#237: Is Warm Email Prospecting Still Effective?

Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast, helping you propel your writing business to a whole new level. And now, here's your host, Ed Gandia.

Hey there. Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast. I am your host, Ed Gandia, and this is the podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to earn more and less time doing work they love or better. Client this episode is a little different and much shorter than usual rather than my typical 45 minute format. Today I'm sharing a quick tip with you and this is part of the regular audio insights that I publish for my private coaching clients. I just thought you'd find it helpful. So here we go. I hope you enjoy it. Every few weeks, without fail, I get an email from a coaching client or a member of my tribe asking if warm email prospecting is still effective. They're usually asking because they've had mixed success recently and they're wondering if this prospecting approach is still relevant today. One of the benefits of being in my position is that I hear from freelancers all around the world and in dozens of different target markets. So I get real time feedback on what's working, what's not working, and I get that directly from the field. And here's what I can tell you about warm email prospecting today. It's still working. Not just working, but working very well. Just last week I heard from a guy who generated a huge lead that's looking very, very promising. And he did that on the very first warm email he sent out. First warm email ever. Now, granted, that's an extreme example. Okay, I'm not saying that that should be the norm. It's not the norm at all. My point is that I know it's working because I'm hearing from those who are using it every week or every month, generate leads and convert those leads into profitable clients. But even though it's still working, what I found is that there's less room for error these days. The key variables need to be in place for it to work. You can't get away with kind of doing a sloppy job. You could in the past if your email copy was okay, but now your email must tick all the boxes. So here are those critical boxes or critical success variables. Your warm email must, number one, be personalized. Don't try to wedge in a generic message into a somewhat personalized introduction. Or to put it another way, don't try to wedge in some personalization into a generic message. Number two, your email must be sent to the right person. You got to make sure you're contacting the right individual, only you would know who that's going to be. Typically a marketing director in an organization. If you're going after the corporate market, you just need to know who typically hires you, who you typically work with. Number three, your email must be brief. This is one that a lot of writers have trouble with because we want to wedge it all in. We want to tell the whole story in the email. 125 words or less. That's it. Trust me, if you work toward making it less than 125 words, it's going to be better. I've never seen an email that couldn't benefit from just trimming a little bit of that and making it shorter. Number four, Making it about them, not about you. Starting with a subject line. This is not an introduction. This is why I don't really like to argue about semantics, but I don't like thinking of these as Lois letters of introduction. You're not introducing yourself. That shouldn't be the spirit behind it. You are pointing out something you noticed about them and why you're contacting because you might be able to help them with more of that depending on what they're doing and how they're going about it. Okay, so it's about them, not about you. It's not an introduction of you and your services. Additionally, a few key points. You need to send out emails frequently. Sending five today and then not sending another one till three months from now. That's not going to help. It also really helps if you bring in LinkedIn to the mix by connecting with the prospects there or trying to connect with them and using LinkedIn as part of your follow up process alongside email Follow up. I'm not saying replace LinkedIn with email. Okay? Also, you must focus on quality, not quantity. Now. Yes, I said earlier that you need some volume in terms of your prospecting frequency in terms of how many you send out. But it needs to be quality volume, not volume for the sake of volume. In fact, I don't really like using that word. I just like using frequency instead. You should be doing this on a regular basis. Finally, you need to highlight something about your experience or track record in the prospects field or domain. Too many writers highlight their writing experience or ability or their chops. Writing chops to communicate their ability to communicate effectively. But they don't talk about what else they bring to the table outside of writing experience. Things such as domain expertise or experience, working with a variety of clients in this particular field, a fresh perspective and so on. I've seen a big surge in the number of companies and marketers using what they think is warm prospecting. So yes, prospects are very attuned to this kind of email marketing. But the good news is that most of these vendors are using email prospecting the wrong way. They're cutting corners like crazy. They're automating the messages, which means they have to keep them generic. That's an opportunity for you to continue to stand out by sending out a handcrafted, if you will, warm email to every prospect.

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