AMA Recap: Optimizing Cold Email Outreach

ABOUT THE EXPERT

In this Ask-Me-Anything, experts Elyse Savaki and Ed Forteau share their best practices on how to optimize cold email outreach from personalization to segmentation to deliverability.

Table of Contents

Event Recording

Elyse’s Tips on Segmenting & List Building

Elyse’s Advice on CTAs & Copywriting

Re: Lower ACV offers & soft CTAs:

(For Tyler, as I’m not sure I really answered his question on whether lower ACV offers can afford soft CTAs)

  • My standard answer is “test it” and then roll with whichever works best for you.
  • Sometimes “best” can have multiple definitions.
  • Most replies? Or most replies that turn into customers?

Your sales process will also guide this.

I’ve more often had lower-ACV clients who wanted to avoid a call altogether vs going with a stronger CTA to book a meeting.

A CTA format that straddles that line between soft CTA and Direct Meeting Ask:

  • Include a loom/embedded vid (doesn’t have to be personalized) that demonstrates exactly why the offer is valuable.
  • CTA: If that looks like it could be valuable for XYZ Co, would you be open to a personal tour of the product Tues/Weds next week?

It’s still a direct meeting request, but it’s couched in a permission-based ask.

Founders’ credibility: How soon do you need to surface this to keep attention?

I went back through a handful of founder campaigns to see what my natural variation is there — Usually I introduce them and let their experience come up naturally in the email body. (I also make sure their LinkedIn profile is primed for this)


“My name is X, and I wanted to send you a quick note to introduce myself and my company, Y…” (These openers get a lot of hate, but they DO work because they’re so natural.)
Bonus: less people use them these days 😉


Outside of that, often in an email 1, I open the rest of the emails with whatever info seems to be most compelling, and I continue to let the founder story factor in (or not) where it makes sense in the context of each message.

Other considerations for cold email copy in general:

  • Industry context matters. What is 1000% played out w/ SaaS Sales Leaders has probably NEVER been seen by Sales Leaders in more traditional industries.

(No joke, I’ve had clients in traditional industries pull up those old close outs that were like “maybe you’ve fallen and you can’t get up? I’ll send help!” dying laughing because they’d never seen that before.)

Vice Versa, just because it works in one industry vertical doesn’t mean it will work in another.

  • Best length for a cold email has a few determining factors:

Who is sending it (seniority)

Perceived “risk” in the solution (the less risky it is, the less info the email needs for it to be worthwhile engaging)
This often relates to ACV, but that depends on who you’re prospects are and how they see it

If you’re able to hold their interest — short is 100% easier to pull off than long if you’re not sure

  • CTAs: Guiding principle: What’s the next logical step from the prospect’s perspective? <– Then test these assumptions to find what’s true for you.

Soft CTAs are less likely to get “hate mail” in return, so if you’re not sure, start here.

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