From Cold Calling to Email Marketing: Cold Outreach Strategies to Boost Lead Generation

As we tread through the murky after-effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, many businesses find the road from instability to sustainability rather bumpy. 

It’s easy to contact warm contacts, but how many of those do you have on your list?

Savvy B2B marketers know that if they want to achieve tremendous success and boost company revenues, they need to include cold outreaches in their program.

Cold outreaches involve reaching out to companies you have zero relationships with. 

The intention? 

Build relationships, foster trust, and eventually pitch your solutions to them. The massive pool of potential clients means more opportunities to make sales.

If you want to put your expertise to the test and maximize cold outreach strategies, read on. We’ve outlined several tactics worth considering.

1. Cold Calling

It’s hard to talk about cold outreach and not mention cold calling. 

This strategy capitalizes on voice conversations to build connections in a world where exchanges and transactions can stay dangerously remote. 

The results are easy to discern—either you’ve convinced the listener to move forward, or they want nothing to do with you. 

Best practices include

• Aim to learn. In the face of the pandemic, your prospects’ needs and priorities have probably changed. Rather than going into sales mode the moment you get them on the line, listen to their needs. It will help you improve your pitch and message.
• Get your targeting framework looking good to minimize rejections. Think about the company’s size and location and your ability to deliver solutions that suit them. Consider their challenges, the answers they’ve used in the past, and your key differentiators.
• Craft your script. With everything you’ve learned—mindsets and processes, it’s time to craft a script that elicits Interest and shows a genuine understanding of the customer’s pain points.
• Leverage sales triggers. Companies expand, relocate, merge, and sometimes get affected by newly implemented legislation. Look out for situations that open opportunities for making sales, package your value proposition, and reach out.

2. Email Marketing

From boosting brand awareness to solidifying relationships, generating leads, and announcing product launches or upgrades, email marketing has tons going for it.

The challenge lies in ensuring your message gets to the right prospects. Since the audience you’re targeting doesn’t know you, it may prove a tad bit difficult to get their attention.

How do you do it? 

• Build a credible contact list. You have two options here. You can work your way into people’s inboxes by sharing practical and helpful information online and requesting them to subscribe. Or you can partner with a professional agency that can deliver accurate custom lists speedily.
• Use concise but catchy subject lines. They are the first thing prospects see when an email hits their inbox. Avoid misleading subject lines that say one thing but the body of your email another. While doing so can temporarily bump up your open rate, people don’t like being misled and may mark your email spam.
• Share your value proposition. Tell them why you’re reaching out to them (makes the email feel exclusive), what you can do for them, and how they stand to gain from the relationship. Share examples of other brands that have benefited from working with you.
• Include a CTA. Once you’ve shared your value proposition, tell them what to do next. If you want to schedule a call appointment, link your calendar in the email and let the reader choose an ideal date and time. For business inquiries, let your CTA be a yes/no question.

3. LinkedIn Messaging

With LinkedIn outreach, you’ll be sending connection requests to contacts whose overall profile fits your ideal customer. 

Once you connect with your target contact, you can turn to emails or use instant messaging (when they are online) to communicate and build your relationship.

Consider the following practices to make your outreach effective:

• Focus on crafting quality messaging. If you blast message after message to multiple connections, you’ll probably not elicit any response. Look for common ground to initiate conversations and ensure your message appeals to their situation.
• Avoid selling immediately. Connecting with other LinkedIn members and immediately bombarding their inboxes will spam-like messages is a no-no. You’ll be pushed to the corner and ignored completely.
• Make your profile attractive. Use a professional photo, link to your website, and use simple words in your bio to explain the value you can offer customers.
• Seek to make more connections. According to LinkedIn, pages with at least 150 followers enjoy higher opportunities for growth. Join industry-relevant groups, connect with influencers and professionals, and publish valuable content to attract connections.

4. Virtual Events

Webinars, conferences, summits, and Twitter chats are excellent examples of virtual events you can incorporate into your cold outreach strategies. 

Done well, these events will help position you as a thought leader and onboard new leads or followers.

Here are top practices for attracting attendees:

• Understand your audience. Narrow to specific audiences, then focus on what they want to achieve and how your offerings align with their goals. Consider their struggles, topics of Interest, and the best sessions for their needs, e.g., panels, breakout rooms, and keynotes.
• Partner with keynote speakers. Identify keynote speakers in your industry and invite them to your event. Their loyal followers will probably attend the event without you expending too much effort. As these followers listen in, they are likely to convert and become your followers.
• Generate hype. Give people a reason to attend—what will be the most significant takeaways? Then, toot your event on social networks, newsletters, and email campaigns.
• Make the event interactive. People get distracted or bored quickly when they are just spectating. If you want to keep them interested, consider adding some interactivity to the sessions like live polls, quizzes, Q&As, or chat rooms. You can analyze these interactions, later on to know the audience better.

5. Creating Lead Magnets

This not-so-secret tactic is a touchpoint B2B vendors can use to reach potential customers and understand their needs and preferences. 

The lead magnet is stuffed with value and offered freely to compel audiences to exchange their contact information for it. Vendors then use the information to maintain touch with these audiences, build trust and win them over.

Your lead magnet needs to meet the following criteria:

• It must address the real problems your audience faces. People are interested in things that help clarify their issues and provide solutions.
• It must demonstrate expertise. It doesn’t show much knowledge if you’re saying what everyone else is saying. The lead magnet must show in-depth knowledge and understanding of your industry and those you serve.
• It downloads instantly. Ever tried to access free content after providing the relevant details only to receive nothing but later get bombarded by emails from that vendor? I know many (myself included) who unsubscribed immediately.

There are tons of lead magnets you can create, depending on your industry. Top examples include resource lists, tool kits, calculators, research papers, case studies, free trials, webinars, educational videos, and quizzes.