Is it Better to CALL or EMAIL a prospect? Cold Email vs Cold Call

You’re going through your work day and all of a sudden your phone rings. There’s an unfamiliar voice on the other side and the moment you say “ hello” , the pitch begins.

It’s a tele-caller trying to convince you to get an Insurance policy for your car (Even though you might not own one) or is pushing you to get a credit card. If you are in a good mood, you might say “No, thank you” and hangup. If you are in a foul mood, you’ll just hang up.

This is a common occurrence and it happens to all of us, that’s because we don’t care and we’ve been troubled.

One of the main reasons, the success graph of cold calling is plummeting is because of the following.

• They aren’t targeting the right person.
• The person being sold to isn’t interested in the product.
• The person trying to make a sale does not have the chops  to make a conversion in a matter of minutes.
• When the recipient is interested, they are put off by the badly scripted monologue of the cold caller.

If you are looking to sell, there are a few unwritten rules, you need to keep in mind.

• You’ll need to find buyers who are interested in buying what you are selling
• You’ll need to find buyers who have the purchasing power, even though they are interested

It’s difficult to get this information right out of the bat and even more difficult to find phone numbers of people who fit your target audience. Is cold calling the right strategy?

• It’s intrusive
• It’s not targeted
• It’s very very time sensitive
• Follow ups are considered harassment

Is there a better “cold solution?”

Yes and it’s cold emailing.

Here are some benefits of cold emailing

Cold Emails don’t interrupt : Unlike cold calls, which literally interrupt everything that you do, cold emails do not cause any interruptions. The mail reaches the recipient and they can choose to read it whenever they want to.

Good reach and trustworthy : Every person has an email address. And people are more likely to open a random cold email than they are to pick up a random cold call. Also it’s more accepted to send cold emails than cold calls. So a cold email, is more likely to get a reply than a cold call.

Efficient and bang for the buck : In the amount it takes to make a single phone call, one can send hundreds of emails. It’s more efficient and it isn’t labour intensive. If the number of calls made has to be increased, the number of people you hire should also increase. With cold emailing one person is enough to send hundreds and thousands of emails.

It’s set in stone : Unlike cold calls, where the recipient receives the call and forgets about the company. Emails remain in the inbox forever. If the person is interested in your value proposition, they can immediately go back to the email and find your contact information.

Although cold emails are much more effective than cold calls, you’ll have to take this advise with a grain of salt. Cold emails are not successful for everybody and it requires effort to write a good cold email that elicits a response.

Cold emails are also getting more competitive, as more companies use it to fuel their pipelines, email marketers need to work doubly harder to stand out from the crowd. But if you nail the formula for cold emailing, you’ve found a gold mine for your business.

Read about: Guide on how to increase sales for your Singapore business

Writing cold emails isn’t hard – Human friendly Templates to get you started.

It’s funny how marketers turn from normal human beings to robots while creating their cold email campaigns.

The number one problem with cold emailing is the lack of human sensibilities while reaching out.

Let’s do a thought experiment. Assume you’re speaking to a person you haven’t met yet, but you say the exact things one would see in a cold template.

Something like this.

Hey Aaron,

I’m Jeff from XYZ Company. We offer a solution for your business and this is how it works.

• Pitch 1

• Pitch 2

• Pitch 3

Let me know if you want to know more.

Regards,

I’m not going to get a reply

This person would stop listening to you and would think you are too pushy or worse, would assume you are a sneaky snake oil salesman.

Your reputation is gone, you’ve destroyed your company’s reputation and that person won’t speak to you ever again.

This is 100x worse over email because, your charm, your personality or your snapper dressing sense isn’t there to back your bad email content.

Relearn to be Human

In simple, terms this is what is wrong with most cold emails. Marketers don’t treat their recipients as humans. In fact, they don’t treat themselves as humans because, the templates they use, they would never speak like that in real life.

The issue is templates. Blind and blatant copying of email templates found in some random corner of the internet.

In this article I will give you pointers on two important aspects of emails. I will give you templates and subject copy that will help you form better cold emails.

Don’t copy. Take inspiration.

Nailing your Email Subject

A foot in the door is all a salesperson asks for. They want nothing more.

The subject in your email, if you get it right, is a foot in the door. In a lot of cases, that is the be all, end all part of your campaign.

Your whole campaign is gone to waste just because you didn’t figure a sentence out.

Here are some subject ideas

Subject Title 1

• A Possible Partnership

This subject line intrigues people who see it. People love to form partnerships and if you are looking to collaborate, this is a great subject line.

Subject Title 2

• Boosting <company’s name> revenue by 10x

Now this might seem like an outlandish claim, but if you have a product that helps with improving revenue and if you are able to back that up with a possible pitch. The template will work wonders.

Subject Title 3

• Reaching out for X

This is pretty straightforward, but it sometimes helps in the world where everything is clickbait. This keeps it simple and the people who reply will definitely be interested in what you have to offer.

Subject lines need to be crafted, like a well made premium dessert. So take your time with it and experiment.

Should you be keen to start venturing into A/B Testings, check out our Prospected Lead Generation Services for your cold emailing.

Read also: How we provide the BEST leads for you to Target