Aaroe Writing 
How To Keep Business Owners Happy With Your Service
Posted on March 27, 2023 Leave a Comment
Reflections Of A Small Business Owner Turned Freelancer
Hi, I’m Annie Aaroe, a b2b email marketing specialist for SaaS companies…
But I’m also Annie Wadsworth, owner and operator of my family’s local bagel shop in Upstate, New York, aka “The Bae-Gal”
I keep two names, one of them my maiden name, because it helps me separate my two professional identities. But the more I work as Annie Aaroe, a service provider for other business owners, the more I’ve realized just how much these two sides of my persona are incredibly linked. And it’s that link that helps me understand, viscerally, what a business owner wants from their service provider… and give it to them.
As a business owner I’ve hired countless agencies, freelancers and sole-proprietors over the last two decades. And I’ve had a few good experiences. But honestly, most of these relationships over the years left me feeling a bit cheated, unsatisfied, and sometimes down right pissed off. But these experiences have helped me become a better service provider. I know exactly what business owners want and that has made me irreplaceable in the eyes of my clients. In this article I’m going to share some of that knowledge with you.
I’d like to help you see through the eyes of your business owner clients and begin to understand what matters most to them. If you can think like a business owner, I guarantee it will help you build a strong, in demand, service based business where your clients rave about you.
A Brief History Of How I Got Here
I’ve owned my family’s bagel shop for almost 20 years now. My father-in-law started the business almost 35 years ago, so now I’ve officially owned it longer than he did. That fact is actually kind of crazy to me. I do love my bagel shop. But it’s not exactly what I thought I’d be doing with my life when I graduated with my Ivy League English degree and a concentration in creative writing. I’m a prime example of life not working out the way you thought it would.
But over the years, as the business has changed and seen boom years and bust years, minor and major transitions, and a global pandemic, my identity and my heart have become more and more woven together with my business. And though sometimes I want to pull my hair out and walk away, it’s actually out of the struggles that my love for my small business has grown the most.
But I always knew I didn’t want to run this business forever. Especially when I started looking forward towards the years when my 3 teenagers will start graduating and building their own lives, I began working on building my next career as a writer, currently as a digital marketing copywriter. After about three years working for clients in my copywriting “side-hustle” I, not at all surprisingly, settled into the b2b space, writing emails and helping strategize with business owners about their copy and email marketing. As a business owner myself, the b2b space is perfect for me, because not only do I love working for other business owners, but as a b2b copywriter, I’m often writing copy for an audience of business owners as well.
Today I work part time running my bagel shop, with the help of my husband and our incredible staff, and part time for clients as a marketing strategist and copywriter. Over and over again I see the crossover between what my client’s are experiencing running their businesses and the struggles I experience running my business. It keeps me humble, present and always understanding. I trust you will learn something valuable from my experience.
The Most Important Thing
I am going to risk sounding pretty trite when I say this, but the single most important thing, from a business owner’s point of view, when hiring a service provider, is that they feel like you care about their business. This might sound obvious, and you may even be saying, “I do care about their business” and think I’m not telling you anything new.
The point here isn’t simply that you care about your client’s business. The point is that your client FEELS like you care about their business, and that your level of caring for their business matches the investment your client is making in you. Let’s say you are charging $10,000 for your services, and your client runs a one million dollar business. Basically they need to feel like you care about their business at least one hundredth as much as they do. And for most business owners, their business is like another one of their children. Seriously, their level of care is nearly immeasurable. Their business is their life. So getting them to feel like you care, even just one-hundredth as much as they do, it’s not exactly an easy thing. Especially when you are working for multiple clients at one time.
Here are some tips you can incorporate into your business to effectively communicate to your client that you care. If you follow even just a few of these ideas, it will set you apart from others in your industry and help you to stand out to your client as someone they can trust. It will mean this client will keep coming back to you for help, and also pass on your name to others.
Tip #1: Ask About and Listen To Their Story
It doesn’t matter what type of service you offer, in fact, the more out of place this approach seems, the more it is going to endear you to your client. Of course some clients are going to be more into sharing personal stories than others, but pretty much everyone likes to talk about themselves. Take advantage of that fact and use it to create a basis of understanding between you and your client. Hearing the story of how they got started, or why they started this company, or what drew them to this industry, is going to provide you with important background information when you’re helping to solve a problem in their business, and it might help you take an approach that is going to resonate more deeply with your client.
I advise you to schedule an initial conversation, after you’ve signed a contract with the client, or at least after they’ve agreed they want to work with you, and use the time to dig into the story of how they got started in their business. Write down a list of questions to help you get started, and then let yourself be curious and ask plenty of follow up questions. Try to get a solid understanding of the “why’s” behind their business, and how they are personally connected to whatever they offer in their business.
This might seem awkward, to both you and the client, at first, but I encourage you to push through that awkwardness and always start your conversation here. Don’t skip over this step and spend the beginning of the conversation talking about what you are going to do for them. Instead, spend the majority of the time focused on them, and getting to know the origin story of their business. This approach will likely find the transition into talking about your ideas will go more smoothly. When you begin by showing a real interest in your client’s story, they will likely be more receptive to your ideas because now you have their trust.
Tip #2: Establish A Schedule for Communication – And Stick To It
As a service provider we sometimes make the mistake of leaving the burden of communication on our client. I guess people think, well if they want something from me, they’ll ask for it.
But the opposite is actually true. When you’re working with a small business owner they are going to be some of the busiest, most overwhelmed people you’ll ever work with. Their minds are constantly full of new ideas that pop up in their minds at the most random and inconvenient times, urgent problems that they are the only person on the planet who can solve, and lists of tasks they feel they need to do and never have enough time for. All of those things are constantly crowding your client’s mind. And all of that on top of the daily tasks required to actually run their business. You, as a service provider are never going to be on the top of their mind, at least not until they have a problem with you. You definitely don’t want to wait until your client is reaching out to you because there is a problem with you.
Instead, establish at the beginning of your relationship with the client, a system for checking in with them on a regular basis. In my copywriting business this is often once a week, if I am working on a specific project for a client. For other clients I check in just once a month. Even if they don’t have work for me at that time, I still check in on a regular basis. I send an email at the end of each week (or month) letting them know my progress, a checklist of what I plan to work on next and a list of any things I need the client to do to help the project move forward.
Pick a schedule that makes sense, but most importantly stick to it. When your client learns they can depend on your consistent communication, they know they never have to worry about whether you have time for them. They also know that you care enough to reach out. They also will be relieved that they don’t need to remember to contact you when they need something, because you’re going to take care of remembering. This approach takes one simple task off their already overflowing list, and they are going to love you for it.
Tip #3: Choose Clients You Genuinely Like
This next tip is the most helpful if you’re able to choose the types of clients who you work with. If you’re still taking any and all business that comes your way, this tip might be harder to follow. But as you build your business, pay attention to the personality of the clients you work with. Work harder to keep the clients who you genuinely like, and let the people who aren’t as likable pass on to someone else. When you attract clients who you actually like as people, it makes it easier to establish a rapport, and you’re both going to like working together for the long term.
I suggest you give a personal touch to your interactions with your client. This might be as simple as asking about their weekend getaway when you shoot off an email on a Monday morning, or it might be as involved as sending a small gift on their birthday, or when you finish working on a project for them. Either way, with this tip you want to lead by example. Don’t be afraid to share a little bit about your personal side with your client, and see how they respond. Obviously you don’t want to let go of professional boundaries, especially when you are first getting to know the client. But if it feels natural to talk a little about not work related things with your client, I suggest you go with it.
In my twenty years of experience as a business owner, the service providers that I end up sticking with, are always the people that I get along with personally. This doesn’t mean I become actual friends, but it does mean that I look forward to interacting with them. Since I’m a talkative person, I tend to get along with other people who like to talk. But a connection can be built by two more reserved people, and they probably get along with each other in part because they are both reserved.
Tip #4: Pay Attention To The Data
When you work with business owners they may be super aware of the numbers and constantly running their own reports and making projections and decisions based on data. But more often than not, they are not spending as much time as they probably would like looking at the data because they are so busy putting out small fires and running the day to day of their business.
But you should definitely be focused on the data, and when you show your client that you are paying attention to their data, it will likely give them a huge piece of mind. I’m not suggesting that you start generating reports on a weekly basis and asking to attend the business’s shareholder meetings. But I do suggest that you reference the results of your work as a basis for future suggestions and solutions that you offer to your client. And if you have access to data from before you started working with your client, you can reference that as well.
Whenever you show your client that you are paying attention to the data behind their business, it shows that you care about their business on a core level, maybe even more thoroughly than your client in some respects. Don’t get lost in the first three tips, which are all about the person to person connection and forget that you always should make data driven decisions if you want to stand on solid ground, and keep your client’s trust.
Tip #5: Work “Cleanly”
Imagine you are a construction worker for a second, and you are building a new closet for your client. You could build the most sturdy, beautiful new closet for your client, but if you leave your work space a mess, and by extension your client’s house, at the end of each day, there’s no way you are going to get asked back.
The same principle applies when you’re working for a client in their business. You want to clean up after yourself, and you want to present yourself in an organized way. These are basic principles of any relationship in business; show up on time, come prepared so you’re not wasting anyone’s time, and take notes so no one has to repeat themselves.
The reason I include this tip here is because the reason behind it is specific for business owners. In a corporate environment certain behaviors are expected because it’s built into the culture. But just because you’re stepping out of that corporate culture, and into a small business, doesn’t mean you can do things your own way completely. By adapting a certain level of orderliness in your service business, you let the small business owner know you take them seriously, and that you take yourself seriously.
I’ve seen too many freelancers who seem to think that just because they work for themselves, that they can do things completely on their own schedule and in a totally laid back manner. In my opinion, that laid back style has to be earned, and you earn it by showing up as a professional first and working hard to earn the complete trust of your client.
Conclusion
Small business owners are some of the most proud, and some of the most stressed out people you will ever meet. But they are also some of the most inspiring visionaries you can work for, and that is why it is so rewarding to earn their trust and help them to grow their business. When you use your heart as well as your mind to build a connection with your client and with their passion for their business, it can be incredibly rewarding for all of the people involved.
If you have any specific questions for me about running a business, or working with business owners, I’d love to chat. You can reach out to me via email.
For copywriting or freelancing questions, reach out to me at annie@aaroewriting.com.
For small business or bagel questions shoot an email to annie@bagelgrove.com.
I can’t wait to hear your thoughts!
Hi! I’m Annie Aaroe, a b2b email marketing strategist. To find out more about story-driven, conversion email copy and strategy that’s tailored for e-com apps and SaaS brands, visit my website, aaroewriting.com, or shoot me an email at annie@aaroewriting.com.
Ready for more?
The Best Emails Are Conversations
Posted on February 16, 2023 Leave a Comment
The Secret Weapon in B2B Email Sequences
As a B2B email copywriter I specialize in renewing dead email lists for my clients.
Now, every email sequence has a specific and often widely varying goal. But no matter what specific goal my clients hire me for, it is also my goal to implement one very crucial B2B email strategy.
At the forefront of my email philosophy is that email, even when it comes from a company, should feel like a personal email. This means that the email is intended to create a conversation with the recipient, one that feels natural and engaging and keeps the reader coming back for more.
One of my secret weapons is asking for responses to my emails. These are not the overly salesy type of questions. I’m not asking, “Can we set up a call to discuss?” or “When’s a good time to meet?” Or anything that is asking for more than a simple response. These are open-ended questions that ask the reader to tell you something about their life, their problems, their struggles, their needs, etc.
I could write an entire article about creating these types of questions that beg a response…
But instead, today, I want to give some guidance on how to respond to a customer who replies to a question in one of your emails.
The Philosophy Behind The Response
Whenever a customer responds to an inquiry in one of your emails, it’s a chance to engage in conversation with that customer, building their “know, like and trust” in you and your company.
Your response should have a natural flow, like a conversation.
Keep the conversation going by keeping things simple, focusing solely on the next step you want your prospect to take, and helping them take that next step easily.
Too many people want to rush things with prospects. They are so eager to convert that prospect that they miss out on the larger opportunity that email dialogue gives you; building a bond of trust that will pay off in a huge way down the road.
If you push the conversion right away, you risk losing the customer completely. They may not be ready… or they may smell a trap. But if you put the brakes on a little, and allow the relationship with this prospect to unfold more slowly, you will get the conversion once the prospect is ready,
By building trust and connection with your prospect, you can actually increase their lifetime value as a customer.
Understand the Customer Journey
The key to offering a good response is both patience and planning. Before I even sit down to write a B2B email sequence, I first figure out where the audience is in their customer journey related to my client’s company.
While some email sequences are geared to a wide audience (for example broadcast, aka newsletter, emails and some cold emails) most emails are speaking to a very specific kind of prospect or customer, at a specific point in their customer journey.
You need to have a clear understanding of all of the steps your prospect has to take in order to get to the final goal of conversion. And by conversion, I don’t simply mean the sale. The conversion could be an intermediate goal like booking a sales call, or starting a free trial. But you don’t lead with that goal in mind.
The reason we ask a question and ask for a reply, is because we want to call out the specific people in your email audience who are ready to take the next step. Often, their answer to the question will give you a clue as to where they are on their customer journey, and your response to their response should be aimed at bringing them simply to the next phase of that journey.
You finish off the response with another compelling question, and the conversation goes on from there.
Here is a guide to responding to a general question from your email
A B2B Example: “How long have you been in business?”
Response Email Template
Instructions for using this guide
Replace the [bold type in the brackets] to customize this template to your specific product and audience.
Line 1: Short sentence referencing their answer.
Example:
That’s great to hear.
or
Wow, that’s impressive.
etc.
Line 2: Introduce yourself
Example:
As I mentioned, I’m [mini bio statement].
Line 3: A question
Examples:
Do you mind sharing what’s going well vs. not so well in your business?
or
I’m curious, are you having any issues with [a common problem your product solves]?
or
How have things been going for you lately? Are there any issues I might be able to help with?
or
Have you ever considered [a solution your product provides]?
or
I’d love to hear how you [common activity your product can help them improve]?
Line 4: Ask for a response
Example:
When you have a moment, reply and let me know.
Hi! I’m Annie Aaroe, a b2b email marketing strategist. To find out more about story-driven, conversion email copy and strategy that’s tailored for e-com apps and SaaS brands, visit my website, aaroewriting.com, or shoot me an email at annie@aaroewriting.com.
Ready for more?
How the Housewives Saved My Email List
Posted on January 28, 2023 Leave a Comment
I am an unabashed Real Housewives UNIVERSE Devotee.
During the first Covid Winter, while others were feeding their sourdough starters, frosting legendary cakes for an Instagram reel, or checking off yet another day of ten thousand steps… I plopped down (innocently) and clicked on my first Real Housewives episode: Season 8, Beverly Hills.
Fast forward two years and I’ve tucked into my average sized brain every fight, flip, throw, trip, look, and pot stir in 12 seasons of Beverly Hills, 16, SIXTEEN, seasons of Orange County, 3 seasons of Salt Lake City, and a handful more seasons from the other cities. Next month I’m going all the way back to 2009 and beginning anew with the brawling, jail going, hair pulling, table flipping housewives of New Jersey. I have a text chain already set up with my New Jersey obsessed friend where, as I watch, I will send a string of expletives, questionable emojis, and always, my unedited opinions.
In the words of my kids, “You’re obsessed Mom.”
I was raised in a conservative christian home where anything other than Sunday School videos, christian radio and sterile reading lists were out of the question. I’ve been playing cultural catch-up ever since. I find the housewives hilarious comedians, who, the more serious they take themselves, the funnier they tend to be. But every once in a while they also give me some mental chewing gum.
Back in the spring of 2021 I was supposed to be writing promo emails to sell an Easter Special for my Bagel Shop. Instead I was logging hours with my housewife obsess addiction. In a desperate attempt to get myself to work, I grabbed my laptop (the Beverly Hills ladies still fighting on the TV in front of me) and banged out a subject line:
“Girl… Real Housewives is gettin’ in the way”
I wrote to my list of bagel shop customers, trying to sell them bagels for Easter morning, and just blurted out all my secret distractions and frustrations and ridiculous adoration of these WOMEN!
It turned out to be one of the most replied to, referenced and overall enjoyed emails I’d ever written.
(I spent a full paragraph listing the top three reasons I was all in for Lisa Rinna… an opinion that might get me stoned by the insta-mafia these days… which actually makes me enjoy the ridiculousness a thousand times more)
People love it when you write to them about the stuff you care about…
People enjoy a little humor and self depreciation…
And people like reading emails from other people.
People don’t want to hear from brands, not from tech bots, and definitely not from one-liner salesmen.
Especially in tech, but it also applies to e-com, coaching, and info-products, if you show up to your audience as a person, who does important AND unimportant, off the cuff, funny stuff… YOU HAVE THE ADVANTAGE.
So the next time you are struggling to write an email about your product(s) to your list of prospects or customers, and you have even the slightest impulse to write about something unrelated… go for it!
Share something interesting from your day, share what’s on your mind, give your audience a little slice of the honest truth. And then, after you’ve proved to your readers that you’re a real person, and that you have a real personality, see if you can bend your email back to something relevant about your company.
If you can do that, you’ve got a winning email strategy almost every time.
Coincidentally, being real, but also “controlling the narrative,” is how the best housewives make decades long careers out of reality TV.
Even a housewife with biggest personality and an interesting storyline, if she doesn’t show some vulnerability, eventually looses the audience and gets fired. To succeed in reality TV, you have to be relatable.
Reality ain’t any different.
Why not go try it?!
Hi! I’m Annie Aaroe, a b2b email marketing strategist. To find out more about story-driven, conversion email copy and strategy that’s tailored for e-com apps and SaaS brands, visit my website, aaroewriting.com, or shoot me an email at annie@aaroewriting.com.
Ready for more?
2022 Wrap Up: B2B Cold Email Trends
Posted on December 3, 2022 Leave a Comment
Looking Into 2023: B2B Cold Email Trends To Keep… And What To Get Rid Of
Cold email is a super effective way for b2b companies to bring in new business. The problem is… every one of your competitors is also sending cold emails. Your prospects are not going to respond to your company’s outreach when it’s buried among the literally hundreds of emails they receive in a day. But there are ways to make your cold emailing campaigns more effective and it starts by understanding what your prospective customers want. Then you have to figure out how to connect your company’s main objective to what your prospects actually want, and do this in a way that gets their attention.
I’ve compiled a list of 8 types of cold emails that are trending in 2022. Any of these types of emails can work well to grow your outbound leads, however there are some things I’ve found out in the wilds of cold email country, that I advise you to avoid.
The Problem-Solution Cold Email
A large number of b2b cold emails begin by stating the problem they believe their prospects are facing. Starting off your cold emails with the prospect’s problems helps grab their attention and gets them into their negative feelings. This approach creates a perfect opportunity to present your company as the solution to your prospect’s needs.
These emails often present the problem in the form of a question, a before and after story, or a simple statement of the problem followed by the your company’s solution. Any of these approaches work as long as you’ve correctly identified the prospect’s pain points and you manage to capture their attention with your words.
One of the pitfalls of these types of emails is spending most of the email bragging about your company instead of dedicating the bulk of the email talking about your prospect. If you get the problem right, and get the prospect feeling their pain in the specific area where you can help them, they will want to learn more all on their own.
Example
The “Straight Talk” Cold Email
Lot’s of cold emailers try to get noticed by using a familiar tone, like you would use when writing to a friend. They may even make a joke about the nature of cold-emailing and try and “break the ice” with a laugh. These types of emails can work well for b2b companies who have a whimsical product or a highly personalized sales process.
The key to making the familiar, friend-to-friend, cold email work is that it has to feel genuine. Think of these types of cold emails like a pick-up line. Canned and cliched phrases are going to get your email deleted before your prospect even finishes the first sentence. However a person-to-person conversational style email that feels sincere can be a great way to bond with your prospects and increase conversion rates.
Example
The Customized Cold Email
Customizing your cold emails to each specific recipient takes time and attention… and it should. There is nothing worse as a cold email recipient than getting a personalized email that feels fake, in fact it’s most likely a cold email death sentence.
The key here is to choose personalized information that is relevant to the product or service that your company offers. Don’t settle for generic references such as “visited your website and…” or “searched for you on Google and found…” In order to make your personalization count, you need to go far enough into your prospect’s business to find something that only you would notice, and that your company has the perfect solution for.
Personalization can be incorporated into other types of cold emails included in this article. You can personalize a problem-solution cold email by calling out a problem you found in your prospects business that you can help them solve. Below I describe how “in the news” emails can be personalized to your prospect by searching for literal industry news references to your prospect’s company.
If you’re sending out hundreds of cold emails every day, personalization is not a good fit for your email marketing strategy. But I suggest reducing your volume and increasing the quality of your emails and you will probably see much higher quality results.
Example
The Story Based Cold Email
A story based lead can work for all different types of emails, problem-solution emails, customer centered emails, referral emails, in the news emails and more. But this approach to cold email is severely underused. The reason stories work so well for cold audiences is that they appeal to our basic human affinity for, and comfort with story telling. If an email begins with a compelling story the prospect can’t help themselves from wanting to know how the story ends, and thus continuing to read your email. The key here is to start the story at the height of the action, where their is a lot of emotion and then quickly direct the story back to something your prospect cares about.
When I talk about story-leads with email, I’m not suggesting simply a “once upon a time…” sort of story. Telling a story to a cold audience is as simple as setting your words in a specific time and place with a subject (usually the reader) and some sort of conflict. The example below is an example of a story-type lead that draws you in immediately with an emotionally driven first line. Try re-working your emails to include a story-type opening, and watch your open rates and conversion rates soar.
Example
The Reference Cold Email
This type of cold email works if your company has a pre-existing connection with the prospect, of any sort. In the example below, the email is reaching out to current users of one company and introducing a product offered by their parent company. But referral emails can work if you have something in common with the prospect, or if you learned about your prospect from a mutual connection. Using relationships or past experiences that you have in common with your prospects is an incredible opportunity to build momentum for your cold email.
The most important thing to avoid with these types of emails is being fake. If you don’t actually have a common reference point with the prospect, you should not go making one up. These emails can take time and research so they make the most sense if you already have a lead on a connection, or if you are going after a specific company and want to make a notable impression.
Example
The Bullet Points Cold Email
Sometimes all a company has to do to convert prospects is list a series of catchy bullet points about their product’s features and benefits. If you have a fairly simple to understand product and you can provide concise solutions to specific pain points, then a bullet point email is a great way to combine design, i.e. plenty of white space, with well crafted copy and win over your prospects.
Anyone can write bullet points, but it takes a skilled copywriter who understands the market to write a good bullet point. To craft a really great bullet points cold email you want to focus on the benefits of your product and how they are going to make life better for your prospect. The second thing you want to do with bullets is build curiosity, and hint at a result, prompting your prospects to click the call-to-action and find out more.
This email in my example hints at benefits for the prospect, “no subscriptions,” “no messaging limits” but they opted for short and direct bullets, instead of more emotional, sentence length bullets. I think these same bullets would be even more powerful if the copy was flipped to show the prospect exactly how they would benefit from this product. Instead of “no contracts, no subscriptions” they could have said, “Only pay for the service when you use it.” Instead of “same day activation!” I would turn this bullet into a call-to-action and say “Start messaging customers today!”
Example
The “In The News” Cold Email
A common approach I see in cold emails is to start off with a reference to something in the news. This works to grab attention and make the email personal right from the start. The “news” can be a specific article or, like in the example below, a mention of a trend. A great way to individually personalize the email is to reference an industry article where your prospect’s company is specifically mentioned.
The key to making this type of email work is to get as specific as possible with both the news item you are referencing, including a link if possible, and even more importantly referencing news that is specifically relevant to your prospect.
The example below works because it is an emotional appeal to a trend that is probably causing anxiety or even fear in the prospect, hence priming the reader for the sender’s call-to-action. I think they need a little work on their first sentence to make it easier to digest and even more emotionally driven. However the use of powerful words like “devastating” and “security breaches” are going to grab the attention of those readers for whom this fear is on the top of their minds. The follow up link to join their virtual training is well placed and is probably going to see some significant results.
Example
The Direct Offer Cold Email
Studies show 3% of your market will be ready to buy immediately, and this type of cold email is designed to grab those prospects and directly convert them into customers.
These types of emails should start with a question that will directly identify your ideal prospect who is ready to “buy today.” Then you give them your offer, which can include a brief explanation of your company, or you can skip the introduction and go straight to your offer. Then include benefit driven, curiosity inducing, bullets along with your direct offer and you’ve got a complete email package that your most anxious prospects will respond to right away.
Example
Useful Copywriting Tips To Use In Your Cold Emails
No matter what type of cold email you are sending, there are some copywriting techniques that you can use to strengthen your existing approach, or help you craft a winner from the start.
Start with a question
Questions can make great subject lines and great openings. You can turn any of the above email types into an attention grabbing email by starting off with a question that pulls in your ideal prospect and primes them for your message.
Turn your email into a story
A story email is going to make your email stand out from the competition because it offers a human element, which is appealing to almost everyone, and almost no-one uses them. To use a story in cold email you always want to begin the email at the climax of the story, when the emotions of the situation are the most intense. A story can be just a couple sentences or a few short paragraphs, it doesn’t really matter. As long as the story is compelling, it will draw in your audience and help deliver your core message with more impact.
Write compelling button copy
If you have a design heavy email that includes a colorful button, don’t settle for canned, boring copy on that button. CTAs like, “Sign Up,” “Schedule A Demo,” or “Find Out More” do little to move your prospect to take action. Similar to how the best bullet point copy is written, your button/CTA copy should focus on the benefits of your product and promise the result your prospect will receive if they follow your CTA. Some alternate button copy to the examples above are, “10X My Responses,” “See How x-product can solve x-problem,” and “Discover x-case study customer’s Secrets.”
Send your email from a real person
Be careful of getting too familiar with your prospect in your cold emails. Acting like you’re already their best friend in the first few outreach emails will reek of sleazy salesmanship. However, do be yourself in your cold emails and explain why you are excited to reach out and how you think you can help. The more genuine your email tone and copy, the more likely you are to get a real response.
Common Mistakes To Avoid In Your Cold Emails
Finally I’ll leave you with a list of what to avoid when crafting the copy for your cold email campaigns. Avoiding these common pitfalls will help your emails stand out from your competitors by generating more opens, reducing bounce-rates, and ultimately driving more conversion.
Edit your cold emails for these common mistakes:
- Wordy sentences
- Techno-babble – We’re not presenting a report for investors, we’re trying to get the attention of potential customers
- Stories without any conflict or emotion
- Burying your lead with too much branding and graphics
- Mass produced customization
- Including personalization details that are public information and have nothing to do with the rest of your email
- Sending your best performing emails only once
- Using personalization code in your cold emails… when it goes wrong, there will be no forgiveness.
- Inconsistent branding
- Misleading subject lines
Looking Forward To 2023
This is not a complete list of all the different cold emailing trends, but each of the examples I’ve included here are primed to work well for your b2b cold emailing campaigns in the coming year. No matter what industry you are in, but especially if you are a tech or SaaS company, the human touch and feel of your cold emails is going to be the thing that sets your emails apart in 2023.
Hi! I’m Annie Aaroe, a b2b email marketing strategist. To find out more about story-driven, conversion email copy and strategy that’s tailored for e-com apps and SaaS brands, visit my website, aaroewriting.com, or shoot me an email at annie@aaroewriting.com.