For years, go-to-market teams have grappled with a dilemma: outbound emails’ effectiveness has been decreasing even as sales teams have come to rely on it even more as an affordable, scalable channel to generate leads. Technology has made sending even more emails easier, but overuse and bad behavior by many sellers has led to diminishing returns. For example:
The latest wave of data enrichment and generative AI tools has only heightened the stakes for using email, underscoring the need for B2B sellers to take a strategic approach to campaign design, personalization, and messaging clarity. In this climate, crafting a compelling, value-driven approach to email is more critical than ever – especially if you’re selling a complex solution to enterprise buyers.
Here’s how B2B organizations can maximize the effectiveness of their outbound emails.
Personalization isn’t a “nice to have” any more—it’s a necessity. And we’re talking about going deeper than the simple personalization “Hi, [FIRSTNAME}.”
Start by refining your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and identifying the challenges that matter most to your prospects. You want to find the issues, concerns or problems your customer is dealing with so you can customize your message to make it incredibly relevant. Go deeper than the organization level and tailor your emails to specific personas, such as particular job roles or titles, to help ensure your outreach resonates on an individual level.
Your first email has to be relevant, insightful, and thoughtful. Reference mutual connections, shared experiences, recent company news, or other indicators that show you genuinely understand the prospect's needs. Avoid generic introductions like, "We went to the same school," and aim for substance that builds a real connection.
Tip: Use a framework like Sam Sales' “Show Me You Know Me” approach to make your research and outreach feel both personal and professional.
The subject line is the gateway to your email. Do whatever it takes to make sure your email doesn’t look like a SALES EMAIL.
In general, prioritize clarity and relevance of your subject line over cleverness. Subject lines such as “Solving [Pain Point] for [Company]” or “Quick question about how you handle [Issue]” tend to perform because you’re tapping into something the recipient (hopefully, if you’ve done your research) is dealing with.
Test a variety of subject lines to identify which pain points, offers, or phrasing resonate best with your audience.
Avoid spammy tactics, like using “RE:” in a cold email subject line. Not only do these tricks hurt your sender reputation, but internet service providers are increasingly adept at flagging them as spam.
In today’s crowded inboxes, brevity is your ally. Skip the jargon and long-winded explanations—focus on conveying how your solution directly benefits the recipient and getting to the next step. A few well-chosen sentences should clearly communicate why the recipient should continue the conversation to learn more details.
Another way to think about it is that you should write the email your recipient wants to receive, not the email you want to send them that includes all the reasons why they need to buy your wonderful product.
Focusing and simplifying your message is one area that AI-enabled tools like Grammarly or Lavender.ai can be invaluable in helping you edit away all of the fluff we’re inclined to put into emails.
Every decision-maker wants to know: "What's in it for me?" Structure your message around benefits that align with their goals, such as cost savings, increased efficiency, or increased speed. Use success stories and quantifiable results to back up your claims; specific outcomes build credibility and underscore your message's relevance – but again, don’t try to cram all of those points into your first message.
A few more best practices when talking about the value you create:
A clear, but lower friction call-to-action guides the prospect without overwhelming them. Instead of asking immediately for a meeting, try a softer approach, such as, “Would you be open to exploring this further?” or offer an intermediate step such as “Can I share a brief overview video of our solution?”
This “Call to Interest” approach gives the recipient control over their next step and fosters a more comfortable, engaging environment. You can start asking for higher-friction actions (eg a meeting) later in your relationship.
Remember: be explicit about the action you’re requesting – don’t make them guess what you’re asking for. Clarity is essential to driving people to the next step.
Email efforts that are integrated into a larger, multi-channel engagement strategy tend to perform better. Amplify your email results by creating relevant touchpoints across social media, events, content marketing, LinkedIn messaging, and targeted advertising. By creating this web of interactions, you increase brand familiarity and make people aware of the problems you are solving – which hopefully will make your emails more welcome and engaging.
Testing isn’t a best practice; it’s critical to long-term success. Regularly A/B test all aspects of your email campaigns – subject lines, CTAs, message length, time of send, etc – to understand what resonates with your audience. Even a “winning” combination needs continuous tweaks to keep it performing at its best.
Metrics are your compass for ongoing improvement. While they provide some value, you’re going to need to look beyond the traditional email metrics of open rates, click-through rates, and replies. This is because technology such as bots or Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) feature can artificially inflate your open rates, or email clients with image blockers could prevent the tracking pixels from loading leading to artificially lower open rates.
You still need to pay attention to these metrics, but you should really focus on:
There are many ways you can measure your email programs. Be sure you are collecting these variables and that you have someone accountable for turning this data into insights and hypotheses to iterate and refine your approach.
The Takeaway
While some may argue that outbound email is becoming obsolete, it remains a vital channel and component in most B2B sales. Success in the AI age requires a customer-centric approach that leverages data, insights, and personalization to make each email relevant and engaging. With the right mix of strategy, messaging, and testing, cold email can still be a relevant way to reach and engage B2B decision-makers.