tips:
- Say something in common with the recipient
- Say something that is personal and or makes them curious
- Tease the benefit.
- Say their name
EX: Shaan – How did I get your course for free? **You might need to know**
This should take 35% of your total copy time, because if you don’t capitalize on this, the remaining effort is in the toilet.
Shaan’s tip to get the juices flowing is to set a 15 minute timer and and write 25 subject lines. This gets all the duds out of the way and gets the creative ones flowing.
Personal Touch:
We’re not here to sell, but to build a relationship with the person on the other side of the screen ( or card… I found this to be the best way to connect with people, it’s an oldy, but goody.)
Quick Tips:
- There is a difference between a fanboy and a pear. Don’t grovel, but complement with confidence.
- Don’t try to flatter, be genuine in the personal compliment.
Benefits:
If you’re not willing to drive on a 2-way street, then you’re in the wrong place. Both parties need a benefit.
Quick Tips:
- What’s in it for them? (Don’t frame it as something that is for me ( Nolen or Brand ) )
- How will this benefit them, a clear benefit will drive the simple ask conversion up.
Simple Ask:
Ehhhh.. I could tell you here, or tell you to scroll down to the bottom and read my amazing analogy there.
My Examples:
Dog Sauce 🐶
BRĒZ 🥫
Commerce Round Table 🟠
Fast Pass to 80% Open Rates
If you skipped to this section, you want a quick fix, so I got you.
Scrap the AI Email outbound – Scrap the Merge Tags – Scrap the “Lets Connect”
Removing the “advanced outreach techniques” will SAVE your cold outbound, as an outbound seller you can’t skip the relationship-building stage.
Simple Steps:
Custom Subject Line
❌”Your next favorite shipping provider for domestic postal”
Reason: Too broad, not custom, all about the seller.
✅Dannie, Your LinkedIn says it all: You’re overspending on domestic packages by 20%, which is the difference between a Honda Civic and a Porsche.
4 Hitter Formula
- Be Personable: Give a genuine compliment or share something you have in common with the recipient.
- Benefits: Tell them the results (benefits) they will receive from taking the next step
- Credibility: Why should someone trust you? Highlight your wins; collaborations, revenue goals, and investors.
- The Ask:
- You can’t jump up the ladder of trust on your first email. You must start with an easy ask that requires an effortless response.
- The Old – “Let’s hop on a call, what time works best?”
- The New – “I’d love to send you a card, what’s a good address for that?”
- You can’t jump up the ladder of trust on your first email. You must start with an easy ask that requires an effortless response.
- Put-Back: While you are the Point Guard of your emails, you have to be the Center as well, crashing the boards and slamming in the missed layups.
- All analogies aside, the key to the best emails is a Follow-Up email, by providing a gentle bump of value, you increase your response rate tremendously.
At This Point In Time:
Age: 20
Location: Greenville, South Carolina
Job: Southern Tide