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It's more "cold email" for us, but yes to some extent. I think some of the keys are to be:

1. brief

2. relevant

3. professional

I think in terms of the cold email pitches I get, and think of which ones I'm willing to consider and which ones I don't. Given that, my thinking is something like this:

Regarding 1 - If you send me a rambling 6,000 word manuscript, I'm not reading it, and I probably will hit "delete" in after about 4 seconds of skimming unless something in there really catches my eye.

Regarding 2 - this may be the most important one. If you spam me with some random crap that has no connection to what I'm doing, and/or anything I need, I'm hitting "delete" pretty much from the get-go. And if you want to sell me something, you need to talk about my needs, not your product or service. And you should have done your research ahead of time. If it's apparent to me that I'm getting something that's the result of a mail-merge run with nothing to hint that you know anything what my company does, where we are, how we operate, etc., guess what? "Delete".

Regarding 3 - If you get the name of the company wrong, have shitty grammar and / or spelling, or otherwise send me something that is barely comprehensible, it's going in the bin in the blink of an eye. And being a non-native English speaker isn't going to buy you much of an exception. I'm in America, if you want to do business with me, learn to speak English. Likewise if you're emailing somebody in Spain... learn Spanish. And get somebody to proof read your message that's fluent. I'll tolerate a small amount of sloppiness in terms of grammar and what-have you, but you have to at least make an effort.

So, my theory is... do some research up front, find out as much about the customer as you can up-front. Write something in clear English (or the appropriate language) using proper spelling and grammar. Keep it fairly short, and focus on the customer's needs, situations and problems. But I don't mean to assume they have a certain problem. I mean, phrase things in terms of "We've noticed that companies like yours often have problems like X... We are specialists in X, and I'd like a few moments to find out more about your company and whether or not you are really dealing with X". Something based on the "Core Story" approach put out by Chet Holmes would also be received well (by me anyway) as long as it isn't too long, and is backed up with credible data, etc.

Do that, and I think you have at least a shot. In my case, if you email me like that, I may simply not need whatever it is you're selling... but at least I'll read your email, consider it, and probably even reply. If you send crap, it's going straight to the trash can, often mostly (or completely) unread.

Do this... go through a bunch of the spam you get, and figure out which emails you receive well, and which ones evoke the "delete after four seconds" response. Model your own communications more after the first batch, and don't do whatever the people in the second batch are doing.



I assume from the way you worded your response that you are the one sending "cold email."

That's spam. That's the definition of spam.

You and your company are spammers. You need to stop.


You and your company are spammers. You need to stop.

Yeah, I felt that way at one time as well. Idealism is a good thing. But it doesn't pay the bills. And, pedantry over definitions aside, most people these days seem to think of "spam" more as completely off-topic crap, phishing messages, advertisements for illegal products, etc., etc. I don't know many people, in a B2B context, who actually object to receiving cold email IF they fit the criteria above - short, professional and relevant.

So while I'd like to take your advice to heart, it just isn't likely to happen anytime soon. Not unless we start getting so many inbound leads coming in that we can't handle them all.


I don't know many people, in a B2B context, who actually object to receiving cold email IF they fit the criteria above

As a person in charge of both buying and selling B2B services/products, I couldn't agree more. I absolutely abhor and detest long cold emails from strangers who want me to give them money, but I don't mind receiving short, snappy emails from people who have something to offer me (and have done enough homework to think I might want it). The former are adding work to my pile (if I bothered to read their long stupid emails) while the latter are taking work off my pile (saves me time researching the space--99 times out of 100 I'll go with the guy who has already made an effort towards establishing rapport over the strangers with the nice website).


I really appreciate your posts, although they are not short.

It takes more than a moment to read, but as long as it provides relevant information, it should be ok.

The rest is really about a pattern or manner for people to communicate. Somehow in some pattern, things are easier to be accepted than other manners. It's very hard to tell.


They talked about the sender doing research and writing an e-mail specifically to them. Spam is bulk e-mail sent indiscriminately, not all unsolicited e-mail sent for business purposes.

That said, people's tolerances are all very different, so I think anyone who did send e-mail of this nature would have to work very hard to make it a truly personal, well researched e-mail without any trace of it being even semi-automated.. because I delete e-mails that miss the mark for sure.


> That's the definition of spam.

According to who?


Well, according to wikipedia for starters.


Don't worry about the downvotes. I don't care about what the others say. I agree with you.




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