How do I improve on what I have?

[billybob99]

I decided it was time I started to pay one of my businesses more attention - after all there's only so much PS4 you can play all day and so much pizza you can eat for breakfast.

I got some inspiration from this guy.

Let's be clear, all this conventional marketing and story telling BS is not for me.

I scraped my own data. I sorted it. I wrote my own emails and follow up emails. I use this if anyone is wondering.

Some of my results below. Sent 430 people I would call decision makers a very short and to the point email.

This campaign is still running.

A lot of the replies were along the lines of lets stay in touch or catch up later etc.

This was my first real attempt at this sort of thing.

I've read a lot of things from different people. Should I be linking out to helpful content on my website that is specific to their problem and what I'm offering?

Should I be linking out to a landing page specifically about how we can solve the problem they're facing?

Discuss.

 

[Calvin Crane]

So you work for mailshake? Great..nice alternative story sounds almost genuine.

 

[billybob99]

So you work for mailshake? Great..nice alternative story sounds almost genuine.

Yes I work for Mailshake - you clearly haven't been on this forum for that long.... what a joke.

 

[Calvin Crane]

click bait for morons "I decided it was time I started to pay one of my businesses more attention - after all there's only so much PS4 you can play all day and so much pizza you can eat for breakfast."

 

[billybob99]

click bait for morons "I decided it was time I started to pay one of my businesses more attention - after all there's only so much PS4 you can play all day and so much pizza you can eat for breakfast."

Again, you clearly haven't been on this forum that long.

I'm sorry this post attracted a moron - but I was after some decent marketers like @WebshopMechanic not duds.

 

[Calvin Crane]

He is good Not rising to the bait- sorry.

 

[WebshopMechanic]

Morning Gents, good to see you two are hitting it off.

@billybob99 you know that's a cheeky/naughty little plug for Mailshake. Naughty naughty!

OK, with cold outreach of any kind, you need to do 2 things.

- Add value (you need to give them something they need or fix a problem for them)

- Focus on the follow-up (if you give up straight away then the initial contact will go cold. You need to be persistent without annoying.)

This is the same process with blog outreach.

I don't know what your initial email was but ideally, you want to build a relationship with them before you ask for something. People HATE cold sales emails with a passion.

Add value > Build a relationship > Then ask for the sale.

You already have their attention which is the tough part. Now it's time to keep that communication warm and gradually heat it up. Just because they say no now, it doesn't mean to say it will be no next month.

Everyone has too much on their plate. You need to work and be creative to get them to like you and want to do business with you.

Maybe send them some research of a one-pager / video on the best subject lines for outreach. Or tell them how they can improve their SEO through 5 outreach tactics.

I often send personalised videos (ecommerce store audits) and that gets a great response because, who doesn't want a 10 minute personalised audit of their store for free?

Think about their pains/challenges and help to solve them without asking for anything in return.

And stay on their radar.

Matt

 

[billybob99]

Morning Gents, good to see you two are hitting it off.

@billybob99 you know that's a cheeky/naughty little plug for Mailshake. Naughty naughty!

OK, with cold outreach of any kind, you need to do 2 things.

- Add value (you need to give them something they need or fix a problem for them)

- Focus on the follow-up (if you give up straight away then the initial contact will go cold. You need to be persistent without annoying.)

This is the same process with blog outreach.

I don't know what your initial email was but ideally, you want to build a relationship with them before you ask for something. People HATE cold sales emails with a passion.

Add value > Build a relationship > Then ask for the sale.

You already have their attention which is the tough part. Now it's time to keep that communication warm and gradually heat it up. Just because they say no now, it doesn't mean to say it will be no next month.

Everyone has too much on their plate. You need to work and be creative to get them to like you and want to do business with you.

Maybe send them some research of a one-pager / video on the best subject lines for outreach. Or tell them how they can improve their SEO through 5 outreach tactics.

I often send personalised videos (ecommerce store audits) and that gets a great response because, who doesn't want a 10 minute personalised audit of their store for free?

Think about their pains/challenges and help to solve them without asking for anything in return.

And stay on their radar.

Matt

Thanks Matt.

I always link out to stuff. I linked out to Shopify in my last posts on another thread, does that mean I work for Shopify?

I'm not sure what I'm more annoyed about, the fact I haven't had a job for 10+ years or the low level of IQ here to assume someone posting a link to a tool is working for them?

I am a fan of Product Hunt, AppSumo and BetaList to name a few which is where I find cool stuff (yes I work for them all as well).

I got lifetime access to Mailshake via AppSumo hence the mention.

I don't want to be annoying, so wasn't sure on the total follow up emails I should set up. Online people are saying anything between 7 and 12 emails.

I should make it clear I am not offering them marketing or trying to get them to use Mailshake.

I am in the software dev space.

I was offering or should I say introducing a business that offers a specific type of software development and all the people I emailed have an application built using this tech stack.

I've targeted these people in particular because users are leaving very bad feedback, issues, bugs etc. so I thought its a good time to step in.

That makes sense Matt - I could do an audit, I just didn't know if it would be worth the time, as it would have to be very hands on and manual work for each and every audit - but something to consider.

 

[Annoying Donkey]

I don't want to be annoying, so wasn't sure on the total follow up emails I should set up. Online people are saying anything between 7 and 12 emails.

If you nailed something interesting to say, you won't be annoying.

You can always ask (and probably should ask) something like "PS, If you would prefer I not email you, please let me know by return".

Personally, I keep in touch until they tell me not to..., or they buy

 

[billybob99]

If you nailed something interesting to say, you won't be annoying.

You can always ask (and probably should ask) something like "PS, If you would prefer I not email you, please let me know by return".

Personally, I keep in touch until they tell me not to..., or they buy

That's a good point - I guess I've been thinking more towards the bulk sending aspect than customising each email precisely.

The tool I use (and apparently work for) usually puts a link at the bottom that says something like "If you don't want to hear from me again click here" - but I think that makes it sound a bit too automated.

I'm playing around with the text.

Clicking it just unsubscribes them from any further emails and follow ups that might have been scheduled.

Its def a good idea to keep in touch, as I know people are opening the emails, just not replying straight away.

 

[Dan Kav]

In a previous work life on the 1st/2nd outreach email I would include something of value for the recipient. Whether that's a blog we'd written (or not) that may help them solve an issue you know they have.

Adding value, especially if it's not something you've written is comfortingly jarring and so stands out from the copious other emails shouting "Here's what I can offer..."

I also had custom landing pages for the industry I was targeting and added a fairly innocuous, tracked, link in my email signature. So just in case they wanted to research things without actually talking to me they could.

 

[Ray272]

I've made space for it got everything out of sight and beginning Friday I'm gonna be hitting the email marketing harder than ever. Just me and Google working hand in hand for 2 weeks identifying the targets on a country by country basis. I love it I get a nervous feeling everytime do it and I wish I could just do this everyday.

Hoping to identify 500 targets and id be very pleased with 5 clients in the short and 10 over an 8 week cycle from those targets. I'd be thrilled with 18-20 but my nerves will not let me aim so high. My ace is the video we are producing now which will provide the real proof of product and training basis for the targets. Revisit all of them with that video and maybe were looking at 7.5% conversion. Or I'm just dreaming. Let's see.

 

[billybob99]

I've made space for it got everything out of sight and beginning Friday I'm gonna be hitting the email marketing harder than ever. Just me and Google working hand in hand for 2 weeks identifying the targets on a country by country basis. I love it I get a nervous feeling everytime do it and I wish I could just do this everyday.

Hoping to identify 500 targets and id be very pleased with 5 clients in the short and 10 over an 8 week cycle from those targets. I'd be thrilled with 18-20 but my nerves will not let me aim so high. My ace is the video we are producing now which will provide the real proof of product and training basis for the targets. Revisit all of them with that video and maybe were looking at 7.5% conversion. Or I'm just dreaming. Let's see.

Out of all the emails I've sent, I believe only 1 person more or less said take me off your f**king list even though it wasn't really a list.

If they're just not interested they'll tell you that or just ignore all your emails.

Just focus on the ones that reply and you'll be going places.

 

[billybob99]

In a previous work life on the 1st/2nd outreach email I would include something of value for the recipient. Whether that's a blog we'd written (or not) that may help them solve an issue you know they have.

Adding value, especially if it's not something you've written is comfortingly jarring and so stands out from the copious other emails shouting "Here's what I can offer..."

I also had custom landing pages for the industry I was targeting and added a fairly innocuous, tracked, link in my email signature. So just in case they wanted to research things without actually talking to me they could.

Good stuff Dan.

 

[webgeek]

Assuming you've tried this same approach via LinkedIn messaging, or other social channels, and a/b tested vs the email prospecting?

Drip fed email campaigns are great, especially if you're using marketing automation with lead scoring, so that you don't plaster the same message to people who have opened/read/clicked with people who haven't.

If you're offering people some value in those emails then you're directing them to other content, not some sales landing page. I don't get why you'd even ask that question.

Drip feed isn't designed to keep plastering sales messages - it's so you can put 7 to 15 bits of value in front of them to the point they associate you with value, associate you with expertise and associate you with knowing their pain points and how to take them away.

Once they've developed that affinity, that's when you start injecting sales information into the threads.

I've always done with multi-link messages. When you send something, they get the free value at the top with a link. If they click it, their score goes up +1.

Further down the email message you've got a 2nd link which points to more information about a solution. If they click it, their score goes up +10.

At the bottom you might even include some detailed solution information with comparative about others in the market. If they click it, their score goes up +100.

Based on your lead scoring, the next message they see from you should differ. Anyone over 100 is a sales ready lead and goes to the sales team. Anyone with a score over 10 but under 100 needs on the warm lead track where you continue to build the case for your solution solving the pain. Anyone with a score of 1-9 gets more emails discussing their needs, situation, problems (demand generation type of contact), until they warm up and get on the solution pathway.

This is a massive simplification of how to do marketing automation, but when you go from a simple spray and pray tool like MilkShake to an email marketing automation suite like Mautic (or any of the expensive alternatives), you'll go from blasting to selling.

 

[billybob99]

If you're offering people some value in those emails then you're directing them to other content, not some sales landing page. I don't get why you'd even ask that question.

Because what works in one industry doesn't work in others.

I've used Mautic but its just a pain in the arse and over complicated for such a simple job. Yesware and other tools do the same job with a better UI.

They all let you drip feed emails as well as segment users based on the action they take - so not sure how that falls under spray and pray.

Now I'm at the stage of just fine tuning the copy on the initial email and followups.

 

[webgeek]

The difference between automated lead scoring and manual scoring is like the difference between picking cotton by hand and the cotton gin.

Heck, you could do it all with Thunderbird and some some freeware spreadsheet program, but that's even worse.

Drip feed email marketing works across sectors. It doesn't stop being effective because one's selling handbags instead of industrial roofing.