{"id":86,"date":"2022-04-27T23:32:57","date_gmt":"2022-04-27T18:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/humantic.ai\/blog\/?p=86"},"modified":"2022-06-14T17:12:50","modified_gmt":"2022-06-14T11:42:50","slug":"7-deadly-sins-email-prospecting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/humantic.ai\/blog\/7-deadly-sins-email-prospecting\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Email Prospecting Sins And How To Avoid Them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Prospecting emails are one of, if not THE most powerful tool in any salesperson&#8217;s arsenal. Sure, they may not give you the same sense of control a cold call does, but at the same time, they&#8217;re non-invasive and scalable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;d like to effectively engage multiple prospects in a day, cold emailing is the way to go &#8211; there&#8217;s no better way to connect with people who know zilch about your existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re just starting out with email prospecting, it might seem impossible to get any response that isn&#8217;t &#8220;who are you and where did you get my email id?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default wp-duotone-000000-ffffff-1\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/humantic.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/giphy-1.gif\" alt=\"Cold calls and emails makes your prospects feel like... Danny DeVito saying &quot;do I know you?&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-87\" width=\"315\" height=\"315\"\/><figcaption>Prospects responding to carelessly crafted cold emails<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s why experts pay a lot of attention to every element in a cold email &#8211; it&#8217;s often the first touchpoint where a potential customer hears from you, after all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From crafting a compelling subject line to choosing your tone; from zeroing in on your ask, to the way you phrase it&#8230;  a lot goes behind the scenes of every successful email. Still, only <a href=\"https:\/\/www.writecream.com\/top-10-cold-email-statistics-that-will-blow-your-mind\/#:~:text=Open%20Rates,-The%20global%20average&amp;text=In%202021%2C%20the%20average%20open,is%20considered%20good%20for%20business.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">23% of cold emails are ever opened<\/a>. The other 77% is invariably ignored. Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let&#8217;s find out. In this blog, we&#8217;re going to discuss the 7 deadly sins of prospecting emails. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I know what you&#8217;re thinking &#8211; &#8220;Sins?! Isn&#8217;t that a bit dramatic?&#8221; The experts will tell you it&#8217;s not dramatic enough. One mistake in your prospecting email, and you can say goodbye to your prospect forever. This thing is serious. Without further ado, let&#8217;s dive in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-ht-block-toc  is-style-outline htoc htoc--position-wide toc-list-style-plain\" data-htoc-state=\"expanded\"><span class=\"htoc__title\"><span class=\"ht_toc_title\">Table of Contents<\/span><span class=\"htoc__toggle\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\"><g fill=\"#444\"><path d=\"M15 7H1c-.6 0-1 .4-1 1s.4 1 1 1h14c.6 0 1-.4 1-1s-.4-1-1-1z\"><\/path><path d=\"M15 1H1c-.6 0-1 .4-1 1s.4 1 1 1h14c.6 0 1-.4 1-1s-.4-1-1-1zM15 13H1c-.6 0-1 .4-1 1s.4 1 1 1h14c.6 0 1-.4 1-1s-.4-1-1-1z\"><\/path><\/g><\/svg><\/span><\/span><div class=\"htoc__itemswrap\"><ul class=\"ht_toc_list\"><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#htoc-sin-1-not-using-a-striking-subject-line\">Sin #1: Not Using a Striking Subject Line<\/a><ul class=\"ht_toc_child_list\"><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#htoc-road-to-redemption-teasers\">Road to redemption: Teasers<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#htoc-sin-2-making-it-all-about-yourself\">Sin #2: Making it All About Yourself<\/a><ul class=\"ht_toc_child_list\"><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#htoc-road-to-redemption-empathy\">Road to redemption: Empathy<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#htoc-sin-3-not-getting-to-the-point\">Sin #3: Not Getting to the Point<\/a><ul class=\"ht_toc_child_list\"><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#htoc-road-to-redemption-get-to-the-point\">Road to redemption: Get to the point<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#htoc-sin-4-inappropriate-tone\">Sin #4: Inappropriate Tone<\/a><ul class=\"ht_toc_child_list\"><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#htoc-road-to-redemption-research\">Road to redemption: Research<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#htoc-sin-5-information-overload\">Sin #5: Information Overload<\/a><ul class=\"ht_toc_child_list\"><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#htoc-road-to-redemption-restraint\">Road to redemption: Restraint<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#htoc-sin-6-no-cta\">Sin #6: No CTA<\/a><ul class=\"ht_toc_child_list\"><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#htoc-road-to-redemption-clarity\">Road to redemption: Clarity<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#htoc-sin-7-the-deadliest-of-sins-lack-of-personalization\">Sin #7: Lack of personalization<\/a><ul class=\"ht_toc_child_list\"><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#htoc-road-to-redemption-using-ai-to-humanize-your-interactions\">Road to redemption: Using AI to humanize your interactions<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"htoc-sin-1-not-using-a-striking-subject-line\">Sin #1: Not Using a Striking Subject Line<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s say you\u2019ve got 2 email notifications&#8230; from 2 salespeople&#8230; who offer the same service. Which one of these are you likely to open?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;<strong><em>Want to grow your business fast? It\u2019s high time you should leverage performance marketing as your primary strategy<\/em><\/strong>&#8221; OR &#8220;<strong><em>Albert, Want to scale your business up to 5x with performance marketing?<\/em><\/strong>&#8220;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The latter, right? That&#8217;s what I thought. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s some trivia: <a href=\"https:\/\/financesonline.com\/email-subject-line-statistics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">64 per cent of email recipients<\/a> decide to open emails based on subject lines! There\u2019s no reason you shouldn&#8217;t take your time to perfect it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Recommended read: <a href=\"https:\/\/humantic.ai\/blog\/better-subject-lines\/\">How to increase your open rate with better subject lines<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"htoc-road-to-redemption-teasers\">Road to redemption: Teasers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>A few quick tips to make your subject lines work: keep them short, personalized, and leave your reader wanting more. Once you start looking at subject lines as teasers for your email, you&#8217;ll notice yourself getting better at them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-vivid-cyan-blue-color has-text-color\">Recommended reading: <a href=\"https:\/\/humantic.ai\/blog\/better-subject-lines\/\">increase your email open rates by optimizing subject lines<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"htoc-sin-2-making-it-all-about-yourself\">Sin #2: Making it All About Yourself<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>One common mistake salespeople make, is emphasizing more on their services or product, instead of the customer. When ideally, it should be the opposite. Nobody likes to hear a story in which they&#8217;re not the hero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"htoc-road-to-redemption-empathy\">Road to redemption: Empathy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Make it clear that you understand your recipient&#8217;s problem<\/li><li>Tell them how you can help them move the business needle from point A to B<\/li><li>Give them a reason to choose you &#8211; what\u2019s your USP?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"htoc-sin-3-not-getting-to-the-point\">Sin #3: Not Getting to the Point<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>You know what, I get it &#8211; you love your product, you think your prospect will love it too. But your words may sound like music to you, but it doesn&#8217;t to your prospect &#8211; at least not yet. Not before they&#8217;re sold on the idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/humantic.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Edbj5mlU4AEvnrS.jpg\" alt=\"Incessantly long messages are telltale signs of an amateur - tall phone screen to accommodate a long text message\" class=\"wp-image-89\" width=\"510\" height=\"501\" srcset=\"https:\/\/humantic.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Edbj5mlU4AEvnrS.jpg 680w, https:\/\/humantic.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Edbj5mlU4AEvnrS-300x295.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px\" \/><figcaption>Incessantly long messages are telltale signs of an amateur<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"htoc-road-to-redemption-get-to-the-point\">Road to redemption: Get to the point<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Based on 40 million emails, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.hubspot.com\/sales\/ideal-length-sales-email\" target=\"_blank\">HubSpot recommends<\/a> an email length of 50-120 words to boost your response rate to over 50%. A similar study found emails with approximately 20 lines of text, or about 200 words, had the highest clickthrough rates. When in doubt, keep it short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"htoc-sin-4-inappropriate-tone\">Sin #4: Inappropriate Tone<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Use your prospect&#8217;s name to personalize your message, but don&#8217;t use it too many times. Be humble, but don&#8217;t sound subservient. Be friendly, but don&#8217;t overstep boundaries. Be confident, but don&#8217;t sound too arrogant. I know, I know, it sounds like walking on eggshells, but once you get a hang of it, it&#8217;s going to be a cakewalk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"htoc-road-to-redemption-research\"><strong>Road to redemption: Research<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Do your research, learn your prospect &#8211; know what ticks their boxes, and know what ticks them off. Choose your tone accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"htoc-sin-5-information-overload\">Sin #5: Information Overload<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I get it. You&#8217;re a salesperson. You&#8217;re programmed to sell. But please, please, chill out with the attachments and the links. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Due to frequent malware attacks through email attachments, most organizations are wary of them. Hyperlinks are a better option. Even then, it&#8217;s tempting to go overboard. But don&#8217;t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Counterintuitive as it may sound, if an email has too many links, you&#8217;d end up clicking on none.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Take this example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1493\" height=\"1114\" src=\"https:\/\/humantic.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/image-edited.png\" alt=\"Email example\" class=\"wp-image-91\" srcset=\"https:\/\/humantic.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/image-edited.png 1493w, https:\/\/humantic.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/image-edited-300x224.png 300w, https:\/\/humantic.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/image-edited-1024x764.png 1024w, https:\/\/humantic.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/image-edited-768x573.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1493px) 100vw, 1493px\" \/><figcaption><strong>Too much &#8216;blue&#8217; in your email can put you in the &#8216;red<\/strong>&#8216;<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"htoc-road-to-redemption-restraint\">Road to redemption: Restraint<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Any more than 2 links in an email, and you&#8217;re setting yourself up for failure. Ask yourself what&#8217;s the most relevant case study\/video my prospect would be interested in, given their level of awareness and share that with them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Don&#8217;t share everything in one shot. Save some for the inevitable follow-ups \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"htoc-sin-6-no-cta\">Sin #6: No CTA<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Do you want to lose out on the sales opportunity that you created through your persuasive email?&nbsp;If your answer is no, you must craft your CTAs carefully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And yes, when it comes to prospecting emails, more than one CTA is as good as no CTA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"htoc-road-to-redemption-clarity\">Road to redemption: Clarity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>A clear <strong>Call-to-action <\/strong>(CTA) is bound to maximize your response and conversion rates. Ensure to include a specific and strong CTA at the end of each email. Bonus points if they don&#8217;t have to go through hoops to take that action &#8211; make it as simple as you can for your prospect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"htoc-sin-7-the-deadliest-of-sins-lack-of-personalization\">Sin #7: The deadliest of sins. Lack of personalization.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Every salesperson I know knows the importance of personalization. However, some spend too little time on it, while others go overboard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both lead to substandard outcomes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You either shoot yourself in the foot by sounding like a robot without personalizing your emails. Or you shoot yourself in the foot by deeply researching your prospects on various channels &#8211; sometimes to great success. But you can&#8217;t possibly meet your quarterly targets with such a detailed approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media-exp1.licdn.com\/dms\/image\/C4E22AQEbX5VGXC0fQA\/feedshare-shrink_2048_1536\/0\/1650298234765?e=2147483647&amp;v=beta&amp;t=I_cMhOOCgJlNBPlH3jY8T33IaUjnLNs-XKtE6sDgwp8\" alt=\"Infographic representation of the sweet spot in email personalization\" width=\"329\" height=\"320\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>You need to find your \u2018<strong>sweet spot\u2019<\/strong>, and that only comes with practice, experimentation, and metric tons of manhours. But surely there must be a way to do this effectively and at scale?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"htoc-road-to-redemption-using-ai-to-humanize-your-interactions\">Road to redemption: Using AI to humanize your interactions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<p id=\"htoc-humantic-ai-provides-a-layer-of-people-intelligence-to-revenue-teams-by-providing-actionable-personality-insights-and-recommendations-about-prospects\">Humantic AI provides a layer of &#8220;<em><strong>people intelligence<\/strong><\/em>&#8221; to revenue teams by providing actionable personality insights and recommendations about prospects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"htoc-it-can-be-a-gamechanger-to-know-your-prospect-even-before-you-meet-them-you-can-craft-your-prospecting-email-in-such-a-way-that-they-can-t-help-but-respond\">It can be a gamechanger to <a href=\"https:\/\/chrome.google.com\/webstore\/detail\/humantic-ai\/iklikkgplppchknjhfkmkjnnopomaifc\">know your prospect even before you meet them<\/a>. You can craft your prospecting email in such a way that they can&#8217;t help but respond. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"htoc-knowing-your-prospect-s-affinity-towards-analytics-vs-emotion-their-ability-or-the-lack-thereof-to-say-no-negotiation-tactics-that-are-likely-to-work-on-them-etc-is-going-to-make-every-prospecting-email-a-breeze-or-at-least-a-lesser-storm\">Knowing your prospect&#8217;s affinity towards analytics vs. emotion; their ability (or the lack thereof) to say no; negotiation tactics that are likely to work on them, etc., is going to make every prospecting email a breeze (or at least a lesser storm!)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Only 23% of cold emails are ever opened. The other 77% is invariably ignored. Why? Check out these common mistakes and how you can avoid them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-86","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sales-prospecting"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humantic.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humantic.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humantic.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humantic.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humantic.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/humantic.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":283,"href":"https:\/\/humantic.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions\/283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humantic.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humantic.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humantic.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humantic.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}