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.
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 a 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.
Go to the company or individual’s page on Facebook and check out the “About section”.
Step #1
Step #2
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.
You finally decided to go for Sales Navigator and take your LinkedIn prospecting and Generation to the next level.
By having 24 “Lead” filters at your disposal, the quality of your prospects will surely skyrocket, and so will your sales.
Now you are like a kid in a candy shop.
But there is that one filter that caught your eye as you realized it suits your business needs the best - targeting members of a LinkedIn group.
Target LinkedIn group members: Where to start from
We care how you do your Lead Search. Knowing how to narrow down your audience to those who will truly be interested in doing business with you can require quite a skill.
So, sit back and let us guide you step-by-step through the “Targeting members of a LinkedIn group” filter (better known as the “Group” filter 🤣).
First, open your Sales Navigator and click on the “Lead filters” option.
The drop-down menu with filters will appear in the following format, so scroll down and choose “Groups”.
How the Sales Navigator "group" search works
Click on “Find people in groups” and type in the name of the LinkedIn group which members you want your campaign to be aimed at.
You can target a specific LinkedIn group or multiple groups.
For example, if you type in “LinkedIn Social Selling”, other groups will pop out suggesting that you can target even more of them.
Furthermore, in the top right corner, you will immediately have an insight into how many members this LinkedIn group has. That is, how many leads your campaign will be aimed at.
The good thing about Sales Navigator filters is that you can go ahead and further narrow down your search since most likely you don’t want to reach out to all of the members of a selected LinkedIn group.
You can use any of the remaining 23 “Lead” filters, and include, but also exclude (something that not many people know!) certain prospect types. Not all of the filters support this option, but the majority does.
Check this out.
For example, we decided to go with CFO members of the targeted LinkedIn Groups but excluded those with a CEO title.
So lit!
And how about the Boolean search?
Some filters allow the so-called “Boolean” search. It combines keywords with modifiers such as AND, NOT, and OR to produce more relevant results.
What if you are not happy with the search result?
Once you see your search result, it is up to you if you want to change it, extend it, or narrow it down even more.
Know that at any moment you can use the available Sales Navigator filters until you create a “perfect” audience for the product or service that you are offering.
If you would like to read a detailed explanation of all filters, check out our Sales Navigator filters guide.
Use Skylead to target LinkedIn group members
Copy-paste the URL into Skylead’s Campaign Creator. In case you did not specify the “Relationship” filter (1st, 2nd, or 3rd-degree connections) beforehand, you can do it directly at the Skylead Campaign Creator page.
Have in mind that you can use the “Group Connections” option only if you are part of the specific LinkedIn group that you are targeting.
You don’t need to be a member to reach out to those that are.
However, it is highly recommended just for the sake of the higher acceptance rate and eagerness to hear you out.
So, what are you waiting for?
Go target those leads, make bad-ass campaigns with Skylead and rock your LinkedIn lead generation! 😎
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.