Writing cold emails can sometimes feel easy as you’re starting from a blank slate. The recipient does not know you, you don’t know them and you’re just starting off the conversation.
Writing a warm-up email, though? Much more difficult than that.
Warm-up emails or warm emails are follow-up emails to recipients who did not reply to the initial email you sent them. They may sound boring and unnecessary but they can actually increase your reply rates, and response rates and have an impact on your conversion rates from potential customers.
Today, we’re going to show you everything you need to know about this email type.
What is a warm-up email?
A warm-up email is an email that is second (or third, fourth…) in an email sequence where you want to re-engage the recipient and get them to interact with you. Since the previous email did not work as intended, the warm-up email aims to reignite interest and spark up a conversation or get them to purchase after your introduction email got out.
A warm-up email connects to the message in the original email and reminds the recipient about your offer. It can be triggered automatically a certain amount of time after the previous email goes out – e.g. after a time frame of two days. Alternatively, they can go out after a trigger event. For example, when someone clicks on a link in the previous email, they get a warm-up email as a follow-up from your sales reps, asking them if they want a demo, a free trial or an invite to a networking event.
Warm follow-up email template
There are lots of different methods that you can use to keep your leads warm, including email marketing, social media marketing and engagement, and promoting your small business in other ways.
However, a warm follow-up email is a crucial part of your success. Emails are easy, fast, and delivered directly to leads. You can schedule a follow-up message in advance using email automation to make sure that the right message with the relevant content is sent at exactly the right time.
When you take this step to keep your leads warm, you demonstrate to them that you are taking the time to personally follow up with them and let them know that you are serious about and eager to build a relationship with them. And these days, it’s also nice to show them that you’re a real person too.
Because of this, it’s a good idea to use an email template that will help you make sure each initial email you send stands out in the best way that is meaningful and relevant.
What to include in a follow-up email
When writing warm-up emails, there are several things that are always worth including if you want to reach your ideal customer. These are:
Meaningful connection
You should tie in your business to something that you have noticed about your lead. For example, this might be something that you have noticed regarding their website or social media.
You could also use social proof and mention a well-known client you worked for or a result that you achieved that they could be impressed by. This is an effective way to push potential clients further down the sales funnel.
Or you may want to use common pain points in their industry that they could solve with the help of your skillset. For example, sales reps could email a prospect about a CRM tool that reduces admin time by 30% every week.
Start this connection off immediately from the email subject and explain 1) what you are offering and 2) that you are catching up regarding your previous message. That way, they’ll know that you didn’t get the wrong person and that you’re picking up on the initial conversation.
Value statement
Offer a brief explanation of what you are offering and why it is worth them taking the time to explore it further. Point out what your company does and what makes your brand better than the competition.
Credibility
You can add URLs to boost your credibility by linking to various sources including samples of your work, case studies, testimonials, reviews, and any other form of social proof that will give you and your business more credibility.
Invitation to connect
Finally, you should include a soft invitation for connection in all of your sales follow-up emails. For example, this should be kept casual, asking if they would like to schedule a call or when they’d like to hear from you again. Avoid being pushy and keep the call to action simple.
How long should a warm email be?
It’s essential to keep your warm email follow-ups short – no more than 125 words is usually the best option. You don’t want to write a blog post or an ebook or offer some sort of helpful resource for them. A hundred words or so is the sweet spot for the best conversion rates.
All you are trying to do with this type of email is to open up the potential for a meeting or a call with your lead; you don’t need to worry about sharing your life story or making sure that they are aware of your solution company offers.
A short email will be easier for your lead to read and will help avoid a situation where they simply skim over it and decide that they don’t have the time to consume all of that. If you are trying to keep the essence of your proposal, but can’t reach the right size of the email, contact the writing service studycrumb.com where you will get professional help.
Warm email subject lines – inbox warmup
Most of us have ignored quite a few emails over our lifetimes, and the majority of the time, this decision is made based on just the subject line. When email recipients read a subject line, we immediately decide whether or not an email is going to be worth opening and reading.
With people getting more email messages than ever before in their inboxes, coming up with email subject lines that stand out from the crowd and encourage the reader to open your message is crucial to ensure success for your sales teams.
It’s important to include a meaningful connection in your subject line. One good idea is to use the meaningful connection request you included in the body of the email that can be worked into the subject line. Or, you can use this opportunity to highlight another meaningful connection that you have learned about your lead.
Personalized emails are the best course of action, but that can be difficult if you’re just reaching out to them for the first time through cold outreach. For the best click-through rates, experiment with subject lines and keep testing until you find something that works for your target audience.
Tips to warm up your email and get the best results
When you have a solid understanding of who you are emailing and what they are looking for, it will begin to feel more natural when you are writing warm follow-up emails.
Don’t get too caught up in the specifics of what you should write and remember that there is one primary purpose of sending a warm follow-up email, which is to get a conversation started.
It’s a good idea to start testing warm follow up emails with your perfect leads and figure out what works best for you.
If you want to start solving the problem of not having the time or forgetting to consistently follow up to keep your leads warm before they are ready to make a purchase, then you may want to consider investing in a CRM for your business.
A good CRM can help you put together a robust follow-up plan and send you reminders to reach out, making it easier to stay on top of your follow up and land more deals.
How does an email warmup service work?
Warming up is a necessary process if you are invested in the success of your cold email campaigns. After all, if your email messages are landing in the spam folder, then you are not going to get replies. When you create a cold email campaign and send cold emails, you should take a few seconds to consider how to improve your sender reputation, the open rate, and how to make your emails not to be reported as spam anymore.
There are two main ways that you can handle this process – either manually or by using a tool. You will normally achieve a good sender’s reputation when you warm up your emails manually. However, the downside to this is that it can be very time-consuming, and you will need to remember to follow up with your leads and gradually increase the volume.
This means that there are no breaks in the process and that it is something you will need to keep in mind every day. Not to mention, you will also need to figure out how to do it in the first place.
On the other hand, the process is much easier when you warm up your emails automatically.
It is easy to get started and since it runs automatically, you do not need to spend all your time worrying about how it is going or remembering to follow up. If you decide to choose automated email warmup, then you will need to find a service that you can rely on to do a good job.
How to warm up domain
Warming up your domain is often necessary to increase email deliverability and open rates.
Begin by registering a new domain that you can use for outbound emails, and then warm up an email address. This is because when you send emails from a brand new domain, this can often be something that anti-spam filters find suspicious.
This puts you at risk of destroying the sender reputation of your domain, which leads to emails bouncing. The more bounced messages you send, the bigger your risk of getting blocked or ending up on blacklists.
How to warm up email
Before you start a new cold email outreach campaign, you should spend no less than three months working on your email reputation to receive a positive impact. This is because it takes time to earn a good email reputation. A new domain is treated neutrally, and the age of the domain is one of the main factors that an anti-spam filter will check.
You need to take things slowly when warming up your email and domain. Spend at least three months to do this and bear factors in mind that might disturb the process, so that you can avoid them. You will want to avoid setting up more than one email account straight away, sending emails at a suspicious frequency, and a low-quality prospect list.
You should also set up a domain name that is consistent with your main domain name. This is because your domain name appears in your email address and is a crucial part of your message.
If your domain name isn’t similar or at least relevant to your main website, this creates inconsistencies that can lead to suspicion.
Wrapping up
Starting off with a strong email is just the first step in a great email sequence. Warm-up emails let you build on top of that story, engage your readers and push them one step closer to converting.
But before you send out any emails, you need to make sure that you’re sending to a list of valid email addresses. All it takes is using Bouncer – it goes through your email lists and removes outdated addresses, spam traps, typos, catch-all emails and every other address that can ruin your deliverability.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the main difference between a cold and a warm email?
With a cold email, you have no prior relationship with the recipient and you may be doing typical sales outreach to prospective clients. They don’t know anything about you and they’re getting your email out of the blue. A warm email is the second, third or whatever email they get from you and they already have a connection with you.
How do you write a warm email?
Make the email more about the recipient and less about yourself. You’re building a connection so try and relate the current email to the first one you sent out to the recipient. You can do a quick recap of the initial message you sent. Pick up a detail from the first email and talk about it again. Alternatively, relate to a big event in the recipient’s professional life and relate to it – this will definitely make it “warmer”.
