Hello ladies, gents, cartoon animals, and others.
What we are about to mention here are the minimum requirements to make it with cold emails in 2023. Without having this in place there are zero reasons why you should even bother with the cold email outreach.
To be more precise there is a big chance you won’t even be hitting the prospect’s primary inbox. This means the only place where you will be landing is the spam box.
Which will result in you spending money and time away without real results.
Like most SDRs who are completely relying on cold email as an outreach weapon. What most haven’t realized yet is that ESPs / STMPs decided to tighten things up when it comes to cold email outreach. Bringing your technical (system) side of the game on point + learning how to get over spam filters and blockers. Since things won’t get any easier going down the road.
Slow and tactical > fast and volume
SDRs unfortunately if you are not in a smaller start-up or don’t have access to the technical side you will have a much harder time getting things right. IT departments when it comes to topics such as this one are mostly useless.
On the other hand, you are doing Lead generation or sending cold emails for your WiFi money.
Make sure you read and understand what is going on when it comes to email deliverability. That’s a great thing about running your stuff since you will have access to the technical slide. Getting your technicals right to land in primary should be one of the keys when it comes to getting a proper start.
Simplicity reasons let’s stick to 10 cold email rules that will put you in the top 20% when it comes to cold emails.
1. HTML And Cold Emails
Let’s make it clear (ab)using your signature and images inside of your cold emails is a one-way ticket to the spam folder. This applies also to emails including any HTML code and also to sending invites in your initial (first) cold email of the sequence.
Any HTML / images should not be used in your initial outreach email.
Once you build up a few messages between you and your prospects. Feel free to use a signature, links and calendar invites. You will be surprised how many companies have problems with their signature being flagged by the filters. Without anyone ever paying attention to it or knowing about it.
Signatures are destroying young inexperienced SDRs. Now take for example companies that only rely on cold email outreach. Good luck hitting your quota with those.
If you are working in a company that is only doing one type of outreach channel … Our advice is to run away as fast as you can.
2. Incorporate Spam Checker Into Routine
Something that doesn’t get mentioned enough. Running your copies through the spam checker before sending them out. You would be surprised but behind-the-scenes email providers do have their own “spam list words”.
Words such as:
“Cheap”
“Money”
“Save up”
Loads of emails containing those being marked as spam → words end up on the spam list. Now combine those with HTML and signature…
You are in for the ride.
Generally, if all the other principles are in practice you should not bother too much with this “rule”. But it’s still recommended once you get your copy ready run it through a tool such as mailmeteor.
Additional read when it comes to spam words on the following link.
3. Multiple Domains And Inboxes
Not much to add here. Would go so far as to recommend a mix of different email providers and domain providers. Allowing you the maximum versatility and flexibility when it comes to cold emails.
Going forward there are going to be changes when it comes to deliverability and making it work. Mixing those would be a type of future-proofing.
When it comes to Twitter and cold email gurus there are loads of wrong information about domains and inboxes. Domains are what is all about. Not how many inboxes you do have on your domain.
There is wrong information on the internet constantly reappearing that 1 domain = 1 inbox. Multiple inboxes on one domain will hurt you in the long run (if not done right). Especially when you are starting and there is a big possibility something will go wrong in the technical aspect.
Remember when we are talking about deliverability 1 domain is not the same as 1 inbox.
Simplicity reasons the best beginner approach would be: 1 domain and 1 inbox on that exact domain. It’s on you to take steps and choose what will serve you best long term.
4. Subject Lines And Pattern Interruptions
The key for someone clicking on your email and opening is having a good strong “first impression”. In the sense that you want them to have an emotional effect on them.
The prospect will open up an email because you got their attention and something sparked their curiosity - emotion you could say. Most rookies like to focus on subject lines. But to be fair it’s far from being an important factor in the game. It’s on you to learn how to hit pain points relevant to them or drop straight-up alpha to catch their attention.
Pattern interruptions are all about catching them off guard.
Would suggest anyone testing them out inside of your subject lines, body, and CTAs. Pattern interruptions are critical when it comes to cold emails. To be precise when it comes to the whole sales game you will be also using them in the other outreach channels.
Most don’t realize how big a role they play.
Before we wrap up "rule 4.”.
There is no need to send 40 lines of cold emails when you should already know that a short copy will stick out in 2023. Unfortunately (or good for you) the competition with cold emails is bad. It is so bad that even short copies could be considered a sort of pattern interruption. Use trigger events to make things easier.
5. Test everything
Test everything. Most rookies fall in love with one idea and nothing else matters. Completely wrong approach.
You should be running A/B testing on various email components:
Subject line
Body
CTA
Learning and testing to find out what works best for the niche and industry you are dealing with is key to playing the cold email game long-term.
Remember there are no perfect cold emails. You have to take into consideration that over time methods and what works change - exactly why you will be constantly testing out. What used to work a few years ago doesn’t work anymore.
6. The Warmup Period Should Never Stop
Why would you risk your domain and the domain’s health? To send 15 more emails per day?
Be smart about it and leave the warmup sequence on → set it and forget it.
What’s the purpose of the warm-up sequence? Creating a reputation for your domain. Using the replay rate and simulating conversations between email addresses to build it up.
You should realize that NOT sending 15 - 20 emails more per day will not save you. But understand it will save your domain health and you will not end up in the spam folder. Before you hit me with “domains are cheap”. Understanding there is the opportunity cost connected with the whole procedure. Few will understand it.
The whole process of the warmup period → waiting for warmup to be done. Avoid this as much as possible since you will be leaving the money on the table.
Play the long-term boring game. It’s the one that wins.
7. Domain (Records) Setup
SPF
DKIM
DMARC
Mandatory - mentioned DNS records have to be present on your domain.
Will not get too technical as this is not the right article for it. Make sure you have those three up and running. Once you implement them inside of your domain settings, run a DNS records tool checkup such as this one.
You have to check and confirm everything is working as it’s supposed to.
We can guarantee anyone that if you do not have records in place you will not be hitting the primary inbox. Those days are behind us. The funny part is that most companies get it wrong. In the sense that it gets completely overlooked and never implemented.
8. Verify Your Leads
Gurus are so wrong with this one. Anyone who tells you to not bother with verifying leads should not be considered a serious source of information. Scrap and go is what has been preached for years at this point.
Don’t do that.
One of the easiest ways to mess up your outreach domain is by not verifying leads and having a high bounce rate.
What most don’t realize (especially those without corporate experience) is that individuals do change their positions. There could also be an email change example someone getting married and changing last name - a stupid example but very often the case. Also worth mentioning is that prospects do switch companies. Meaning that they also change their email addresses in the process. Depending on the base you are using it will take a certain time to refresh.
Another reason why you should not bother with old leads and scraped databases.
In case you decide to go the old lead route make sure you throw them into the lead verifier before doing anything else. Also, prepare yourself to waste your money cleaning leads without big benefits.
Looking for something to clean your leads?
9. Domain Daily Limit
Something that has completely changed over the years.
The number of cold emails you can send per day with one domain → Often you can hear 100 - 150 emails per domain/day. Completely wrong.
Back in 2018 it still used to work. There is a zero chance your domain will survive over one week while sending out more than 100 emails per day per domain in 2023.
What you want to do is stick to under 40 - 45 emails per day. Take into consideration that the “daily limit” of 40 - 45 emails per day should also include your warmup emails - this number is on the safe side.
Warm-up emails do count toward the daily domain limit. Something most don’t take into consideration when paying attention to their daily limit.
10. Spintax + Personalization
Mandatory.
If you are wondering what Spintax is… Sort of a variable” that will help you with deliverability. It serves as a method to send “different” versions of the same text. Making it easier for your copy to bypass ESP filters in the long run.
Spintax example:
{Hey | Hello | Hi}
The logic should be pretty clear at this point. We are saying the same thing in “three” different ways. Make sure you use it since there is no reason to risk doing outreach without Spintax. When it comes to personalization there are too many options.
You can either go full detective mode on your prospects or play smart and do segmented outreach. You will have to find out for yourself. Again it’s important not to sound like a robot. The part that most get wrong while doing the personalization.
You must tick off all these to make it happen with cold emails.
Otherwise, you have a low chance you will pull this out and make any WiFi money off cold emails. Not selling ideas here - this is how it works. It's funny because it’s the opposite of what cold email Twitter gurus are telling you.
Quality instead of volume → opportunity cost is a real thing.
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spintax, great branding!
love it.