In an era where we’re constantly bombarded with publicity and spam, it can be hard to be noticed and step aside from the usual. Account-based marketing (also known as ABM) has become a very common practice as a way to step out and get your product or service into the light.
We talk about cold outreach, but what is it exactly?
Cold outreach can be done through emails or calls. Basically, what you do is that you contact a potential client with a message letting them know that you could be of use to them. It is also important, in cold emailing, to make sure to make it personalized. According to Neil Patel, an ideal cold emailing has these key elements:
Sounds personal and nice.
Establishes your background.
Establishes your connection to the client.
Presents a clear offer.
Is short and concise.
So, it would look like this:
Hi Peter, nice to finally “meet” you,
I’m a web designer. I have worked for XXX designing their website and helping them make it more functional and modern. I noticed that your website although unfinished, also has a modern vibe. So if you’re interested, I could send you ideas for the layout and we could talk from there!
Thanks!
Regards,
John Sewish
A message like this actually gets a very high response rate! And it seems like it is really simple, but there’s a lot more going on. It’s not about writing to potential clients, it’s about knowing why using Linkedin to contact them is more effective.
LinkedIn allows you to look for a specific type of client
Rather than just shooting your shot randomly and hoping that your email doesn’t land on a spam folder, with LinkedIn you can look for a specific profile of a client you want. You can read about them and what they do before sending the message. This means you get a better
idea of how to approach them and what are they looking for.
The communication isn’t awkward or sudden
An email from an unknown sender can often feel intrusive and annoying, too much like publicity. But on LinkedIn you have the opportunity to interact with the potential client first by checking their posts and commenting on them. You can also find clients through the LinkedIn Groups, this gives you a large pool of people with similar interests to dive in and make connections. By having this small interaction before sending the email, you’re not a strange face when you contact them, this is really important to guarantee a higher response rate.
You can make yourself and product known before even sending the email
By posting your own content on LinkedIn and showing your connections what you’re about, you will definitely attract some potential clients as well. As it was mentioned before, interacting through the posts is really helpful when it comes to breaking the ice. Once people know who you are and what do you do, your response rate will be higher because it will feel like starting a conversation with an old friend. Inspiring posts telling your story and your struggles, short videos sharing an interesting anecdote or an old blog post where you describe your business model are some of the things you can add to your LinkedIn to generate some more interaction!
In conclusion, reaching out to people on LinkedIn feels a lot more personal and specific than simply sending a mass email. By letting your potential client know that you looked through their stuff and researched before sending the message, you show them that you aren’t randomly choosing people. You are selecting the people you know you could help improve, you’re saying that your service is definitely tailored to their needs and that’s always a huge winning point.