Perfect Timing – 5 Tips for Outbound Email Gold

Outbound email is an adventure.  Your message may end up in the spam box of doom or you may get a quick response back with,  “Wow, perfect timing, let’s schedule a time to chat”. While there are many factors that need to be in place (ip reputation, spam scores etc,) before writing the perfect message, here are 5 tips that can help get the response you are looking for.

• Know your Ideal Customer

Seems like a no-brainer.  The more you know about your existing customers, the easier it is to reach out to like minded businesses and employees.  

Key things to understand about your existing customers include:

How did you build the relationship in the beginning?  Was it through marketing, a referral, word of mouth. What was the issue they were having that you were able to help with or solve? Knowing the first moment you started creating a business relationship will help you repeat the steps to build more of the same with other organizations.

• What Emails do you Respond to?

Usually people get between 40 and 100 new emails a day. Some better than others.  Take note in what got your attention. Was it an offer? Was it the way the subject line was worded? Did you get it right after lunch?  If you pay attention to these types of details about your own behavior, you can duplicate what worked on you, and formulate the subject lines, offers and time of message to work on your prospects.

• Pay Attention to Company Intel of your Prospects

Keeping track company growth indicators can not only help you strike at a perfect time, but it give you an in to start the conversation.  Being able to keep the message about your prospect and less about YOU, is extremely important. By tracking growth indicators you are listening to what your prospects are up to and can lead with that data.  Being able to start a conversation with, “I saw you just received 10M in funding,” or “Congrats on your recent promotion to Executive Vice President of Sales,” tells your prospects you are paying attention and utilizing your time to build a rapport.

• Make the CTA an Actual Value to your Prospect

This one can seem tricky but if done correctly, can save a lot of time.  If your goal is to have a conversation over the phone, make that apparent right away. If you are looking to provide something more like a whitepaper, or a free trial, make it known in the clearest way possible.  If you are upfront and clear about your intent, you will get more upfront and clear responses to your message.

• Test, Test, Test

If you get a great response to your messages on Wednesday at 1pm, you may be inclined to keep sending at that time, with the same subject line and message.  Don’t get complacent. You may be missing out on an even better response on Tuesday at 3pm with a different subject line and the same message and CTA. The goal here is to find the trends that work best for your prospects.  It may seem like a never ending quest to find the best combination, but if you put in the time to test, you will be more likely to find those “wow, perfect timing” responses you are looking for.

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