The topic of how to cancel a LinkedIn invitation is rarely discussed, simply because people tend to leave invites pending for… Well, forever.

However, everyone should monitor their pending invites, especially if you are in sales or a recruiting business, as the integrity of your LinkedIn profile can get damaged. Yes, it’s that serious.

So to keep your integrity intact and help you reduce the number of pending invites in the first place, in this article, we’ll cover:

• Why do you need to cancel your LinkedIn invite;
• What you need to know about the cancellation process;
• How to cancel LinkedIn invitations that are pending for a long time;
• Why your LinkedIn invites aren’t getting accepted;
• How to create engaging invitations that will increase your acceptance rate.

Why should you cancel your pending invitations?

You should cancel LinkedIn invite because of 3 reasons:

• There’s a risk of getting your account restricted;
• Your LinkedIn experience can get damaged;
• LinkedIn won’t allow you to send new ones unless you clear the list.

Let’s clarify these statements.

Firstly, and most importantly, if you do not cancel your LinkedIn invite for a long time, you risk piling them up. It would be fine if LinkedIn didn’t have an eye out for suspicious activities. And, yes, LinkedIn does consider this suspicious. 

In other words, if you do not withdraw your pending invites after a month or two and leave them piling up, LinkedIn can restrict your account. Moreover, you won’t be able to send any other connections until you clean out your pending invite list. 

Secondly, if the connection doesn’t accept the invite for a while, the chances are they either are not interested, or they aren’t within your business industry. 

To clarify. The quality of your network on LinkedIn plays a significant role in experiencing benefits while using this platform. So, one of the things that will boost your career is taking the effort and making a strategy to connect only with people related to you and your business, and cancel LinkedIn invites sent to those who are not.

Lastly, a word on the street is that if you have too many pending requests, LinkedIn won’t allow you to send new ones. Some people say they reached a whopping 3000 pending invites before LinkedIn restricted them from sending more invites. LinkedIn didn’t publish the precise number of how many pending requests you can have officially. However, to avoid this scenario some people experienced in the past, be sure to clean your list regularly.

What you need to know before proceeding to cancel LinkedIn invite?

Before you withdraw any of your LinkedIn invites, you should know a couple of things first.

You can’t cancel LinkedIn invites in bulk.

If you wish to cancel LinkedIn invites in bulk, you cannot do so within LinkedIn itself. However, keep on reading as we will explain how you can do it in bulk using a certain tool 😉 .

About the notification your pending connections receive.

If you send a LinkedIn connection request to a person, they will see the notification as soon as they log into their account. However, in case you cancel LinkedIn invite before the user sees it, they wouldn’t even know that you’ve sent it.

In addition, canceling an invite will stop the recipient from receiving further LinkedIn notifications or emails to remind them of the request.

When can you cancel your LinkedIn invite?

You can cancel LinkedIn invite you’ve sent accidentally or that you regret sending, as long as the LinkedIn member hasn’t accepted your invitation.

In case the LinkedIn user accepts your connection request, there is always an option to remove them from your connections.

If you withdraw your request, you will have a tiny restriction.

After you cancel your invite, you won’t be able to resend it to the same recipient for up to 3 weeks.

How to cancel LinkedIn invite in 5 simple steps?

In case you’ve sent the requests you wish to withdraw or are pending too long, here’s how you can do it.

Cancel LinkedIn invite via desktop

First, go to Linkedin, and click on My Network in the header bar.

Once you do, you will see the list of invites other people sent you. Hit See all # in the top right corner. 

If you don't have any invites you need to approve on this page, the section will look slightly different. In this case, just click the Manage button.

Here, you can see all the invites people sent you. To find the ones you sent out, go to the Sent tab and click the Withdraw button to cancel the LinkedIn invite.

Lastly, LinkedIn will double-check if you wish to withdraw your invite with the notification. Continue the cancellation process, and you will be done.

Canceling invites via Android 

You can withdraw invitations using your android phone too, and the process is not that different than the one using your PC. 

First, go to your Network page, and click the Invitations button.

Next, click the Sent tab, and withdraw the invites you wish.

How to cancel LinkedIn invite on iOS

The process is somewhat different on iOS devices. So if, for example, you have an Apple phone, here is how you can cancel LinkedIn invite.

First, go to Notifications at the bottom of the screen. Then, click the Invitations button at the top. After the pop-up opens up, click View invitations you sent.

From there, choose the LinkedIn invites to withdraw and cancel them one by one.

Let Skylead do the withdrawal for you

Canceling LinkedIn invites, one by one, can work if you have just a few pending. However, what should sales managers or recruiters do when they have thousands of invites pending? Should they all cancel the thousands of invites manually? No.

Remember when we said you could not cancel LinkedIn invites in bulk on LinkedIn? The point still stands - you cannot withdraw them all at once… Within the LinkedIn platform, that is.

However, you can use an automation tool for LinkedIn and Email outreach, such as Skylead, to do it for you.

In other words, you can use our LinkedIn outreach tool and set how many pending connections you wish to have before Skylead starts removing them automatically to keep your account safe and healthy. 

Why your LinkedIn invitations aren’t getting accepted

Speaking of connecting on LinkedIn, the best case practice is to connect with people related to you, your position, and your business industry. Naturally, if you are a salesperson or a recruiter using LinkedIn for lead generation, you’d go with your target group.

In the end, no matter who you wish to connect to and why, the goal is the same – to get the right message across and be accepted. However, there are numerous reasons why your LinkedIn invitations aren’t getting accepted or stay pending for a long time. So, to help you increase your acceptance rate, let’s first cover the possible reasons why this metric is not high at the moment.

1. Incomplete LinkedIn profile

Sending invitations actively to users without previously setting up your profile is a huge mistake.

There are many profiles on LinkedIn that look like this, and you don’t want yours to be one of them. 

Start from yourself - would you accept an invite from this kind of profile? No, you wouldn’t. 

If you have no photo, no description of any kind, and no experience details, no one on LinkedIn will take you seriously. Why would they want to connect with you without knowing who you are, right?

So if you send a request to someone with a profile like the one above, go back and cancel LinkedIn invite yourself. Then focus on setting up your LinkedIn profile first.

2. Someone is really not interested in accepting the invite

One reason may be that the user does not wish to connect with you and just prolongs declining your invite. I know - it’s like ripping off the band aid, but it had to be said. 

3. Outreaching unknown people without context or common connections

This depends on the person, but some LinkedIn users don’t accept unfamiliar people. To clarify, those people sometimes see nothing they have in common with you, which makes them skeptical.

In this case, it’s good to have or reference a mutual connection, so they do not ignore your request.

4. Sending generic message requests 

This mistake is the one that most LinkedIn users make. They think that writing something generic like “Hey, I’d like to connect with you” is enough to have their request accepted. Yeah, right!

These requests may be accepted in some cases, but not by a person who gets a lot of invites daily. Such people tend to get tons of messages that resemble yours and mostly ignore them. So, why would they make an exception for you?

What’s more, with this kind of message or no message at all, there is a chance the recipient can click the Ignore button and then the I don’t know this person option. With too many “I don’t know this person clicked“, you risk getting your account restricted by LinkedIn.

5. First touch selling 

The chances of successfully selling something via the LinkedIn invitation request are close to zero. 

You have probably received tons of invitation messages where someone is trying to sell insurance to you.

It is not the way sales work. Nowadays, it’s all about social selling.

In your invitation message, you should explain why you want to connect with the user you’re outreaching, but not by trying to sell something. First, focus on personalizing, building normal human connections, and providing value before they buy anything you’re selling.

How to create engaging LinkedIn invites and boost acceptance rate

We cannot stress this enough. Before you even start creating and sending out your invitations, you need to optimize your LinkedIn profile first.

Almost every LinkedIn user will check your profile before they decide whether they should accept or ignore your invitation. That’s why it’s in your interest to give them a strong reason to accept your invitation, get value from you, and create a relationship.

After you’ve taken care of your profile, you’re ready to start inviting other users to connect. Here is our advice on how to do it more efficiently.

Prepare the ground for an invitation

It’s easy to connect with your colleagues or someone you know because those people know you personally.

However, even if you don’t know someone, you can try to remove that obstacle by becoming more familiar with that person. In other words, it’s good to start engaging with the posts of those potential connections. 

Start liking their posts, create meaningful comments, and try to make a connection with them before sending an invite. 

This will pave the way for you to build a relationship, and those users will start to perceive you as someone who is a valuable connection. Consequently, you won’t get in a position to cancel a LinkedIn invite that has been pending for a long time.

Personalize your invite messages

Before sending an invitation, make your messages as personalized as you can. It is a must if you want to improve your acceptance rate.

Sending personalized messages helps you leave a good first impression. Also: 

• Addressing users by their names, 
• Referencing something familiar to them, 
• And avoiding generic phrases 

play an important role in creating a strong relationship between you two.

Start by answering how you came across their profile and what made you want to connect. Don’t worry - the time you invest in LinkedIn prospecting your potential connection always pays off here.

Since you’re limited to 300 characters, you can use it to be more direct and honest. 

Discover 20 ready-to-use connection invite templates with up to 78% acceptance rate.

Mention common interests

Adding many LinkedIn users who aren’t from your niche can decrease the quality of your LinkedIn feed and make it full of irrelevant content. That’s why connecting with someone that you share interests with is a great approach.

Mentioning the shared interests in your invite will show those users that you’ve invested some time into getting to know about them and their work. Moreover, you can mention the topic you wish to discuss with them. A message with these two elements will skyrocket your acceptance rate for sure. So, you won’t have to be in a position to cancel LinkedIn invite that has been pending for a long time. 😉

For example, start your message by commenting on your mutual job position, an event you both attended, or a post you both liked a while back. 

Involve a little humor 

It’s essential to have a professional tone of voice when you write your connection invite. However, “professional” doesn’t mean not having some sense of humor. You can always add a subtle joke here and there to make your invite stand out.

Moreover, using humor in your outreach is a nice pattern interrupt and has an immediate effect. Here is our example.

Check out our list of 35 position-related jokes ready to use in your outreach. 

At the end of the day

We hope this article helped you understand why your requests have been pending for a long time and learn the tricks to improve the acceptance rate. 

Remember: you must keep track of the request you sent and clear the list on time. This is just so you don’t land on the LinkedIn radar for suspicious activity and get restricted.

If you invest time in your connection message and LinkedIn profile, you won’t ever need to be in a situation where you have to cancel a LinkedIn invite. However, if you do, you can always use Skylead to automate your LinkedIn outreach process and make adjustments so it removes your pending request along the way.

Using Skylead makes it easy to get tons of new connections, personalize all your messages based on the interests of the people you want to connect with, and it only takes a few minutes to automate many of your LinkedIn lead generation processes.

Skylead does all the sales tasks for you while shortening the time you originally needed to make connections on LinkedIn. Try out Skylead, and let’s skyrocket your business together.

CRM software and tools are definitely here to stay. There is no doubt that, with the global CRM market growth projection of $128.97 billion worth in 2028, the substantial popularity of the best CRM software is yet to come. 

And with the reason. Firstly, CRM offers a wide range of benefits, including centralized data and automation of tedious sales processes. Above all, a well-implemented CRM software can reach ROI up to $45 for each $1 spent. 

We all wish to jump on this train. And some of us already did. But in the sea of CRM software, how would you know which one is the best for you? Whether you are starting out or considering changing your CRM software, we’ve got your back.

Therefore, in this article we will cover some of the best CRM software, why they are the best, and how to integrate them with other tools.

Furthermore, we will cover what CRM software is, if you need it and if you should buy it. Let’s get to it!

What is CRM?

Customer Relation Management, aka CRM software, is a tool that helps companies collect, organize and manage data and streamline processes related to customers’ lifecycle. 

In other words, sales terms, CRM software helps teams visualize their pipeline and organize or perform tasks related to the buyer journey. Furthermore, it pinpoints the location of specific prospects in the sales funnel, their status, the next activity the sales team needs to perform, and potential value. 

CRM software substitutes various spreadsheets and documents companies use to keep up with prospects’ or customers’ data. It stores all information in one place - such as messages, meetings, pain points, buyer persona type, and, in some cases, calls with customers - everything you need to know about specific leads to help you build a relationship and close deals. Lastly, CRM software shows how effective your sales strategy is and if something in your process needs improvement.

Customer-wise, CRM software provides information about each customer, their history, and any pending tasks related to nurturing and upselling. 

Why is CRM one of the most valuable assets a company can acquire?

Why CRM? To clarify, let’s check out a couple of statistics first: 

59% of companies tested say that CRM helped them improve Customer Retention and Satisfaction Rate by 47% and reduce lead costs by 27%. (FounderJar)

According to Salesforce, 81% of sales representatives emphasize the importance of having a view of data across the complete customer journey.

97% of sales professionals tested think that technology and CRM software are either essential or crucial for business. (LinkedIn)

Looking at the previous statistics and many more across the internet, CRM software is an essential tool for sales teams, and for good reason. To clarify, they are not just any tool on the market - they make building the relationship and social selling easier tasks and help the sales team be more customer-oriented - which is the core point of today’s sales. 

Best CRM software can…

1. Centralize and label your data

CRM keeps track of all leads’ data. In other words, CRM’s centralized storage offers salespeople all the information on every individual prospect or customer at hand so they can build relationships and close deals faster. 

In addition, since the prospect base can be distinct, the best CRM software also labels and sections your customer data. To clarify, you as a salesperson must know at any given time where your prospects are in the pipeline, on what note you ended the conversation, are they warmed up, or what is the next step towards closing the deal. CRM software does this for you by analyzing and labeling existing data in the system with various parameters you set. Therefore, you can be more customer-oriented by creating different messages depending on the buyer lifecycle and more personalized outreach.

2. Automate the process

With almost every piece of data being actionable, the best CRM software can automate some tedious parts of the process for salespeople, so they can focus on nurturing prospects through the pipeline. For example, appointment scheduling, assigning leads to different sales reps, or updating and importing the prospects’ data. 

3. Offer analytics to close more deals and increase customer satisfaction

We can’t stress enough how important it is to conduct data analysis. Luckily, creators of the best CRM software out there share our opinion. Hence, every CRM has an analytics or reports page to help sales teams make data-driven decisions. 

In other words, CRM can help you see how many deals you won or lost, what tactic you used, deal value, and much more. Thanks to this, salespeople can adjust their approach, close more deals, and improve customer satisfaction and retention.

4. Remind salespeople of pending tasks 

Sometimes we as people, amongst other work, forget to write a follow-up email or two, or simply a meeting slips out of our mind. It happens. However, forgetting such tasks can cause a lost prospect or a customer. However, CRM software offers a solution to this problem, and it is an option to alert you of actions needed for every customer in the pipeline to make sure these mistakes never happen. 

To buy CRM software or to create a spreadsheet? That is the question.

Our experience says to buy. CRM software offers many useful features that you can use to streamline and automate processes and save you much more time than the spreadsheet.

However, if you are just starting out, perhaps you don’t have the necessary budget or have a small company, you might want to consider creating a CRM in a spreadsheet for yourself. It can help you understand how CRMs work and how your business can benefit from them. 

Additional tip: If you want to level up but are not ready to pay for the CRM itself, try out some CRM software with free plans, such as Bitrix24, Really Simple Systems, or EngageBay.

Nevertheless, if you or the company scales up, do not dwell on these spreadsheets or free plans (unless you want to), as you might miss out on the amazing features that some of the best CRM software have.

In case you wish to buy CRM software, here are the ten best CRM software currently on the market (people’s choice).

10 best CRM software for sales

CRM software is an essential tool for every sales team. However, as prospects differ, so do the salespeople. In other words, not every CRM suits every business's needs. So, how would you know which one is the best for your business needs?

Thus we present you with the top 10 list of highest-rated, best CRM software for the sales team from various listing websites. For this article, we are going to calculate the current average rating from the most popular review sites:

• G2 
• Capterra
• Software Advice
• GetApp
• Software Suggest

Furthermore, we will list who they are most suited for, advantages, disadvantages, pricing, and additional information to help you find the best CRM software for you. Let’s get started.

Salesmate - Best CRM software for cold calling

This CRM software is great for small and medium businesses who are cold calling. In addition, Salesmate has a relatively easy-to-use interface and quick access to the features you require.

Salesmate can be integrated with Gmail or Outlook. Furthermore, each sales member can centralize prospect data, including email messages, and share them with other team parties. 

Salesmate also offers reports that enable business owners and managers to track sales reps’ productivity and achievements. Team leads can also listen to calls by using the call recording option.

Advantages:

Salesmate has an option to generate tasks for you automatically. If, for example, someone fills a form on your website, that lead can directly go into Salesmate, and it automatically creates the task to follow up with that lead. 

Secondly, there are calling and texting features so the sales reps can contact leads. Thus, it eliminates the need for adding other tools and saves budget, in a way. 

Disadvantages:

A couple of reviewers reported a periodical system lagging. Furthermore, since every text message and call minutes have an additional price, the amount billed each month increases by that sum. This can be a problem for some users, as the amount can escalate if not properly and regularly managed. 

Price: 

• Starter: $15 per user / month or $144 billed annually
• Growth: $30 per user / month or $288 billed annually
• Boost: $50 per user / month or $480 billed annually

Listings rating: ⭐ 4.64

HubSpot CRM - Best CRM software for teams that are developing

There is no doubt that HubSpot surprised everyone with free access to the CRM software. However, the free version does come with its limitations. 

In a free account, you get:

• Contact management
• Deal pipeline
• Quotes
• Meeting scheduling
• Live chat
• Reporting dashboard

If you wish for anything else, you need to upgrade to a paid version. 

HubSpot CRM is perfect for individuals or companies that are just getting started with CRM software. Furthermore, it is useful for other medium-sized businesses that outgrew that phase.

Advantages:

HubSpot overall offers various nifty features, including sales playbooks, sequences, workflow automation, and reporting. In addition, this CRM can process up to 1,000,000 contacts and users for free and offers unlimited storage. Their Starters pricing plan is pretty fair and is somewhat beginners friendly, as opposed to other CRMs on the market. 

Disadvantages:

If you wish for additional features, pricing for professional and enterprise packages is pretty steep. Furthermore, it does not directly support Dynamics 365, and pipeline and managing deals are not that intuitive. 

Pricing: 

• Starter: $50 per 2 users / month or $540 yearly
• Professional: $500 per 5 users / month or $5400 yearly
• Enterprise: $1200 per 10 users / month, billed yearly

Listings rating: ⭐4.504

Salesforce Sales Cloud - Best CRM software for sales experts 

This is a complex and useful CRM that allows sales professionals to manage and build relationships with their prospects and customers. Salesforce Sales Cloud helps you optimize your workload, maximize your budget, and offers real-time data all in your favor so you can close more deals. 

This CRM is not for beginners. In other words, they offer features galore that can be useful to sales experts already using CRMs for a couple of years, but if you are a beginner, you might want to test out and use other systems for a while before jumping to Salesforce. 

Advantages:

Salesforce’s various and unique features are actually its advantage. Furthermore, they offer mobile app for Android and iOS to let you do the work on the go. 

Salesforce also possesses the visual workflow drag-and-drop feature and lets you create, do and change tasks fast. In addition, Salesforce Sales cloud integrated with Slack so you can engage with prospects and customers in real time. 

Disadvantages:

Salesforce is not beginner friendly and it is billed annually.

Pricing:

• Essential: $25 per user / month, billed annually
• Professional:: $75 per user / month, billed annually
• Enterprise: $150 user/month, billed annually
• Unlimited: $300 per user / month, billed annually

Listings rating: ⭐4.5

Zoho CRM - Best CRM software companies interested in contact and pipeline management only

The core functionality of Zoho’s CRM is contact management, pipeline management, and purchase control. Its dashboard is customizable, and it allows users to brand it according to their business brand. 

Advantages: 

One of Zoho's biggest advantages is that it allows you to reach people who use Twitter and Facebook. Furthermore, Zoho CRM tracks their actions and categorizes them as contacts so you can connect with them. 

Disadvantages:

Zoho is a kind of CRM with mixed feelings - its interface is a bit outdated, it doesn't work well with extensive outreach, features are sometimes not communicating between each other, and billing annually are perhaps the reasons why Zoho is so low on the list. 

Pricing: 

• Free Edition: Free up to 3 Users.
• Standard Edition: 20€ per user / month or 14€ per user / month but paid annually  
• Professional Edition: 35€ per user / month or 23€ per user / month but paid annually
• Enterprise Edition: 50€ per user / month or 40€ per user / month but paid annually
• Ultimate Edition: 65€ per user / month or 52€ per user / month but paid annually

Listings rating: ⭐4.292

Monday Sales CRM - Best CRM software for workflow

Before, Monday was a project management software, but now with its product development, it is much more. Now-developed Monday Sale is CRM software that centralizes your entire workflow and customer data. It allows tracking every aspect of the sales cycle, from lead generation to after-sale customer nurturing.

This CRM is best for small and medium-size businesses, and it is completely customizable.

Advantages: 

Monday offers various templates that you can use for your workflow. In addition, the Monday.com dashboard is clean and straight-to-the-point, so you can easily spot any issues in your sales cycle.

Disadvantages:

Their pricing plan is confusing since they require a minimum of 3 seats, and you cannot use it as an individual (you can, but you need to pay for 3 seats). Furthermore, Monday Sell has issues with tablet and mobile device apps, and workflow automation needs additional manual work.

Pricing:

• Individual: $0 free forever (up to 2 seats), billed annually 
• Basic: $8 / seat / month (3 seats minimum), billed annually 
• Standard: $10 seat / month (3 seats minimum), billed annually 
• Pro: $16 seat / month (3 seats minimum), billed annually 
• Enterprise: Contact Monday.com for a custom quote

Listings rating: ⭐ 4.675

Zendesk Sell - Best CRM software on a budget

Formerly Base, Zendesk Sell is a CRM software perfect for small and medium-sized businesses. It provides access to all channels the sales team uses for communication including SMS, voice calls, and emails. 

With Zendesk Sell, it is pretty easy to gain a full insight into the specific lead, thanks to features such as funnel tracking, customizable lists, templates, and conversion rate tracking. 

Advantages:

One of the best features Zendesk Sell has is a calendar-reminder system. In addition, Zendesk Sell can be linked with Microsoft Office and possesses one tool that automatically detects duplicate leads and task sequencing.

Disadvantages:

Zendesk users reported problems such as slow loading time, mistakes in automated data entry, and issues with customer support. In addition, subscriptions are billed annually, and users need to pay more for certain features.

Pricing:

• Starter: $19 per user / month, billed annually 
• Professional: $49 per user / month, billed annually 
• Enterprise: $99 per user / month, billed annually 

Listings rating: ⭐4.216

Copper - Best CRM software if you use Google Workspace

This is a CRM software with the main emphasis on Google Workspace. It has a well-designed UX/UI. What’s interesting about this CRM is that it contains in-app voice transcription, allowing you to take bullet points from the call right away.

Like other CRMs, Copper offers detailed reports and suggests improvements in workflow, while alerts keep you focused on the most important tasks. Furthermore, Copper is a nice CRM if you are a beginner or if you wish to change your current CRM.

Advantages:

The main advantage is that Copper integrates completely with Google Workspace - Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Sheets. In addition, the onboarding process is seamless and the system itself is simple to use.

Disadvantages:

Firstly, you are not able to attach files to emails you send in Copper. Secondly, workflow automation is a bit confusing since Copper uses rule-based workflow automation, and it may be time-consuming at first. Furthermore, another thing you might need to spend time with is filtering and extracting data.

Lastly, there is a lack of flexibility outside Google Workspace. To clarify, companies that use different email providers will not be able to integrate them with Copper. 

Pricing:

• Basic: $29 per user / month or $300 annually
• Professional: $69 per user / month $708 annually
• Business: $129 per user / month (with annual commitment) $1.428 annually

Listings rating: ⭐4.53

Pipedrive - Best CRM software for multiple pipelines and customization

CRM software, Pipedrive, handles all the essential sales CRM features. It is intuitive, and you can easily separate priority deals and create different strategies for each lead. 

Advantages:

Firstly, Pipedrive lets you build multiple sales pipelines and customize stages which are great for sales reps or team leads who manage various pipelines at once. 

Secondly, Pipedrive’s star feature is that you can create web forms and LeadBooster chatbot, a custom chatbot to pop up next to a webform. Pipedrive then automates the process and puts lead directly into your pipeline. 

In addition, Pipedrive’s powerful AI understands leads’ behavioral patterns and can give you hints on how to close deals with them. 

Disadvantages: 

Pipedrive can’t send a follow-up message or birthday greetings based on a date at this moment in time. In addition, users noticed some lagging issues and poor mobile app experience. Lastly, customizable reports are not available.

Pricing:

• Essential: $15 per user/month or $12.50 per user / monthly billed annually
• Advanced: $29 per user/month or $ 24.90 per user / monthly billed annually
• Professional: $59 per user/month or $49.90 per user / monthly billed annually
• Enterprise: $119 per user/month or $99 per user / monthly billed annually

Listings rating: ⭐4.446

Salesflare - Best CRM software (people’s choice)

The best CRM software on our list is Salesflare. It is a CRM software primarily for startups and small businesses, but many agencies and enterprises use it. Salesflare is intuitive and easy to use and can be integrated with more than 400 other productivity tools like Trello, thanks to Zapier.

Salesflare offers automation features, such as an automated address book, timelines, file repository, and sending emails based on triggers. It can also provide task suggestions automatically. 

Advantages:

The good thing about Salesflare is that they provide dedicated support no matter the plan you choose. In addition, for all technical advice, you can even talk to developers. 

Furthermore, they have a mobile app, various team access levels, and a great data gathering system. Lastly, Salesflare will automatically log phone calls or meetings, and gather contact information from email signatures, and even social media profiles.

Disadvantages:

Fortunately, there aren't many disadvantages when we talk about Salesflare - the users seem pretty content. There are, however, a couple of suggestions from them: it would be nice to have email drip functionality, and email reporting needs improvement.

Pricing:

• Growth: $29 per user / month (billed annually) or $35 billed monthly
• Pro: $49 per user / month (billed annually) or $55 billed monthly
• Enterprise: $99 per user / month (billed annually) or contact their support for custom plan

Listings rating: ⭐ 4.73

EngageBay - Best CRM software for enticing your sales team

Cloud-based CRM, EngageBay is a software that integrates sales, marketing, and finances on a single platform. The core function of this software is complete automation. Furthermore, it offers contact management tools specially designed to be simple to use. In addition, it can track web activity, email response, and analytics. 

EngageBay easily Integrates with Gmail, Office 365, or any other service, with integration capabilities through Zapier or other similar integrations to further streamline your sales efforts.

Advantages:

The possibility to make a call from this CRM is a big plus, as well as an option for transcripts. In addition, what separates EngageBay from other systems is the possibility to gamify sales processes and thus keep your sales reps motivated. 

Disadvantages:

A couple of lesser disadvantages came up with EngageBay. There is less troubleshooting documentation, email templates are limited, and the Chrome plugin doesn’t trigger an event, so automation needs to be done manually.

Pricing:

• A free plan is available, limited to 1,000 contacts emails 
• Basic: $12.99 per user / month, $11.69 per user / month annually 
• Growth: $24.99 per user / per month, $22.49  per user / month annually
• Pro: $49.99 per user / month, $44.99 per user / month annually

Listings rating: ⭐ 4.636

How to use CRM software with other tools? 

We all know that only one tool won’t do if you wish to optimize your sales workflow as much as you can unless that one tool has everything you need, which is pretty rare. 

So, in addition to CRM, you might be using sales engagement, meeting scheduling, or LinkedIn prospecting tools. So the question arises - is it possible to integrate them all? Short answer - yes.  

Long answer? Let us show you how you can do it.

For example, let’s take our LinkedIn Automation and Cold Email software, Skylead. This tool enables you generate leads on LinkedIn, outreach them and take action depending on their behavior, all on autopilot. As Skylead fills your pipeline, it leaves you more room to concentrate on important matters such as building relationships and closing more deals. 

In addition, you can connect Skylead with your CRM of choice by using webhooks. A webhook helps you transfer data to other applications immediately, when certain action happens. For example, as soon as the lead responds in a Skylead campaign, a webhook is triggered, and will automatically send lead’s data to your CRM. 

Moreover, webhooks are the most common way to integrate tools directly into your CRM and push data about the leads in one place. You can create them by using tools such as Zapier. Check out our detailed step-by-step guide on integrating your CRM with Skylead using Webhooks here.

Apart from using webhooks, you can also push your prospects’ information to your CRM by using Skylead’s global BCC option. To use it, simply insert the email address you get from your CRM in Skylead’s Global BCC option. This option is available only if your CRM of choice doesn’t offer direct sync with your email but through BCC.

Example

Say, you are using the Pipedrive Essential plan. In this plan, you don’t have an option to sync your email with Pipedrive directly unless you upgrade. However, you can use their Smart BCC function to send all emails to Pipedrive. 

Here is how it works: Go to Pipedrive Email Sync settings and find the Smart Email BCC address - your company account’s specific BCC address provided by Pipedrive.

So, to send every email to the Pipedrive inbox, you need to insert this email address in the BCC field of every email manually. However, you can do this automatically if you use Skylead for your outreach. 

Firstly, go to your Skylead settings and click on the Integrations tab. 

Then, scroll down to the global BCC option, take the email address from Pipedrive, and place it into the field. 

In this way, for every outreach campaign you run in Skylead using the email step, you will be able to see separate emails in your Pipedrive inbox. Moreover, Pipedrive will automatically connect them with matching leads and deals in your pipeline. 

The best CRM software in conclusion

With so many CRMs on the market, it can be daunting to go through every single one of them. But if we take software listing websites into the account you can more or less see the situation on the market. 

So, let our list be your guide to narrow your choices, or figure out what other solutions are out there. Thus, here is the short overview of the best CRM software currently on the market.

Wish to use an advanced outreach tool in combination with your CRM software and close even more deals? Then, try out Skylead for free - an outreach that thinks for you!

What would you say is the first thing that catches your prospects' attention in their inbox? That is right, email subject lines. They are undoubtedly the most integral part of your cold email outreach. In just seconds, the faith of your outreach success is determined.

How? Well, if you do not create catchy email subject lines, you risk getting your email deleted, your open rate becomes much lower, and you will be disregarded as Spam. Consequently, this ultimately leads to a lower number of warmed-up leads and closed deals. Furthermore, effort and time spent will go to waste.

Don’t panic. We’ve got your back.

In this article, we are explaining what the subject line is and why it is important for your email outreach. Furthermore, we are digging deep into catchy email subject examples, why they work, and help you create your golden subject line that catches your prospects’ attention immediately.

What is an email subject line and why is it important?

Let’s start with the basics. When you open up email inbox, you can notice the 3 following components of the email message:

• Senders’ name,
• Subject Line, 
• And Preview text. 

Email subject line is a text line next to the sender’s name, describing the title of the email message. In other words, it is an indication of what the message is about and why you should read it. 

Email subject line communicates value, sets expectations, and entices recipients to discover more about the topic by reading the email message. 

Getting your email subject line just right will make you stand out in the sea of other emails and increase the open rate. In sales terms, this means increasing the chances of getting your message across and warming up leads so you can close more deals.

Another thing worth mentioning is the importance of the Preview Text.

A preview text, aka preheader text, is a line next to the subject line that shows the beginning of your email message. In some cases, preview text can be custom-made if you use newsletter software or similar tools, but in most cases, it shows a preview of your message. That is why it is important to perceive them in synergy rather than separate components to make your outreach as effective as you can (but we will talk more about this below).

How to write catchy email subject lines: Tips to get started

Email subject lines’ first and foremost purpose is to get your prospects to open up your email. In other words, you need to catch their attention and entice them towards this action. 

Therefore, make email subject lines mean something. Let’s go through a couple of steps to get started. 

1. Determine the type of subject lines

As a salesperson, especially when doing a cold outreach, your job is to set the tone of the email subject lines. There are many ways to do it - making bold, sweet, or commanding statements - but first, you need to figure out the email content. After that, write down the email core meaning, and choose the type of tone which best fits your outreach message, personality, and prospects’ preferences. 

The usual subject line types for sales are:

2. Straight to the point 

Be clear and concise about your email subject lines whenever you can. The reason is that often prospects prioritize the emails by their subject line and order of reading/replying. For this reason, the email subject line should communicate what the message is all about and its importance. 

Avoid vague subject lines, such as “While I wait for your response”, that doesn't show anything about the email content as it will end up at the bottom of the priority list, and prospects will eventually forget it.

However, this doesn’t mean you can’t get crafty with it. You can create wordplay such as “Let’s Taco ‘bout your performance”, create a theme as “Let’s schedule a coffee chat”, or even use the power words to enhance your catchy email subject lines.

3. Power words in email subject lines

Specific words can trigger an emotion in us on a conscious or subconscious level. Let's take the word “happy” for instance. After reading it, you suddenly felt a slight uplift in your mood, didn’t you? What happens with the word “Sad”? You felt slightly down there, correct? 

Words are indeed powerful. So using specific words in subject lines can do the same for your prospect. To be more precise, using Power words can really catch your prospects’ attention and activate an emotion. Furthermore, if you put the Power word at the subject line beginning, it will draw even more attention.

Here are power words example list to catch your prospects’ attention and get them to open up your email:

Note: The important thing is to set expectations with power words, but be careful not to overpromise, as this will only annoy your prospects. And do not go overboard with them.

4. How long should email subject lines be 

On average, email subject lines should ideally be 4 to 7 words. If you need more words, aim for a subject line no longer than 9 words, which is the upper limit. Furthermore, contemporary inboxes can reveal up to 60 characters on average, depending on the email provider. 

Also, keep in mind that some people check their emails on mobile devices, which show only 41 to 50 characters. This roughly translates to 7 to 8 words. Therefore, to lower the number of characters, you need to remove any filler words, such as just, hi, thanks, going to, etc.

Note: If you plan to reach out to your prospects using LinkedIn InMail, you should know that the subject line character limit is 200 characters. Check out our complete guide on how LinkedIn InMail works and 13 InMail templates for a better response rate.

5. Use subject lines and preview texts in synergy

As we mentioned earlier, the preview text is a line of text found next to the subject line. It shows the first couple of words of your email message. In addition, it can show custom text if you use a newsletter software tool. 

Preview text is just as important as the subject line - it is your chance to deepen the message and make it more effective to get your prospects to open up an email. 

Preview text is usually 35 to 90 characters long, depending on the email provider. To make a subject line and preview text work together, it is best to perceive a preview text as a collection of details that didn’t fit the subject line. Here is an example:

Subject line: 🎁 A discount gift for you

Preview text: Happy Women’s Day! Up until the end of March, you get a discount of […]

Note: To convince a prospect to keep on reading the email and perform the desired action, make sure you get your opening paragraph and a Call To Action right.

Email subject lines best practices [and some worst ones to keep away]

Now that we’ve set the email subject lines basic steps, let’s go through the best practices and what you need to avoid.

Subject lines best practices 

1. Personalization

Did you know that personalizing subject lines can increase the open rate by 22.2%? The increase in open rate happens because personalization creates a sense of familiarity in leads. Especially if you found those leads by prospecting on LinkedIn. Furthermore, it comes across as genuine and that you care for them. 

Personalize your email subject lines using the following demographic, psychographic, and firmographic data:

• Interaction with your brand
• Their location
• Years in the company
• Current company
• Interests and values

To gain a full understanding of how powerful personalization in outreach can be, check out our blogs on how to increase the level of personalization in outreach and how to personalize image and GIF to improve response rate.

2. Use emojis In email subject line

In modern days times, emojis can be a nifty tool to spice up your subject line. They are a friend in need to get your point across, make your email stand out in the inbox, and they cost only one character (speaking of saving the space in the subject line :).

To back this up, take a look at the following statistics:

Emojis in subject lines had an open rate of 56% higher than those without them.

Not bad, ha 🧐?

3. Include numbers

Catchy email subject lines that include numbers achieve 45% higher open rates. This way, prospects will perceive your subject line as more precise and attract their attention. Use numbers to state how many tips you send them, time stamps, or statistics to increase the value.

4. Email subject lines specifying time

Providing your prospects with the right information that is in correlation with time will attract their attention as it represents information that is a “current trend”. Nicely timed subject line will increase an open rate, as well as response rate depending on the email body.

Example: 

Here is how to boost your April’s website performance

5. Hint the valuable content

One of the perfect ways to increase the open rate is to give your prospects a sneak peek into the body of the email. This catchy email subject lines’ teaser can be in the form of content that prospects will value, such as images, infographics, and guides with top 5 tips.

Example:

Why Sales Needs To Get Out There And Use Social Selling More (Webinar)

6. Subject line testing

You need to test your email subject lines to be sure you got them just right, and there are a couple of ways you can do it.

A/B testing

Every audience is different, and in some cases, one subject line that worked previously won’t be that effective anymore. And then, there is the following fact:

A/B testing can increase email open rates by 49%.

That is why you need A/B tests as much as possible. In order to do this, take 3 to 5 subject lines and send out those cold outreach emails to check which one has the highest open rate.
For example, in Skylead, you can test different subject lines for your outreach campaigns on autopilot and see which one works best for you.

Online email subject line testers  

Online email subject line testers are nifty tools to have at hand if you are not sure about the effectiveness of your subject lines. Whether you wish to test the emotional tone of voice or the overall effectiveness of your subject lines, you can use tools such as Send Check It, EMV Headline Analyzer, or GradeMyEmail.

Email subject lines DON’Ts

1. Hi there

Avoid phrases such as Hi there, Greetings George, or Hello. The reason is they aren’t specific enough and do not show any hint of what the email message is all about. Instead, draw your prospect’s attention by clearly stating the purpose.

2. Misleading prospects

Being deceptive and promising your prospect one thing in the subject line and showing them another will annoy them. Consequently, you will lose trust and respect instantly. Not to mention, you will fail to close the deal with the prospect forever. Therefore, avoid click baits, or RE: and FWD: entirely just to get them to open up an email.

3. DO NOT USE ALL CAPS OR BUNCH OF EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!

See how that was unnerving and frenzy-like? Using letters in Caps Lock or with multiple exclamation points is a synonym for spammers these days. It also looks aggressive and distasteful, and you do not wish that for your brand, trust us. Furthermore, if you use this kind of email subject line, you risk getting your emails in the Spam folder. However, Caps Lock and exclamation points are not prohibited - you can always use one from time to time to emphasize your statement, but please do not go overboard.

4. Avoid spammy words

Similar to all-caps-lock words and multiple exclamation points, spam words can also ruin your outreach efforts. These words have been all over the internet for many, many years (not to mention billiards in the 80s) and are now considered repulsive and plain out pushy. 

Here are a couple of examples to watch out for:

• Act Now
• Cash 
• Cheap
• Credit
• Double your ROI
• Earn Extra cash
• Millionaires
• Free
• Fast money
• Get it today

Catchy email subject lines examples and templates

Follow up email subject lines

1. Had a {{Topic}} idea for you since we last spoke 

Example:

Had a social selling idea for you since we last spoke

2. Been thinking about what you said 

3. Should I give up on you and close the file? 

4. I forgot to mention in our meeting that…

5. The final and easy step…

6. Tuesday meeting at 10PM

7. Sending info I promised 👉

8. I spoke with {{ReferredName}} and they said…

Example:

I spoke with Mark, and he said…

9. Down to business - How we can help

10. Need any help?

11. {{firstName}} I need your advice

12. Have 5 minutes for a quick call?

13. I don't expect you to open this email but…

General cold outreach email subject lines

1. ❤️ how you contribute to {{DesiredResult}}

Example:

❤️ how you contribute to closing the deals faster

2. {{firstName}} let’s connect

3. Are you completely happy with {{CompetitorName}}?

4. Get lifetime access to {{SoftwareName}}

5. What are your insights from {{Event}}?

6. The most exciting opportunity for {{Industry}} companies in 2024

Example:

The most exciting opportunity for insurance companies in 2024

7. Saw your amazing post - Interested in creating shared content?

8. Exclusive for {{CompanyName}}: 3 tips to get conversion faster 

9. Congrats on {{Achievement}} 🥳

Example:

Congrats on becoming CEO 🥳

10.  Join forces? 👊

Urgent email subject lines 

1. Do you have these numbers and analytics yet?

2. Hot conversion data insight for {{CurrentMonth}}, 2024

3. Resource on {{Topic}} that’d go great in your {{Topic}} post

Example:

Resource on Email Statistics that’d go great in your Outreach post

4. Omg {{firstName}}...

5. It doesn’t look good

6. 10 must-know trends to keep up on the market

7. Your Free Trial is ending!

8. Save 30% before the New Year

Email subject lines that entice curiosity

1. Everyone’s favorite {{Occupation}} trick is…

Example:

Everyone’s favorite Sales trick is…

2. 🤫 Real secret to {{Task}} or {{Benefit}} is…

Example:

🤫 Real secret to outperform outreach is…

3. About your approach…

4. I have a question about how {{DoingRelevantTask}}

Example:

I have a question about how you handle budgeting

5. Does Thursday work for you? 

6. New year, a new strategy to {{Goal}}

Example:

New year, a new strategy to achieve 50+ conversions a month

7. Are you taking advantage of your detailed reporting?

8. How we accomplished {{DesiredResult}} in 2 months

Example:

How we accomplished 6x more sales in 2 month

9. {{RelevantTopic}} trends that are the talk of the town

Example:

Sales strategy trends that are the talk of the town

10. Save 5 hours a week with {{Task}} on autopilot 

Example:

Save 5 hours a week with outreach on autopilot

11. 56% of {{JobPosition}} use this trick to improve conversion

12. A cheat-sheet for better conversion — Interested?

13. {{Topic}} resources that can help you at this time

Example:

Cold outreach resources that can help you at this time

14. 4 tips to help increase sales during hard times 💪

15. It’s that simple 😃

16. Few in the {{IndustryType}} know about these hacks

17. Pick one out of these 2 strategies

Email subject lines that address pain points

1. How to survive {{PainPoint}}

Example:

How to survive working 10 hours a day

2. 5 easy steps to beat {{PainPoint}}

3. How to deal with {{PainPoint}} 

Example:

How to deal with LinkedIn algorithm

4. 5 Ideas for {{PainPoint}}

5. A resource to help you with {{PainPoint}}

6. How happy are you with {{Department}} performance?

Example:

How happy are you with Sales performance?

7. Steal this strategy from us - It will work for {{PainPoint}} 😁

8. 7 tips for turning {{PainPoint}} around 

9. Proven solution to {{PainPoint}}

10. Tired of {{PainPoint}}? Let’s have a chat

Subject lines that relieve pain and offer solution 

1. The fastest way to reach your Q2 target 💹

2. Here is the shortcut to {{Benefit}} 🙌

Example:

Here is the shortcut to tracking performance easier 🙌

3. Help is on the way - best strategies for LinkedIn lead generation

4. Problem with closing the deals? Here is how to fix it easily

5. Save up 5 hours of work per week

6. {{ProductOrSolution}} empowers companies such as {{CompanyName}} 

7. Ready to implement {{Tool}} to eliminate {{PainPoint}}?

Example:

Ready to implement Skylead to eliminate wasting time on manual outreach?

Personalized email subject lines

1. {{firstName}}, I was researching {{CompanyName}} and…

2. {{ReferredName}} said to reach out to you… 

Example:

Your colleague Steve said to reach out to you…

3. {{ReferredName}} think you’ll love us too

4. {{firstName}} I loved your post on LinkedIn about {{Topic}}

Example:

Sandy, I loved your post on LinkedIn about how to modernize sales

5. Does this work for you {{firstName}}?

6. {{firstName}}, a quick question regarding your performance

7. {{firstName}}, I notice you try to achieve a 50% increase in sales

8. Opportunity for {{CompanyName}}

9. Partner up with {{CompanyName}}

10. {{firstName}}, I have a story for you

11. {{TheirCompetitorName}} VS {{CompanyName}}

12. {{firstName}} perform {{Task}} better from Now on 💪

Example:

Andy perform outreach better from Now on 💪

13. New managing employees strategy for {{CompanyName}}

14. Loved the blog you wrote for {{CompanyName}}🔥

15. {{firstName}} I missed you at {{Event}}

16. What is your expert opinion on {{Topic}}, {{firstName}}?

Example:

What is your expert opinion on social selling, {{firstName}}?

17. {{firstName}} is there a lot on your plate r/n?

Humorous email subject lines

1. 🌮 Can we Taco ‘bout your growth?

2. ⚽ I wondered why the ball was in my court, then it hit me

3. I tried an elevator pitch - it was great on so many levels 🆙

4. 🐝 You are likely an indecisive bee. Might I call you maybee?

5. 🤝 Connect with you in present or future? It’s kinda tense

6. 🪐 Should I organize a space for our meeting and planet?

7. ⛵ Need a {{Topic}} strategy arc? I Noah guy.

Example:

⛵ Need a Sales strategy arc? I Noah guy.

8. My coffee is mugged and waiting for your call 😅

9. I'm gonna make him an offer you can't refuse…

10. May the Force be with you, and {{YourCompanyName}}🌌

11. {{ReferredName}} said to say hello to his little friend 🙋

12. “You can’t handle the truth!” Or can you?

13. Shaken, not stirred. 🍹 A {{Resource}} you asked for.

Example:

Shaken, not stirred. 🍹 A Guide To Outreach you asked for.

14. I like {{ProductOrAService}} as my wine - sweet and victorious. Do you? 🍷

Frequently asked questions

How can one effectively A/B test different subject lines to find the most effective one for their audience?

A/B testing for email subject lines involves sending two variants to a small segment of your audience to see which performs better, then using the more successful one for the broader audience. Monitoring open rates for each variant provides actionable insights. You can automate A/B testing by using the LinkedIn automation tool and cold email software with such a feature, like Skylead.

Are there specific strategies for crafting subject lines that improve click-through rates, not just open rates?

To improve click-through rates, subject lines should create curiosity or offer value that compels the recipient to discover more inside the email. Personalization and urgency can also encourage clicks by making the email feel more relevant and time-sensitive to the reader.

How do the recommended subject lines perform across different industries, such as tech versus creative fields?

The performance of subject lines can vary by industry due to different audience expectations and content relevance. Customizing subject lines to reflect the specific interests and language of your target industry is crucial for maximizing engagement.

Summary 

Strong and catchy email subject lines are mesmerizing and alluring to your prospects. They are links between your leads and your message. For this reason, it is important to make it as perfect as you can so you can increase the open rate, nurture the prospect and ultimately close the deal. And when you pass through the importance of it all, creating email subject lines and testing them can be fun indeed. 

Here is a quick throwback of what you should and shouldn’t do when writing the email subject lines.

Now it’s your turn. Go and rock out those subject lines! 

Wish to use Skylead for your outreach campaigns and A/B test your emails? We would be glad to hear from you and chat. Say hi by scheduling a Demo with us.

Blank email interface. Insertion point flickers on your document. You can feel it staring back, almost judging you for not knowing what to write anymore for your cold email outreach. You tried everything - it’s not working, and you don’t understand what you are doing wrong.

Once again, without any inspiration, you scribble what your company does, offer a product, and mass blast it. 

You wait. A couple of days later, history repeats itself. There is no response.

You think to yourself ’’This is too hard’’, or worse ’’This is not working for me’’.

As Darth Vader, you start breathing heavily. Take off the mask and get wind of the list of cold email mistakes you're probably making, what impact they have on your email metrics, and how to fix them to improve email campaign performance.

Do not worry. These mistakes happen to everybody.

The most important cold email outreach metrics

Before we dive deep into these email mistakes, let’s recap the metrics you need to track that will tell you a lot about your overall campaign performance.

Understanding and tracking the email metrics is crucial when deciding if your outreach campaign was victorious. It’s like putting a billboard up in the city and not knowing how many people saw it or bought your product afterward. Thanks to technology, now you can.

To be more precise, to measure email performance, you need to knowhow many emails were bounced, opened, responded to, and how many people converted via cold email outreach. Once you have that mastered, you can start creating engaging cold email campaigns.

#1 Cold email metric: Bounce rate

Bounce Rate in email outreach is the total percentage of email messages that have not been delivered successfully. This can happen if for example an email address is invalid or there is a technical issue with the email provider.

How to calculate email bounce rate

Example: 

Let’s say that during your email campaign you sent 1000 email messages. Out of those, 98 weren’t successfully delivered. The calculation would go like this:

Bounce Rate = 98 / 1000 x 100 = 9.8%

#2 Cold email metric: Open rate

Email open rate is the percentage used as an indicator of email campaign health. The higher it is, the better. 

This metric doesn’t tell you a lot about the email convertibility as a whole. However, it can indicate why it wasn’t opened, whether or not your subject line, or preview text (first several words of your email body) are appealing or can imply broken email deliverability. 

How to calculate email open rate

Example: 

Taking the numbers from the previous example, say, you have 1000 sent out, 98 out of those bounced and 565 were opened. The calculation will go like this:

Open rate = 565 / ( 1000 - 98 ) x 100 = 62.63%

#3 Cold email metric: Response rate

It’s nice to have a high Open rate, but it is even better to have a high Response rate, as well. As per its name, this metric indicates the number of individual emails in the cold campaign that leads responded to. This metric shows the quality of your email’s content. Ultimately, a good response rate means that you’ve managed to get the lead’s attention.

How to calculate email response rate

Example:

Continuing the example thread. Now you have 902 unique emails that have been delivered. Out of those, only 133 leads responded. The calculation goes like this:

Response rate = 133 / 902 x 100 = 14.75%

#4 Cold email metric: Email conversion rate

Conversion is an activity when a lead completes a desired goal, such as signing up for Demo or starting the Subscription. That said, conversion rate for email outreach is the percentage of prospects who took the desired action from your email campaign. 

To find out more about conversions, their types, and other KPIs, check out 5 Must-Know KPI Metrics to Grow Your B2B Business [Bonus Metrics Included].

Needless to say, the conversion rate is the ultimate metric to figure out if an email campaign was successful.

How to calculate email conversion rate

Example: 

Out of 902 successfully delivered emails, you have 36 conversions in total. Calculation is the following:

Conversion Rate = 36 / 902 x 100 = 3.99%

Now let’s see what email mistakes you are making that negatively impact these metrics and how to correct them.

Cold email outreach mistakes to say goodbye to

Successful email outreach is a lot tougher than ever these days. With so many emails cramping up the leads inboxes, it is hard to remember and know what best works for your targeted prospects, let alone see the mistakes that slither in without you even noticing. ‍

That’s why we created this ultimate guide to the most common email mistakes, how they affect the metrics, and how to fix them. First, let's break the email mistakes down into the following four categories to make it easier. There are Email Mistakes:

1. Affecting Deliverability 
2. Regarding Content
3. Related To Attitude Towards the Prospect
4. Affecting Sales Process

I Email mistakes affecting deliverability 

1. Acquiring poor quality leads

Let’s address the elephant in the room: many came across a situation where you are weighing options whether you should go for a cheaper alternative or not when buying prospects’ data. Unfortunately, the cheaper option almost always leads to devastating results in the end.

Starting, the leads’ contact information you get from unverified vendors might be completely untargeted for your outreach. You can get every mistake right on this list, but if your ICP is not targeted, the entire email outreach will fail. 

Or, maybe the prospect’s name is incorrect, and you might address them wrongly which will definitely affect the response rate and you will lose this lead. Forever. 

But there is a worse case scenario above all: if emails are invalid or non-existent, they can crumble your email outreach efforts because it increases the bounce rate and risks getting your domain blacklisted. 

Think of it as the butterfly effect: the bigger the bounce rate is, the more it damages your domain health and increases the danger of getting your emails in the spam folder or domain blacklisted. It also decreases your open rate, response rate, and conversion rate in the long run.

What to do?

Buy the data from well-established and verified data vendors or gather the right information as first-party data yourself. 

Another solution is to find a reliable partner for data research or introduce your sales team with a sales engagement tool for outreach that has email discovery and verification features. 

2. Adding a big number of links or sending the broken ones

Everyone wishes to tell the prospect as many things as possible about our product or service. We want to show them the blogs, ask for a meeting, attach a whitepaper file and add alternative comparison pages for them to see. While this confuses the prospect regarding CTA (which we will mention below), it also overcrowds the email itself, making email providers raise their robot heads as bloodhounds. Too many links or files in your email will trigger a warning to the email provider and increase the possibility for your emails to twirl down to the Spam folder. 

Furthermore, if you send a broken link to prospects, they will think of you as an unprofessional or worse spammer, and it will decrease the response and conversion rates, as they will lose interest in you.

What to do?

Try to keep the number of links to a minimum as you can (preferably without any links), and of course, check the links before sending. 

Additional tip: If in your signatures you have linked icons, check every one of them. As those links count as well, and sometimes they get broken, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

3. Sending too many messages per day

We all wish to send as many emails as possible for a short period. But this is a big mistake, especially if your email address is new. Sending too many emails per day can result in your messages ending up in the Spam folder. This can be one of the causes of your open rate dropping. 

What to do?

Slowly warm up your email address manually by sending a low number of emails, and then gradually increase the volume over some time. Or, use email warm-up tools to do it automatically. The warm-up of a new email address or domain can last from 30 to 90 days. 

II Email mistakes regarding content

4. Being too casual or too formal

Balance is everything. Sales representatives sometimes go overboard trying to get their prospects to laugh, which only ends up being too cringey. We do not say GIFs or jokes are bad, we even use them in outreach, and thread them to the context of the message. So know what thy boundaries are. 

Then on the other side of the scale, we have an overly formal approach. The truth is that everyone wishes to be respected, so a formal approach is good, but if you go overboard, you will sound like a robot.

What to do?

Find the balance between the two scales. You can even send personalized GIFs or Images to show creativity and genuine interest, but keep it tasteful.

When it comes to an overly formal approach, you can loosen up a bit. 

5. Subject lines mistakes

Coming up with the subject line cannot be an easy feat. It has to be attractive, short, explain everything but still leave the prospect interested in clicking on it. As challenging as it is, there are still some mistakes people make when it comes to these:  

• Spammy or clickbait subject lines - Big no. It will only enrage your prospects.
• Subject lines not specific enough for the market – This can cause lower open rates as the prospects will not relate to the email at all.
• Subject lines in caps lock - It’s good to be excited, but you don’t need to shout at your leads to get the attention.

What to do? 

These mistakes influence every important email metric starting open rate, so make sure to avoid them. Think about how you would attract the leads’ attention and bind the subject line as a whole with the email body. Even better, try to make the subject line as a prequel to your Preview text of the email and make it a united lead magnet.

6. Message copy not relevant to the market

As mentioned for the subject line, you need to keep a close eye on your email content's relevance to the market, as well. Writing an email not relevant to the industry can result in a lower response rate and conversion rate.

What to do?

Go full private detecting on this one. Research the industry, find the pain points. Go even further - find prospects' companies and information about them. Show them you understand the industry problems and what solution you offer instead.

7. Self-centered messages to prospects

Writing messages that are more focused on you instead of your prospects’ companies can come across as being too aggressive or assertive, resulting in lower response rates.

What to do?

Instead, be aggressive in knowing your lead: Showcase the research you did on them, ask for the call to know more about their pain points and see how your product or service can aid them further. 

People resonate with what’s in it for them. Talk about them, gain their interest through email. 

Example:

8. Adding too much CTAs or not at all

As mentioned above, if you wish to show the prospect the blog posts, ask for a meeting, add alternative comparison pages for them to see, and top it off with a YouTube video - Stop. 

All these are a type of call to action, and piling them in one email will only confuse the prospects regarding CTA. 

On the other hand, if you do not use CTA at all, you will lose the purpose of your cold outreach, so the prospects won’t have action in their mind to fulfill. 

What to do?

The goals of outreach campaigns are different for every purpose. Define one short CTA, and stay away from the unclear ones.
For more information on CTA in sales emails, check out our Detailed Guide On Crafting The Powerful Call To Action.

9. Not enough value

Often, our value proposition is not deep enough, doesn’t hit the bullseye, and is too generic. This directly affects the response rate, and you will lose the prospect as you weren’t compelling enough. 

What to do?

Once again, put on your detective glasses and go into deep search of a particular prospect’s main pain points. You need to know and understand them. 

If you can explain their situation better than they can, they will automatically assume you have the solution and gain interest.

Example:

10. Unnecessary text length

If your cold email message is too long and has numerous paragraphs, take a step back. 

Let's say you are reaching out to CEOs or other higher-up positions. They usually have a lot on their plate, so you probably know the one virtue they lack is time. Please make sure to not waste it. 

What to do?

If you can draw the line through any piece of your text without losing the value, remove it. 

Let's say you have sentences such as: 

• I know you are busy but... 
• I’m following up... 
• I’d love to give you a demo… 
• Do you perhaps know when would be the best time...

You won't lose the value if you cut them off. So instead, tell them something short, sweet, and essential about their business in particular, straight to the point:

• I see that your company struggles with VALUE...
• Would Wednesday at 10 AM work for you...

III Email mistakes related to attitude towards the prospect

11. Questioning the prospects integrity and authority

Now we have a mistake example, which is little farther down the cold email outreach sequence. Let’s say you have a correspondence with the lead from medium or large company who you are not sure if they are a decision maker or not.

Asking a straightforward question ’’Are you the right person?’’ or responding ’’I guess you are just not the right person to reach out to’’ after they do not reply is a big no-no. 

Simply do not ask a straightforward question if someone is a decision-maker. If not a decision-maker, they would feel invalidated.

Or maybe they indeed are, but your outreach was just not that compelling enough to respond to, or they might think ’’If I'm not, would you treat me with the same respect?’’ Either way, this is how you will decrease your conversion rate. 

What to do?

If you really wish to know if someone is the right person to reach out to, then you can say something like this: 

When you bought this {{Product}} in the past, who was involved in the process?

12. Being authoritative over or submissive under the prospect 

There are three ego states in the body: child, adult, and parent ego state. If you command someone to do something, you talk to someone from the parent's ego state, and they will automatically go to their child's ego state. 

An example would be ’’Let me know the time that works for you’’.

How would you feel if you got this sales email?

Would you want to rebel against that sentence? Your prospect would want to rebel too. 

Another example would be if you start your email with just a prospect's name, it will trigger a child's ego state, and they will think they are in serious trouble. You would want to increase the chance of somebody responding, so when cold outreaching, your goal should be to trigger ONLY their adult ego state. 

What to do?

So what to avoid in communication exactly?

1. Commanding to prospects to do something (Child ego state trigger)
2. Putting accountability on them for not responding (Child ego state trigger)
3. Invalidate their objections (Child ego state trigger)
4. Sentences like: 

• Just checking in...
• I know you are busy but…
• Would you have the time… (Parent ego state trigger)

Overall avoid triggering their Parent or Child ego state. Instead, trigger an adult ego state. 

For example, instead of saying:

Would you have the time…

You can offer an up-front contract. For example, write the exact time and date of the meeting and ask for consent. Additionally, provide an agenda for your call. 

13. Judging or making the prospects feel bad

Even though you think you will never do this to your prospects, this type of mistake is one of the most common ones. 

The first example is being harsh regarding the leads' choice to use similar products. Even though you are not saying anything bad about the leads themselves, you are indirectly insulting the decision they made. This easily translates to insulting them.

What to do?

Instead of judging the prospect for using a competitor and bragging why your product is better, say something like this:

Oh, you are using an XY competitor? That’s great! So you are familiar with the type of product itself. What differs our product from them is…

Also, do not allow your words to make your prospects feel bad. Put the onus on you, not on your prospect. 

Example: 

IV Email mistakes affecting sales process

14. Not setting up follow up messages sequences

Not having your follow-up game is the next in line of common lead generation mistakes (both for lead generation on LinkedIn and off). If the prospect doesn’t reply, do not give up. 

Follow-up emails always get a better response rate than the first email. In this study, there is an illustration of difference as follow-ups got 18% response rate higher than the first email, 13% to the fourth, and 27% to the sixth email *.

What to do?

Set up follow-up emailing sequences for the prospects who did not respond. Even if they do not respond to these follow-ups, insert them for other purpose sequences. Never give up, and never give in. 

15. Not tracking email campaigns’ performance

As we mentioned in the beginning, tracking is everything when it comes to your sales effort, especially if we talk about cold outreach.

If you do not know what you are tracking, how would you know if the channel is effective?

What to do?

So be sure to set and track the following: 

• Bounce Rate
• Open Rate
• Response Rate
• Conversion Rate

On the other hand you can use a LinkedIn automation and cold email software such as Skylead to track it for you. Analyze the chosen tool thoroughly and start tracking your performance. 

Honorable mentions

We cannot finish this blog, without mentioning a couple of short email mistakes which are essential to correct.

16. Poor Grammar - you have so many grammar checkers and tools available on the internet nowadays to remove sloppiness in communication.

17. Using initials - signing your email message using your initials such as J.K. can come across as unprofessional. Use your full name and surname in your signature. 

18. Not personalizing the email - Nowadays, in the cold outreach, you need to step up your personalization game, especially if you did the prospecting on LinkedIn first. To learn all about outreach personalization check out Cold Outreach: Increase The Level of Personalization [+Templates]

Summary

Cold email outreach is still a powerful tool for lead generation and conversion if done right. Take time to study all of the mistakes mentioned above, let them be your guide, and double-check. 

Here are all the email outreach mistakes to serve you as a checklist: 

1. Acquiring Poor Quality Leads

2. Adding A Big Number Of Links Or Sending The Broken Ones

3. Sending Too Many Messages Per Day

4. Being Too Casual Or Too Formal

5. Subject Lines Mistakes

6. Message Copy Not Relevant To The Market

7. Self-Centered Messages To Prospects

8. Adding Too Much CTAs Or Not At All

9. Not Enough Value

10. Unnecessary Text Length

11. Questioning The Prospects Integrity and Authority

12. Being Authoritative Over Or Submissive Under The Prospect 

13. Judging Or Making The Prospects Feel Bad

14. Not Setting Up Follow Up Messages Sequences

15. Not tracking email campaigns’ performance

16. Poor Grammar

17. Using initials 

18. Not personalizing the email 

Now get too cold email writing - You’ve got this. Godspeed!

Wish to use email and LinkedIn in your outreach and successfully track their performance? See Skylead in action - Start your 7-day Free Trial.

You’ve done a serious outreach effort. 

You came up with a well-thought-of marketing strategy, engaging copy, and targeted leads meticulously. 

Still, it hasn't brought the results you’ve expected. 

How? You’ve followed every how-to guideline for successful outreach. 

But have you read through a no-no manual as well? 

Yeah. We thought so. 

Inspired by our users’ questions and practices we read about on numerous Lead Generation discussion platforms, we decided to dedicate this blog to 6 common outreach mistakes that you are probably unaware of. 

Not testing different channels

The most senseless mistake you can do in the times of sales engagement platforms and multichannel outreach is to rely on only one means of communication. 

New approaches continue to arise and so should your business flexibility. 

Don’t assume that a certain path of getting to your leads is the only one worth a shot just because it gave a positive outcome in the past. 

Sure, there is nothing bad in going for what brought valuable results. But keep your mind open. Your perfect leads might be using other, already acclaimed or emerging, platforms as well. Testing them is the best way to find what works best for a particular campaign. 

You would be surprised how going bold leads to conversions that otherwise wouldn’t happen. 

Making it all about you 

Your potential customers don’t care how something worked or played out for you. 

They don’t want to listen to how awesome your product or service is unless you show how that awesomeness applies to them. Therefore, blurting out a rehearsed monologue about you and your product turns out to be a mistake that could cost you a valuable lead.

Prove to your customers that what you’re offering is a game-changer for them. It will solve their problems, spare their time and money, and make their lives better. This is how you earn somebody’s attention. 

Therefore, when writing a product brief or an outreach copy, make sure to do your homework first. By approaching with a concrete solution to a challenging part of their business, you are more likely to be heard out. Even if they don’t buy something right away, your proposal will gain the advantage in the sea of impersonal offers. 

Not taking into consideration a buyer’s journey 

Not all people you reach out to or who visit your website are in the same stage of their buyer’s journey.

Some of them are in the phase of researching different options, some of them bumped into your brand for the very first time or heard about your company after you cold-outreached them, and now they are inquiring by checking out your online presence or asking questions to you directly.

Each lead needs to be approached depending on their buyer's journey. 

Give a chance to those who are hearing from you for the very first time to learn more about your business. Asking them to make a purchase right away is one of the most common LinkedIn lead generation mistakes.

Those who already short-listed your company may want an educational kit, free course, templates, something that will provide them with industry valuable information. 

Some of them will be ready for a demo. 

Therefore, segment your leads depending on their buyer’s journey. Adjust your language and have different types of content ready to attach and offer. If someone doesn’t buy right away, it doesn’t mean you should write them off. Nurture those leads. 

The feeling of being taken care of makes a difference. 

Non-strategic CTAs

The research has shown that landing pages that have two or more call-to-action buttons help close fewer deals than the ones with only one, clear CTA, usually at the end. 

That is, the website visitor gets distracted when bombarded with too many invites to purchase or book a demo. The same stands for an outreach message. It is far more effective to write an engaging and well-thought-of copy first and then leave a clear call to action for the end. If you keep your CTA the main focus, it is more likely people will click on it. 

On the other hand, not putting a CTA on a page is a big mistake. When a website visitor gets informed about your product or service, they should not browse around and search for a call to action. 

First of all, it costs you nothing to put one on each landing page. Second of all, it takes a second for your lead to lose interest. Imagine if you had to give someone your money and put an effort into finding a way to do it? 

Making assumptions about your audience

You are not your client. And you are biased.

Prospecting on LinkedIn, or anywhere for that matter, on the assumption that you know what they need is a big mistake. 

Instead, reach out and talk to your leads first. Find out what they like or dislike, get into discussions with them, and collect valuable information before you even mention your product. 

Not only will you gain more insight into the market you are trying to get into but will know how to position your brand and customize your service to your client’s best interest. 

This brings us back to the above-mentioned mistake #2 - making it all about you. Just forget about it. There are so many other companies out there providing the same service. Unless you prove that you genuinely care, you will be positioned low on the list of available options. 

Asking too much too soon

True, we’ve just recommended talking openly to your potential clients and finding out as much as you can about their way of doing business. 

However, it is all about when and how you ask them. 

Mutual trust grows with time and proper nurturing. 

Don't make a mistake of asking your leads to overshare or disclose information that might expose their business. Not only will you not get an answer but you will be marked as suspicious. Because, why would anyone want to tell their biggest weakness to a complete stranger? 

Therefore, nurture your leads and don't run. Crawl your way into their uncertainties. Once you're there, justify their trust. And yes, ask only what's absolutely necessary to make the sale.

Summary 

Making the above mistakes will cause you to waste time, budget, and energy. 

The good news is that we've cracked the code for you. 

Now when you know what to avoid, start doing so and enjoy the increase in high-quality leads. 

Over the years, cold email marketing turned out to be the right choice to unleash the full potential of outreach as a Lead Generation strategy - apart from LinkedIn lead generation, that is. 

With its minimal cost and extensive reach, it is clear that cold emailing has probably the highest ROI compared to other marketing approaches. 

In the present day, modern email marketing drifted away from the one-size-fits-all model. It is now based on consent, segmentation, and personalization. Consequently, the response rates went up and so did its value.

However, the minimum requirement for cold email marketing is to have your leads', preferable business, emails. If you run into their private ones, it is only up to you to use them for outreach purposes. 

Here are 8 easy ways to find your leads' business emails that work. 

Ask them for it 

There are different ways of asking for your lead’s email. 

Make an online form for people who visit your website and would love to be updated on a regular basis through your newsletter. 

Or, insert a pop-up asking your visitors to subscribe to your newsletter first to access your website’s content. This one can be a bit annoying, as many people might give up unless whatever you have to offer is absolutely worthy of sharing their information. 

If you don’t have a newsletter or it is not aimed towards your leads, try giving your website visitors a free gift in the form of a pdf or audio file that will bring value to their business in exchange for their email address. 

Lastly, you can do a LinkedIn prospecting of your own and reach out to people who would be interested in subscribing to your newsletter.

Subscribe to your lead’s newsletter 

Yes, that’s correct. If your lead doesn’t want to subscribe to your newsletter, you can always do vice-versa. You will eventually get an email from them that you can use to reach out. 

Check their website 

Each brand most likely has a website. If not, there is for sure some kind of an online presence in the form of a LinkedIn, Facebook, and/or Instagram account (see below). 

When you visit your lead’s website, search the “Contact”, “About Us”, and/or “Team” pages. 

These are the places where their general email or a message form is located. It might not be the contact of the person you would like to speak to. However, by reaching out to them, explaining who you are, and asking for a specific person’s email address, you might actually get it. 

Check their social media 

As mentioned above, if not a website, there is for sure some kind of a social media presence. 

LinkedIn

Start with LinkedIn, the biggest professional network out there. If a lead has a publicly available email, it will most likely be on their LinkedIn profile. If not, try finding their company’s LinkedIn page, search for the generic email, and ask for the target lead’s direct contact. 

Anyways, there are two ways of scraping a publicly available email from LinkedIn - manually and with Skylead. 

Depending on the number of leads and your company’s outreach policy you can decide what works best for you. 

Scraping emails manually

There are three places you should look up for an email address on LinkedIn. 

1. Click on the “Contact Info” section. 

2. Check out their LinkedIn cover picture, especially if a corporate one. 

3. Read the Profile Summary. 

Sometimes users leave their business email at the end or in the middle of their LinkedIn bio section to make it seem as a call to action. Make sure you read it to the end. 

Using Skylead to scrape emails 

Collecting publicly available information of your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-degree connections tends to be quick and effective with Skylead. 

Check out how it works. 

Turn on the “Collect Contact Info” option. 

What Skylead does is visit each of your lead’s LinkedIn profiles and collect their publicly available data. 

Once the magic has been done, use the “Export Data” on the “Campaign Tracking Page” to export emails and other information in a CSV file.

Have in mind that the “Collect Contact Info” can be just one of the steps of your automated outreach. Skylead’s Smart Sequences allow you to combine different actions based on your leads’ behavior while serving your business goals and creating a valuable database that you can export and reuse at any moment. Therefore, building an outreach campaign with Skylead can serve multiple purposes. 

Or you can decide to make a campaign with the sole intention of collecting your leads publicly available emails and other valuable data. 

Facebook

Go to the company or individual’s page on Facebook and check out the “About section”. 

Step #1

Step #2

Instagram

There are two options for finding somebody’s email address when it comes to instagram.
The first one is only available and visible in the app.

Click on the “Contact” option. 

This action will take you to see the following information. 

The second option is available in both desktop and app versions.

Just check the “Info” section of the targeted profile. 

Try following the pattern 

There are two ways to "guess" your lead's business email. 

The first way starts with knowing the name of your lead’s company. Try composing a generic email such as info@domain.com or contact@domain.com. Reach out and ask for the direct contact of a person you would like to talk to. 

The second way is knowing the company’s business emails pattern. If one of the employee’s emails goes like john.smith@domain.com, there is a great chance that your desired lead’s email is also composed of name, dot, last name, at sign, domain. 

Then, try inserting it in your email provider and see if it will be recognized or if the picture will show up. However, have in mind that not having a picture doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not the correct one. 

Use Email Permutator 

Using an Email Permutator is one of the options.

Go to the main page and type in your lead’s name, surname, and domain.  

The Email Permutator produces all the possible email combinations based on the inserted data.

How will you know which one is the right one? Insert all of them in the recipient's field of your email and see which one will be recognized by your provider. If there is one with a profile picture, it is most likely to be the right one.

Search on Google  

There are several ways through which Google can help you find someone’s email address. 

Here are three. 

• Search “james.johnson@amazon.com” 

By using quotation marks in your query, you’re telling Google to search for results that contain that exact keyword. If your lead's business email ever showed up anywhere publicly, it will be displayed.

• Type site:amazon.com James Johnson email address in Google search

By using site: domain Google will give you results only from that domain. 

• Search [James Johnson] + email 

Google will find your lead’s email address if ever published somewhere on the web. 

Use Skylead

Use Skylead’s Email Discovery & Verification feature to find your prospects’ business emails even without being connected on LinkedIn. 

With a Smart Sequence as simple as this one, Skylead will provide you with verified business emails, implying the lowest possible bounce rates. 

After the sequence was executed, you can go ahead and export all the collected data in a CSV file. 

In case you didn't know, Skylead is an automation tool, email finder, and scraping tool, all in one platform. 

Sure, you can use it to find and verify emails and scrape publicly available data. But you can also opt for LinkedIn, Email, or combined outreach (LinkedIn + Email) that will serve your business goal best while bringing down the manual work to the minimum.

This is just one of the numerous options you have with Skylead. Check out our templates to get the idea of Smart Sequences and to get inspired for unleashing the full potential of your outreach. 

Summary

Finding somebody’s email address doesn’t necessarily have to be difficult, but it can be time consuming. 

The best approach will depend on the number of leads you want to reach and your company’s outreach policy. 

However, with nowadays software development, have in mind that automating the process of finding somebody’s business email and getting through to that person can be a quick and painless process. 

Think about it. 

Or schedule a demo call with our team member and hear out all the possibilities you can have with Skylead. 

The rules of selling have changed. 

A formal product presentation days where Sales Representatives would meet face to face with their potential customers are far behind us. 

Nowadays, around two-thirds of the B2B buyers make their decision via online content.

And as you're not the only one with an online presence, you need to find a way to stand out in the era of information overflow. 

Nowadays, LinkedIn is the platform that provides salespeople with valuable tools for prospecting on LinkedIn, and researching ideal customers. It allows them to get in touch with their perfect leads and send product or service offers directly in their Inbox. 

However, just like salespeople put in less time to reach their potential customers, it takes only a few seconds for customers to decide if they have any further interest in what you are presenting. 

The age of the customer 

The ability to quickly access information about any product or service changed how business is being done. 

Furthermore, customers openly talking about their experience with your company and sharing it for everyone to see has had a considerable impact when opting for a product or service. 

Customers are tired of random products and services being pushed into their faces.

They want to hear from salespeople who know how to adapt the qualities and properties of what they have to offer to their customers’ needs and expectations. 

They want you to know what they lack better than they do. 

The salesy lingo doesn’t work anymore. Moreover, it is highly unwelcome. 

So, for all of you that use this platform for LinkedIn Lead Generation and other sales activities, here are 5 tips on how to sell without sounding too salesy. 

A pitch should never be your first conversation

When you are connecting with someone on LinkedIn, it is highly frowned upon to start a conversation with a pitch. 

Moreover, when approaching a potential lead, the Invite to Connect is what in real life is the first impression. You only get a couple of seconds to catch your prospect’s attention or be dismissed for any reason. 

That’s why the best way to approach a potential customer is to make a reference to something that you have in common.

It could be a shared interest, you might be members of the same LinkedIn group, work in a similar or adjacent industry, or have attended a specific LinkedIn event, etc. 

This type of well-thought approach brings high acceptance and response rates. 

Here’s an idea for your Invite to Connect. 

[template]

Hello {{firstName}}, 

I see that you attended the “5 Marketing Strategies for a Post-Covid World” event.

As someone with {{totalYearsInCareer}} experience in the industry, I would love to hear your thoughts on a multi-channel approach to engagement.

After you’ve been accepted, you can proceed following the same “hook”.

[template]

Multi-channel outreach implies so many online and offline channels of communication!

When speaking of LinkedIn, Skylead is an online platform that combines messages, InMails, and Emails with LinkedIn features such as View, Follow, Invite to Connect, etc., to create the highest number of touchpoints with your perfect leads.

It is a very effective way to do multichannel outreach and, with the right targeting, you will be able to generate and get through to leads who are most likely interested in whatever you have to offer.

I would love to tell you more about it. Would you like to join our group Demo Call? By clicking on the link, you will see several dates and times available.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Best, 

Joshua

Avoid hyperbolic words & phrases

Avoid hyperbolic words such as “cheap”, “one-in-a-lifetime opportunity”, “incredible”, “amazing”, “promotion”, etc. 

Clients take these statements with skepticism. 

Instead, show them that you’ve done your research and that you are messaging just because you genuinely believe that what you have to offer will significantly improve the quality of their business. 

Be precise where exactly you’ve seen room for improvement and how you can help.

Use words that imply the same.

There is no better selling proposal than the one that is supported with well-researched facts. 

[template]

Hello {{firstName}},

I have been following the work of {{currentCompany}} for quite some time now. 

Due to your vast experience in the role of {{occupation}} at {{currentCompany}}, I am sure you know the struggle with the timely and accurate flow of critical information during international transport.

I am here to offer a solution. 

“OnTheWay” is an application developed in collaboration with over 100 customs worldwide. It provides the most precise, reliable, and real-time information on any type of international shipment. You will be able to give even your biggest customers the exact day and time of their long-awaited purchase. 

I would love to schedule a call and further discuss the benefits it could bring to your company. 

Best regards,

Evan 

Turn your sales into a conversation, not a rehearsed monologue 

A genuine back-and-forth conversation will work more to your advantage than just blurting out a rehearsed monologue. 

By asking thoughtful and well-aimed questions not only will you keep your leads interested but you will also gain a more thorough understanding of what they exactly need. 

This will allow you to position your product or service better in comparison to your competitors that “haven’t done their homework”. 

Of course, all of this is on the condition that you have previously targeted your audience well enough to know that most likely there is room for your product or service to help. 

Start with something like this.

[template]

Hello {{firstName}},

I can see that you’ve been working in the Manufacturing Industry for quite some time now. 

As someone who has been holding the position of {{occupation}}, what is your experience regarding the problem of forecasting demand for products? 

Thank you so much for sharing! 

Best, 

Robert 

Once your lead answers back, you can go ahead and investigate further on what they need. 

[template]

Thank you {{firstName}} for sharing your insight! 

I hear you. 

Forecasting demand for products is for sure one of the main challenges of any Manufacturing business. 

If you fail the customer demand, your sale will significantly drop. On the other hand, the cost of producing too many items that don’t sell weighs hard on your budget. 

Do you mind sharing how you have been handling it so far? 

And then, once you’ve come to the root of the problem, try selling your service by showing them how it can apply directly to their particular situation. 

[template]

That is quite an interesting way of dealing with it. 

What if I told you there was a management system that helps manufacturers analyze consumer behavior, which products they are interested in, when they usually make purchases, how many products they buy at certain times, etc?

Would you be interested in hearing more about it? 

If the answer is yes, go ahead and explain why doing business with your company will save them time and money. 

Make it all about them 

At the end of the day, customers don’t care about the product or service itself. They care about what it can do for them. 

And with that being said, it means that they don’t even care about how that product or service worked for YOU. People want to know how it can change THEIR lives and the way THEY have been doing business. 

So, when you are reaching out to your potential customers, never start with “Here is how {{product}} helped ME”. 

[template]

Hello {{firstName}},

Thank you for taking your time to hear me out! 

I am reaching out because I would like to show you how our software could save up to 6 hours a day to your Sales Team while producing 10 times more leads. 

- Email Discovery & Verification works perfectly for your cold emailing campaigns. You will be able to discover verified business emails of your LinkedIn leads and expand your prospects list.

- Real-time insights offer detailed analytics so that you can evaluate which campaigns produce the best results. 

- Smart Sequences combine LinkedIn with Email Outreach. Would you consider adding LinkedIn outreach to your sales and marketing efforts? 

Let’s hop on a Demo Call and discuss how your company can further benefit from it! 

Best regards, 

Mary J. Luis 

It’s OK not to sell 

Last but not least, you don’t need to sell at all costs! 

Learn how to take no for an answer while still ending on a high note. 

Being pushy will not turn a no into a yes. It could just refrain people from ever doing business with you in the future. 

You would be surprised how often a genuine interest in customers and in selling them what they really need might result in them coming back or recommending your services to someone else. Even if they have never worked with you before. 

Know when to stop, but also how to leave the ending open to a potential collaboration in the future. 

[template]

Hello {{firstName}},

It was nice talking to you. 

Thank you once again for taking the time to hear about my services. 

I appreciate your feedback. 

Should you have any questions in the future or simply want to exchange experiences regarding Event Planning, feel free to reach out!

Have a great day and good luck with all your future projects!

Best, 

Michelle 

Summary

Nowadays customers have access to enough information to make a purchase without ever talking to you. 

However, it is usually a personal touch that gives them that extra push. 

They want to feel heard and taken care of and not just some random target of the act of selling.

That’s why make sure to narrow down your audience as much as possible, research their needs and room for improvements, and then get through to them with a well-defined offer. 

For more effective outreach, consider using a Sales Automation Platform. 

Skylead is an excellent choice for those who want to combine LinkedIn with Email Outreach for their sales process. Not only will you have a higher number of available paths to your prospects, but you will also, as seen in the above examples, be able to use their publicly available information on Linkedin to hyper-personalize your outreach. 

Long story short - be smart and let Skylead think for you.

Email Marketing has maintained popularity over the years. 

It is an efficient way to get new leads, nurture relationships and raise awareness about your business.

With the right strategies, you can gain new customers, as well as develop trust with current clients.

That is, it can become a trusted way to boost sales and grow your pipeline in no time or simply sustain good results long term.

Some businesses have not yet developed tactics for productive Email Marketing. That’s why it is resulting in modest effects or no effects at all. 

Disappointed by sparse returns, some have given up on the idea. Most likely they miseed out on perks provided by a good Cold Emailing strategy. 

But were they right? 

Why is Email Marketing important?

It’s true that in order to grow your business through Email Marketing you need to know a few tips and tricks. However, keep in mind that learning them will be very rewarding.

Did you know that, according to several studies, campaigns that were implemented through email generated significantly more profit compared to ones run through Social Media Networks?

Fact check: A whopping 99% of consumers check their emails every single day. Therefore, the cold mailing is one of the most reliable ways for businesses to develop relationships and boost sales.

Investing a single dollar in Email Marketing brings a return on investment of 40 USD.

Check how much better it rates compared to other forms of Digital Marketing in the chart below.

Knowing just how profitable Email Marketing is, makes learning the right methods definitely worthwhile. Additionally, with the right tool, you are guided through the experience with the utmost care provided by our Customer Support Team and cutting-edge technology.

With Skylead, you can send up to 100 emails per day. However, we always recommend starting off with a lower number, so that your emails don’t finish in a Spam folder.

Contacting leads through email is for sure the most sustainable way to reach more people over time. 

So, how do you start Email Marketing or improve existing strategies?

We’ve prepared 10 tips and tricks to help you boost your sales via email and help you achieve the best results.

1. Understanding your audience

When starting out with Email Marketing, it’s crucial for you to understand your target audience.

Who are they? 

What do they like? 

How can they benefit from your services or products? 

After you answer these questions, it will be much easier for you to figure out the perfect way to reach out to them. You will be able to find the tone your audience will enjoy, one that will truly captivate their attention.

But, wait, that seems like a lot of work!

Don’t worry. With Skylead’s state-of-the-art tool, the process of targeting is eased to the extent that building your perfect customer pool will take less than 5 minutes. 

With Sales Navigator filters, you can do the prospecting on LinkedIn, and find leads according to their location, employment, connection degree (1st, 2nd, or 3rd degree), position, used keywords, groups, and much more. In other words, you can narrow down your ideal audience to decision-makers who will benefit from your services big time. 

And this is the part of LinkedIn Lead Generation done right. 

Also, have in mind that writing a copy that will be relevant to your target market is now pretty simplified. It will for sure result in a higher response rate compared to generalized Email Strategies.

2. Expanding your mailing list

Many people make the mistake of thinking that putting a form on their website and hoping that visitors sign up will be enough to expand their Mailing list.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t really work that way. 

In order to really build an extensive network of potential clients, you’ll either need some time and creativity to get more leads, or you can rely on our innovative Email Discovery feature. It will help you access the email addresses of the most important people related to your industry in just a few clicks. 

Skylead’s Email Discovery feature brings the possibility of collecting personal email addresses, incorporated in a lead’s profile, or even a business email.

The alternative is creating lead magnets that will help you receive email addresses. Give something for free in exchange for contact details. It can be a free ebook, a case study, or a product sample – really anything potential customers might find valuable enough to hand out their email address. 

Ture, this can take quite some time and resources. But, if you’ve already managed to acquire a rich source of contacts, make sure you make the best use of it.

3. Nurture relationships 

In order to reap the most benefits of your EM strategy, it will be necessary to build a relationship with people and companies from your contact list. 

You can achieve this by sending out regular emails and follow-ups. These need to keep the interest of respective clients, which is crucial for boosting your sales efforts. 

It’s not easy to manually send emails to each contact on your list. We understand that you’re already busy building your business and don’t have enough time to allocate to that part.

That’s why we in Skylead developed a tool that can help you save up to 7 hours a day. Skylead is there to send multiple emails, customize automated messages, and schedule your follow-ups. Furthermore, it is providing a well-organized dashboard and inbox, ensuring you never miss a single message.

4. Segment your mailing list

Not every offer will be equally interesting to your entire list. That’s why segmenting the list is a very important step. It can help you keep your efforts engaging by only sending relevant information. 

The sublime labeling option in Skylead’s inbox allows you to best segment your recipient list using easy-to-use sticky notes, helping you provide a tailored experience for your subscribers. 

Segmenting your lead list will help you speak directly to your consumer. You will be able to provide them with engaging content that will keep you out of the spam box.

5. Mix up your campaigns by using different outreach channels

You’re used to having Skylead on your side with LinkedIn steps such as Connection Invites, Messages, View & Follow Options, and LinkedIn InMails, but we don’t want you to stop there.

No, we want you to use the full potential of our Sales Engagement tool! It is here for your business to shine. 

Email, as a powerful form of Direct Marketing, is now integrated into our platform, allowing you to set up a campaign with LinkedIn located steps but now also send your messages via email.

And the best thing is – you can mix emails with every other step there is.

6. Test, test, test

Skylead helps you run multiple campaigns where you can comfortably run A/B tests to figure out the most efficient approach for you.

Try it by pitching two campaigns A and B, to slightly different target groups, with slightly different messages and see how they will react. Track the outcome and find what works best for your business.

Also, there are target groups that are naturally more OPEN for InMails. Make sure to not forget that feature.

By combining all the features and options Skylead offers you, you’ll be more than able to run a good test.

7. Ask for feedback

The best way to keep prospects from your Mailing list engaged is to ask them what they’d want. 

Sounds too simple? 

Well, people love to be included and appreciate the effort to accommodate their needs. Therefore, asking them about things they’d like to see in your newsletter or suggestions regarding your product/service will not only provide you with helpful information, it will also make your contacts feel appreciated. 

That way, your contacts will be interested and invested, making it more likely that they’ll reply or hopefully make a sale. As soon as they see you care about their opinion, they’ll be twice as likely to engage with you.

8. Warm up your cold emailing

What better way to keep your audience engaged than to find a way to speak directly to them? 

Just because you automated sending, it doesn’t mean you should write them as if you’re speaking to a large group, disregarding their personalities and needs. 

Skylead is bringing you a great way of designing your messages so they seem as if every single email was aimed directly at that particular person. 

Wondering how to do that? We got you covered! 

Use tags in a message and include details such as first and last name, occupation, years of experience, education, and other relevant data to add warmth to your cold emailing. 

Use behavioral data to craft emails that resonate with your contacts and potential clients. 

9. Create a highly enjoyable customer experience

It’s worth repeating that impersonal ads, promotions, and sales pitches in emails make a lousy customer experience. 

How can you do better, you ask? 

Put yourself in the shoes of the receiver. Would you be annoyed or entertained by the content?

Our technology will instantly pause the automation if someone replies. This will give you space to decide whether it’s okay to continue the sequence. If so, you can get a lead back to the campaign.

That’s how we nurture sequences based on leads’ actions and prevent them from sending unwanted emails if they state they are not interested.

10. Add an extra something

Show your subscribers you care about them by including an extra token of affection. 

Try Skylead’s awesome Image Personalization feature that will add some color to plain text, making them even more appealing to potential customers.

Choose between our funny, or even corpo visuals if you like, and include details such as the recipient’s name, occupation, workplace and more, to make a cool addition to brightening their day. 

You can choose from a variety of templates we’ve prepared for you or simply import some of your images, to really stand out from the crowd and multiply your response rate. 

One way to grab the attention of your audience is to also congratulate them on holidays for New Year by including your logo and recipient’s name to a cool, personalized card – what better way to nurture your relationship with clients than send them a cool e-card and wish them good luck. 

Read more about our new Email Automation & Image Personalization features here.

And, of course, if any questions arise you can always count on us to chat it through.

Thank you for reading and stay tuned for more blogs.