In a study by Ascend2, it was identified that 67% of B2B marketers have experienced enhanced marketing performance through marketing automation. The most important way of using automation is defining an automated welcome sequence. This series of emails are auto-generated, indicating that they are sent to any new customer subscribing to a particular service and contain helpful information about the subscribed service. Cold emailing is still one of the most efficient ways to reach out, although it is not uncommon for a lot of research to go into each email. Fortunately, it is possible to automate cold email research to make it easier and allow you to concentrate more on creating more robust, specific email campaigns. In this article, we’ll go through the necessity of automation of cold email research, what tools are out there, and what practices are for sending out cold emails.
What is Cold Emailing?
Cold emailing entails sending emails to potential business associates with whom there has been no previous communication. In B2B marketing, this is applied to engage a prospect, give a preliminary presentation, introduce your products or services, or just begin a dialogue. Cold emailing can be regarded as less invasive than cold calling because the last one can directly reply at any moment that is convenient for them.
Cold emails must be targeted and relevant to the receiver, so such work requires extensive study. Automation tools help you remove some of the process while effectively spreading it to a large audience.
Why Automating Cold Email Research is Important?
Automating cold email research is essential for several reasons:
- Saves Time: Manual research on each prospect also takes time. In general, automating analysis helps to obtain important data in a shorter time.
- Increases Accuracy: Automation tools can avoid many human-related errors because the data is most often up to date and suitable for the job at hand when it is received.
- Enables Personalization: Using automated tools, you can import specific information about every prospect. Therefore, your emails will be more engaging and relevant to the audience, which means a higher open rate.
- Scalability: Anytime we automate research, we can reach more of the targeted and desired prospects within a considerably shorter span of time and ensure that the scale-up does not compromise the quality of the findings.
Apart from this, it will take less time than doing it manually, and the chances of success will be higher since the right audience will be reached with the right information.
Key Elements of Cold Email Research for B2B
In the B2B world, cold emails have remained a powerful tool for reaching potential customers.
Cold email research is genuinely aimed at collecting data that will assist in creating exciting and targeted emails. Below are the key elements to focus on:
Identifying Target Audience
The most crucial step in preparing the emails is determining who should receive them. This involves identifying critical markets, as seen with the ideal customer profile (ICP), which might include the size of the company, its location, the market it is in, and its position. These gateways can then be used to sift and sort the potential leads so your emails reach the right people.
Gathering Company Information
Gathering company information can make your cold emails much more relevant to your addressee by knowing their current goals, challenges, and position in the market. Try to find out what they have done lately, what new capital they have attracted, and what markets they have entered. This information can be collected using computerized systems from various web sources, such as individual firm websites, news articles, and databases.
Finding Personal Insights
Personalization can mean more than knowing your prospect’s company and their likely interests in your services. What you need to achieve is an understanding of the person’s profile—how they are employed, what their work involves, and any content they have posted on, for instance, LinkedIn. The following information can be gathered with the use of automated tools.
Pain Points and Needs
The most successful cold emails address a prospect’s pain points. Automation tools can help you analyze company news, industry trends, and social media activity to uncover potential business challenges. This allows you to tailor your email to offer solutions relevant to their needs.
Tools and Technologies for Automating Cold Email Research
Several tools are available to help you automate your cold email research. Each tool offers unique features to improve the accuracy and efficiency of your outreach efforts. Here are some of the top options:
Snov.io
Snov.io is a versatile tool that offers email verification, lead generation, and email drip campaign automation. Its powerful email finder and verifier tools help you gather accurate contact information for your target audience, ensuring your emails reach the right inbox. Additionally, its CRM integration makes it easy to manage and organize leads.
Mailshake
Mailshake makes cold email send-out less stressful due to its lead generation and customization capabilities. You can set follow-ups, and it can connect with numerous different CRM platforms, which makes it especially popular among small and medium-sized businesses that need automated cold email outreach.
Saleshandy
Saleshandy has a feature that can pick up on the emails sent, organize a timetable, and align follow-ups, making it easier to monitor the email-selling campaign. It can also help to make the emails individual and track their effectiveness by engagement rates, which shows what works and what does not work at the mail communication stage.
Lemlist
Lemlist is an application that aims to make cold emails feel more personal by allowing users to add pictures and live components. It’s the best choice for creating attractive, engaging emails for readers interested in giving their messages a personal touch. It also includes a suite of specific metrics and features for follow-up auto-sequencing.
Reply.io
Reply.io simultaneously conducts your investigation and cold emailing processes through lead generation, sequenced emailing, and contact tracking. It connects with CRM systems and enables the creation of highly targeted, cross-channel campaigns that can be done via email or LinkedIn outreach.
Woodpecker
Woodpecker is a platform created for B2B companies that can use automatic cold emailing and follow-ups. Active use is beneficial in segmenting communication and tracking inbox placement, spam filters, and engagement rates.
Best Practices for Automated Cold Email Research for B2B
To get the most out of automated cold email research, follow these best practices:
- Keep It Relevant: If there is one-on-one communication, it is wise to automate emails and make them useful for the receiver. Take the time to understand what they are going through and solve those problems for them.
- Segment Your Audience: Categorize the recipients by type, industry, the size of the company they work for, or their position at the company, and use these categories to personalize the emails. The groups require segmentation and management to be handled using automation tools.
- Use Verified Emails: To verify your contact information, you can turn to Snov.io, an email verification service. This will enhance your email delivery rate and minimize bounceback.
- Automate Follow-Ups: Do not leave it in the first email; there must be a second email. To better your odds, you can use tools like Mailshake or Lemlist to schedule follow-ups so you don’t have to do them manually.
- Track and Adjust: Keep an eye on your campaigns. There is always an option to take advantage of the statistics provided by tools such as Saleshandy and Reply.io to distinguish what is efficient and where you are losing time.
Conclusion
Cold email research for business-to-business outreach has to be automated to increase the campaign’s efficiency. Once you use appropriate tools such as snov.io, milkshake, lemlist, or any other tool that fits your needs, it becomes pretty easy to research, personalize your emails, and expand your reach. As you activate these key recommendations, ensure a snap is crammed relative and exact to line competent relations with your prospects.
James is the head of marketing at Tamoco
