Hall of Shame Award: The Ironic Email that Lacks Research
This crappy cold email is amazingly ironic — it’s from a B2B lead generation company that is trying to convey how they can “Identify and hand pick highly targeted leads that match your idea customer bio,” and yet it is reaching out to Salesfolk (we write cold emails as an alternative to working with outsourced lead gen companies in case you didn’t know) as a potential client.
Talk about a lack of research?
They definitely didn’t “hand pick” their potential target list, and Salesfolk definitely doesn’t match their ideal customer profile. The only truth to their pitch is how they “automate email outreach,” which they are definitely doing at scale.
Why this email fails and got on “The Hall of Shame”:
- Lacks research for the prospect (we’re the wrong target for their product/service)
- Lacks a strong value proposition, and instead relies on a very lazy list of “features”
- Also needs a captivating hook to catch my attention and stand out from the noise
How to Fix This Bad Cold Email:
The best fix for this email would be to go back to the drawing board and look carefully at their own prospecting list. They should plan their list more carefully and ask themselves questions such as “Who are we contacting and how does this product add value to them?”
A highly targeted list is far better than blasting out mass emails to people who have no benefit from your product, who will only mark you as spam (or put you on our “Hall of Shame”). This kind of “mass-blasting” will only result in low response rates, and even worse, can damage your company’s name or IP’s reputation.
So please, research your prospects when sending cold emails!
Have bad cold emails in your inbox? Send them to us!
Help us fight the thoughtless spammers, one crappy cold email at a time by sending us the worst cold emails you’ve ever received.
We’ll put them up anonymously on the “Hall of Shame,” and shoot you an email when they go live.
Please send all submissions to “[email protected].”
(And feel free to suggest what you want to nominate the “bad cold email for!”)
