If You Want to Actually Get a Response to Your Email Pitch, …

March 2, 2018

6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Pitching has always been a key aspect of building a successful business. You simply cannot do without it in today’s work environment. Given that the average office worker receives 121 emails every day, according to a report by Radicati Group, you have to brace yourself for a slim chance of success through email marketing.

Related: 4 Cold Email Subject Lines That Generated $4 Million in Revenue

Successfully pitching with results may be difficult for most, but doing it right opens doors of opportunities. Consider that only in 2017, the total number of business and consumer emails sent and received per day reached 269 billion, and is expected to continue to grow at an average annual rate of 4.4 percent over the next four years, reaching 319.6 billion by the end of 2021. Therefore, you must be unique and do what’s best for your business, and not what your personal reaction tells you to do. I started with writing catchy subject lines and I noticed that people were more inclined to respond, and seemed to like them. As a result, I became passionate about understanding how to reach people on a more personal level.

Judging from my own personal experiences in getting prospects to respond to my cold email pitches, the following strategies will help you close important leads through email marketing.

1. Build a rapport with your lead.

Establish a prior relationship with the people you’re interested in pitching something to, before reaching out to them. This can be done in several ways: through social media, via your blog, studying the LinkedIn profile of someone or their resume meticulously, or doing giveaways to show that you understand them. According to TOPO, only 24 percent of all sales emails are actually opened. Consequently, what about making it personal, with a captivating subject and acting like you honestly care?

Related: This Is The Cold Email I Used to Connect With C-Level Execs at 22 of the World’s Biggest Companies

By putting yourself on the line in your business — and on social media — you are creating an environment where people can get to know you, and where you can also learn more about them and what they like. The more you identify with the people you want to reach, the more likely you are to get their response. If your message is consistent, valuable, and honed to your audience, you will therefore pitch to people who are intrinsically interested in what you have to say and do.

2. Make your pitch brief and spot-on.

People hate time wasters and tend not to spend their precious moments on a long, boring email. Be pleasant but get to the interesting point as soon as possible by showing them the value you bring, all while making your request as brief as possible.

This all comes down to the certainty in what you have to offer. Ask yourself this simple question before pitching: Do I create value while instilling confidence? If the answer is yes, then you are ready to go. Once assured that you can offer something important and necessary, it is at this point that you can go ahead and ask. Consequently, your request will ring as something inherently interesting to the receiver.

Would you like to do business with someone who is A) needy or B) extremely successful? Act with aplomb.

Related: How I Generated Over $20 Million in New Business Using Cold Email Outreach

3. Learn the appropriate follow-up intervals.

Giving your leads some time to breathe is going to show them that you respect both your space and theirs.

Time is the biggest asset we have. Remember that when a prospect is not replying right away, he or she might be preoccupied. Learn the right balance between being too pushy and showing that you don’t care.

Coming at it from the opposite side, Drift used a “secret shopper” to fill out lead forms, demo requests and sales inquiry forms at 433 companies. Surprisingly, only 7 percent responded in the first five minutes, and 55 percent didn’t respond within five business days. And those are companies that said they want to hear from new clients! 

As a rule: Monday is a crazy busy day as many things have to be done after the weekend. Therefore, try to send emails on a Tuesday or Wednesday if you want a quicker response. Otherwise, if you need to send a message right at the beginning of the week, understand that you’ll have to be patient and wait a few days. Demonstrating an appreciation for your prospect’s time can definitely give you an edge.

Related: 5 Essentials to Writing Cold Emails That Convert Prospective Clients

4. Time your messages.

There’s nothing worse than sending your emails at midnight or on off days.

You are a business, so act like it. Unless you have a true relationship with the person you are writing to, try to write during business hours and work days.

To give your proposal a better chance at winning, request for your lead’s schedule beforehand. This will help you know when your emails and calls are going to be ordinary interruptions in a busy person’s tight schedule. You should learn better to avoid such moments.

5. Be graceful.

If your prospect chooses not to respond to any of your messages, be classy about it and bow out gracefully. It often happens that your lead simply doesn’t reply. Understand when to stop and apply grace and kindness. Thoughtfulness is a life rule and it will bring you very far in many unexpected situations.

Related: 3 Cold Email Strategies With High Response Rates

People could simply be disinterested in what you offer — that is always a possibility. However, if you follow all of the above steps and still don’t hear back, exit the conversation gracefully. Never burn any bridges. You can always loop back after a couple of months and may discover some of the following possibilities: the receiver’s server was down, it was simply bad timing, or your prospect had just been fired and did not have the guts or the mindset to tell you. Life changes happen all the time — someone who does not need your services today could be in dire need of them tomorrow. I have been personally thanked for being pleasantly persistent after an entire year of “gracious” follow-ups. You might follow back at the right time and the prospect will thank you for doing so. Doing what’s right brings you great karma and consequently much more business than you could ever expect.