Guide to Sending Cold Emails

Whether you’re a seasoned professional or a sales beginner, here are some tips to maximize your opportunity for success in cold email deliverability and effectiveness. 

1. Use a new domain. For example, if your domain is ‘sponsorpitch.com’, buy a new domain like ‘trysponsorpitch.com’ to protect your main domain’s reputation since outbound emails are riskier even when executed well. Use professional email addresses with custom domains, not free accounts like ‘@gmail’. 
2. Set SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for your domain with your DNS domain host provider (ie: GoDaddy). You may want to have a technical person help you with this.
3. Check deliverability. Try free tools like https://mxtoolbox.com/ and http://spamtester.ai/ and review their recommendations. 
4. Warm up your new domain. When sending emails from a new domain, there is a high probability of messages going into spam folders. You can use tools like https://www.mailflow.io/ and https://instantly.ai/ to help you warm up an email in ~2 weeks, or do it manually in 4-6 weeks. Tools like these automatically send emails to a network of real inboxes. Your emails will automatically be opened, and some will be replied to. This positive engagement will result in higher deliverability. After the process, check deliverability again, and continue to periodically check it.
5. Verify destination email addresses. Mail providers will block your account if a high % of your outbound emails bounce. Use services like https://www.neverbounce.com/ and https://www.emaillistverify.com/ to verify emails before sending. SponsorPitch verifies contact emails every month, however it doesn’t hurt to do it yourself for the extra insurance.
6. If email content in your outbound emails is too similar, they could get flagged as spam. Use custom attributes like {first name}, {company name}, etc. and create variations like A/B tests on subject lines and the content to ensure each email that you send is unique. With the high value of sponsorship leads, it is worth it to make each email as tailored as you can with information you find on SponsorPitch or LinkedIn.
7. Content: For the first cold email, stick to text only. No images or attachments. Add no more than one link, and use the real URL. Examples of good links to include are: a page on your website, or a brief video highlighting your last event. Make the subject line interesting- your first goal of the outbound email is to use the subject line to convince them to open the email. In the email don’t try to sell them right away; offer value, educate, start the conversation, etc. The goal of your outbound email is to get a reply. 
8. Include a way for recipients to ‘unsubscribe’ or ‘opt-out’. Many email sending tools have automated options. 
9. When sending emails, either use bulk email tools that have systems for dealing with email service limits, or pay attention to the recommended limits that your email provider publishes for total # of emails sent per mailbox, per hour, and per day. 50 emails per day is accepted as a safe limit. It’s better to send 50 per day for 5 days than 250 in one day. You may also want to program a time delay in between each email.
10. Send to individual contacts’ addresses, like ‘johnsmith@ abc.com’, not group addresses like ‘info@ abc.com’. Whenever possible, send to business domains rather than free accounts like @gmail. 
11. Follow up at least once, and with every follow up add new value and don’t repeat yourself. Avoid saying that you’re following up, and don’t ask if they read your previous email.