Cold-emailing

[Martin Gallagher]

Have any software developers or others had experience cold-emailing?

Is it just obnoxious? My plan was to email local businesses that I thought might need an improved web presence etc.

Does it actually work?

 

[thelegalstop]

I'm not sure about it from the seller's perspective, but from the buyer's point of view, I'd make a couple of points:

i. It's always a good idea to send a nice, personalised email, when you point out things that can be repaired on the website, and the offer of help.
ii. on the other hand, I believe that generic, one-fits-it-all emails get deleted pretty quickly.
iii. you may send email to business email addresses, but please be extremely careful, if you pick someone's persona email address, as there are strict anti-spam laws to protect individuals against receiving marketing materials they did not ask for
iv. I think one email isn't going to make it. However, an email or two, with a nice, polite follow up on the phone or in person (you mentioned local businesses) may be a good idea. Remember that business people are very busy, so they may simply forget to get back to you.

I hope that helps!

 

[Bazza500]

The first thing I do when I get unsolicited emails is junk them and block the senders domain. They're more irritating than joe pescale singing "I know a song that will get on your nerves "

 

[Martin Gallagher]

Thanks for the replies, yeah I feel that way myself - maybe I'll put this on the back burner.

 

[telemax]

If you contact people either by phone or email, asking if they want a Web Site, or telling them that their's have shortcomings you will get nowhere. Standard reply ' We have a website we are happy with. If someone rang me up or emailed me asking this, I'd put the phone down or delete the email without reading it.

You need to start a dialogue with the prospect based on their needs. As an example I did a small phone /email campaign for a web design company. I found a list of Wine internet retailers, free on the web. A few questions, often started the business owner going through a wish list to put them ahead of so and so competitors web site and asking how much it would cost. They would be the one's doing 90% of the talking!

The other tip is to contact people who already have a decent web presence, they are usually the one's with a decent marketing budget.

 

[SusanBBentley]

Hi Martin,
I'm always recommending Ed Gandia to people who are looking at emailing new prospects. I hate the thought of prospecting cold and Ed has a good system called 'warm emailing' that takes you through a more personalised approach to prospecting. Google Ed and you'll find the 'warm emailing' system pretty quickly. Best of luck with it

 

[Deleted member 252819]

We get a lot of cold emails for web and SEO work. We delete them on sight, as we have no way of knowing how they got our details, or whether they're any good.

 

[Paul Murray]

Rather than typing out an almost identical reply, I'll just link to my previous post on the same subject

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/threads/one-month-free-seo.348456/#post-2584518

 

[NewGardenStyle]

Don't bother. As a site owner I get junk everyday and it gets trashed without being opened. They are all generic in nature.

If you are going to try this at least make sure it's personalised. It's easy to find my name and obvious which industry I'm in. If I got an e-mail titled along the lines of 'specialist web services for the gardening industry' I might be more inclined to actually open it.

 

[beasty]

500 say no
3 say yes

Do the 500 that say no matter?

A straw poll on direct sales, telesales, emailing, door knocking always gets everyone posting their negatives, but they all work and will continue to work despite what a few say about ignoring, blocking, binning etc

I am not really into mass emailing, BUT you put the right message in front of the right person at the right time, then it will work, just because a few say no, does not mean it will not work

Oddly I was recently cold emailed from a golf pro and sold him something, but in order for me to do that, I had to open HIS email to see what he was about, so for me I made a sale to him, but he got a response from me, which was to open and read his offer to begin with.

 

[Simone D. Casadei B.]

Hi @Martin Gallagher,

Actually, to receive cold and unpersonalised and unsolicited emails is annoying. Also, to send them could be illegal.

My two cents:

you want to help local businesses in improving their web presence - nice! Why not to do an analysis about each of them and find an engaging way to present them the results?
E.g., "I arrived at your website - I really appreciate your choice [something you found there and that you really like]. After further research, I noticed that [something that doesn't work and that you can fix]", followed by a call to action.

I'm not a copyrighter so I'm sure that something much better than this could be written!

I know - this is a long way but maybe it could be more profitable than sending thousands of cold emails, and be left empty-handed.

 

[Martin Gallagher]

Wise words, I like that method a lot more!

I'm going to knock this on the head and just try to build a local connections with this somehow, by networking etc.

 

[garyk]

Have any software developers or others had experience cold-emailing?

Is it just obnoxious? My plan was to email local businesses that I thought might need an improved web presence etc.

Does it actually work?

Yes it *can* work. The problem with your approach is that its too generic. Historically I always found when I went out offering bespoke software services that it never worked that well. Once I started doing a product or add-on it worked much better. That was because I could target my prospects much better and I knew before even emailing it would be of interest.

If I get any mails that offer development or web stuff they get ignored. You need to make it highly relevant and demonstrate tangible benefits.

 

[Shay]

If no one prospected then customers would be banging doors down which for most isn't happening. Prospecting is essential and needn't be just one route but various which may crossover at some point. Whilst it may be time consuming it has to be personalised where possible. Whilst we would all take immediate business its the first step of building that relationship.

Try a few different methods, measure it where possible to see which has worked best for you. Not going to win everyone over is far better than not trying to win any at all. Good luck.

 

[Ashley_Price]

Cold emailing, like cold calling (both phone and visiting premises without appointment), like mail-outs, like adverts in papers, etc., etc., can all work. But they have to be done extremely carefully to avoid the spam/hang up/rubbish bin.

You should never tell someone there is something wrong with their website. You will always get some who, no matter how bad their site really is, will tell you they are happy with it and get lots of customers, and don't want to see it improved. Just like when I have cold called customers and been told they are not interested in seeing if we can provide them with better value on their office supplies and stationery - despite the fact that I know who they are using currently and I know I can save them pounds.

 

[ldjames]

Am I missing something or is "cold emailing" not just a friendlier word for spam, i.e. the few minutes a day trawling through illegally-sent junk we all get? From a technical perspective, your mail IP will end up on spam lists very quickly and you'd have a hard time trying to convince anyone that it's anything other than spam.

 

[Ashley_Price]

Am I missing something or is "cold emailing" not just a friendlier word for spam

Cold emailing is only "spam" if it's not something we're interested in. I am sure UKBF is littered with posts telling you how people have got several new customers from cold emailing, (just like cold calling, which a lot of people will tell you doesn't work).

 

[ldjames]

Cold emailing is only "spam" if it's not something we're interested in. I am sure UKBF is littered with posts telling you how people have got several new customers from cold emailing, (just like cold calling, which a lot of people will tell you doesn't work).

I'm sure all the viagra people, Indian SEO people, fake sunglasses people etc. all think that some people will find it useful, otherwise why would they bother. I'm not debating that they could make some sales, but it's still spam to most of us.

 

[JandJC]

Have you considered developing a case study as to what implications a website can cause if certain elements are not working properly; off the top of my head, download times, server conflicts, other...or what has been mentioned do an analysis of a working website compared against one that doesn't.

The more professionalism you put into something and give a benefit then I feel you will have the substance of some material that people will actually read and most probably take notice of.

When you've written this and you've invested in a copywriter to make the appropriate edits then rather than cold email, see if you can have it published in an industry specific on-line e-zine or outsource it to business that delivers a monthly news letter, a bit of a different approach and it may cost you some money but I feel you may get a better ROI.

 

[Alan]

illegally-sent junk we all get? From a technical perspective, your mail IP will end up on spam lists

Its not illegal if it is sent to generic business emails such as 'info@'.

It i unlikely to end up on spam lists if it is a low volume of genuine emails to local businesses.

 

[Martin Gallagher]

Am I missing something or is "cold emailing" not just a friendlier word for spam, i.e. the few minutes a day trawling through illegally-sent junk we all get? From a technical perspective, your mail IP will end up on spam lists very quickly and you'd have a hard time trying to convince anyone that it's anything other than spam.

I wasn't actually going to obtain a massive list of emails and fire off generic messages in hope someone would bite - my initial thought was to do some very close proximity businesses, take a look at their sites etc and determine if I could improve it for them (bring "value") - if they had a online presence that I could see is good I'd not be so ignorant as to bother. Each email would be personally researched and very local, I would have prefaced it with "do you want to get a coffee to discuss it". I literally meant targeting 5/10 local businesses.

However, after internal debate and the great responses here, it seems a bit iffy, I'm not sure if I'm comfortable building a "brand" on the back of these types of sales techniques - however, the question is; I could be penalising myself if it works for competitors.

 

[Alan]

The answer is, yes if you don't at least test a marketing channel you are penalising yourself.

You must at least test all traction channels that might work. (http://www.slideshare.net/jwmares/traction-trumps-everything )

You description is of 'warm emails' not spam, and isn't iffy. What is iff is when I get an email telling me my website can be improved when they haven't even looked at the website and give incorrect data / facts - that is spam.

Because you don't like something doesn't mean it is not effective. I don't enjoy TV adverts an always pause the TV, but TV adverts are still effective for many businesses.

p.s. for your 5 to 10 local businesses, offering a coffee, you might as well just pick up the phone, there is a world of difference between a call centre cold calling from a script and you picking up the phone and saying, 'Hi Iam a new local xxx businesses and I am trying to get to know some locals businesses, I'd love to have a chat over coffee and find out what you do ..."

 

[garyk]

I wasn't actually going to obtain a massive list of emails and fire off generic messages in hope someone would bite - my initial thought was to do some very close proximity businesses, take a look at their sites etc and determine if I could improve it for them (bring "value") - if they had a online presence that I could see is good I'd not be so ignorant as to bother. Each email would be personally researched and very local, I would have prefaced it with "do you want to get a coffee to discuss it". I literally meant targeting 5/10 local businesses.

Thats exactly how I have done it in the past. You are going for quality not quantity and if you have to spend time researching and personalising emails then do it.

It is not illegal to send junk mail (snail mail or email), regardless of what some believe and what your moral take on it is. I'm not condoning it just saying that if done right it can work.

 

[Olson]

When such messages came to me on mail I remove them or send them to spam. So I don`t think it's a good idea.

 

[Deleted member 244558]

Plan your approach. I had massive success with cold email, it's not spam it's reaching out to people, If an email address is made available then it's a means of making contact. an optin or warm lead if preferable but there are ways to network via cold email, think about how you respond to certain email. Softly softly does it.

 

[Easy Loans Company]

Probably the most "cold e mails" I receive are about web marketing and SEO/PPC. The only ones that grab my attention are the ones with real info about my site, and real solutions for issues we may have.

Whilst it is a numbers game, don't use a generic e mail and carpet bomb every address on your list. Make it personal and specific.

 

[Elle VA]

I agree with Easy Loans Company, make it personal and specific to the business you are contacting.

I have been working recently for a client on telemarketing and lead generation which was getting a good result . My client used the leads to send out generic emails from a mail chimp campaign. When I was doing a follow up on the campaign most companies had deleted the email as they saw it was generic and didn't read it.

Any cold emailing I have done in the past has always got the best results when I tailored the email to suit the business I was contacting.

 

[Claire Freshney]

I cold-emailing and it has worked successfully. Maybe it's because of the emails i write, they are personalised and friendly. I then do. 48 hour follow up email if I don't get a response. I have, however, managed to get quite a bit of business through doing this not sure if it's because I have a strong portfolio of work?

 

[Sam Richards]

Cold email isn't a good idea, response rates are usually low and if you are using a platform like http://www.constantcontact.comyou would likely get blocked.

 

[Ikkie]

it works but with very few chance of conversions. I suggest to use whatsapp bulk marketing. as its in these days.