Writing an irresistible cold email offer

People fret over not being able to reach the 1000 inboxes a day, while they spend <10 minutes on ‘framing the offer’.

Crazy how the part of your email that decides the fate of your business is so overlooked.

I have seen people worrying too much about the tools and just not enough about what they’re going to put in an email.

Landing in the inbox isn’t tough. Just warm up your emails, follow the hygiene checks and you’d be good for 100 emails a day from a brand new account in a few weeks (good luck with your pray and spray approach).

Optimizing open rates isn’t too hard either. A/B test 5 crisp subject line + opening line combos to the right set of leads, you’ll see your open rates screaming.

What’s hard is logging interest. There are visible signals that tell that to you - maybe you’re starting to book calls, get direct signups to your product or service or build some relationships.

This only happens when you do a good job at selling - the product/service/idea/yourself.

Drafting a successful offer is easier when you possess great credibility, have strong social proof to share. It’s trickier when you’re starting from zero.

Elements of a great offer:

No brainer or Low friction

If you think you can get the credit card off the first email, good luck! Always keep your ask as low as possible.

Best ones do not ask for anything, yet turn things for the good. Always look forward to giving. Find creative ways to provide value.

For high-ticket value services, it can be difficult for a new company without adequate credibility to generate interest.

See if you can offer your services in exchange for a case study.

Can you pass along valuable information instead?

For us, inviting prospects for an async interview has proven to be extremely successful. We end up building nice relationships with the prospects. Eventually, either end up signing them/ get a referral or gain some detailed-actionable feedback.

Quantified

Numbers can dramatically increase the weight of any piece of writing. They not only add credibility but also make your claims more tangible and believable. There's a night and day difference in conveying what impact you could bring to a business with and without numbers.

Problem Prospect Fit

Look, if you’re selling to the wrong set of people, you're unlikely to make much progress. You'll end up with unqualified leads or no responses at all and call it a day. It’s important to keep assessing if you’re targeting the right persona - budget/problem/timing/stakeholder.

Concisely explains what problem you’ll solve & how

Be very particular about this one. Can you explain the problem you solve and the impact you can generate in one simple sentence or 3 crisp bullet points? You’ll not have much trouble getting people to acknowledge your messages at the least.

A red flag to watch out for is when the offer requires reading twice to fully understand it.

Clear, low-friction Call to action

Don’t miss on adding a clear call to action to your email. If you drafted a great offer but did not make it super explicit how the prospect should respond to it, you’ll lose it there. A good CTA dramatically increases the chance of getting a response (positive/negative). We created a list of 50+ CTA ideas here - https://www.notion.so/wrannaman/50-Cold-Email-CTAs-by-supersend-io-ebff70c0f13b495ea01aefef6e09df1f

Needless to say, social proofs can elevate any piece of writing but not everyone has that luxury.

If you’re just starting out and you don’t have case studies or testimonials that you can talk about, go ahead and sell yourself (yes!). Tie your credibility to the business. Share your credentials, purpose and track record.

If that’s not possible either, you can talk about how the prospect’s competitors are successfully deploying what you’re proposing to race to success.

You can also mention how [industry] has evolved over the last few months to make it for it to be the best thing to happen right now.

Creates FOMO

Create a sense of urgency by highlighting how a competitor is leveraging a particular strategy or tool to achieve a specific outcome, and emphasizing that now is the perfect time to take advantage of the same opportunity.

Action oriented

Would you just magically improve a prospect’s current state or do you have a clear & logical plan of action? No, you don’t have to explain every step, but just tease the prospect enough for it to understand you’re not making it up in the air.

Give v/s take

Looking to ask for an intro?

This is how most do it:

"Can you introduce me to any VPs of Sales so I can sell my product to them instead of you?"

Try this instead:

We’ve been tracking this space very closely and put together [a valuable doc]. Do you know any VPs of Sales that might benefit from this?

P.s. Please keep an eye out for X that we hand-selected for you and should reach your place soon.

Irresistible offer checklist:

Low friction to take action
Does not ask for too much
Super crisp and concise
Is followed by a social proof
Has a clear call to action
Has numbers
Gives instead of taking
Creates FOMO