One important distinction between lead generation and prospecting: opt-in requests. For the former, recipients of your emails typically haven’t agreed to receive any kind of content from you. They’re starting to learn who you are, what you offer, and how well you know their market. More than likely, you’ve never even had a phone call with them to determine if they’re a fit for your normal sales cycle. In short, what you’re sending is material you think is valuable to them that they didn’t ask for—so you have to convince them that you’re worth reading.
If you don’t want to risk turning those leads off or looking like spam, it’s important to keep three factors in mind when drafting your outreach:
Be brief
Most of us manage so much email in a given day that it’s hard to process and retain all of that information. Skimming subject lines is common for prioritizing which messages are worth reading and which can be instantly deleted. To improve your chances of avoiding the digital trashcan, yours need to be relevant, non-sales-y, and aimed at driving conversations over advertisements.
Be direct
Your leads will already be suspicious because they don’t know you, so you have to demonstrate that you’re not trying to mislead them. Be specific immediately about why you’re reaching out and what you want to discuss. Don’t bombard them with too many questions, sales jargon, or blog-length advertisements. Instead, share the value that these recipients will receive by having conversations with you.
Have a purpose
The point of any lead gen outreach should either be to prompt your leads to go to your website or agree to have phone calls with you. The first requires an educational style of email; the latter an invitational one. Messages that involve multiple questions (including surveys) will often be met with skepticism and silence because leads won’t see the value in investing their limited time to give answers when they don’t know what’s in it for them—much less how you plan to use that data.
Not sure how to tailor your emails to fit this approach? Let us know! Rally has assisted plenty of clients draft relevant, effective marketing content that has grown their lead generation and prospecting efforts.
