{"id":2964,"date":"2021-03-11T07:52:06","date_gmt":"2021-03-11T15:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/salesfolk.com\/blog\/?p=2964"},"modified":"2021-03-11T08:31:51","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T16:31:51","slug":"stop-using-bullets-points-cold-emails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salesfolk.com\/blog\/stop-using-bullets-points-cold-emails\/","title":{"rendered":"STOP using Bullets Points in Cold Emails!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you include bullet points or numbered lists in your sales prospecting emails<\/a>?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s fine for drip marketing emails, which people subscribed or opted into, to include lists. It\u2019s also fine to have a list in a sales email, once you\u2019ve had a conversation with that sales prospect or opportunity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

(<\/span>I regularly use bullet points in follow-up emails after sales demos, for example.<\/span><\/i>)<\/span><\/p>\n

However, bullet points or numbered lists don’t belong in cold emails<\/strong>, and will ALWAYS hurt your positive response rate<\/strong>. <\/span><\/p>\n

(<\/span>We’ve A\/B tested this like crazy hundreds of times! <\/span><\/i>\ud83e\udd13 \ud83e\uddea )<\/span><\/p>\n

\"stop<\/a><\/p>\n

Why to NOT use bullet points in sales prospecting emails, and what to do INSTEAD:<\/b><\/h2>\n

I wanted to share another short video clip from my recent Cold Email Copywriting Workshop.\u00a0 (If you want to see the previous parts of this video, you can find them on the blog. Part 2<\/strong> talks about “why cold emails need specificity<\/a>,” and Part 1<\/strong> covers why you need to be careful adding images to sales prospecting emails<\/a>.<\/em> )<\/span><\/p>\n

It shows me reviewing a long cold email that has five bullet points, and explaining how to edit it down.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

I have many hypotheses as to <\/span>why bullets and other types of lists perform worse in cold emails<\/b>.\u00a0 Here’s what I suspect:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. They\u2019re often a distracting information overload.<\/b> Instead of focusing on <\/span>ONE COMPELLING BENEFIT<\/b>, people list too many things, and dilute their value proposition.\u00a0 Readers get lost or bored, and often don\u2019t finish reading and respond.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. They feel less personal<\/b>. What uses a lot of bullets and numbered lists? Mass marketing emails! Therefore, emails have an aspect that triggers the human brain to think “mass marketing” versus “personal one-on-one” email.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. \u201cCorrelation vs causation<\/b>:\u201d \ud83e\udd13 This is a fancy phrase often used in mathematics and economics to mean that \u201cjust because things are related and trend together, does not mean they cause each other.<\/em>\u201d I notice that many emails with lists are long, boring, and have too much jargon or features instead of compelling benefits. All these reasons also contribute to why people don\u2019t often respond to these messages.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n