How to engage outreach contacts
This article focuses on key recommendations for marketers to optimize their cold email campaigns without compromising deliverability, and a special emphasis on protecting warm database relationships.
Outreach emails are a powerful strategy for expanding your reach, but it requires a meticulous approach to maintain positive deliverability and engagement.
Warm and cold contacts
Contacts are considered warm when they have recently engaged with your sender domain or have shown consistent activity, for example, opened messages, clicked on links, or responded to communications. Based on the engagement level, the following contacts can be considered cold (outreach):
- Never engaged (completely cold). Contacts who have never interacted with your sender domain or received any communication from you.
- Inactive or dormant contacts. Individuals or entities who might have engaged with your sender domain in the past but showed no recent activity or interaction over an extended period. These contacts can be considered cold due to their lack of recent engagement.
- Lapsed customers. Former customers who are now considered cold due to the absence of recent transactions or engagement.
- Prospects who did not convert. Individuals who showed interest in your products or services but did not convert into customers. These prospects can be categorized cold if they did not follow up or show engagement for a significant period.
- Unresponsive contacts. Contacts who received previous communications but did not respond to or engage with your content. This category includes individuals who might have opened emails but did not take any further action.
Engagement recommendations
- Segment your email lists. Maintain a clear distinction between your cold and warm email lists. Segmentation helps ensure that your warm database recipients receive personalized and relevant content without being mixed with cold outreach. Learn more: Email personalization guidelines.
- Utilize separate domains and IP addresses. Safeguard your sender reputation by using separate domains and IP addresses for cold email outreach. This shields your main domain from potential spam-related issues and enhances the deliverability of your warm database emails.
- Warm up new domains and IP addresses gradually. Before launching full-scale cold email campaigns, gradually warm up new domains and IP addresses. Start with a small volume of engaged recipients to build a positive sender reputation, and incrementally increase your outreach efforts over time. Learn more: Set up the email throttling queue.
- Establish a reasonable sending frequency. Avoid triggering spam filters by setting a reasonable sending frequency. For cold emails, a weekly or biweekly schedule can strike a balance between staying on the radar of your audience and preventing email fatigue. Learn more: Set up the email throttling queue.
- Create a well-planned email schedule. Develop a targeted email schedule that considers factors such as time zones, industry-specific peak hours, and the nature of your audience. This strategic approach improves the likelihood the contacts will open and engage with your email. Learn more: Set up the email delivery schedule.
- Implement an intelligent follow-up strategy. Craft compelling follow-up emails to nurture relationships with recipients who did not respond to your initial outreach. Maintain persistence without appearing overly aggressive, ensuring your follow-ups contribute positively to your sender reputation. Learn more: Contact base email examples.
- Personalize content effectively. Tailor your cold email content to individual recipients to enhance engagement. Personalization demonstrates a genuine interest in their needs and helps you stand out from generic, mass-sent emails. Learn more: Email personalization guidelines.
- Monitor and analyze performance metrics. Regularly track key metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and response rates. Analyze the data to refine your approach and identify what resonates best with your target audience.
- Optimize online presence. Ensure your online presence reflects professionalism, as potential recipients might research your company. A credible online presence contributes to the overall positive perception of your brand.
- Respect privacy regulations. Adhere to privacy regulations such as GDPR or CAN-SPAM. Promptly honor unsubscribe requests and maintain a clean contact list to uphold the integrity of your email outreach.
- Review and improve regularly. Review and analyze results constantly to identify areas for improvement. Continuous iteration based on performance data is crucial for refining your cold outreach strategy.
See also
Email personalization guidelines
Set up the email throttling queue