{"id":760,"date":"2015-01-05T05:00:07","date_gmt":"2015-01-05T13:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/salesfolk.com\/?p=760"},"modified":"2015-10-07T20:34:22","modified_gmt":"2015-10-08T03:34:22","slug":"half-assed-emails-kill-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salesfolk.com\/blog\/half-assed-emails-kill-brand\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Half-Assed Emails Kill Your Brand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you want to achieve predictable revenue growth for your company\u2019s sales in 2015?<\/p>\n

One of the easiest and most certain ways to do that is to learn to build and deploy effective outbound email campaigns. Research from Marketing Profs, Inside Sales and countless other sources will all tell you that outbound email is still the most powerful tool for generating revenue.<\/p>\n

As an email expert for B2B sales, I\u2019m a big fan of outbound email, but only when it is done the right way. \u00a0In fact, screwing up your cold email campaigns can actually be brand suicide and tarnish your company\u2019s reputation as an obnoxious spammer.<\/p>\n

B2B companies selling premium services and products need to make sure their marketing and sales efforts signal their high quality. \u00a0In other words, if you\u2019re selling to people in the C-suite you better be sure your outbound email campaign makes you feel like a specialty brand like \u201cWhole Foods\u201d instead of something generic like \u201cWal-Mart.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Why People Screw Up Their Outbound Email Campaigns<\/h3>\n

The most common reason that people send out terrible email campaigns is that they\u2019re desperately hurrying and looking for a \u201csilver bullet\u201d solution.<\/p>\n

I see this scenario all the time. Sometimes it\u2019s because businesses are in a hurry to make their revenue numbers to appease investors and board members, or maybe they\u2019re trying to hit targets in order to raise a new round or not run out of cash.<\/p>\n

While I\u2019m glad these companies are looking at cold email as a predictable way to scale their sales revenue, they regularly sabotage their outbound efforts by trying to cut corners. \u00a0Oftentimes these companies don\u2019t have a clear picture of which prospects their emails are targeting, and so they also don\u2019t really understand their sales prospects\u2019 needs either. The result is usually building subpar untargeted prospect lists and crappy cold email copy; neither of which will lead to a successful outbound email campaign.<\/p>\n

How to Avoid Ruining Your Brand with Bad Outbound Email Campaigns<\/h3>\n

Before you go wild blasting out thousands of cold emails from an untargeted list you bought from Data.com please consider these 3 basic questions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Which personas are you targeting? (What are their titles, what industries do they come from, and what\u2019s their revenue size?)<\/li>\n
  2. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What are the pain points of each of these personas? (What annoys them and what do they fear?)<\/li>\n
  3. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0How can you solve these peoples\u2019 problems? (What benefits does your product or service offer them? List out the benefits from each of your value propositions.)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    These 3 questions are the difference between running a successful outbound campaign that can generate dozens of sales calls and having your domain blacklisted as a spammer. If you can\u2019t take the time to answer them, you shouldn\u2019t be doing outbound. \u00a0Otherwise you\u2019re just sending your prospects irrelevant and uninteresting emails, and that\u2019s a waste of your time and theirs.<\/p>\n

    3 Outbound Email Tips That Will Get You Dozens of Qualified Leads<\/h3>\n

    1. Research Your Prospects Before You Even Build Your List<\/h4>\n

    Answering the 3 questions above is the first step to understanding how to create an effective outbound email campaign that your prospects will actually respond to. The more research you do, the better your outbound emails will be.<\/p>\n

    Some tips for your outbound research to get started:<\/p>\n