Cold and warm emailing is the most widely used outreach email strategy. The cold emailing approach is a popular but unreliable email marketing strategy. In contrast, the warm emailing process is the safest way to engage with people. Although, most people don’t know how to conduct a cold email campaign. Cold emailing can expand your reach to potential customers anywhere in the world. But, the cold emailing method is entirely undependable. On the other hand, a warm email is a widely accepted strategy for relationships with your customers. So, you must know the nature and technique of cold and warm emailing to generate potential leads.
What is a cold and warm email?
Cold email
Cold email is a mailing strategy where you will mail those with no prior relationship with you or your organization. You will aim to build a relationship with them; they might be your future customers. People mostly go for cold emailing as it is an easy process. You can collect any email addresses to send them the emails. Sometimes many email marketers buy email lists to follow the cold emailing approach. But this is the least expensive and effective way to generate leads. Additionally, this is not a productive technique for any email marketer can interact with customers. However, if you choose this challenging route, you must carefully plan your moves regarding cold email campaigns.
Warm email
Now warm email is also a mailing strategy where you will connect with those people who already know you or your company correctly. Here you have a prior relationship with your audience. Here in the warm emailing strategy, you will only take those email addresses you know organically. The email receivers of warm emails have previously engaged with you or your organization already. They have previously expressed interest in you by taking action on your website, blog, or social media page. Thus, they have allowed you to email them from your end. Therefore, warm emailing is a far better email marketing technique than cold emailing.
Is cold emailing legal?
A crucial point regarding cold email: in one sentence, it is illegal if you do not follow the spam law guide of different countries. Many countries, such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, European Union, Germany, etc., prohibited the cold emailing approach. However, if you follow some strict rules, cold email can be allowed according to the above and other country’s laws. However, you may read this article to know more about cold email’s legality.
You are not allowed to use Amazon SES to send or support unsolicited mass emails or other messages, promotions, ads, or solicitations.
Amazon SES policy
There is a high chance that a cold email campaign can end with spam problems. Because through the cold email technique, you will try to connect with many unknown people simultaneously.
Now the question may arise, “Does the cold emailing strategy work at any point?”. The answer is yes; if done appropriately, the cold email tactic can be effective. But the harsh fact is that a cold email often turns into spam. The primary purpose of cold emailing is to connect with new leads. But, most email marketers use the wrong email list to send their cold emails. Consequently, while the cold emailing method may produce immediate results, it is ultimately the poorest strategy to follow in email marketing.
The difference between a cold & warm email
Due to some key differences, the warm emailing strategy is better than the cold emailing strategy. –
| Facts | Cold Email | Warm Email |
|---|---|---|
| Target audience | Anyone from anywhere (Just need to have the email address of the target audience anyhow). | Those who know the email sender only or have a prior relationship. |
| Email address source | Any email list is applicable for cold email purposes. Even if it could be from a ‘Paid list.’ | The email list needs to be more precise and genuine. ‘Paid list’ is strictly prohibited in terms of warm emailing. |
| Type of email | Less personalized-based email. | More personalized-based email. |
| Campaign processing time | Conducting a cold email campaign is a speedy process. | Conducting a warm email campaign is a bit of a slow process. |
| Lead generation | New leads can be generated fast but not that effectively. | The New leads generating rate might be low, but the collected leads can be highly potent. |
| Spam issues | A high chance of ending up with spam complaints. | Relatively meager chance of ending up with spam complaints. |
| Aim | To get a reply from an entirely new individual. | To educate your email list audience or any other known users. |
| Goal | To generate new leads who might turn into potential subscribers. | To build credibility and lasting relationships with the subscribers. |
| Applicable/ Suitable for | New or small businesses or Startups. | Relatively established or old company or business with a long vision to grow. |
Which one is better?
For some email marketers, cold emailing came out as a solid strategy for their startup business. But mostly, people do it in the wrong way. Still, if you take all steps to make your cold email worthy, at one point, you might face problems in the long run. According to Clearbit, the average cold email response rate is only 1%, implying that for every 100 individuals you contact, you will reach one person (and probably bother the other 99). On the other hand, a warm email can boost your business growth and make a solid long-term relationship with your users or subscribers.
Whether you want to follow a Cold Email approach (weaker but quick result) or a Warm Email Strategy (reliable but long-term result), the choice is yours.
6 Tips for warm emailing success
1Avoid purchasing email lists
Usually, people buy email lists to save time while following the “cold email” strategy. But remember that you want to make your email campaign warm and friendly for your target audience. Therefore, doing so will significantly impact the response rate of the user’s email campaign. Furthermore, buying an email list is an awful shortcut that eventually hurts your overall email marketing ROI. So, take some time, do some hard work to make and grow a quality email list, and ensure that it contains no incorrect or inactive email addresses.
Additionally, your email list must be full of familiar audience’s email addresses whom you know, and they also know you. Then you need to spend some time and do some deep research on your email list. Because you have to understand your target audience’s behavior, current status, needs, wants, why and how they know you, etc. Thus, you can design an excellent personalized email individually or segment-wise according to your target audience.
Tips: Segmentation in email marketing is one of the strong tactics. While using a warm emailing strategy, segmentation can make your approach more accurate. To know more about how effectively you can segment your email list, visit this blog.
2Write a compelling subject line
After establishing the initial part, you must design your warm email. The first element of an email that the receiver will see is the subject line. Therefore you should make an eye-catching subject line. Don’t send the same subject line to everyone. You may need to create a couple of suitable subject lines according to your segmentation. An email receiver may decide not to open your email if you use a weak email subject. So, your subject line should have made a positive impression toward the receiver that you have thoughtfully planned to contact them, and it’s not a mass email (cold email). To avoid any poorly written subject line, you can read this blog.
3Explain the value statement
In your email body, you must explain your product/service and how it will benefit your email receiver. You can also highlight the critical features of your product/service. But make sure you are mailing the right person. That’s why you have chosen the warm email technique. For example, you can not email a senior citizen to sell your video game products. Therefore, you must segment your email list as was already explained before. But make sure you are not selling anything else here. You are trying to educate your target audience about your product/service. They may get interested in contacting you back or subscribing to you willingly.
4Keep your email simple
No one likes to read long emails. You must avoid making your email lengthy with unnecessary stuff. Remember, a brief email is way more effective than a huge email. So keep that in mind; when email receivers view a huge-sized email, they could lose interest. Moreover, many email receivers might not have the patience or time to read a lengthy email. So, maintain your email body’s clarity and focus on the essential points. By keeping warm email messages clear and brief, the receivers will feel that you are not putting pressure on them intentionally.
5Increase your credibility
You need to establish high credibility with your audience. You should prove to your email receiver that you and your service are legit. Although in terms of warm emails, your audience already has an idea about you. Building solid credibility with your audience will help you increase your email conversion rate. To boost your credibility, you can add links to your email, which is the easiest way. But do not give any unnecessary links. You have to include those links to your email that are relevant to your email objective.
6Call-To-Action (CTA) button
You should end your warm email with a Call-To-Action (CTA) button. The CTA button will assist in guiding your potential customer toward the action you want them to take. You must let your email receiver know what you want them to do. It can be – call, email, or set up an appointment with you. Mention whatever you want them to do. So, all these can be done through a CTA button quickly. One more thing: There’s a reasonable probability that some of your email receivers can use mobile. Therefore, you need to introduce a mobile-friendly CTA button for smartphone users. So, check out this blog to get a guideline for a mobile-friendly CTA button.
Conclusion
Naturally, being careful of strangers is human nature. Therefore, starting a conversation with someone you don’t know can be unpleasant or even awkward in any situation. Thus, it is evident that email receivers may ignore your email if you are unknown to them. The cold email works precisely like this. In terms of cold emailing, your email receiver has no relation with you. Although it is possible to establish a new relationship, it is pretty uncertain and time-consuming.
On the contrary, warm email has a higher deliverability rate with fewer spam issues. Because here, the email receiver is already aware of the sender. So that, rather than reporting the email sender, the receiver may go through their email. Moreover, compared to cold emails, warm emails are far more personalized for different types of email receivers. Therefore, an email marketer can easily interact with the subscribers with a warm email campaign. So, in a nutshell, the MailBluster also strongly discourages not using cold email techniques.
Contents
