by Will Rotondi
Let’s face it, there are those out there who aren’t fans of picking up their phones. They’d rather look others up on social media or email them before they’d ever consider talking with them directly. Part of it may be because they want to make sure they’re talking to the right people. Part of it may be because they’re not fans of cold-callers.
Part of it may be a fear of identity theft.
The last of these also bleeds over into email prospecting. When you’re reaching out to cold prospects, chances are that you’re concerned about coming across as either a) spammy, b) bothersome, or c) disingenuous.
How you look when you prospect. // How you feel like you look.
Good news! Follow Internet law, and you won’t be spamming anyone:
- Don’t use misleading headers. Identify who you are.
- Make sure you have a physical, active mailing address in your signature.
- Provide a way for your prospects to opt out of correspondence (like an unsubscribe link), and honor those opt-out requests.
- Don’t use misleading subject lines that have nothing to do with the body of your email.
So that you aren’t viewed as bothersome, email your prospects at a respectful but persistent rate. One message every two weeks is typically a good rule of thumb.
If you don’t want to seem disingenuous, remember to make the focus of your emails about your prospects, including their business pains, market trends, changes that could be affecting them, etc. Then you can broach the idea of having a conversation to learn more about them. Another way to show that you’re genuine: connect with them on LinkedIn.
