In this blog, we’ll delve into four innovative email strategies tailored specifically for logistics and transportation companies. We’ll explore advanced techniques beyond standard practices like personalization and subject lines. Our focus will be on strategies like “email rebound” and “one goal, one link” to maximize impact.

To support these strategies, we’ll also discuss essential tools such as custom CRM for logistics companies and AI-powered email writing assistants.

Before diving into these strategies, let’s establish a solid foundation for logistics email marketing.

Email Marketing Benchmarks for Logistics and Transportation Companies

What is considered a good email marketing benchmark for the logistics and transportation industry?

Based on our research and data from Mailchimp’s study, the email benchmark for the logistics and transportation industry is as follows:

• The average open rate is 33.25%
• The average click-through rate is 2.56%
• The unsubscribe rate is 0.24%
• The hard bounce rate is 0.24%
• The soft bounce rate is 0.78%

Want to know other email benchmarks for manufacturing, construction, and distribution companies? Download our free ebook to get all the details.

Okay, what does this tell us? 

Your logistics and transportation customers are still reading your emails, so email marketing is still a viable marketing channel. This fact leads us to the next most obvious question. What’s the best email marketing strategy for logistics and transportation companies?

The Best Email Marketing Strategy for Logistics Companies

The best logistics email marketing strategy builds consistent relationships with customers over time. One vital role of high-performing email marketing is its content.

Generally, there are three approaches to writing good email marketing content: 

• Entertainment: Content that’s specifically designed to amuse and delight your audience. 

• Education: Systematic, step-by-step instruction that teaches customers how to achieve a specific outcome.

• Edutainment: A combination of educational content and entertainment. 

The edutainment approach can work, but getting these customers to spend money is challenging since their primary interest is entertainment. It’s best to choose the right path from the start—in this case, the education. Here’s why.

Customers who seek knowledge are more likely to become loyal customers. By providing valuable insights, such as:

• Case studies
• Customer reviews
• Free courses, apps, and templates
• Quizzes, surveys, and polls
• Webinars and workshops
• Ebooks
• Market updates

You position yourself as a trusted industry expert. These content formats naturally complement each other, creating a cohesive narrative that drives conversions. For instance, market updates can spark interest in case studies, ultimately leading to quote requests and long-term customer relationships.

In the next section, we’ll explore specific email campaign strategies to optimize your educational content.

Strategy 1: Broadcast to AR Sequences

An autoresponder (AR) sequence is an incredibly effective way to segment, qualify, and win customers. You create a list of emails and automatically send them out on a schedule. 

If you create compelling email messages, it’s easy to nurture, follow up with, and close new customers. However, if the emails are filled with meaningless content, your prospects will remove themselves from the conversation.

How do you consistently attract customers and boost revenue with AR sequences?

The answer lies in rigorous message testing. By sending out broadcast emails, your sales team can experiment with different content types and messaging to identify what truly resonates with your audience. Broadcast emails offer a low-risk environment to test various elements such as:

• Timing and frequency
• Subject lines, sender names, wording, and calls-to-action
• Visuals
• Landing pages
• Personalization and offers
• Customer segmentation

Once you’ve pinpointed the winning combinations, integrate these high-performing messages into your AR sequences. This strategic approach maximizes your return on investment by ensuring your automated communications deliver consistent results.

Using Email Broadcasts with Pipeline CRM for Logistics

To successfully implement this strategy, you’ll need:

• A diverse range of content tailored to different customer segments.
• Sales reps actively share content and provide feedback within your CRM.
• Detailed performance metrics to identify top-performing content.
• A well-structured content tagging system.

And follow this process:

1. Create and Test Broadcast Emails: Develop a variety of broadcast messages aligned with your content library. Conduct statistically significant tests by sending emails at different times, ensuring equal sample sizes for each test group. Utilize BCC tracking within your CRM, like with Pipeline CRM, to gather comprehensive performance data.
2. Identify Winning Messages: Analyze test results to determine the most effective content, timing, and messaging.
3. Integrate into AR Sequences: Incorporate high-performing broadcast messages into your automated response sequences to optimize customer engagement and conversions.

By following these steps and leveraging the necessary resources, you can significantly enhance your email marketing efforts and drive revenue growth.

Need AI help to streamline your email marketing messages?

Check out Pipeline CRM’s built-in AI email writing feature. It empowers you to write and re-write a personalized email with just a few clicks. See the demo below and learn more about its extensive use in this AI email writing blog.

Broadcast Email Templates to Re-Engage Cold Logistics

Strategy 2: Email Sales Phases

What’s the fastest way to build trust with prospects? You set expectations and then meet them. Successful email campaigns operate in phases, each with a specific goal or objective. Every email you send should fit into one of these five phases. 

• Indoctrination: You introduce prospects to your company, set expectations, and make friends.

• Engagement: You chat with prospects about their desires, goals, and interests. After you introduce them to a relevant product and service, you ask for the sale.

• Ascension: You welcome new customers, and you invite them to purchase a relevant product or service from you again. 

• Segmentation: In this phase, you determine what customers want to learn from you and what they want to buy next. 

• Re-engagement: This phase is all about reigning a warm relationship that has gone cold—restoring the relationship. 

Sales is the natural byproduct of relationships. These goals keep your team’s focus on building strong relationships. Additionally, your prospects expect you to provide value in every interaction. This means every email you send should have compelling value for customers. 

Using Email Phases with Pipeline CRM for Logistics

Work to create one to two messages for each phase.

• Indoctrination messages (e.g., welcome, expectations, or cadence messages) should answer the who, what, why, how often, and next steps questions. 
• Engagement messages are focused on one thing: closing. The purpose of engagement emails is to make an offer. This is essential for logistics companies because customers often treat your industry as a commodity. An irresistible offer changes that—it’s simply too good for customers to pass up. For logistics, this could be as simple as sharing their quotes and letting them know when their quote is about to expire. 

• Ascension messages are intended for customers who purchased in the engagement phase. For every customer who made a purchase, there are still more customers who would buy more. For example, customers who purchased 3PL services may be interested in warehousing services. 
• Segmentation messages are designed to get customers (or prospects) to raise their hands and express interest in a specific topic or service. Once that happens, prospects are placed in the engagement series relevant to their interest. 
• Re-engagement messages help your logistics company to restore the relationship, re-engage, win back, and re-energize old or dying leads. 

Logistics Sales Email Templates for Proposal and Decision-Stage Follow-Ups

When you have sent a proposal and are waiting for the client’s decision, following up can be tricky. You don’t want to look too pushy, nor do you want the lead to go cold. So what’s the right balance? 

Here is a logistics email template to help you follow up and keep the deal moving without sounding intrusive.

Sending individual follow-up emails to each client manually takes a lot of time that you could be using to improve sales strategies. 

So what’s the solution? Automate your follow-up emails with Pipeline CRM. 

You can segment your email list according to demographics and deal stages, and set up advanced rules and conditions to choose who gets your emails. You can even run A/B tests so your follow-ups are highly relevant and help you close deals a lot faster. 

Strategy 3: Boost Conversions with ‘One Goal, One Link’ Technique (1G1L)

Let’s take a look at an example in an unrelated industry. It’s common for email marketing newsletters to look like this:

Macy’s email marketing often falls victim to overcomplication. Overloaded with multiple links (31 to be exact) and unclear objectives, these emails fail to resonate with specific customer segments.

To enhance email effectiveness, adopt a 1G1L strategy: One Goal, One Link. By focusing on a single, clear objective and directing customers to a specific action, you significantly improve the chances of conversion.

The power of clarity cannot be overstated. When customers can quickly grasp your offer, they are more likely to engage and convert. This principle aligns with the core components of a strong value proposition: clarity, appeal, exclusivity, and credibility. A clear message is the foundation upon which these elements can be built.

By simplifying your email content and directing attention to a single call to action, you enhance cognitive fluency and increase the likelihood of customer action.

Using 1G1L with Pipeline CRM for Logistics

A robust CRM is essential for executing a successful 1G1L strategy. Unlike email service providers, CRMs offer a comprehensive view of customer interactions, enabling granular data analysis.

This rich data empowers you to:

• Create highly targeted segments: Identify specific customer groups based on behavior and preferences.
• Develop laser-focused offers: Tailor content and calls to action for maximum impact.
• Measure campaign performance accurately: Pinpoint the effectiveness of each email and optimize future efforts.

By simplifying your email messaging and combining it with robust CRM data, you eliminate the guesswork often associated with complex marketing campaigns. This approach fosters accountability and empowers your team to make data-driven decisions.

High-Converting Quote Request Email Templates for Logistics Businesses

Now, when the lead you worked so hard to nurture finally asks for a quote, your reply has to sustain the warmth and interest you have built over the stages. So, just sending them some vague estimation won’t work. Your job is to make it easy for them to say yes. 

Add this template to your email marketing campaigns to guarantee a positive response: 

Strategy 4: Rebound To Build Relationships

Email metrics offer valuable insights, but they provide a limited view of customer engagement. Traditional metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates paint a partial picture. To gain a deeper understanding of customer behavior and optimize marketing efforts, a more holistic approach, like rebounding, is required.

Rebounding is the key to unlocking a wealth of data. By guiding prospects from email to website, social media, and beyond, you create a comprehensive customer journey. This interconnected approach allows you to:

• Measure engagement at every touchpoint: Track interactions, preferences, and buying signals across different platforms.
• Build stronger customer relationships: Foster deeper connections through personalized and relevant content.
• Optimize marketing spend: Allocate resources effectively by identifying high-performing channels and campaigns.

Consider this example: A prospect engages with an email case study, visits the website, shares content on social media, and ultimately becomes a customer. This journey generates a wealth of data that can be analyzed to refine future marketing strategies.

By embracing a rebounding approach, businesses can transform data into actionable insights, driving increased customer acquisition and retention.

Using Rebounding with Pipeline CRM for Logistics

“How to increase sales for logistics companies.” 

It’s a common question logistics companies ask Google. Rebounding via CRM retargeting is a straightforward way for logistics companies to increase sales. You take your first-party data—specific lead segments or your email list as a whole—and connect it to your customers on other platforms (e.g., Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, etc.). 

With CRM retargeting, the sky’s the limit. You can use it to: 

• Sort subscribers into segments (groups based on attributes) or cohorts (groups based on behavior) and sell to those groups specifically on third-party platforms. 
• Precisely target offers—upselling, downselling, or cross-selling to ultra-relevant groups. 
• Presell exclusive offers or incentives to specific segments or cohorts (e.g., medium-sized ecommerce retailers who need warehousing support) via your marketing channels (e.g., email, social, paid ads, organic search, etc.).
• Create content that’s tailor-made for specific segments or cohorts. 

Here’s the best part about CRM retargeting. It’s a cookie-less, more precise, and privacy-friendly option that allows logistics and transportation companies to work with prospects who are already on their list.

It’s also important to give each marketing channel and platform its own content. It’s common for people to take the easy way out: They create content once and then share the same content on all their social media profiles. You’re training your subscribers and customers to ignore your content.

If they follow you on Facebook, they won’t follow you on Instagram or LinkedIn because you share the same content everywhere. They don’t want to see the same content in their inbox repeatedly.

This frustration doesn’t mean you can’t discuss the same topic. You absolutely can just change the angle.

Let’s say you decided to share a 3PL whitepaper on LinkedIn. You can also:

• Share a PDF presentation on SlideShare
• Post images of cargo theft on Instagram
• Upload a “How to find a great 3PL” YouTube
• Research factoid from your whitepaper on X

The topic is the same, but the content varies depending on the channel and platform. This approach gives subscribers/followers a compelling reason to follow you across all marketing channels. 

Check-In Email Templates to Rebuild Logistics Client Relationships

Here is a check-in template to help you out:

Strategy 5: Geo-Targeted Email Campaigns to Personalize Logistics Outreach

If you are reaching out to customers or businesses in different regions, sending the same email to everyone just doesn’t work. Shipping challenges in Chicago won’t be the same as those in Nebraska, and your emails must reflect that to convince the prospect. 

That’s why you should optimize your email campaigns with geo-targeting so that customers only get emails relevant to their specific region and its logistics challenges. 

Follow these steps to run highly targeted email marketing campaigns: 

• Segment your customer list by location and send updates on new service lanes, route expansions, or local partnerships
• Highlight region-specific case studies to build trust and credibility
• Offer time-bound discounts or perks tailored to high-demand delivery zones
• Send regional alerts for delivery disruptions or delays 
• Promote local warehousing or fulfillment solutions to businesses in high-density areas
• Share localized insights or reports on shipping trends, fuel costs, or route efficiencies in their area

Using Lead Segmentation and Location-Based Customization with Pipeline CRM

Let’s say you’re sending logistics emails to prospects in Miami. Here is how it could look: 

But the problem is, you won’t do this for one location. That means multiple customer segments with overlapping elements. 

How do you make sense of all this? Leverage Pipeline CRM’s lead management, and let us help you with:

• Organizing leads by region, demographics, and more
• Tracking every interaction with detailed records
• Using historical data and profiles for context
• Sending emails that feel personal and value-driven, drafted using our AI email assistant

Email Marketing Is the Future of Logistics

Contrary to popular opinion, email marketing for logistics and transportation companies is growing. And if you haven’t optimized your email marketing strategies, it’s time to level it up. 

The best email marketing strategy builds consistent relationships with customers over time. Focus on content that leads to revenue. Orient your team around the primary goal—more revenue—and you’ll find identifying the right email marketing strategy is simple. 

If you’re looking for a CRM that supports seamless integration with Gmail, Outlook, and email marketing apps like Mailchimp, Pipeline CRM is a great option. Plus, we offer a built-in email drip campaign and AI email writing assistance features, empowering you to do more to increase your logistics email marketing performance and, ultimately, the sales funnel.

Check out Pipeline CRM’s email solutions; and when you’re ready to try it for free, sign up here.

You may say open rates and click-through rates (CTR). While those two are important metrics, a low email response rate can be a significant red flag. Ultimately, email response rates offer the most direct measure of your campaign’s success, as they reflect the engagement and action taken by your recipients in response to your email.

Unfortunately, outbound email campaigns often fail to generate the desired response rate. To solve this issue, you must first identify the root causes of low email reply rates and address them with the right strategies. 

We’ll examine some common reasons for low email response rates in sales and discuss how to address them, including leveraging sales CRM software. 

What Is an Email Response Rate?

Email response rate is the percentage of email replies you receive compared to the total number of emails you send. For example, you sent 200 emails and received 20 replies. Your response rate for that email campaign is 10%. 

Analyzing your email response rate is like taking the pulse of your email marketing efforts. High response rates indicate that your campaigns resonate with your audience, potentially leading to a pool of promising leads and, ultimately, more sales. Conversely, having low email response rates means your targets are not interested in what you’re offering. You need to tweak the emails (messaging, link attached, or sequences) to improve their effectiveness.

Related: Learn how to leverage email drip campaigns for your cold sales outreach.

13 Reasons for Low Email Response Rates in Sales

Here are some common reasons for low response rates for cold sales emails. 

Content-Related Reasons for Low Email Reply Rates

1. Ineffective subject lines

A captivating subject line is the key to unlocking your email’s potential. Uninteresting or vague lines won’t nudge the recipient to open the email, leading to low response rates.

To create winning subject lines, you need to keep them short and clear and tease any incentives you may offer. Additionally, analyze data on recipient interests, past behavior, and purchase history. Use these insights to create subject lines that are highly relevant and pique their curiosity.

The most efficient way to run a sales email campaign is to combine your CRM data with a drip email solution. Leverage the Pipeline CRM’s automatic email solution to easily connect the dots of your lead’s information and challenges and create a compelling email subject line and messaging accordingly. Additionally, take advantage of our built-in AI email assistant to help accelerate the process and eliminate the creative burden.

2. Confusing, misplaced, or uninteresting CTAs 

CTAs are crucial for improving response rates. They direct customers to take the desired action, like downloading your e-book, visiting your product page, or redeeming an offer. 

The reader won’t click on the CTA button if it doesn’t communicate the exact action you want them to take. It must be strategically placed to get noticed easily like below.

If the recipient has to go through a long copy before reaching the CTA, they may close the email before finding it. So, structure the email so that you will place the CTA in the middle before delving deeper into the topic. 

Additionally, companies often make the mistake of adding several CTAs in one email to increase email response. However, this may just confuse the reader and stop them from clicking entirely.

If your CTA checks the above boxes but isn’t exciting enough, it still won’t get you a response. Therefore, it is recommended to design up to two CTAs per email that communicate the direct value you offer and use action-driven words that create urgency. 

3. Lengthy email copy

Readers often don’t engage with lengthy email copies. The key here is to offer value without cramming too much information while writing sales emails. 

Here’s what you should do:

• Ensure the layout is simple to optimize email rendering in devices. 
• Break down the copy into several small paragraphs and use bullets wherever applicable. 

This makes your email easily skimmable and ideal for busy readers.

4. Lack of personalization

A McKinsey report found that 71% of consumers expect personalized interactions with businesses, and 76% get frustrated without it. The same rule applies to cold email campaigns too. The lack of personalization won’t resonate with the reader. As a result, they won’t engage with it or click on the CTA, lowering the response rate.

The solution?

• Analyze your customer preferences, needs, challenges, and desires. 
• Track engaging content types. 
• Analyze historical data on your sales CRM software to see what they clicked and downloaded from your earlier campaigns. 
• Incorporate the findings in your email copy. 

5. No sense of urgency

Using words like “limited-time deal,” “hurry,” or “offer ends today” creates a sense of urgency, which pushes the recipient to open the email. Consequently, this improves your chance of getting a response significantly. 

6. Inconsistent “from” name 

Inconsistent “from” names compromise your campaigns’ credibility. Frequent changes to this small aspect may even drive your emails to the spam folder.    

So, use a credible “from” name for all your emails. It should be on-brand and let the customer recognize you at once. 

Targeting-Related Reasons for Low Email Reply Rates

7. Not filtering bounced email addresses

Blasting emails to addresses that consistently bounce hurts your bottom line in two ways. First, the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) might flag you as spam, throttling delivery to all your contacts. Second, you’re wasting resources on inactive addresses when you could be nurturing valuable leads.

Leverage sales CRM software, like Pipeline CRM, to remove inactive and bounced contacts. You can also create targeted and personalized campaigns to re-engage cold prospects.

8. Unsegmented email list

Another cause of generic email marketing is an unsegmented email list. Your customers will only engage when the email content speaks to their specific needs and pain points.

To send targeted cold sales emails, categorize your email contacts based on demographics, location, industry, buying history, and recent activities. This way, individual subscribers get emails relevant to their buyer journey. It differentiates your campaigns from common emails and improves email reply rates. 

Unmaintained email lists also result in a lower response rate, as your subscriber’s preferences may have changed. Use sales CRM software to manage your email list based on real-time data and remove unwanted contacts. 

For example, you can apply advanced rules and conditions (e.g., high-quality leads or leads that have intensively contacted you recently) to ensure the right message reaches the right audience.

Technical-Related Reasons for Low Email Reply Rates

9. Bad timing 

You wrote a stellar email copy with attractive offers and rewards, but unfortunately, it reached the recipient’s inbox at the wrong time. What happens next? Well, it may just get buried in other marketing emails.   

In short, for desired results through outbound emails, timing matters. 

Put yourself in the recipient’s shoes. Most people don’t check their emails during the weekends. However, people take time to catch up with their correspondence on Monday morning, and some scroll through emails while commuting to work. So treat the early morning until 10 am as a good time for sending cold emails. Avoid sending emails after business hours since people may not check their inboxes. 

For more efficient targeting, examine customer data to get acquainted with the daily habits of your subscribers. Run A/B tests for different time slots and see which gets the best response rate. 

10. Lack of incentives for the recipient 

Recipients may not be motivated to respond if your email doesn’t communicate what’s in it for them. 

So, offer rewards and value that resonate with your customers. Tap into the latest customer insights before creating email campaigns and design rewards accordingly. It could be free upgrades, vouchers, free ebooks, exclusive entry to webinars and events, etc. 

11. Not adhering to CAN-SPAM standards

CAN-SPAM standards establish strict requirements for commercial messages and offer recipients the option to stop receiving them. Email campaigns not adhering to these standards have a high chance of ending up in the spam folder. Your recipients won’t even see them in their primary inbox. 

Here are some best practices to ensure optimal email deliverability: 

• Communicate that your email is a promotion
• The emails must include a valid physical postal address
• The recipients must have a clear unsubscribe button

12. Not using double opt-in 

Double opt-in confirms a subscriber wants to receive emails. That way, your efforts will be focused on high-quality leads, leading to better response rates. It also reduces the chances of spam reports, improves an email campaign’s success, and boosts deliverability. 

13. Lack of mobile optimization

Do you always open your laptop to check emails? No, because smartphones, among their many other conveniences, let you check your inbox on the go. In fact, mobiles generate approximately 50% of global web traffic. 

Subscribers won’t bother engaging with cold sales emails that aren’t optimal for mobile views. Here are some steps to avoid that: 

• Use compact images in JPEG format, as PNG images don’t load on some devices. 
• Use A/B testing to ensure the layout is consistent across devices.

Reduce Low Email Response Rates with Pipeline’s Sales CRM Software

Implement our strategies and monitor the email KPIs to reduce your low email reply rates. Compare the open rate with the response rate to calculate email marketing efficacy and tweak your approach accordingly. 

The most important element in improving email response is making customer data analysis and email sending as efficient as possible. For that, you need reliable sales CRM software. 

Enter Pipeline CRM. 

As one of the best sales pipeline management software available today, it offers: 

• Automated email drip campaigns
• Sales automation
• Lead management 
• Real-time reporting

Your email list is efficiently managed, campaigns are delivered on time, and email copy hits the bullseye every time. The result? Subscribers get emails that excite them, the response rate improves, and so does conversion and marketing ROI. 

Sign up for a free trial to keep low email response rates at bay. 

After all, 43% of buyers think impression matters, and you get only one chance to make a memorable first sales impression. You must do it right, but how?

Two common outbound sales methods are calls and emails—and they both work wonders for sales outreach. However, each has pros and cons, and it’s your job to frame a strategy that balances these out. 

You must determine which outreach channels your leads will respond to and approach your sales prospecting tactics accordingly. But for that, familiarizing your sales team with the differences between cold emailing and cold calling is essential. 

That’s why we break down what cold calling and cold emailing are, comparing their sales outreach characteristics and benefits and how custom CRM software can help your sales team be effective in both. 

Cold Calling vs. Cold Emailing for Sales Outreach

If done right, cold calling and cold email marketing can drive results. They can establish strong industry relationships, spread brand awareness, and get quality leads into the pipeline. The difference between them is in the volume, convenience, and directness.

Now we know their major differences, let’s break it down further.

Pros of Cold Calling

Cold calls are more personal than sales email outreach. It lets you engage with a prospect directly and answer their queries in real time. Your sales reps can gauge the lead’s needs and adjust their conversation strategy accordingly. 

Reports even show that, as phone calls are more personal, it’s still the “preferred communication channel” for 41% of the population. People prefer voice for interactions with 31% of financial services, 41% of insurance services, 33% of healthcare services, and 35% of retail services. 

That’s why Pipeline CRM, a custom CRM software, recently enriched its dialer CRM integrations with business phone and communication platforms like JustCall, RingCentral, and AirCall. All you need to do is set up a cloud-based call center through one of the above tools, and you can make calls directly from your Pipeline CRM software.

Cons of Cold Calling

While cold calling offers a more direct and personalized approach to sales outreach, it can be quite intrusive. Frequent sales calls can annoy some leads. They may even get frustrated, and your lead nurturing efforts will go down the drain. 

There is also a high chance of the call going poorly, and constant rejections may stress out your sales reps. For an extensive lead repository, cold calls are more expensive and less efficient than sales email outreach. Above all, perfecting the timing of your sales calls is also tricky. Missteps here can compromise your efforts and your company’s image. 

Pros of Cold Emailing

Unlike cold calls, sales email templates are much more scalable and cost-efficient. With email drip campaigns, you can send several personalized emails across all your customer segments in the time it takes to make one cold call. 

Emails are also more customizable. They give you enough time to analyze customer needs and tailor your email copy beforehand. You can attach attention-grabbing headlines and visuals to make it more appealing and shareable for the recipients. 

Cold emails also eliminate the intrusiveness of sales calls since leads can open the emails at their convenience. They are easy to track, letting you keep constant tabs on their performance and adjust your sales outreach strategy accordingly.

Reports state that emails have been critical to the success of 87% of marketers. It also shows that sales/revenue growth has been one of the three KPIs in email marketing in 2023 at 41%.

Acknowledging the effectiveness of email outreach, Pipeline also offers CRM integrations with a popular email marketing tool, MailChimp. It lets you craft email messages with a built-in AI email assistant and set automated email campaigns to reach your leads in bulk and nurture them with regular communication. 

Cons of Cold Emailing

The biggest downside of cold emailing is that they are easy to ignore. Your leads probably get hundreds of marketing emails weekly and may ignore yours. They can delete, unsubscribe, and even block your email communications. 

How to Be Effective with Cold Calling 

Does cold calling sound like a long shot? You can drive tangible sales results with these sales prospecting tips: 

1. Know Your Prospects 

Start by learning about your prospects:

• What are their needs and pain points? 

• Which services or products of yours can solve their challenges accurately? 

The key here is to offer something your lead truly cares about, overcoming the initial obtrusiveness of a sales call.

Use your custom CRM software to view patterns of successful deals and pinpoint their traits. Combine this data with your buyer persona and identify each lead’s unique characteristics. 

2. Create a Strong First Impression

Your goal here is to let them know you understand their problem and have something valuable to offer. Your opening line can be a compliment, a question that makes them think, or even a fun fact about their interest. 

Related: Explore 10 sales qualification questions recommended by sales experts to ask during sales outreach for better results.

3. Communicate What’s in It for Them

Don’t wait too long to get to the point. Share the services you offer and their benefits. Promptly address how your product can help overcome their unique challenges and simplify their life using simple and easy-to-understand language.  

4. Notice Their Tone

The best part about cold calling is it lets you adjust your approach in real time. So, train your sales reps to pay attention to the prospect’s tone during conversations. If they sound bored, it may be time to change to an approach to match their mood.

5. Ask Questions and Don’t Be Pushy

After communicating your proposition, encourage questions from the prospect’s end. This gives you clarity on their thoughts and lets you frame the next line of conversation accordingly. 

Don’t nag if the prospect seems reluctant or says no. Instead, ask for a follow-up call. If the answer is still no, thank them for their time and move on to the next lead. This shows you respect your customer’s wishes and elevates your brand image. They may even reach out to you if the requirement arises.  

How to Be Effective with Cold Emailing

Here is how you can improve your cold email’s impact on your bottom line.

Related: Discover how to use AI in writing sales outreach emails.

1. Segment Your Prospect List

Emails have to reach the right people if you want results. For that, analyze your customer patterns and define buyer personas based on demographics, needs, and challenges. This helps categorize your leads accordingly and target every prospect with tailor-made email sequences.  

2. Keep It Brief and Personalized

No one likes reading lengthy email copies, no matter how informational they are. So, keep it short and straightforward and add visuals to make it more engaging. 

The subject line nudges the recipient to open the email, so make it click-worthy. Mention the lead’s first name or highlight some valuable information. 

Address the prospect by their first name in the email copy. Ensure the content aligns with each customer segment’s interest. 

We suggest offering tailored rewards to encourage clicks on the email’s CTA. This can be early access to your newly launched products, a welcome discount, or reward points.  

3. Automate the Frequency

You can use your customer data to decide the optimum time and frequency for email outreach. Then, set up trigger-based and personalized email sequences and follow-ups using your CRM integrations. This will ensure that the right email reaches the right person at the right time. 

4. Track KPIs and Adjust Strategy

Use your custom CRM software to monitor the performance of your email outreach. Here are some notable email outreach metrics you should track: 

• Delivery rate
• Open rate
• Click-through rate
• Email conversions 

Learn how to calculate these sales email marketing metrics in this guide.

We offer sales team management features with comprehensive performance reports you can use to benchmark your sales outreach and improve your approach accordingly. 

Combine Cold Calls and Cold Emails in Custom CRM Software

Cold calling and cold emailing have their strengths and weaknesses. However, both can help you achieve an upward sales graph if you maximize their functions.

So, here’s a rundown of our sales prospecting tips: 

• Ensure your cold calls and cold emails are personalized
• While cold calling, adjust your communication on the go according to the prospect’s tone
• Get to the point quickly 
• Segment your prospect list according to buyer personas 
• Offer tailored incentives to encourage conversions
• Set up email drip campaigns
• Track performance KPIs and tweak your strategy 

Do you want a custom CRM software with both calling and emailing integrations? Look no further than Pipeline CRM. 

You can save time with automated email outreach and track your sales calls with easy third-party integrations. 

To get the best out of your cold calling and cold email marketing, sign up for a free trial today!

However, crafting engaging sales emails requires close attention, which means many salespeople dedicate more time than they should to drafting sales emails. In fact, a study found that many employees spend 4.1 hours a day managing emails. That’s more than half of the average workday!

While this process can often be at the expense of more pressing priorities, with the help of AI, you can create a compelling sales email in just a few minutes. You can use external generative AI tools like ChatGPT or opt for a more integrated approach like the built-in AI email assistant feature in Pipeline CRM software. 

This blog will teach you the basics of writing a personalized sales email, how to generate one using ChatGPT and Pipeline’s AI email assistant, and the advantages you’ll get from each method. Let’s get started!

How to Write Successful Sales Emails With The Help of AI

An engaging sales email should grab attention, build interest, and persuade prospects to take action. To accomplish these goals, here are four key email elements that you should pay attention to:

• Appealing subject line

Create a concise, relevant, and intriguing subject line. This will pique the recipient’s curiosity and encourage them to open the email.

• Personalization instead of generalization

A little personalization can go a long way! Share how you obtained their contact information (e.g., through a referral), mention their latest achievement or LinkedIn status (e.g., a new job), or highlight what you have in common (e.g., shared hometown or alma mater).

• High relevancy and unique value proposition

The more relatability, the likelier you’ll get a response. Address pain points and show how your products or services can solve their problems. Amplify your email message by attaching relevant marketing material, such as a link to a blog, white paper, or brochure.

• Powerful call to action (CTA)

After reading the email, what do you want the recipient to do next? Translate this into a clear CTA. For instance, schedule a demo, use the promo link, or download the attachment.

There is an art in crafting a compelling sales email, and sometimes, it can be tricky. This is where AI can assist you in generating flexible yet structured sales emails. To add, it provides the opportunity to add some personalization about the recipients and your brand.

Writing Sales Emails Using ChatGPT

66% of employees believe their productivity has improved after adopting ChatGPT. This finding comes as no surprise, as ChatGPT is a multipurpose tool that can tackle various business challenges, including crafting engaging sales emails. 

Related: Did you know you can use ChatGPT to find qualified leads? Learn how to use ChatGPT to solve many sales challenges in this thorough guide (examples and prompts included). 

When using ChatGPT as an AI email writer, here are a few pointers you should consider:

• Write a detailed prompt

You need to state the purpose of the email to get better results. For instance, is it for cold outreach or follow-up emails? List other requirements that you want ChatGPT to follow, such as using formal or informal language, email length, etc.

• Tweak the prompt several times 

If you don’t get a satisfying result in one try, edit the prompt until you’re happy. ChatGPT is a smart tool, but it can get confused when the prompt is too complex or unclear.

• Do it step by step

Instead of writing a long prompt, consider breaking it down into several steps. Let ChatGPT give you the response, and then type in the text-editing prompts. For example, ‘make it shorter,’ ‘rephrase this sentence,’ or ‘make this sentence sound less stiff and more friendly.’

Here are a couple of examples of sales email prompts and the sales emails generated by ChatGPT.

Example 1 – Cold Email for the Wholesale and Distribution

Sales Email AI Prompt 1:

Write a cold email to a prospect in the wholesale and distribution industry. The main focus is to offer a 20% discount on [Product A] and 7-day delivery time.

Also, mention you have [Product X], a similar product to [Product A] but at a cheaper price. You’d like to offer a 30% discount on [Product X] and can send a sample for them to see the product before making the order.

Keep the email within 150 words. Use a semi-formal tone. Use an engaging opening line.

Result:

Subject: Your Chance: 20% Off + 7-Day Delivery + Complimentary Product Sample

Dear [Prospect’s Name],

Time is money in the wholesale and distribution industry, and we’re here to help you maximize both. I’m excited to introduce our limited-time offer that’s tailor-made for your needs.

We’re thrilled to offer you a special 20% discount on our high-quality [Product A], along with a rapid 7-day delivery option.

But that’s not all! We’d like to send you a free sample of [Product X], a cost-effective alternative to [Product A], offering a fantastic 30% cost savings. It’s the perfect chance to see the exceptional value we provide.

Don’t miss out on this exclusive offer – it’s a limited-time opportunity to boost your margins and product variety.

We’re here to assist with any questions or requirements you may have. Thank you for considering us as your trusted supplier.

Warm regards,

[Your Name]

Example 2 – Follow-up Email for Construction Company

Sales Email AI Prompt 2:

Write a follow-up email. I want to follow up with a prospect about the sent estimation of their house renovation. Suggest a meeting next week to talk about the price, materials, and anything else about the project.

Keep the email within 100 words. Use a casual tone. Use a friendly opening line.

Result:

Hi [Prospect’s Name],

I hope you’re well. I just wanted to check in on the house renovation estimate we sent your way. Have you had a chance to review it?

Let’s sync up next week to chat about the project details, including pricing, materials, and any questions you might have. Your dream renovation is just around the corner!

When’s a good time for you to connect?

Best regards,

[Your Name]

Writing Sales Emails Using The AI Email Writer From Pipeline CRM

Although ChatGPT and similar AI tools can help compose a compelling sales email, this method isn’t resource-efficient.

First, you need to write down the prompt in detail. This step can be tricky as you must be precise on your prompt, or the AI will generate unwanted results. Second, you need to paste the result to your email composer before sending it to your prospect. Say you use a sales CRM software or a third-party email marketing tool, switching between platforms is impractical and prone to errors.

Now, if you use the AI email assistant in Pipeline CRM, you eliminate these hiccups. Our AI email writer is powered by OpenAI—the technology behind ChatGPT. Now that we’ve integrated it with our Email Editor system, you can create AI-generated sales emails directly from the CRM. Plus, you can enjoy the following benefits. 

• Tailor the emails using custom prompts

Instead of writing a long prompt to describe the email goal, you just have to click on one of the options: ‘Say hello,’ ‘Book a call,’ ‘Say thank you,’ ‘Close a deal,’ and ‘Follow up.’ If none of them matches your email purpose, you can type it in, and your email will be generated.

Watch this demo video to see how Pipeline CRM simplifies the AI prompt writing process:

• Instant results

If you aren’t satisfied with the email suggestion, you can edit it to best suit your brand, or ask the AI to rewrite it instantly. Simply highlight text and select commands like “more engaging,“ “rephrase,” “lengthen,” or “shorten” to tweak the message. Once it is perfect, click approve, and it’ll be ready to be sent to the prospects.

This demo video will show you how easy it is to edit the prompt:

• Streamlined workflow

As a built-in AI email writer, you don’t need to copy-paste the message and switch between windows. You can leverage this AI-powered CRM feature whenever you use the Email Editor feature on Pipeline CRM. For example, when replying to emails, creating email sequences for email drip campaigns, or writing bulk emails for cold outreach.

This streamlined workflow saves you time and boosts productivity. You can now develop fast and articulate replies to leads, and free up time to focus on prospecting and closing deals!

• Protected data

Unlike third-party AI email writers, your data security is our priority. Pipeline CRM implements a robust measure to protect your business and customer information, ensuring sensitive data remains confidential and compliant.

Our AI email assistant feature is available to all Pipeline users on all plans. Depending on your plan, the prompt limit varies: Start Plan 25 prompts per user per month, Develop Plan 50 prompts per user per month, and Grow Plan 100 prompts per user per month.

Work Smarter with Pipeline CRM’s AI Email Writer 

By leveraging the power of AI to craft sales emails, you’ll have more time to focus on tasks that move the needle. It takes away the creativity burden and helps you increase your productivity as well as the deal closing rates.

You can use a third-party platform like ChatGPT or choose the built-in AI email assistant feature in Pipeline CRM. We offer the same nifty abilities in crafting personalized sales emails but with a simpler, easy-to-use interface.

Experience this AI-powered feature by signing up for our 14-day free trial today!

Here are five email lead nurturing tips you can use to take your trade show leads from strangers to customers.

Trade Show Email Lead Nurturing Tips:

Tip 1: Get Strangers and Prospects to Self Identify

In a recent post, we shared that only  3% of your prospects are ready to buy at any moment. 

Here’s what this means for you: 

• 7% plan on making a change
• 30% have a need, but they’re not ready to buy
• 30% don’t have a need
• 30% will never buy from your company (even if they have a need)

So this means only 40% of your leads require your attention; so you’ll need to create content that helps you identify the leads requiring consistent attention. You’ll want to sort your email leads into the following buckets. 

• Cold leads: these are the 30% of prospects who have a need, but they’re not ready to buy. These prospects are in the market for your products or services, but they don’t have a concrete timeframe for their decision.  
• Warm leads: the 7% of customers who plan on making a change in the near future. These customers are legitimately interested but need specific things to happen before they’re ready to buy. 
• Hot leads: this group refers to the 3% of customers who are willing and able to buy in the short term. They’re looking to make a decision quickly. 

Next, create content that’s specifically tailored to each group. 

Give cold leads:

• Education 
• Lead magnets
• Guides
• Whitepapers 
• Tools

Give warm leads:

• Signature content showing them how you get results
• Customer case studies
• Live case studies
• Online reviews and testimonials 

Give hot leads: 

• Quotes
• Proposals
• Demos
• Tours 
• 1-on-1 engagement

The more prospects engage with your content, the warmer they get. 

Doing it this way allows you to nurture leads in a way that produces value for everyone. You qualify your leads and move them towards a sale; your prospects get value throughout their relationship with you. 

Tip 2: Let Prospects Create Your Autoresponder Sequence

Relationships are built slowly, over many interactions. Each email you send is an interaction. 

When it comes to email nurturing, there are two ways to go about it. You can (a.) use broadcast emails, one–time messages sent to your list at a set time, or (b.) drip campaign sequences – a series of emails that are automatically sent on a schedule. The emails you collected during the trade show are opportunities for relationships, but autoresponders, for example, only work well if you know which messages resonate with your list.  

Here’s an easy way to identify the emails that you can add to your autoresponder follow-up sequence. 

• Write once-off broadcast emails to the people on your list

• Track the broadcast emails that each segment responds to

• Add your top-performing messages to the appropriate autoresponder sequence

• Use this strategy to build an autoresponder sequence that becomes more profitable over time 

Use your broadcast emails to segment your list, identify the content prospects’ value, then add that content to your autoresponder sequence. Over time, it’s an easy, no-hassle way to build a profitable email nurturing program. 

Tip 3: Bounce Your Email Leads Around

Invite your prospects to follow you on social media. If you’re like most people, this is an immediate red flag. 

But if your approach is structured properly, it can work wonders. Most organizations post the same content across their social media profiles. All of the content that’s posted on Facebook is also on Twitter, YouTube, etc. These companies are shooting themselves in the foot.  If all of your social media profiles post the same content, there’s no reason for customers to follow you on other platforms. If they can go to your Facebook page to get the content you post on YouTube, there’s no reason for them to subscribe to your YouTube channel. You’re training your customers to ignore you. 

Here’s a better idea. 

Send broadcast content via email, occasionally pointing to your social media profiles. And make sure that you don’t post the same content on each of your profiles. If you post stats and facts on one (Facebook), post case studies and testimonials on another (Instagram).  Doing it this way means you’re teaching your prospects (and customers) that it’s valuable to follow and engage with each of your social media profiles. It’s another touchpoint you can use to amplify the success of your email lead nurturing campaigns. 

Tip 4: Bribe Your Subscribers with Trade Show Exclusives

It’s common for companies to offer mugs, totes, pens, and other promotional items. These items serve as reminders, but this isn’t the kind of value we are talking about here. We’re also not talking about demos or free trials. 

We’re  talking about the resources you provide to customers that move them closer to a sale. 

These items could be:

• An irresistible offer
• Connection a person or much-need resource
• Exclusive information
• A promise, warranty, or guarantee
• Something your competitors can’t or won’t provide

Here are a few presale examples that demonstrate what I’m talking about. 

• Guarantee: we guarantee you’ll receive [outcome], or we’ll give you double your money back
• Warranty: our hard drives are backed by an unprecedented 5-year guarantee. 
• Irresistible offer: we’ll teach you to code and help you find a 60K+ job within 6 months, from start to finish.
• Connections: our VIP customers will also receive access to our quarterly mastermind sessions, filled with more than a dozen Fortune 500 leaders. 
• Exclusive information: we’ll share the process used by the top 1% of companies in your industry.

Here are some product-focused examples: 

• Bonuses: order by [date], and you’ll receive [free product, discount, etc.]
• Takeaways: only [3] left in this year’s batch. Get [product] now before it’s gone
• Loss aversion timer: this bonus is free until [date]; the price increases in [2 days, 12 hrs, 41 min.]
• Contest: the first 50 customers to pass this test wins a [list prize here]
• Invite/VIP only: exclusive to trade show attendees receive these [products, bonuses, freebies] with their order
• Join the waitlist: purchase this [product] today, and you’ll be added to the waitlist for our [desirable bonus or incentive]
• Bundled opt-in: take our quiz, and you’ll receive this [product or bonus] free with your order.

Here’s how you use these items. 

Start by using these in your welcome message, then sprinkle these in with your broadcast emails. Identify the approach that works best for your company. Once you’ve identified your top performers, add them to your autoresponder sequence.  

Here’s a manufacturing example. 

Subject: We cut [client’s] production costs by 57%! 

Body: 

Hi John, 

Most of the retailers who stopped by our booth at the Midwest Manufacturing Expo mentioned that their production costs had tripled in the last year. Most of the people who contacted us were frank about their fears. 

“I don’t think we can make it through another year like this one.” 

Are you in the same boat? 

If you are, we can help. Here’s a two-page, do-it-yourself guide you can use to decrease production costs by as much as 34%! If you’d prefer a done-for-you solution, we can do that too. [Company], a recent client, cut their production costs by 57% in the first 45 days! 

Get the guide and case study here: 

[Signature]

With this example, you can see that you’re directly talking to people/organizations you met at the trade show, and addressing their problems. The sooner, the better, as subscriber responsiveness decreases with time. 

Tip 5: Use Quizzes and Surveys to Gain Insights

Asking subscribers, prospects, and customers to share their perspectives is a great way to improve lead nurturing. Here’s the catch; people are great at discussing and dissecting their problems but not so great at solving them. If they were, they wouldn’t need you. Quizzes and surveys are great ways to identify: 

• Customer problems
• Why these problems are issues
• The consequences of ignoring the problem
• Primary, secondary, and tertiary problems
• Sources or causes of these problems

There’s a great rule of thumb to remember here. 

It’s your customer’s job to tell you about their problem and how bad it is. It’s your job to figure out how to solve those problems, using your expertise to create the ideal solution. 

The better you are at identifying your customer’s desires, goals, fears, and frustrations, the easier it will be for you to create a solution that completely satisfies their wants and needs. 

Conclusion

Pipeline CRM enables you to nurture leads and close sales without leaving the app or subscribing to another service! Easily customize your engagement to trigger campaigns based on changes to your data in Pipeline.

Try it free and see what Pipeline can do for you. 

That’s where email drip campaigns come in handy. This automated solution allows you to double down on your lead-generation efforts while keeping track of all email touchpoints. 

💡See how to activate the feature in your Pipeline CRM account. 

Below, you will learn more about email drip campaign best practices, their benefits, and more.

What is a Drip Campaign?

A drip campaign is a series of automated emails sent to a specific audience at predetermined intervals (e.g., after X days) or after specific actions have taken place (e.g., new contact entries, changes in deal stages, or the contact responses to the email). This type of email approach can save you the headaches of manual emailing while allowing your prospects to be educated at a comfortable pace until they are ready to move forward. 

Drip campaigns support a wide array of sales activities, including (but not limited to) welcoming new customers, staying in contact with past customers, cross-selling, and upselling. To give you a better understanding of drip campaigns, for the rest of this blog, we’ll focus on one of the use cases: lead generation.

Here’s an example of the email drip campaign sequence for lead generation.

As a customizable CRM, Pipeline enables you to modify the number of emails, the intervals between steps, and the triggers that will start and stop the sequence according to your campaign strategy.

Speaking of intervals, did you know that sending several emails within a short period can backfire on you? 33% of buyers are likely to turn off sellers’ proposals when they receive too frequent outreach. The key here is to find the sweet spot between timing and content value—and this is where drip campaigns can become the hero of your sales arsenal tool.

In a saturated market, your prospects likely receive several email campaigns from various brands every day. So, it is only natural for them to ignore or reject your sales pitch at the initial contact. In fact, one study shows that 60% of customers say ‘no’ four times before saying ‘yes’ to a sales pitch. This means persistence can boost your chances of turning prospects into buyers. 

If we put the campaign into practice, it could look something like this: once a new contact is added, email #1 will be sent. After five days without a response, the system will send email #2, or once the contact responds, the sequence will stop—automatically. You can also start the drip campaign manually and let the rest of the sequence run in auto-pilot mode.

5 Benefits of Email Drip Campaigns For Lead Generation

61% of marketers agree that lead generation is the most challenging task in their job. Therefore, it is wise not to waste any lead opportunities your teams have diligently collected in the CRM software. When you use the drip campaigns on your Pipeline CRM account, you’ll ensure every lead is appropriately treated, and in turn, you’ll get the following benefits:

1. Increased engagement

As mentioned, bombarding emails can be a deal breaker for many prospects. On the contrary, drip emails allow you to give some idle time for buyers to process your sales pitch one step at a time. They won’t feel as if they were pushed to buy your product.

Remember that building solid relationships takes time (which is the goal of using CRM software), and sending regular and personalized messages is the way to get there.

2. Improved lead nurturing

Some leads only require minimum touch points to turn them into buyers, while others still need a lot of pre-sales touch points. With drip campaigns, you can send different email sequences to leads based on their buying-readiness levels, behavior, or other criteria. This way, you’ll give them the appropriate treatment to move them further down the sales funnel.

3. Higher conversion rates and revenues

Consistent engagement fosters trust, and personalized guidance convinces prospects that your products or services can solve their problems. When this happens, they’ll be ready to purchase, increasing your business’ conversion rate. In fact, one study found that drip emails drive 180% more conversions than batch emails, contributing to 320% of increased revenue.

4. It’s resource-effective

The sequential actions and triggered-based automation are the two primary elements of drip campaigns. This means once you set up a campaign, it will run until all sequences are completed (or you cancel them). While the campaigns run in the background, you can focus on other pressing issues—saving you a lot of time and effort.

Additionally, the cost of running drip campaigns is relatively low for generating leads. You’ll just need to invest some time in creating the email templates (which can be reused), choose the recipients and the email-sending triggers (time- or action-based), and that’s it! 

5. Gain data-driven insights

Every up or down is a learning experience. After conducting a few drip campaigns, you’ll have reliable data unique to your brand and target audience. Use this valuable information instead of guesswork to gain better results for your future drip campaigns.

7 Best Practices for a Successful Email Drip Campaign

Knowing how drip campaigns work and their advantages gives you a deeper understanding of how they can grow your business. The next step is to discover the best approaches to ensure you’ll gain the best results from your drip email campaigns.

1. Define your goals

Whether you use drip campaigns to nurture leads, grow customer loyalty, or achieve other goals, first, you must establish the goals. The more specific the goals, the better. If you don’t know where to begin, you can start by choosing specific KPIs that matter to you (e.g., number of booked demos or lead-conversion ratio) and expand your goals further.

2. Segment your audience for email drip campaign

Once you know the goals, you need to group the campaign recipients. This could be based on demographics, lead sources, company types, etc. This way, you can send on-target messages and content that directly speaks to the readers.

3. Provide valuable information

Every prospect has different pain points. Thus, the more relatable the email content is, the likelier you’ll get a positive response. Show that you’ve researched and have the solution to their problems. Vary the types of content you send, from plain text to quoting a blog, a link to e-books, a case study summary, or an invitation to the upcoming webinar.

4. Personalize the messages

A drip campaign is principally an email campaign. So, don’t forget the basic rules of email marketing, such as choosing intriguing email subjects, addressing prospects by name, using engaging hooks, and keeping the emails concise. Furthermore, remember not to sound too selling. Nurturing leads will be easier if your emails sound friendly and humble but authoritative at the same time.

5. Set a respectful email frequency

Be cautious of the frequency and the number of emails you send. Overloading prospects can trigger them to unsubscribe or even report your email campaign as spam. However, lengthy delays between emails can also make your prospects lose interest or even forget about your brand. You need to find the balance that works for your audience.

6. Clear call-to-action (CTA)

Don’t underestimate the power of a CTA. After reading the emails, the CTA tells prospects what you want them to do next. Whether downloading an e-book, booking a demo call, or using the discount code, CTA can help you accomplish the campaign’s goals.

7. Monitor results and optimize the process

Practice makes perfect. If your first drip campaign doesn’t meet your expectations, use this as a learning opportunity. For instance, measure the engagement rates, see which messaging and marketing products (e.g., promotion codes and white papers) get clicked or converted the most, and analyze the best time to send the emails. So that next time, you’ll have better success in generating leads.

Final Thoughts on Email Drip Campaign Best Practices

Creating email templates and sending bulk emails (up to 1000 contacts per email campaign) have been helping Pipeline CRM users hook new prospects at scale. But, with the new drip campaign added to the feature lists, you can now amplify the results of your email campaign strategy with less effort.

Not only will you be free from manual work, but the sequential workflow and data-driven strategies will also create more consistent engagement and on-target messaging. These will help you turn leads into first-time buyers (for lead generation purposes) or even turn buyers into loyal customers (e.g., for upselling and cross-selling purposes). 

Start using the new drip campaign feature today with NO up-charges (for the Grow subscription tier only)—or sign up for a free 14-day demo. Massive outreach improvement awaits!

Before we dive in, here are some important email marketing metrics to keep in mind.

Email Marketing Metrics To Track

Open Rate

Open rates present the percentage of recipients who have opened your marketing email. 

No matter how innovative your campaign is, it’s futile if your contacts don’t open them. So, open rate is one of the primary email marketing metrics you should concentrate on. 

While open rates are not a direct indication of your email’s effectiveness, they do share insights into how well your subject line performs. Benchmarking this will help you understand areas of improvement and enhance the success of your campaign/s. 

You can apply the following formula to calculate your email open rate:

Open rate = (number of opened emails/number of received emails) x 100

The formula considers received emails rather than the total emails sent. This keeps the result accurate by removing bounced emails from the data. 

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Click-through rates measure the percentage of recipients who have clicked on the links in your email. It calculates the ratio between sent emails and visits to your website through the attached links. Even if the recipient opens your email, clicking on the hyperlinks and CTAs can convert leads into sales pipeline and dictate the success of your campaign. By calculating your email CTR, you can examine these performance areas:

• Engagement through email content
• Overall interest or subscriber fatigue
• Link placement
• CTA quality

Statistically, your CTR is bound to be significantly lower than your email open rate. You can use the following formula to calculate this metric: 

Email click-through rate = (number of recipients who clicked a link/number of received emails) x 100

You can track your email marketing link clicks in 2 ways: 

• Unique link clicks: you can track CTR once for each user. The result will tell you what percent of recipients clicked through an email.
• All link clicks: for this method, you can count any click through an email, even when the same user clicks through links multiple times. 

Click-to-Open Rate

This KPI measures the percentage of email openers who also clicked on your hyperlinks and CTAs. CTOR results in stronger data points as it takes both open rates and CTR into consideration and measures opens, actions, and conversions. The results are exhaustive and provide clearer insights into your CTA’s effectiveness, design, and quality of the copy. 

Use this formula to calculate your email marketing CTOR:

Click-to-open rate = (number of recipients who clicked a link/number of recipients who opened the email) x 100

Unsubscribe Rate

Gaining email subscribers is not enough. For successful email marketing campaigns, you must take active measures to retain them. For that, benchmarking the unsubscribe rate will help you identify the reasons for disengagement and eliminate them to enhance effectiveness. 

A high rate of email subscribers can indicate inaccurate email frequency, issues in content quality, the relevance of attached offers, or issues with lead segmentation. 

You can use the following formula to calculate your email unsubscribe rate: 

Unsubscribe rate = (number of recipients who unsubscribed/number of recipients) x 100

Bounce Rate

Your bounce rate represents the percentage of email addresses where you could not deliver your campaign. Email providers and spam detectors track bounce rates for every marketing campaign and use that data to decide whether the account will accept your marketing emails.

Calculating bounce rates and benchmarking them helps you understand actions you should take to lower the numbers.

The formula used to calculate this metric is: 

Email bounce rate = (number of bounced addresses/number of emails sent) x 100

Email Conversion Rate

This is the most important metric when determining the success of a campaign. This is because every measure you take amounts to if you could nudge prospects to take the desired action. The goal and type of conversion varies with every campaign, so, it is trickier to benchmark conversion rates against previous campaigns. You need to track relevant campaigns and compare the numbers accordingly. 

Here is the email conversion rate formula you can use: 

Email conversion rate = (number of recipients who took your desired action/number of emails sent) x 100

Key Benchmarks For 3 Different Industries

Like modern industries, old economy sectors are also opting for B2B sales CRM software. But before doing that, you must understand the relevant KPIs and standard benchmarks, whether you are a construction company or a manufacturing firm. 

Manufacturing 

According to reports, the manufacturing industry has the following email benchmarks in 2023:

• Open rate: 41.07%
• Click rate: 3.92%
• CTR: 9.55%
• Unsubscribe rate: 0.33%
• Bounce rate: 0.6%

To design effective emails for your manufacturing company, segment your email list accurately and personalize every email. As you are pitching to B2B companies, make sure the email content reflects a standard level of expertise. 

For best results, consider choosing a customizable CRM platform to automate email marketing for your manufacturing business. 

Construction

According to MailerLite, here are the 2023 email marketing benchmarks for the construction industry:

• Open rate: 33.85% 
• Click rate: 
• CTR: 14.54%
• Unsubscribe rate: 0.35%
• Bounce rate: 1.15%

To improve open rates and conversion, use branded email addresses and ensure your subject line is catchy. You can use a specialized CRM for construction to automate and streamline your email marketing efforts. To give you an idea of how to go about it, here is an example email for construction companies: 

This email by Welkom is vibrant and on brand. It provides conclusive details and forges a bond with the subscribers. 

Logistics and transport

This report states the logistics industry experiences an average open rate of about 19.32%, whereas the average unsubscribe rate stands at 0.13%. 

Logistics and transportation company FedEx runs some stellar email marketing campaigns. The above example showcases persuasive content and highlights a strong CTA for relevant offers. 

Best Practices For Email Marketing

Personalization and segmentation

No matter your industry, personalize your email marketing approach. 

An email catering to the exact needs of a customer has more chances of conversion than a usual generic template. For that, you must accurately segment your email list into different categories. Separate your subscribers into different buyer personas. 

Consider the following aspects while segmenting your email list:

• New subscribers
• Age and gender
• Location
• Preferences
• Interests

Properly segmented email lists will help you accurately target your leads and appeal to them more effectively.

Frequency and timing of emails

Sending too many marketing emails frequently can cause subscriber fatigue. To avoid that, strike a proper balance in your email marketing frequency that serves your purpose without overwhelming the recipient. There is no formula for the correct frequency of email marketing. It depends on your industry and target market. Examine the benchmark and evaluate your competitors to understand how many emails are too many. You can also conduct A/B tests to see what works best. 

Optimizing subject lines and content

Your subject line pursues the recipient to open the email, and the content nudges them to act on it. 

So, write catchy subject lines that deliver the central point of the email. Create content that addresses pain points and adds value. 

Add visual elements

Don’t shy away from adding visual elements like emojis, photos, or bold CTA buttons to draw interest like Den.

Conclusion

Properly understanding relevant metrics and regular benchmarking can elevate your email marketing to a whole new level. Segment your email list properly, personalize the content, and ensure proper CTAs in the email. 

Want to streamline the whole process? Pipeline is a customizable CRM that works wonders for email marketing. It’s easy to set up, offers the industry-best features, and helps you boost your ROI with integrations. Start your free 14-day trial today! 

According to Forrester, 90% of the buyer’s journey is complete before they speak with your sales team. 

How? Why? Well, when prospects hit your inbox, they’re looking for the best candidates to fit their budget and research criteria. These prospects have probably spent a significant amount of time educating themselves on their needs. They have a list of capabilities or requirements, and they want to see which company meets their criteria. 

Do you know what’s on their list (most companies don’t)? 

Sales Funnels vs. Sales Pipelines: What’s the Difference?

The terms sales funnels and sales pipelines are often used interchangeably as if they’re discussing the same thing. 

That’s a mistake because they’re referring to two different things. 

Let’s take a look. 

• Sales pipelines are internally focused: a pipeline tracks seller performance; it provides a visual cue, outlining where each prospect is in the sales process (e.g., prospecting, qualification, offer, negotiation, closing). Your pipeline tells sellers (you) about the specific to-dos your team will need to close each prospect. A pipeline report tells you about the number of leads in your pipeline and the value of these leads. 
• Sales funnels are externally focused: your funnel measures customer response. Your funnel focuses on the specifics and activity of each prospect and the group. Sales funnels typically have five to seven stages – awareness, interest, desire, evaluation, and decision. Your sales funnel is an assessment tool you can use to forecast sales, identify funnel failure points and improve sales processes. If you lose 25% of your prospects in the evaluation stage, this is a sign that you’ll need to improve things internally to meet your prospect’s evaluation criteria. 

Here’s a brief comparison of the two. 

Can you see the parallels? Your sales pipeline is internally focused, while your funnel is externally focused. 

Because of the difference, it becomes a problem for many organizations as they don’t have the tools and resources needed to evaluate their performance in these two tracks. As a result, their results tend to plateau over time. However, if we look at data-driven sales teams that do have the tools such as CRM systems, we see they outperform their average competitors by 23x. 

By looking at the chart above, you will see how to approach prospects at each stage of the process. It guides you on how to speak to your prospects, what your messaging should be throughout the sales process, and how to align your sales reps and your prospects. 

Now that you know the difference, learn how to create powerful templates that amplify closing abilities. 

Creating Powerful Sales Funnel Templates

Remember the criteria from our chart above? 

• Awareness: your company is a viable option for prospects. It’s a possibility that’s open for consideration, and that’s the starting point. 
• Interest: you position yourself as a quality candidate that provides the value prospects are looking for. 
• Desire: you’ve presented prospects with an irresistible offer that incentivizes your offer, motivating prospects to purchase your product or service.  
• Evaluation: your prospects have a specific list of criteria. They want to see that you have: (a.) An intuitive understanding of who they are and what they want. (b.) A comprehensive understanding of their problem and the things that delight them. (c.) A clearly defined and effective solution to their problem. (d.) Answers to their objections (e.) the ability to take on or eliminate the risks to them. (f.) A strong portfolio of reviews and testimonials referencing your product or service.
• Decision: if you’ve met the criteria above, and you’ve passed with flying colors, there’s a very good chance your prospects will make the decision to buy. 
• Loyalty: your prospects will be satisfied. What does this mean? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. If you consistently produce results or outcomes for your prospects, they’re far more likely to display loyalty.  

Let’s look at how we create email broadcast/autoresponder sequences and templates that take prospects through the buyer’s journey. 

First, we’ll start with funnel sequences. 

Awareness emails

These are two to three emails that answer three important prospect questions:

• Welcome emails: who are you? What makes you credible? Why do I need you? What should I expect from you? At this point, your prospects are excited to hear from you.  

• Indoctrination emails: what kind of exclusive value do you provide? Create curiosity loops that motivate prospects to click on your messages and content and ask for micro-commitments (like, follow, subscribe, etc.)

• Priming emails: these emails train your prospects to watch for your messages (i.e., I’ve got a gift for you in my next email). These emails orient your prospect’s awareness around your content and offers. 

Here’s an example template:

Industry: Wholesale 

Subject: We’re on a mission to double the revenue of your retail storefront

Body: 

Hello there [Name]! 

I’m so glad you made it. 

Thanks for sharing your time with us, I want to ensure we’re upfront about what you’re getting into. 😉 

Who are we? 

We’re Wholesale Plus, a small, scrappy team of retail experts who want to help your small businesses compete and win against big box stores like Walmart, Amazon, and Target.

We’ve helped 53,000 small businesses just like yours source their next bestseller.

Why do you need Wholesale Plus?

Small businesses that work with Wholesale Plus see a 32% increase in revenue in their first year. From there, we want to help you double the revenue of your retail storefront. We’ll send you in-depth guides covering a specific area of your business once each week. 

Each guide will come with a cheat sheet or tool you can use to get an immediate win. 

That starts tomorrow. 

Today I have a gift for you. It’s a guide you can use to negotiate better deals with wholesalers like us. Yes, we’re acting against our self-interest. 

Download it here. 

Landing page: 

Businesses that work with Wholesale Plus see a 32% increase in revenue.

Sixty-three percent of these businesses double their revenue within 36 months. How do they achieve these dramatic increases in revenue? They pull on one of these four profit levers. —>  

Download our wholesaler negotiation guide, and we’ll show you how to get immediate gains in your retail business. 

Get the Guide

Interest emails

These emails are designed to build interest, creating a desire for your offer. 

• Problem emails: these emails outline the problem, unpack why these problems are a problem, and explain the inevitable consequences that appear if the problem is ignored. 

• Solution criteria emails: these messages train prospects, showing them what solution is best. 

• Solution emails: if you want prospects to accept your solution, it needs to mirror the problem. It needs to provide prospects with closure; their problem is fixed for good. 

Here’s an example template:

Industry: Manufacturing

Subject: If you purchased [product], you may lose $953K

Body:

[Name],

Can your manufacturing small business afford to lose [$953K]?

If your manufacturing firm has the JMT horizontal band saw, you’re in a tough spot. 

That decision may cost you. 

Is that because JMT makes inferior products? No, it’s actually the opposite. Their machines have the highest performance-to-price ratio in the world. 

So what’s the problem?

Eighty percent of the manufacturing firms in the state purchased knockoff parts for maintenance.  As a result, incorrect tensioning has caused the blade to twist between the vertical guides, creating microfractures on the blade and causing breakage.

Not good. 

When this happens, waste increases by 3x, productivity declines by 42%, and companies begin to see a significant loss of machine scrap. 

 JMT-designed and engineered tensioning systems prevent this.

Our cheat sheets show you what to look for. 

Using our cheat sheet, you’ll be able to diagnose the problem in 3 minutes. 

Download our cheat sheet here.

Landing page: 

[Company], one of your competitors, lost $953K in Q4. Can you afford to lose that? 

Eighty percent of the manufacturing firms in the state purchased knockoff parts for maintenance.  As a result, waste has increased by 3x, productivity has declined by 42%, and companies have begun to see a significant loss of machine scrap. 

They’re bleeding money. 

Our cheat sheet can help your maintenance crews assess your machines and diagnose problem areas. Your crews will be able to diagnose the machine and identify problem parts. 

Instantly download our cheat sheet (it’s free). 

[Form]

Desire emails

These messages are based on the idea that, for every offer you make, there is a percentage of prospects who will buy more. Building desire requires two approaches. 

• Segmentation emails: sending irrelevant offers to disengaged, uninterested prospects is the fastest way to lose a prospect. Segmentation messages enable your prospects to self-identify. These messages tell you which offers will work with prospects and why. 

• Ascension emails: these messages create asymmetrical value, increasing your prospect’s willingness to buy. You create a value loop where you provide more value above the cost of your offer. This enables you to sell your prospects on higher value offers again and again. 

These emails include: 

• Immediate upsells/downsells
• Cross-sells
• Bundles and kits
• Affiliate and joint venture offers
• Premium subscriptions

Here’s an example template:

Industry: Ad agency

Subject: How to 3x your Revenue, and cut headcount by 50%

Body:

“[Name], this is impossible.”

That’s the belief agency owners have when they read a headline like this. It seems like it’s a scammy ad written by a sleazy multi-level marketing company. That’s because the agency world doesn’t work that way. When you get a new client, the headcount goes up, right?

I mean, who’s going to service these new clients if you don’t hire a new team of people to manage the account? But that’s the thing, you’re not getting new clients. If you haven’t landed a new client your headcount stays the same. 

So it IS impossible to do this, I knew it! 

But it is possible. 

It’s possible for your agency to triple your revenue while decreasing your headcount. That’s what we’ll cover in our guide “The 2020 Guide to 3x Agency Revenue, (with Half the People and Half the Cost.” 

Landing page: 

The 2020 Guide to 3x Agency Revenue, (with Half the People and Half the Cost)

The agency world doesn’t work like this. When you get a new client, the headcount goes up. It has to. You won’t be able to service or manage your new clients if you don’t hire a new team of people to manage the project. That’s just the way it goes.

Land a new client, and headcount and expenses go up. 

Or does it? 

It’s possible for your agency to 3x, 6x, or 16x revenues while decreasing headcount and expense. In our annual guide, we’ll share practical tips you can use to rapidly scale revenue without scaling expenses. 

This guide is an instant download. 

Get it here. 

Evaluation emails

These messages are focused on assisting your prospect with their evaluation process. You’re giving them compelling reasons to make a decision for you. These could be broadcast emails that share any of the following: 

• Fact sheets
• Price sheets
• Case studies
• Whitepapers
• Buyer’s guides
• Cheat sheets
• Special reports

Here’s an example template:

Industry: Construction

Subject: [Name], your construction project costs are about to double

Body:

[Name], did you catch the red flags?

I’m talking about the red flags that indicate your construction project costs are about to double, triple, or quadruple in size. Some of these red flags seem like minor details, others are serious headaches, and all of them are expensive mistakes. 

What kind of red flags are we talking about? 

• Incomplete bids 
• Switching out or changing materials
• Frequent subcontractor changes

There are two dozen red flags listed in our cheat sheet. If you’re managing a construction project or you’re relying on a project manager, you’ll need to stay on top of these red flags. 

Our cheat sheet is an instant download. 

Download it here. 

Landing page: 

Your construction project costs are about to double, triple, or quadruple in size

Some of these red flags seem like minor details, others are major headaches, but all of them are expensive disasters that will cost you in the long run.

But double your project costs? It can’t be that bad, can it?   

There are two dozen red flags listed in our cheat sheet. If you’re managing a construction project or you’re relying on a project manager, you’ll need to stay on top of these red flags. Left unchecked, these red flags will sink your construction project. 

Use our cheat sheet to suss out bad contractors. 

Download it here.

Decision emails 

Decision emails are simple. Your sales team has laid the appropriate groundwork. Now it’s time to ask for the sale. Sure, you can push for the close with a variety of closing tactics and strategies, but it’s not as effective as simply taking the order. 

Here are some example templates you can use to ask for the sale. 

Industry: Software development

Subject: Have you given up on this project? 

Body: 

Hi [Name], 

Last week you spoke with one of our current clients. 

You asked a lot of thought-provoking and in-depth questions. I’m glad we could sit down together and discuss these issues. I’m happier that we were able to resolve those concerns.

I just have one question for you. 

Are you ready to move forward on this? 

If you’ve given up on this project or decided to go in a different direction, no problem. Let me know, and we can part ways as friends. If you’d like to continue our negotiation, please schedule a time for us to chat/finalize important details.  

Loyalty emails 

If you’re not working to increase repeat sales, you’re not taking care of your customer. 

Here’s why.

• Solution emails: every solution creates a new problem that needs to be solved. If you buy a new car, you need insurance, a good mechanic, and gasoline. The solutions you’ve provided to your prospects are essential, but they’re not the end of the road. Every solution to your customer’s problem creates new problems. If you want to take care of your customers, repeat sales are a must.  
• Ascension emails: these messages create asymmetrical value, increasing your prospect’s willingness to buy. You create a value loop where you provide more value above the cost of your offer. This enables you to sell your prospects on higher value offers again and again. 

Here’s an example template:

Industry: Ecommerce

Subject: Want more revenue? Stop giving the IRS free money.

Body: 

[Name], I’ve got some bad news. 

When it comes to taxes, there’s a very good chance you’re overpaying. You’re giving the government more of your hard-earned revenue than they deserve, much more than they’re entitled to. 

What do I mean? 

Ecommerce retailers live by a motto: when in doubt, tax it. 

What do ecommerce retailers do when they feel unsure about the amount of sales tax they’ve collected? You guessed it, they collect more. 

They pass the tax on to the buyer. 

Our tax compliance software automates your tax compliance and helps you to reduce costs. But what if it’s not enough? What if you’re offering the government more money than they actually deserve? 

Millions of businesses are giving the IRS free money. 

There’s a very good chance your business is one of them. According to PMBA, 6 out of 10 businesses overpay sales tax to the IRS. These companies don’t have the processes in place to avoid overpayments. 

Are you giving the IRS free money? 

If so, how much? 

Are you curious about the extra cash you voluntarily donate to the IRS? Use this cheat sheet to calculate the amount of revenue you’re losing. 

Get it now.

Landing page:

An estimated 60% of businesses give the IRS free money. 

There are 32.6 million businesses in the United States. If the estimates are correct, 19.56 million of them are giving the IRS free money. 

Is your business one of them? 

Download our cheat sheet if you’re curious about the extra cash you voluntarily donate to the IRS. Use it to calculate the amount of revenue you’re losing on a daily basis. 

Get it now.

Can you see what’s happening? 

Your sales funnel provides you with a series of predictable steps you can use to create highly effective sales emails and landing pages. With the right approach, you’ll have everything you need to attract prospect attention. 

What about your sales pipeline? 

Treat your sales pipeline as a workflow or visual representation of your in-progress deals.

What does this mean?

You focus your attention on optimizing each phase of the sales pipeline. 

• Prospecting
  Who are your ideal customers? Do you know where to find them? You should receive a steady supply of leads from marketing, your sales channels, or lead sources. But how many leads do you need? You’ll need a few ingredients to be sure. (a.) Your breakeven cost is the minimum number of customers you’ll need to be profitable. (b.) Finally, your sales conversion rate (win/loss rate).
  
  What does this mean?
  
  Here’s an example: If you have a 5% conversion rate and you need 10 customers each month, you need a minimum of 200 sales-qualified leads each month. Increase your conversion rate, and you need fewer leads per month. 

• Qualification
  Sales qualification isn’t a one-time event. Your prospects must continually qualify themselves. If a prospect contacts you for information but they’re unwilling to share their contact info, budget, or whether they’re the decision-maker on their project, they’re not a qualified lead.
  
  If your prospect shares their budget but that budget changes, dropping below your minimum requirements, that prospect is no longer qualified.

• Offer
  Using the data you’ve collected on your ideal customers, you should be able to create an offer that’s appealing to your prospects. This offer should be exclusive, irresistible, clear, and credible. It should maximize the value received by both parties. The offer shouldn’t be extended to prospects who haven’t earned it.
  
  If your prospects aren’t qualified, they shouldn’t receive a proposal, quote, or offer.

• Negotiation
  Every successful negotiation has quid pro quo (this for that). If you make a concession during the negotiation process, your prospect should make a concession. There should be a consistent, good-faith effort to create a win/win outcome for clients.

• Closing
  Sales-qualified prospects typically move naturally through the pipeline. They’re legitimately interested in your offer. If you’ve addressed their objections and minimized risk, your prospects should be closing you and asking for the sale. 

• Repeat sales
  Remember the rule I mentioned earlier? Here’s a quick recap; every solution to your customer’s problem creates new problems. If you want to take care of your customers, repeat sales are a must. CLTV, monthly/annual recurring revenue, retainers, subscriptions, etc., are all helpful indicators of repeat sales. Find the metrics that matter to your organization and monitor these carefully. 

Treat your sales pipeline as a visual indicator of your goals and your progress at each stage of the sales process. 

Sales Funnels vs. Sales Pipelines: Two Sides of the Same Coin 

As we’ve seen, your sales pipeline is not the same as your sales funnel. 

Start analyzing both with the right sales CRM software. 

Pipeline CRM can help you manage the sales funnel and segment your prospects; you can create the sales email templates and content you need, and you can manage your sales pipeline.