5 Things People Hate About Cold Emails

You’ve gotten spam emails that made you sigh a bit before you ignored or deleted them. That’s why so many people think that cold emails make everyone mad–a lot of the time, the ones we remember the most are the worst ones.

But not every cold email has to be that bad. Many of them have these five factors that make them much worse than they need to be. By avoiding these, you can make sure your prospects don’t send your emails straight to the trash. 

1. Bad Jokes

As far as jokes go, it’s important to think of a balance between risk and reward. What’s the best-case scenario if they love this joke and what’s the potential damage from your audience disliking it?

A sense of humor is personal, which means that not everyone is going to share yours. Some of the worst cold emails I’ve received have included a joke that just wasn’t up my alley. It immediately creates a distance between the salesperson and the audience and ends up in the trash far more than a normal email would.

2. Too Long

One of the most important best practices in email marketing is restricting the length of your emails. We’ve seen emails that clients think are short, but remain far too long to meet our standards.

The fact of the matter is that people hate wading through paragraphs of text just for you to ask them for a meeting. The best way to make sure your audience doesn’t hate your emails is to keep them short and to the point.

3. Slow Starts

Speaking of getting to the point, it’s not enough just to keep your email short. You also need to tell your audience why you’re reaching out right away. That’s part of why your email’s first line is the most important part.

You should offer your audience a value proposition right as you begin the email. Let them know what exactly you can offer them, and then build any backing explanation you need.

4. Questions

Just like they did with essays high school, many people that don’t know how to start their cold emails will begin with a question. It’s a lazy, unengaging, and ultimately ineffective writing technique.

In almost every case, starting with a statement will be shorter, more interesting, and more clear. Questions sound like the beginning of a sales pitch, not how you’d open an offer to help someone out.

5. No Links

It’s okay to have links in your emails. Many salespeople think they’re being sneaky and evading spam filters by not including links in their emails. But while it’s important to know how to stay out of spam, leaving links out of your emails is hurting you more than it helps.

There are two kinds of links you should have in your email: a link to a place where the reader can find more information, and an unsubscribe link. Without the former, your reader couldn’t find out more about what you’re selling if they wanted. Even worse, leaving out an unsubscribe link could mean that you’re violating certain laws on spam emails.

If you want to start sending cold emails that get results, get in touch with Salaria Sales today.