How to Use Cold Emails for Networking in 2022

Running an email campaign isn’t always easy, as you know its success largely depends on your recipient list. And at the same time, for this, networking can play a great role. When it comes to your outreach efforts the main goal of a cold email might be to get you a response from a prospect. However, this doesn’t mean that your emails can’t be used for more. Below we’ll be explaining just how to use cold emails for networking.

From getting that response to creating a lasting and fruitful relationship with your recipients. Networking can be used to boost your sales and commercial interests, in short there are a lot of things that can be done depending on the right people. Based on different tips and tricks you should be able to get a better network of clients and business partners.

In order to begin telling you how to use cold emails for networking we’ll first present a step by step guide on this. You can get great results using this strategy along with personalization for your emails and overall a great basis of email marketing. Remember you need to get your emails on point before you can move on to applying this strategy for optimal results.

Step #1. Defining your targets and finding their email addresses.

The target.

The first step of every and any email outreach campaign should be to select who are your targets. Knowing your audience is not only good, but fundamental. You need to be able to ascertain who is the best recipient for your emails and ultimately your product. After all, your audience is from who you’re going to get value.

Your audience should be selected based on their profile, your sector of business, the value they can provide and your goal. For instance, if you’re hoping to get more business contacts that can help you with expanding your business then you should go for people akin to this goal.

Based on the goal of networking your audience should consist on people working on marketing departments mostly. Of course, you’re going to include the people working for what you consider the best companies that can help you grow your business.

Series A companies are the main goal of your efforts. If you’re a new startup you can learn a lot from them even in the case some don’t make partners of you. Aside from this remember to always show some value ahead to prove them that you’re not just another interested person with nothing to offer.

Finding the data.

For this step you need to form a list of all the startup and companies that you’re interested in. You can get lots of information from LinkedIn and other sites where people working for these companies have posted their contact information. Emails, phone numbers and more can be acquired from these sites.

Remember that once you get an email address you should always verify it before actually using for your outreach. This can be done swiftly using VerifyBee. You’ll be protected against fake and outdated addresses that can harm your reputation and cause damage to your campaign. Remember to always verify the information you get from the internet, especially when it comes to email addresses.

Step #2. Writing the email, how to use cold emails for networking?

Once you settled for your list of prospects, you get to the main part, writing. For this step you should write different versions of cold emails that can serve as an outreach tool. These should be personalized according to your audience, their preferences and your method of approach.

Let’s approach this using a 3-step sequence rather than the usual sales drill associated with cold emails. Let’s remember that cold emails and outreach do need some follow-up emails, the number of these that is most effective to you depends solely on your experience. Let’s review some examples and templates of how to use cold emails for networking.

Networking email #1.

It’s highly encouraged to actually resort to creating different versions of cold emails. This could be done based on different content, images or style. You should apply A/B testing to this step. One part of your list will receive cold email in format A while to other in format B, after that you’ll compare results and pick the best style.

Let’s take a look at the first cold email template available for you to develop a great network.

“Hey {First Name of the Recipient}!
I was checking your LinkedIn profile and I thought I would reach out with a quick video for a change.
{Personalized Image.}
You can also click here. {Insert Link here}
So, what do you think? Are you up for it?
Best regards!
{Your Signature}.”

Warning!

In this template the actual personalized image is based on that of a reproduction video. Likely you won’t be using the same type of image and as such you’re free to change any part of the content of the email.

We are providing you with this template to serve you as a guideline on how to take that initial step into contacting another company or person.

This email template is very casual and as such people are more interested in the content they’ll find in your link. Needless to say that if the recipient clicks on the image it should also redirect him to the landing page.

Back in the process.

The main goal of this email is of course to get that click trough, once that is accomplished you need to worry about the landing page. It should also be personalized and provide the recipient with a great experience.

There are lots of ways to personalize and customize a landing page. You can use the best of your artistic and creative vision for this bit. A good idea would be to include an interactive section with a calendar for the recipient to check which available dates serve him the mist after reading through your page. This is all in hopes of providing a frictionless environment for your recipients.

What you can learn from this experience.

Based on our own experience with this strategy we can give you some advice based on what we got out of it.

1. Targeted subject lines perform much better than non-targeted ones. Using different subject lines that are a mixture of casual and on point with the main topic is great for your open rate.
2. The higher your click rate is the higher your response rate will be. This is largely due to the lading page serving as a deal closer. If you dazzle your recipients with a great lading page presenting all the way in which you can provide value to them, then you can expect a response from them.
3. The image plays a major role on the click rate. People sometimes base their judgement on what they can see, in this case, it would be the personalized image. You can learn more about the importance of images in your emails from our article.

Using humour in your email follow-up.

Most outreach emails that work wonders for people in marketing use one or two images. These images can also be used as a way to add a little twist of humour for your follow-up emails. You can personalize them in lots of different ways that allow you to look better in the eyes of your recipients.

Remember that the aim with follow-ups is to stay on their radar not to come across as pushy. Sometimes the more serious and formal approach works, but in current times people prefer the casual email over the overly tight business follow-up from the 2000’s.

Using humour for your emails is a way to keep them fresh and casual, which as you know is better than pushy. For instance, we can provide you with an image that you could customize and use in your outreach efforts.

You should add the picture of your prospect to that wanted poster along with some of their more relevant skills. Incidentally, this is the same image that will be featured for our next cold email template.

As for that next one, you can also use A/B testing on the subject line for different versions of the email. So, let’s present you with a second email template.

The second template on how to use cold emails for networking.

“I was checking growth talents in {City Where the Recipient Resides} and I came across this poster... Pretty dope!
{Personalized Poster Image}
Well ok... I admit that I've used my advanced design skill to create this poster myself.
I hope that it made you smile, and if yes, I'd love to invite you for a lunch or a coffee so we can discuss about our challenges.
What do you think?
{Your Signature}.”

Remember that you can alter this template in any way that you see fit. This is meant to be a follow-up email and as such its main goal is to remind your recipients about your main email and about you of course.

Remember that since you should be testing the subject line as well, you should keep it funny and casual. Same as the email and the overall attitude towards your outreach campaign.

We do have a second example for your follow-up emails that can work pretty good with your recipients.

A second follow-up email sample.

For this one, the actual email is focused around getting a response based on meeting a person. Since a meeting can mean a great deal of different things let’s settle for something basic, like meeting for coffee.

Drinking coffee during a break is something a lot of people do. You can leverage this to take advantage of human behaviour and see if you can get a response or maybe even more, from your outreach.

The subject line of the email could be something like “Coffee?” or “Want to grab a coffee?”. Remember that the subject line is the first thing that your recipients see and as such it drastically alters your open rate, so let’s keep it casual and without pressure.

“Hey {First Name of the Recipient}!
I know that going out for a lunch might be a bit too time consuming so I contacted your team to know your favorite beverage (I know it might sound creepy but I did it for the love of coffee!)
So here I am with your favorite {Name of a Type of Coffee}.
{Coffee related Image}
Let me know what's the best time for me to bring it to you so we can have a chat about growth
My best regards,
{Your Signature}
P.S: This is my last email”

A warning for this template.

Let’s begin with the image. A good idea for this template would be to actually use an image of you at a café. You can also use some other image that conveys the message in a positive way.

As for the subject line, people do seem to prefer the simple “Coffee?” line. It’s way more casual, simple and on point. As for the actual content of the email, remember that you’re free to change it in any way that you deem necessary.

All the email templates presented here are meant to represent how to use cold emails for networking. You should alter them to better serve your needs, put them trough A/B testing and make the most out of them.

The bottom line on how to use cold emails for networking.

Remember that your networking can be about more than just knowing people. You can use cold emails as a way to reach out to potential business partners and grab their attention with your product and brand.

By now you should have an idea on how to use cold emails for networking. You can start by reviewing the basics of cold email and outreach.

• Are you targeting the right audience?
• Are you personalizing your emails for your audience?
• How closely are you following up your efforts to contact your recipients?

This process is just a part of getting people trough your sales funnel. While most people seem to think that the whole thing is about a simple email campaign. You now have more insight and experience on each part of this process.

The point of using cold emails for networking is to actually build a relationship with other people that can provide value to your brand. And the best way to start this is by being casual and funny when you reach out to your recipients. Just in case you need a reminder of what cold emails are all about you can check our article.