Ezeonye Barry Sopuru

ASKWONDER QUESTION Best Practices - Cold Emailing and Outbound Lead Generation INSIGHTS Best practices in cold emailing are; creating an email list, double opt-in verification, update email list, email reputation and engagement monitoring, and avoiding spam filters. Best practices in outbound lead generation are; identifying what motivates your team, practice session to start a day, maintaining a working formula, and testing strategies and result analysis. Free Gmail has a daily message limit of 500 messages. 1/5 askwonder.com ASKWONDER OVERVIEW Best practices on how to avoid damaging email domain, or being reported as spam by a receiver is an important part of setting up effecting mailing marketing. Our research on best practices in cold emailing and outbound lead generation produced many results. We have collated the results of these effective practices listed in our response below. best practices in cold emailing 1. CREATE EMAIL LIST: One of the most effective ways of avoiding damaging email domain is by organically generating your email list (2). Cold emailing becomes effective if it is directed to the right prospect (3). Failure to get to the required audience makes the email irrelevant and likely to be reported as a spam email irrespective of the content of the mail. As such, using robots to generate email lists (email harvesting) should be avoided. 2. DOUBLE OPT-IN VERIFICATION: Just as mentioned above, to ensure your target audience would be interested in the content of your mail, creating a double opt-in before adding a contact (2) to your mailing list helps to confirm the engagement of the target. For instance, requesting a receiver to tick a confirmation box in order to continue getting emails from you is a perfect way to verify the receiver's interest in the content of your welcome mail. This practice reduces the chances of a receiver reporting your mail as spam since the contacts on your mailing list have confirmed their interest in your mail. Also, making it easy to opt-out (3) from the mailing list by a simple click preserves your mailing domain from being reported as spam. 3. UPDATE EMAIL LIST: Not every email sent to your email lists contacts are viewed by the receiver. While some receivers would unsubscribe from your mailing list, some would completely ignore the email. As such, constant follow-up of your email engagement rate and reputation (3) would reveal contacts that are not interested in your mail. These contacts need to be weeded off your mailing list as low engagement rate increases the chances of your email moving to the spam folder. Check for wrong email addresses "using real-time addresses (2) validation". Constant update of the mailing list to remove bounced emails and unengaged contacts would reduce the likelihood of your mail being reported as spam by your recipient, and also improves your reputation. (3) 4. MONITOR YOUR EMAIL REPUTATION AND ENGAGEMENT METRICS: "Use a tool like Sender (3) Score by Return Path to keep track of whether your domain/ IP’s reputation is moving up or down over a period of time". Knowing the deliverability rates of your email can be determined by considering these metrics (2); spam complaints, open rates, and click-through rates. When these metrics show a downward trend, immediate actions would be required to avoid further deep. Reducing email volume and updating 2/5 askwonder.com ASKWONDER email list is a good way to go in checking this downturn. 5. AVOIDING SPAM FILTERS: Spam filters are becoming sophisticated (3) in a way that they still fish out marketing emails even after identifying the right prospect. To avoid your email being trapped by spam filters, email authentication is a very good way to go. Email service providers are like Google and Yahoo are more likely to deliver "authenticated emails (2) into the inbox" folder than an email which is not. Ensure to authenticate your email through (2) Sender Policy Framework (SPF), Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM), and Domain-Based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance (DMARC). best practices in outbound lead generation 1. IDENTIFY WHAT MOTIVATES YOUR TEAM: Knowing what drives your team (5) to work during their most productive moments, and utilizing that flow is an important factor. The productivity of the team on a day might depend on how the day took off. Factors such as setting out target number of outbound to be made in a day, setting target goals to encourage competition on a daily or weekly bases, or utilizing unique tools to make outbound calls faster. 2. PRACTICE SESSION TO START THE DAY: A salesperson requires endurance (5) and perseverance as only a little fraction of outbound calls converts to actual sales. Starting the day with a little simulation or practice session of objections they are likely to encounter for the day is an effective practice. "Pair up your sales (5) agents for a fiveminute practice session. Give them a short list of objections so they can train to overcome them during sales calls." 3. MAINTAIN A WORKING FORMULA: Avoiding paying attention to the final result of a successful sale while neglecting the metrics that led to the success. Lead generation is a process, as such, there should be measurable benchmarks which would be used to evaluate each strategy. With this evaluation, a manager would better understand the "performance, habits, (5) and behaviors" of his sales team. An effective prospecting (5) entails calls made per hour/per day, follow-up calls and email to a prospect, appointment set-up, callback received, and quotes generated. 4. TEST STRATEGIES AND ANALYSE RESULTS: Run an A/B test (5) on your outbound lead generation strategies. An A/B testing "offers what all good (6) experiments need: a control group and a variable group. Rather than relying on subjective thoughts like “I think this works…” or “I just don’t like that email…”, these tests provide a clear answer: Group A is better, Group B is better, or it’s inconclusive". Record and evaluate your results to know the best approach. 3/5 askwonder.com ASKWONDER mailing limits It is important to know the mailing limits of the various email providers in running a cold email marketing to avoid being banned for exceeding your limits. a. FREE GMAIL (7): It has a daily limit of 500 messages. b. G SUITE (7): It has a daily limit of 2,000 messages for full users and 500 messages for trail users. c. OFFICE 365 (7): It has a daily recipient limit of 10,000. d. GoDaddy: (7) It has a daily limit of 500 messages, and hourly limit of 300 messages and a minute limit of 200 messages. e. RACKSPACE (7): It has a daily limit of 10,000 messages. conclusion To wrap up, we identified to create an email list, double opt-in verification, update email list, monitor your email reputation and engagement, and avoid spam filters are best practices in cold emailing. Also, identifying what motivates your team, practice session to start a day, maintaining a working formula, and testing strategies and result analysis are best practices in outbound lead generation. 4/5 askwonder.com ASKWONDER SOURCES 1) What Is Cold Email & How to Write an Effective Cold Email in 2018 https://blog.newkajabi.com/cold-email 2) Top Tips to Avoid Spam Filters When Sending Emails | SendGrid https://sendgrid.com/blog/10-tips-to-keep-email-out-of-the-spam-folder/ 3) Email Deliverability: Best Practices for Cold Emails https://blog.markgrowth.com/email-deliverability-best-practices-for-cold-emails-46212bc7173e 4) Outbound VS Inbound Lead Generation: Know the Difference [Infographic] | Marketing Insider Group https://marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/outbound-vs-inbound-lead-generation-know-thedifference/ 5) How to Create Outbound Lead Generation Best Practices for Your Team | Call Logic https://www.calllogic.com/blog/create-outbound-lead-generation-best-practices-team/ 6) Want Outstanding Outbound Leads? Start A/B Testing Right Now https://www.execvision.io/2018/03/20/ab-testing-outbound-lead-gen/ 7) What Are the Email Sending Limits of Various Hosts? https://blog.woodpecker.co/cold-email/email-sending-limits/ 5/5 askwonder.com