Successful firm marketing is more than just sending out an email campaign every so often; it is about establishing partnerships with other professionals and building meaningful relationships with new and old clients on a regular basis.
However, seeking out new business leads can often result in firms having to send out large volumes of ‘cold’ emails to people who are extremely busy.
Cold emails are an effective way to contact people who may be interested in doing business with your firm. The email is considered ‘cold’ because the receiver doesn’t know the firm until they have been contacted by the firm.
Sometimes cold emailing doesn’t work for various reasons; emails are poorly written, receivers aren’t interested or they simply don’t want to meet with a stranger.
But there are ways firms can perfect the cold email approach. Here are five tips for emailing busy people to make them more likely to respond:
Research your audience
Don’t make the mistake of making assumptions about the people you email. Set aside time to research who they are, what they are interested in, or anything that you may have in common with them. This kind of research can create more of an opportunity to build a connection with them that will help you get noticed in their crowded inbox.
Establish relevance
If your recipients are not that relevant to what your email is about, reconsider whether your firm should be sending them a message. To get audience members interested in what you’re saying, your firm needs to clearly explain why you are contacting them in the first place.
Build a connection
The best way firms can make a connection with a busy recipient is to show them that your firm cares about them and is invested in creating a relationship with them. Use your previous research to identify if you have any common interests or ideas; they are often good talking points to use to start to build a connection.
Convey authority
While you shouldn’t gloat about your firm in an email, using your accomplishments, and therefore the authority that comes with those accomplishments can be effective in opening up a line of communication. Humans naturally gravitate towards authoritative figures.
Make your question specific
Make sure your firm is very clear on what it wants in return for audiences opening their emails. Keep in mind also that those who are very busy won’t want to spend time trying to work out what your firm wants.