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Best Way To Get Prospecting Emails Thru?

by thebakergirl
19 replies
Can anyone give me some advice about how to send emails to prospects that haven't opted in to receive mail from me? I'm not trying to send more than even 10 per hour, but hotmail and yahoo have already started sending my mail to spam.

I have bought a few WSO's for offline consulting, and they all give great advice for crafting emails and interacting with the prospects, but no one mentions the art of making sure those emails actually get thru.

Any feedback/advice would be helpful.

Thanks!

Robin
#emails #prospecting
  • Profile picture of the author Deidra Renee
    Originally Posted by thebakergirl View Post

    Can anyone give me some advice about how to send emails to prospects that haven't opted in to receive mail from me? I'm not trying to send more than even 10 per hour, but hotmail and yahoo have already started sending my mail to spam.

    I have bought a few WSO's for offline consulting, and they all give great advice for crafting emails and interacting with the prospects, but no one mentions the art of making sure those emails actually get thru.

    Any feedback/advice would be helpful.

    Thanks!

    Robin
    All of your emails won't go through all of the time. I have to check my spam folder for emails that I actually want sometimes lol I would suggest getting a domain so you can get a professional email address. That seems to work better than sending it from a free service like google.
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  • Profile picture of the author RRG
    Originally Posted by thebakergirl View Post

    Can anyone give me some advice about how to send emails to prospects that haven't opted in to receive mail from me? I'm not trying to send more than even 10 per hour, but hotmail and yahoo have already started sending my mail to spam.

    I have bought a few WSO's for offline consulting, and they all give great advice for crafting emails and interacting with the prospects, but no one mentions the art of making sure those emails actually get thru.

    Any feedback/advice would be helpful.

    Thanks!

    Robin
    My advice: don't do it. It's SPAM, pure and simple. Instead, why not write a FREE report giving some value up front. Then interested prospects raise their hands and agree for you to market to them.
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  • Profile picture of the author jrod014
    Usually a website will have a contact page. If they have a form or email address then its usually ok for you to contact them.

    If you have purchased an email list then that might be another story, I would stay away, it's spam.

    If they do have a contact page or email address listed on the contact page then reach out to them using a question in the subject line.

    Something like "I have a question about your service/practice" or "do you offer this service".

    Then write a revelant email that ties into the subject line and include you pitch.
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    • Profile picture of the author RRG
      Originally Posted by jrod014 View Post

      Usually a website will have a contact page. If they have a form or email address then its usually ok for you to contact them.

      If you have purchased an email list then that might be another story, I would stay away, it's spam.

      If they do have a contact page or email address listed on the contact page then reach out to them using a question in the subject line.

      Something like "I have a question about your service/practice" or "do you offer this service".

      Then write a revelant email that ties into the subject line and include you pitch.
      That might work. Problem is the contact page is usually going to be something like "info@DontSpamMe.com." That is, it's going to some flunky and not the juice.
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      • Profile picture of the author jrod014
        Originally Posted by RRG View Post

        That might work. Problem is the contact page is usually going to be something like "info@DontSpamMe.com." That is, it's going to some flunky and not the juice.
        True, but I still think if they provide an email they will still be sifting through that address or at least reading the subject lines.
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  • Profile picture of the author Big Squid
    Don't worry about SPAM. As long as their a business, the SPAM factor really fails..especially if you have SPAM ACT links on your email...

    When I'm prospecting via email, I include a customized report for them. I built an automated process for this, but even before, I'd send one or two reports a day, and land one client a week.

    Not bad...
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    • Profile picture of the author thebakergirl
      Thank you guys... very re-assuring.

      I am contacting via the contact form or email provided on the site, they are small enough companies that it is likely the owner or someone close checking the emails, and I do have the CAN SPAM stuff in order. So I will just trudge along. Deidra is right... they won't all go thru, but probably enough will to start making a difference.

      Thanks again! Big help to hear from some people actually getting it done.

      Robin
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  • Profile picture of the author PaulFL
    There's nothing you can do to make sure they get through except checking the email for spam triggers.

    We've sent them out by the hundreds. I just set up a separate email account on my host and sent them through using the webmail service that Hostgator provides.

    Are you using a free mail service like gmail or your host account email? If so, I strongly advise against that because gmail and yahoo mail are going to filter out your emails and you don't want to lose control. When I use my host account, I control what gets sent, not someone else.

    Plus, it's a lot more professional and will dramatically increase your open rate if you have a business sounding email address. Personally, if I don't know the sender, I don't open emails to my business email if they're from free services.

    Also, when email prospecting, you really need to think of sending emails by hundreds and thousands, not tens. It's like direct mail - numbers count.

    You will run into a lot of contact forms so it's good to have an auto-fill add on to improve productivity.
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    • Profile picture of the author thebakergirl
      Paul - Thank you... I didn't think I could get away with sending any more than a few at a time.

      Interestingly, it's the ones that I've been sending out thru my host account that are being sent to spam in the hotmail/yahoo test accounts I set up... but I'm glad to have your confirmation that Gmail would filter it before even sending it out.

      I will get more gutsy, & stick to my host account.

      Again... BIG help from someone out there getting it done!

      Thank you!!!

      Robin
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  • Profile picture of the author Jay Rhome
    To get this right, as long the email title and body are relevant, the offer is clear (and often a free offer or an invitation), AND there's an opt out option, everything is OK by the CAN SPAM regulations?
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    • Profile picture of the author PaulFL
      Originally Posted by Jay Rhome View Post

      To get this right, as long the email title and body are relevant, the offer is clear (and often a free offer or an invitation), AND there's an opt out option, everything is OK by the CAN SPAM regulations?
      Your supposed to ID it as an advertisement, don't mask the from-to and have a valid physical address.

      I don't give opt-out but add a PS indicating if they do not respond, they will receive no further emails from me. I add the physical address because I want them to know I'm in the region. I've had a couple clients tell me they wanted to work with someone local. I'm in Cincinnati and generally prospect in about a 100 mile radius. That gives me a huge market.

      I do prefer to stay local because I do a lot of referral business and would rather keep the travel time to a minimum.
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      • Profile picture of the author RRG
        Originally Posted by PaulFL View Post

        Your supposed to ID it as an advertisement, don't mask the from-to and have a valid physical address.

        I don't give opt-out but add a PS indicating if they do not respond, they will receive no further emails from me. I add the physical address because I want them to know I'm in the region. I've had a couple clients tell me they wanted to work with someone local. I'm in Cincinnati and generally prospect in about a 100 mile radius. That gives me a huge market.

        I do prefer to stay local because I do a lot of referral business and would rather keep the travel time to a minimum.
        When I refer to SPAM, I do so more as a concept than a legal term.

        If it's unsolicited commercial email, many people consider that SPAM. Think about your own inbox: are you anxious to read unsolicited emails from people you don't know?

        If it works for your, great! It's just that there are better ways to market than cold calling, cold emailing, etc.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Clough
    I use Video email Marketing and people love it, as they see my face. Plus the open rate is a heck of a lot higher than regular email And NONE of it goes to spam or junk.

    Michael Clough
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    • Profile picture of the author thebakergirl
      I use Video email Marketing and people love it, as they see my face. Plus the open rate is a heck of a lot higher than regular email And NONE of it goes to spam or junk.

      Michael Clough

      Thanks Michael... 2 Questions:

      1) What do you put in the subject line to let them know there is a video enclosed?
      and
      2) Do you insert the video in the email or send a link?

      Robin
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      • Profile picture of the author Michael Clough
        Originally Posted by thebakergirl View Post

        I use Video email Marketing and people love it, as they see my face. Plus the open rate is a heck of a lot higher than regular email And NONE of it goes to spam or junk.

        Michael Clough

        Thanks Michael... 2 Questions:

        1) What do you put in the subject line to let them know there is a video enclosed?
        and
        2) Do you insert the video in the email or send a link?

        Robin
        Robin ~ Nothing about a video in the subject line at all

        The video is in the email.....it actually shows me in the email.....I can't post a link here on the forum, but you may PM me or: mclough49 (at) g mail dot com
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        • Profile picture of the author BradleyC
          You have a few issues to address when emailing ...
          1) Not getting marked as "spam" and ending up in their spam folder (or not being delivered at all to them)
          2) Getting the recipient to open it, and
          3) Getting the recipient to act on it.

          Your email marketing strategy needs to address all 3 of these potential obstacles. I've shared the following before which seems appropriate for this thread as well...

          Email just doesn't have the "luster" it use to have. All the spam business owners get just killed it! Plus, I have no doubt that a lot of the emails are being intercepted by web designers.

          For those businesses that actually do get your email in their inbox, to increase your odds here are a few things that will help ...
          • Your email address ... have it come from you. Businesses look at the sender first and if it even hints as being "spam", DELETE! We find FirstName.LastName@ works best. Then the name field has our name it it. Also addressed in this thread is having a real domain and not emailing from free providers like yahoo and gmail ... I totally agree.
          • You want the email to look like it came from a friend which is why the email address it's sent from is so important.
          • If you're a UK business emailing to the US and have UK in the @ part of the email address, if they see that they will automatically discard it as spam. After all, why would anyone from the UK want to do business with them, right? (Don't shoot the messenger here).
          • The subject line is the 2nd most important field. Don't make it salesy or even include product info in it. It needs to read like a friend would send it.
          • Don't make the subject line all upper case or upper case the first letter of each word ... that's got "sales" written all over it. Do it all lower case instead like you'd write a sentence.
          • Don't include their name in the subject line. That was so yesterday. Plus, again, would a friend sending an email to them put their name in the subject line? No, they wouldn't!
          If you get them them to open it, the first paragraph is critical. Remember, in copywriting the objective of the first paragraph is to get them to read the 2nd paragraph. The objective of the 2nd paragraph is to get them to read the 3rd paragraph.

          Also, you MUST understand the objective of "lead generation". In this stage you're trying to develop leads, NOT sell products!! The emails you'd send to a prospect are significantly different than what you'd send to a list of names trying to create leads.

          In the Lead Generation stage it's all about WIIFM ... What's In It For ME!

          The don't care who you are or anything like that yet, unless you have a bunch of customers in their community that you could name drop. Otherwise, it's all about "benefits" to them. For example, they could careless about being on the first page of Google! But they do care about their sales and not continuously losing sales to their competitors, as an example.

          Your paragraphs must also be benefit driven. Don't go "selling" in your email body.

          Email works when done right. However, we still get a much higher response from direct mail than email, but email is free which is why everyone uses it (another reason it's not working as well).

          Good luck.

          Bradley
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  • Profile picture of the author ak1lz
    Originally Posted by thebakergirl View Post

    Can anyone give me some advice about how to send emails to prospects that haven't opted in to receive mail from me? I'm not trying to send more than even 10 per hour, but hotmail and yahoo have already started sending my mail to spam.

    I have bought a few WSO's for offline consulting, and they all give great advice for crafting emails and interacting with the prospects, but no one mentions the art of making sure those emails actually get thru.

    Any feedback/advice would be helpful.

    Thanks!

    Robin
    I recomended software to someone on this thread. One of the features is blacklisting email addresses that don't get delivered. Easiest way to sort through email lists that aren't "Fresh". I consider a fresh list to be no more than 3-6 months old.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nic Lynn
    This is pretty effective too... print out that email as an actual letter (obviously format it as a postal letter vs. email). Put it in an envelope and hand write the address (you can also print labels, but I prefer the handwritten method). Take a stack to the post office and send via certified mail (requires a signature).

    It takes extra time and expense, but your "open rate" will shoot up to nearly 100%... then it is up to your copy and offer to get them to call you (or you can outsource a follow-up appointment maker that calls each merchant about a week after you send each batch of mail).
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  • Profile picture of the author Warrior Ben
    I've found that the best way to get a response from e-mail is to keep it VERY SHORT. While it is tempting to send a long written e-mail explaining who you are and the services you offer, these rarely, if ever, get read.

    An example e-mail to send would be, "I'm writing regarding the results that come up when I search your company's name. It is very important that I talk to you right away. You can reach me at (555)555-1234."

    This keeps it short and sweet and doesn't fully identify why you are contacting them, so it brings up a little curiosity in their mind. A lot of people still won't respond, but I've noticed that something like that gets more responses than something long winded.

    Along those lines, I would highly recommend moving beyond just e-mail to find clients. Cold Calling, while it is dreaded by some, is still a very effective way to get clients. Just make sure that the point of your call is not to sell them over the phone, but to set an appointment at a near-future date-- whether it be in person or an online presentation, calling and going for the appointment close has been the most effective for me.

    I hope this helps!

    -Ben
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