If we go a little while back in time and still even today, cold emails have been common practice when it comes to lead generation. In parallel, cold emailing can be compared to cold-calling, but is more cost efficient (no sales reps required) as well as a time efficient tool when reaching out to prospects.
But does it yield the desired results?
Over the years, the effectiveness of cold emails has dropped significantly, especially for B2B buyers. This could be from the negative connotations associated with them, or the fact that most are relegated to land up in your spam folder.
But times have changed and so has marketing and the tools used to achieve a successful marketing strategy. Using email as the sole solution to your digital marketing strategy is no longer viable, since there are now far better alternatives to cold-emailing.
LinkedIn has become the go-to business platform that has made reach-outs and marketing more personable. Connection and acceptance rates on LinkedIn have a much higher success rate when it comes to reach-outs than your old-school cold email approach. Here’s why:
Cold emails leave a bad taste
People are not stupid. They can smell a cold email a mile away, and the reaction is positively negative. No-one likes getting an email from someone they don’t know, and no-one likes to be bombarded with emails that are selling them a product or service, especially if there is no relationship.
Your email hitting their inboxes is spam in their eyes, and this results in a staggering 24% open rate. You haven’t even had your chance at developing a lead.
LinkedIn, on the other hand, allows you to build relationship and make meaningful connections. Sponsored LinkedIn messages have an open rate of 45%! And this increases drastically when you send messages to your target audience.
LinkedIn messages won’t be marked as spam
As annoying as cold emailing is, there is a lot that email providers do behind the scenes to make sure that you have a good user-experience. Part of this entails that certain emails (20% in fact) are blocked or marked as spam. Even if you opt-in to receive emails, these may still end up in your junk folder due to complicated technical reasons.
Cold messaging through LinkedIn is a lot more simple – you don’t need a person’s opt-in to message them, and your messages won’t be marked as spam! Already you have won, and the likelihood of your message being read is increased considerably. Together with a suitable LinkedIn automation tool, you can achieve unprecedented results with very little effort.
You have more data available on your target persona
Achieving your target market is incredibly difficult when cold emailing. Even if you managed to send your email to an individual in the company, it is useless if it is sent to a junior employee instead of the intended high-level manager. Sending your email to the incorrect person is just as bad as if it ended in the correct person’s junk folder.
With LinkedIn however, you are always assured that your message is going to the EXACT person you need your message to go to.
Sending your message to the right person means that there is a higher chance of it being read, being responded to, and you generating a lead.
People respond better to messages than emails
Just think of your inbox – you receive many emails every day! A lot of the emails are either spammy or people wanting to sell you something…from people you don’t know, and who seemingly don’t want to get to know you either. These emails create unnecessary noise in your day, and it is no wonder that they are never opened.
However, LinkedIn messages are not as frequently received, so when a message is received, it is perceived as being important, and more personal.
To the respondent, there is no-one behind a cold email. A LinkedIn message offers professional digital interaction that is personal and less intimidating. When you send a message to a target, that target can check out all your personal information through your LinkedIn profile before replying to the message.
Another bonus to LinkedIn messaging, is that there is no security risk. It is a known fact that most types of viruses/malware are spread through emails from people they do not know. This fear is instantly removed through LinkedIn messaging, making your message more trustworthy.
All these reasons point to the success of LinkedIn being the superior choice when it comes to reaching your intended customer in a more meaningful way. This approach most definitely will help you in achieving sales results on another level entirely. Using the right LinkedIn automation tools, you can achieve the lead generation, reach your targeted audience and have better sales results.
