Do most cold emails succeed or fail because of the subject line, the length, the way the copy was written, or the content (and the ideas in that content)?

The answer is a combination of all of the above. If you have a good, targeted list and your response rate is less than 10% with personalized emails, then your emails could use some work.

Great company, crappy emails

Earlier this year, a B2B company came to me for help with their outbound emails. they offered an incredible service for SaaS companies, but weren’t very successful with cold email: response rates were below 2%. In about a month of working together, I created a single email template that got them more than 16 new customers.

Why their emails were bad before

1. Too long: no one wants to read a mini e-book in an email.
2. Tried to make too many points: they have an amazing product, but highlighting too many value props confused people.
3. Too “Me Me Me”: their emails talked way too much about why they were awesome, listing their company’s features instead of putting it in terms of value for the customer.
4. Too hipster: they wanted to seem young and modern, but all their fancy marketing automation templates made their cold emails seem impersonal and spammy, even with custom inserts. no one thinks they’re getting a personal email if it’s too pretty.

Remember: keep it simple.

And people will actually read and respond to your emails a lot more.