Cold outreach response rates continue to plummet as buyers push back on unsolicited contacts. However practitioners are finding wide ranging success and Sales Hacker conducted a study about a year back and I found that hugely educative.
As we make sense of the major transition we are in the midst of, we acknowledge that nothing is absolute, irrespective of where we stand in our own beliefs. I for one want to stand far from uncalled for calls or contacts. But that doesn’t blind me from the fact that in many cases and in may ways cold outreach works.
What are the learnings from this study?
My favorite : 58% of emails submitted for the study required personalisation by hand or ‘hands on keyboard’ for each message. Top 4 takeaways according to Colin Campbell were:
– about a third of the samples returned 15% reply rate
– while automated mails work too, personalisation can get you up to 2x more replies.
– Personalisation at scale works when it is to a batch of 200 or less.
– while there is no gold standard, in the sample 3-6 word subject lines worked better.
Download the study and take a deep dive. The study itself is gold.
Shout out to Adam Schoenfeld and Max Altschuler for designing, analyzing and sharing this study.
