Advice on Cold List for Email Marketing

9 replies
Hey Warriors,

I recently started building / scrapping a large list of relevant people from Yelp / Yellow directories. The majority have almost certainly not heard of our company accept if per chance via Facebook or AdWords ads.

My Question Is The Following:
How should I approach this list of emails when reaching out to them (if at all). We all know people hate spam so how can I offer value to them?

Also:
* Is it a mistake to use mailchimp (or something similar) to send these emails? Can it backfire on me somehow?
* Should I include graphics or a plain text pitch?

My Current Idea Is The Following:
* First Upload List to Facebook Custom Audience and Target Them for a Few Days to make it appear random.
* Second send the emails out.

Thoughts?
#advice #cold #email #list #marketing
  • Profile picture of the author waterfall
    Hi,

    I suggest you figure out how to micro-target emails to specific personas. Perhaps in batches of less than 100 a day. It worked well in the B2B vertical and you will get far better quality responses in a month, than the 100K/day spam your ‘offers’ to the list with prospects who do not have an existing relationship with your organization.

    You can keep these tips in mind when you work at your "cold" email message:

    - Keep it short and clear. A "cold" email is an intrusion into the recipient's time and mental energy so it has to be as short and concise as possible. Sending too much information or links to such information is not adding value to a "cold" email. Do not use HTML and images. Send a plain text email and explain the essence of your message straightforward. Tell clearly what you want the reader to do.

    - Use a short Subject line. If the Subject isn’t written in a full sentence with capitalized words, it makes it look like you wrote it quickly which is a sign of a personal email not a mass email. To grab the reader’s attention, the Subject line of a “cold” email may not actually say what is in the message. So the reader HAVE to open the email to learn what is inside. Few samples of short yet effective subject lines for “cold” emails:

    Quick question for you.
    A quick heads up.
    [Name] recommended I get in touch.
    [Name], not sure if you saw this?
    [Name], is the below of any interest to you?

    - Include one call-to-action. By giving the recipient the choice, you are making them think about what to do rather than simply doing it.

    - Make it easy to reply. You can include your full contact information into your signature. Or you can add one line at the end of your email “Please, hit “Reply” and send me an email”.

    - Send followups if the user did not respond to the first email. Someone might simply miss your first email, someone did not have time to reply, so there is nothing wrong with sending a couple of reminders to the recipients from who you did not hear. 3-4 followups are sufficient. If they do not show interest after the 4th email, do not disturb them anymore.

    I would not recommend that you use MailChimp or a different ESP because they require a confirmed opt-in list and add a footer with the unsubscribe link to every message. Instead, you can use a hybrid in-house email marketing system with a dedicated SMTP server or free SMTP server, for example, Gmail, so that it looks like you are writing them personally.
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    Create, Send and Schedule Promotions Emails, Newsletters or Invitations Your Customers Will Love with IN-HOUSE Email Marketing Platform for Windows. Manage delivery In-House or Outsource to Multiple Delivery Vendors like Amazon SES, Mailgun, Sendgrid... Ideal solution for medium and large volume senders

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    • Profile picture of the author Joshua Digital
      Hey Waterfall,

      Your response was very valuable to me and I'll be using a lot of your concepts.

      Can my gmail be penalized if I send the visit via my company gmail? If I set it up to send via SMTP from our company's domain could that also damage us somehow?

      Could I create a gmail account with a forward all response to my company gmail?

      Thanks again!
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      • Profile picture of the author waterfall
        Hi Joshua,

        You should not use your company's domain for sending marketing emails. Because if your domain ever gets on a spam list, you can say goodbye to your transactional confirmation emails (tracking numbers, order confirmations, etc.) and to customer service emails.

        For sending marketing or/and cold outreach emails, you should better register a new domain that is close to your main company's domain. Call it for example email-yourdomain.com, or something similar.

        Yes, you can create multiple gmail accounts with a forward all responses to your company gmail account. Then you can use these accounts for sending 100 emails/day from each account and collect responses to your main company account.
        Signature

        --
        Create, Send and Schedule Promotions Emails, Newsletters or Invitations Your Customers Will Love with IN-HOUSE Email Marketing Platform for Windows. Manage delivery In-House or Outsource to Multiple Delivery Vendors like Amazon SES, Mailgun, Sendgrid... Ideal solution for medium and large volume senders

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        • Profile picture of the author RyanJ
          Originally Posted by waterfall View Post

          Hi Joshua,

          You should not use your company's domain for sending marketing emails. Because if your domain ever gets on a spam list, you can say goodbye to your transactional confirmation emails (tracking numbers, order confirmations, etc.) and to customer service emails.

          For sending marketing or/and cold outreach emails, you should better register a new domain that is close to your main company's domain. Call it for example email-yourdomain.com, or something similar.

          Yes, you can create multiple gmail accounts with a forward all responses to your company gmail account. Then you can use these accounts for sending 100 emails/day from each account and collect responses to your main company account.

          So I made the mistake of sending many, many, emails using my companies domain. For some reason now I believe my emails to current clients are randomly either just not actually delivered or they, also randomly, don't get sent to my inbox when a client emails me back.

          Is it possible that my ip address is somewhat blacklisted?
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  • Profile picture of the author Katie Watters
    Originally Posted by Joshua Digital View Post

    Hey Warriors,

    I recently started building / scrapping a large list of relevant people from Yelp / Yellow directories. The majority have almost certainly not heard of our company accept if per chance via Facebook or AdWords ads.

    My Question Is The Following:
    How should I approach this list of emails when reaching out to them (if at all). We all know people hate spam so how can I offer value to them?

    Also:
    * Is it a mistake to use mailchimp (or something similar) to send these emails? Can it backfire on me somehow?
    * Should I include graphics or a plain text pitch?

    My Current Idea Is The Following:
    * First Upload List to Facebook Custom Audience and Target Them for a Few Days to make it appear random.
    * Second send the emails out.

    Thoughts?
    Using MailChimp (or similar platforms) would cause some issues - most if not all ESPs or MAs do not allow purchased or cold contacts. There's only a handful of platforms that allow sending to a cold email list such as Act-On or Clickback.
    Signature
    B2B lead generation solutions for accelerated sales or marketing growth.
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    • Profile picture of the author Joshua Digital
      Thanks Katie. Some have suggested opening multiple gmail accounts with names in connection my company but its a pity ... it definitely hurts our image if its coming from a @gmail account.

      If I send it out from a sub domain could google also penalize the main domain?
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  • Profile picture of the author henryw1981
    Very good advice from Waterfall. I would also suggest you make sure to clean your list before mailing.
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  • Profile picture of the author brewmeister
    Joshua I would highly recommend when reaching out to the new leads with a simple email asking them a question, prompting them to respond.

    Once they respond / show interest in your question then you can email them a few times more before pitching your offer. This will help avoid being marked as spam and help your IP reputation.

    Regardless I would still recommend a 3rd party SMTP to help inboxing. Unless you have built up domains and mailing server.
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    • Profile picture of the author Joshua Digital
      Thanks Brewmeister!

      I like the idea of keeping it 'simple' my target demographic are late adopters so they're horrible with technology although I have a theory that they're more impressionable and less guarded than our generation (not that we offer anything less than 100% legit). I'll give the simple question method a try!
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