Leave - me - alone
The internet is filled with people explaining you that email sequences are the way to go. As response rates are low on cold emailing campaigns, automatic follow-ups would be able to increase your chances of starting a conversation.
The line of thought is: if a part of these responses are negative, it does not really matter. The aim justifies the means.
We've tried this kind of working shortly, and I must say: it was horrible. Every time my follow up emails would go out I'd be in for a wave of negative email replies ranging from "stop spamming me" to "this email dripping made me hate your company and I will never buy from you". People hated us for reaching out.
Actually, it's also how I feel when I get the fourth email from an IT outsourcing company offering its services. All I can think is "leave - me - alone". Why should we do this to other people if we don't like it ourselves?
It doesn't matter how great your products or services are. People don't like to be forced to consider them.
Listen to your conscience. What it's telling you is right.
So all email sequences are bad?
Am I saying you should always give up after the first email? No, of course not.
Let's just not try to force-feed people.
In the following situations email sequences do make sense:
A customer has displayed interest but is clearly forgetting to take next steps. He/she is just too busy.
You're contacting the customer a second time to offer something valuable without expecting anything back. You're giving, not taking. And you're quite sure they'll appreciate it.
You're trying to get hold of an investor. They need multiple email follow-ups to take action. Dead silence after a first email does not mean they are not interested. Learned by experience.
In case 1 and 3, carefully craft your follow up email to:
Mention in a few words (max. 10) what you were contacting them about previously and why it's interesting
Offer an easy way to take next steps (like a youcanbook.me link)
That's it content wise - respect the time of the person. Keep it super short.
Refrain from changing the subject line to trick people. Nobody likes to be tricked, unless it's magic or stand-up comedy.
... and ALWAYS put the previous email below for reference.
Can I send email sequences from Salesflare?
Yup! You can set up email workflows, or email sequences, to send automated email follow ups to your contacts. More on how to set it up here.
You can even set up workflows to go out to contacts you've created directly from LinkedIn using Salesflare's LinkedIn sidebar!