Cold Email Converts at 0.2% – Here's What Actually Works

I hate cold emails.

As in, I have a visceral reaction to them. They make my skin crawl. They’re creepy. They’re gross. They’re just wrong on so many levels… (shudder)

I get hundreds of them a week.

No, I haven’t counted, but I’m sure if I did, I’d be correct.

Cold Email Is a Horrible Idea

Every time I see one of these unsolicited monstrosities in my inbox, I cringe.

They offer me everything from email lists for customers I will never serve, to software my business will never use, to funding I don’t need and is probably a scam anyway. The list goes on.

It drives me nuts. I send them to my Junk folder as soon as I see the subject lines.

And the subject lines are all the same.

“Quick question”

“Funding for Email Marketing Connection Academy” (That’s the official name of the teaching arm of my business, BTW.)

“Can I send you the demo?”

“List of 5000 chiropractors”

These are all so blatantly obvious and really crappy subject lines, in my professional opinion.

Every once in a while, I read the text of the email, just as I delete it. (They’re all stupidly short, so it’s easy to do.)

They’re so bad.

There is little to no introduction as to who is emailing me and why their message should matter to me.

They assume I’m the perfect customer for what they’re offering, despite the fact that I have no interest in it and I would never fit their Ideal Customer Avatar (if they actually had one).

And they demand my time, without giving me a reason why I should grant it to them.

These emails break all of my standard rules for how to welcome and treat your subscribers with respect.

But I’m not one of their subscribers. They just barged into my inbox, uninvited, having no clue who I am or what I do, and decided that they’d throw their sales pitch at me to see if it sticks.

Ugh. So gross.

Sorry about the rant, these people really get my hackles up.

Inbound vs Outbound Email Marketing

Cold email is antithetical to everything I believe about email marketing.

As I say in this newsletter pretty much every week, the whole point of “inbound” email marketing is to attract people who are interested in what you’re offering to your business.

“Outbound” email marketing, or cold email, is where you buy a list of email addresses and bombard every person on the list, having no idea whether they’re the right audience for your product or service.

I hate it. It just makes me grumpy. Grrr. 😡

Which is why when someone on LinkedIn reached out to me about adopting a cold email platform, I was not exactly enthusiastic about hearing from them.

A LinkedIn message conversation between two people Cold Email Marketer (CEM) and Tanya Brody (TB)

CEM: wild idea ik you already use a cold mail platform, but would you be interested in an upgrade?

TB: No thank you. I don't believe in cold email.

Again, notice that this person automatically assumed that because I am an email marketing strategist, I use cold email and would be interested in this platform.

Not so much…

So when they persisted, I was frank.

Continued conversation:

CEM: thats an interesting take coming from an email marketing strategist

may I know why out of curiosity

TB: I do inbound, permission-based email marketing. I don't believe in intruding on someone's inbox uninvited.

CEM: thats beautiful
however isnt outbound more like knocking on someone's door, and the statistics say upto 3% of people might actually be interested

First, I’d like to point out that 3% is only the average reply rate. A lot of those replies include “NO” and “Take me off your list.” I send many of those myself, especially to the overly persistent people.

Second, I will point out that the actual average conversion rate for cold email is 0.2%. The average conversion rate for inbound email marketing is 2% – 5%.

Because you’re sending emails to people who have already said they’re interested in what you’re offering.

Yeah, I got snarky.

Continued conversation:

TB: Judging by the hundreds of emails that show up in my inbox uninvited, offering me stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with my business, like lists of businesses I don't serve, software I will never use, and funding I don't need, I highly doubt that statistic is accurate.

I think I have responded positively to 1 cold email over the last 5 years and that turned out to be something entirely different than the initial cold email promoted.

So no. It's not like knocking on someone's door. And most people find that intrusive these days as well.

Have you considered setting up an inbound funnel for your business and attracting people who are actually interested in what you're selling?

CEM: if i got bombarded with irrelevant pitches I'd hate cold mails too

but your mailbox sounds like a problem with who’s being contacted, not necessarily the fact that they weren’t asked first

now i’m curious though, if you got one cold email that was actually so relevant you immediately understood why you got it, would you still consider that intrusive?

and also no I'm more of the outbound guy

I mean, seriously. If we all went around barging into each other’s living rooms to sell each other stuff, the police would probably make a lot more trespassing arrests and there would be even more privacy lawsuits.

This is why so many people have “NO SOLICITING” signs on their doors.

Continued conversation:

TB: Yep. I would. Mostly because I object to cold email on principle. I'm the inbound gal. I believe in respecting people's privacy and giving them what they ask for, instead of foisting stuff they don't want on them, even if it was "so relevant they immediately understood why they got it." And I haven't seen anyone who does that.

Think about it this way. If we met at a party and I asked you what you do, if you told me you set up outbound email systems for companies, that would give me the opportunity to either smile and nod and change the subject, or to say I wanted to hear more.

Whereas if you barge into my living room and start talking about this outbound email system before you even know whether I would want such a thing, I'm going to be totally turned off.

But apparently my point was successfully made.

Continued conversation:

CEM: okayy i actually get your point now
you’re basically saying “making the interruption more relevant doesn’t make the interruption less unsolicited” which is a much harder argument to dismiss than “cold email sucks because people send me garbage”

i still disagree with you, but i actually find the distinction interesting. and tbf, after your first reply i wasn’t really trying to sell you anything anymore, i was just curious how you think about it accidentally turned into a pretty good argument lol

TB: Glad you enjoyed, and that you see my point. I hope that helps you as you use cold email in the future. I don't expect you to stop but I hope you think about it differently now.

CEM: yeah ill definitely keep that in mind

I don’t honestly know if this person will genuinely “keep that in mind.”

And to be fair, the conversation did end up pivoting to something useful, so it was worth the time for both of us in the end.

“Easy” Doesn’t Always Mean Effective

I know that cold email is sold as the “easy solution to get in front of potential buyers.”

So is demonstrating your product or service at grocery stores. Lots of people wander by. Not everyone is going to be interested. Some may take a sample. A very few will actually buy.

This is why I believe inbound email marketing is the best solution. It lets you sort out the people who are interested from those who aren’t. Then you know you’re not wasting their time and you can show them why what you have to offer matters to them.

Otherwise, you’ll spend a bunch of time trying to convince people who aren’t interested that they should be. As per my conversation on LinkedIn.

This is why I also believe that every business should have an email list and an inbound marketing funnel to build that list. It gives you a steady stream of those interested people who are attracted to and want to find out more about your product or service. That’s how you get to that 2% – 5% conversion rate.

To do that, you need an inbound email marketing funnel.

If you’re like most business owners I know, you’re probably sitting there right now, staring at the partially built funnel you started months, or possibly years ago.

Or, you’re remembering the course (or two, or three) you bought to help you build a funnel, so you can grow your email list and your business.

Somehow, you’ve just never gotten around to actually finishing the darn thing.

You really want to have one, and you’d love to build it yourself, so you know how.

But the idea of doing it all by yourself with no help from someone who understands all the tech and knows what a funnel actually needs to work well is just… daunting.

That’s where Done-With-You funnels comes in.

You build your own funnel, at your pace, with my guidance as a professional email marketing strategist and copywriter, every step of the way. You’ll have the accountability and encouragement to finish and the reassurance that everything works the way it’s supposed to.

Then, you can confidently launch your funnel and get new leads flowing into your list, so you can attract the right people to your business and turn them into supportive customers and community members.

We’ll sit down together to map your marketing strategy and your funnel.

We’ll meet every week while you’re building, so you’ll have a reason to make progress.

I’ll review every part of your funnel as you create it, and do a full review before you launch, so you know everything works correctly.

If you’ve been putting off building your own funnel because you’re worried about getting it “right” then this is the perfect way to ensure that will actually work.

I’d love to share all of the details on how it works and everything you’ll get when you work with me. Just click on the button below to find out more.

YES! I WANT YOU TO HELP ME BUILD MY FUNNEL!

Once your funnel is fully launched, you’ll have the right people coming to you and saying, “Yes, I want what you’ve got, let’s make it happen” instead of trying to convince the wrong people to buy.

I look forward to talking with you about helping you build your perfect funnel very soon.

Finally, today’s picture is of a couple of katydids who were hanging out on my African blue basil plant recently.

Two katydids sitting on the branches of an African blue basil plant.

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