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.

Hi!
My name is

Huh?

My name is

Who? 

My name is

Slim Shady?

No? 

Then nobody cares what your name is. 

So stop starting your emails like that. 

Cold emails: Business scale-ups or annoying practice? 

Let’s be honest. The battle for attention in the Inbox is real. 

That’s why you shudder at the very thought of cold emailing. Maybe you wonder if it even works. Well, statistics show it does. And pretty well too. 

Now when you know that your email outreach efforts are not necessarily in vain, put in some time and wit to write them well. You have only few characters to catch their attention, so why waste them on repeating yourself. If you do believe that your name, your company name, and other info of that kind can be a game-changer to generate sales, use the signature section. You are afraid that your leads won’t get till the end of it? Write a killer copy then. 

But write it from the start. Actually, write it from the very subject line. 

Subject line: Why it matters and how to make it better

The subject line of your email is like the cover of the book. Unless you are drawn to it, you won’t buy it. The same applies to emails. If the subject line is not attractive enough, your email will end up in the trash folder. Unless, of course, you are Eminem. ‘Cause, who would not want to know what Eminem wants from them? 

That being said, if there was a one-size-fits-all recipe for writing killer subject lines, all emails of this world would be opened. But not everyone’s the same. Therefore, different subject lines affect different individuals. All we can do is help you out with several tips (that work. Not for everyone, of course).  

Make it catchy, but not misleading

Your subject line should have a maximum of 9 words or up to 60 characters. In those 60 characters, you need to find a way to summarize what your email is all about and make it attractive enough for your prospects to open it. 

What lots of people do, and is strongly frowned upon, is write catchy, yet misleading subject lines. In case you are considering it, just think about the consequences. It might work once, but the next time you send an email, it will immediately end up in the trash. 

Examples

1. 8 ways to find somebody’s email address (numbers work)
2. Why you should invest in Sales Automation platform (use catchy words such as why, how, what)
3. Original ideas for personalizing Invites to Connect (people are always on the lookout for something new and different)

Convey urgency 

Putting a deadline on what you are offering conveys importance and limited availability. It leaves an impression in a world where everything is utterly accessible. 

That’s why subject lines that work usually have some kind of an urgency indicator. If your offer really does expire in a week or your content is available for a certain period of time, mention it right away. Otherwise, don’t delude your prospects. 

Examples

1. Last chance for 15% off for additional seats
2. Expires tonight - download top experts’ sales book
3. 10% off if you purchase within the next 24h 

Make them feel the FOMO

The fear of missing out is the driving force of today. Write an email that contains valuable information and/or industry updates for your prospects. Then tell them so. Use the subject line to make your prospect understand that, unless they open your email, they will be missing out on something important. Something that would potentially change their lives for the better. 

Examples

1. LinkedIn Lead Generation trend everyone is talking about
2. You don’t want to miss out on this offer!
3. Uh-oh, your subscription is expiring.

Preview text: Why is it as important as the subject line 

The preview text is what you see below or next to the subject line before opening the email from your Inbox. It is the first several words of your email body, 35 to 90 characters to be precise, depending on your email provider. However, the majority of people open their emails on the phone. That means that you are limited to around 45 characters of the preview text. Sometimes even less! Therefore, make your email opener matter.

It’s your second chance to make the first impression. 

Make it an extension of your subject line 

Your subject line and preview text should be a cohesive unit. The flow has to be logical and stylistically unified to drive the desired action. Otherwise, no matter how compelling individually, your readers will be confused. The best way to go about it is to think about the preview text as the opportunity to provide a detail that did not fit into your subject line. 

Examples

1. Subject line: Andy, did you know?
   Preview text: More than half of your leads read emails on their phone. This [...]
   
2. Subject line: Free gift for any purchase! 
   Preview text: Until the end of October, with every new account your buy [...]
   
3. Subject line: LinkedIn template that scaled up Skylead
   Preview text: Don’t miss out to get original message copies that made our [...]

Reference something about the lead

Just like on LinkedIn, the best way to get somebody’s attention is to make a concrete reference about them. It can be a post they’ve made or reacted to on LinkedIn, bring up a colleague or an industry professional you have in common, or simply congratulate them on the promotion they’ve recently got. Your leads will appreciate that you’ve done your homework before reaching out. 

Examples

1. Hi {{firstName}},
   Love the post you made on LinkedIn...
   
2. Hey {{firstName}},
   I saw that you attended {{nameOfEvent}}...
   
3. Hi {{firstName}},
   Congratulations on the promotion! ...
   
4. Hi {{firstName}},
   We recently connected on CompanyTinder... I mean on LinkedIn...

Highlight your value proposition

Use the preview text to communicate the most compelling benefit of your product or service. Highlight the value that you bring to the table that already starts with opening your email.

You don’t know what to point out? Think about why you decided to send the email in the first place. Tell your leads what’s in for them and how it will make their lives easier and scale their business. 

Examples

• Save 11 hours a week while generating 6 times more leads. 
• Increase the email deliverability rate by using [...]
• 1000 more visitors on your website each week. 

***

A/B test your subject lines/preview text

If you are not sure what to go for, split test different subject lines/preview texts. See what your audience reacts to best. Is it a question, an intriguing statement, or a direct and clear call to action?

A/B testing (aka split testing) is a randomized experimentation process where two or more versions are being sent to different target users at the same time to determine which one makes results and influences the desirable business action. 

When deciding on the “winner”, take into consideration other factors as well, such as your response rate and click rate, for example, depending on what your end goal is. 

Maybe down the road you realize what works best for your prospects. Or go ahead and segment them. 

Segment your audience

Not all of your leads will appreciate the same type of content. And that’s totally fine. If you don’t think that one subject line/preview text would produce the same effect for everyone, segment your leads list or use different LinkedIn prospecting method. Tweak the subject line/preview text according to their interests, business goals, and what you think might pique their curiosity. 

Summary

Yes, these are some tips that will most likely work to your advantage. 

But do you know what else will work to your advantage? Like, for sure? 

Being prospect-centric. 

Your prospects don’t care how something worked for you. They want to know how it will benefit them instead. This perspective will get you far ahead of your competition. 

Do you know what else will get you far ahead of your competition? Trying out Skylead. 

When doing Lead Generation on LinkedIn or generally networking, a genuine back-and-forth conversation works more to your advantage. 

Not only do you show interest in other users and their businesses, but you also find out so much about their needs and preferences. Furthermore, even if you don’t close the deal immediately, you understand better how your target audience perceives you, your brand, and generally the entire industry. 

One of the ways to “examine your market” that, if done properly, can be quite engaging is conducting a LinkedIn Survey. Namely, LinkedIn Polls seem to be the new trend that is taking over our LinkedIn feeds. 

Not only. This type of content seems to be LinkedIn’s favorite. Therefore, it can push it to reach even ten times more users than you have in connections. Of course, on the condition that it is engaging enough and that the algorithm recognizes it as important to your audience. Long story short, if you make it interesting and valuable enough to your leads, they will reward you with visibility and extensive reach. 

In this blog, you will learn: 

• How to make a LinkedIn poll;
• What questions incite Lead Generation;
• How to use Data Miner to scrape data from a LinkedIn Poll;
• Tricks and hacks for a fast and effective outreach campaign. 

How to make a LinkedIn Poll? 

Go to your LinkedIn home page. Click on “Start a Post”. 

Then, click on the graphics icon. 

Type in the question. Offer a minimum of two and a maximum of four answers. Set up the timeframe. It can last for a day, three days, a week, or a maximum of three weeks. 

After you’ve done setting up the LinkedIn poll, the “Done” button takes you to create an accompanying LinkedIn post. 

Make a brief appealing introduction to your survey or give an extra explanation, if necessary. This is optional. If you wish, you can post the Poll as it is.  

In the bottom right corner, there is the option of allowing comments or customizing who can post on your Survey. 

Click on “Anyone”. Then, choose one of the following options. 

All set. Now sit back and wait. 

What to ask in a LinkedIn survey that benefits lead generation? 

First of all, define well what you want to explore through your LinkedIn Poll. Just like A/B testing, examine one aspect at a time. Give precise answers in a multiple-choice form for more accurate results. Then, if you want to investigate further a certain option, conduct another Poll. 

Here are several ideas on what to focus on if you want LinkedIn Surveys to benefit your business. 

1. Gain knowledge on the market expectations

If you are launching a new product or service or trying to improve the existing one, create a poll to understand what your audience expects from you and the industry in general.

It helps you place your product on the market scale, realize what your customers need, or even pinpoint a unique selling point that you didn't know about. 

Effectively listening to your audience is essential for your business. The biggest mistake is not talking to your customers enough and assuming that you know what they need. You would be surprised how much you don't. 

2. Build interest in an upcoming product or service 

Let’s say you are launching a new Sales Automation platform. Carry out a LinkedIn survey to see how much time your clients spend targeting and reaching out to leads manually. This is your hook. 

Maybe this information is not relevant to you, as you already know the answer, but it makes people aware of how convenient it is to use Sales Automation. Consequentially, once you launch the product and use the obtained data in your product description or an intro, many of the LinkedIn poll participants will be interested in what you have to say. 

Point out the problem. Build excitement. Offer a solution. 

3. Get feedback on your product or service

Nowadays, people are more likely to answer a LinkedIn poll than to fill out a survey. 

Let's be honest. The last time you sent out a survey, what was your response rate? When people receive a survey request, they don’t know what to expect and how much time it will take them to complete it. That’s why they rather stay out of it. 

On the other hand, when users see a LinkedIn poll, it takes a second to pick an answer. It almost goes by default for some. Additionally, the higher the engagement the bigger the exposure on other users' feeds. This alone instantly boosts your products' online presence. You are getting instant visibility.

How to scrape data from a LinkedIn Poll?

The information gained from the LinkedIn Poll doesn’t need to be limited to the “winning answer”. This type of content is quite a Lead Generation gold mine. 

After you’ve tallied all of the votes, you can use any data collection tool to gather the information from all the poll participants. 

For example, the tool Data Miner is a free web extension and in this blog, we are showing you how to use it to serve your needs best.

Step #1 Open the LinkedIn Poll you would like to scrape  

The LinkedIn Poll must be finished for you to scrape data. Click on “{number} votes”

In this case, since users opted for one of three answers, we have three groups of leads: the ones that said "always", "never", and "it depends". Open the ones that replied with "always". Then, scroll all the way down so that Data Miner can pick up all of them. 

Step #2 Open Data Miner

Turn on the Data Miner. Since we will use Skylead for outreach, all we need is their LinkedIn profile URLs. That’s why we move forward and choose the “Make your own recipe” option. 

Choose the type of recipe. In this case, we go for “List/Search Page: multiple rows”. 

Go to the “4 Rows” tab. Follow the instructions. Select any of the users as "Row #1", and the one below him or her as "Row #2". As long as you have scrolled all the way down, as mentioned at the beginning, Data Miner will scrape everyone from that group of leads. 

In the case of the LinkedIn poll, it is better to scrape one answer at a time, so that you can later use it and personalize it in Skylead. 

After we selected the rows, let’s move to tab #5 “Columns”. 

Name the column “profileUrl” written exactly like this - lowercase and attached. 

Click on “Easy Column Finder”.

Choose “URL”. Then, select the entire box just like you did at the beginning and click C. Lastly, once the Data Miner found the profile URL, confirm. 

Go ahead and save this recipe as a template for future LinkedIn poll scraping. 

We named it “LinkedIn Poll Scraper” and saved it for future use. 

After this step, click “Scrape in Data Miner”. 

This is how your scraped LinkedIn profile URLs look like. 

Download the results in a CSV file.

You’ve made it. 

In this case, we are repeating the same process from the beginning till the end for the remaining two answers. We want to use their votes to personalize outreach accordingly. 

Skylead: How to personalize outreach based on a LinkedIn Poll? 

There are several ways to make outreach campaigns aimed at users who participated in a LinkedIn poll work. 

We’ll show you one of them. 

Step #1: Prepare for the Skylead outreach campaign? 

First, you scraped all the participants and downloaded the data. Copy-paste them in one CSV file. Then, highlight the last link of each group so you know when to change the content of the message. In this case, we divided them into those who replied with “Always”, “Never”, and “It depends”. 

Lastly, we added a column “Personalization” which, once uploaded, becomes a variable in Skylead. The content of the column varies based on the participant’s answer in the LinkedIn poll. 

This is how it looks in practice. 

Step #2 Make your Skylead outreach campaign faster and more effective

Give a name to your campaign and import your CSV file. 

Click “Next” and go all the way to the “Create Smart Sequence” section. 

We will make a really simple Smart Sequence just for the sake of showing how to use a LinkedIn poll for personalization that won’t go unnoticed. 

In this case, users receive the following messages: 

Group #1

Hello Adam (varies),

I saw that you participated in my poll. I am also always personalizing Invites to Connect! In my opinion, this is a key practice for improving your acceptance and response rates.

Anyways, I would love to connect! 

Group #2

Hello Ivy (varies), 

I saw that you voted in my poll. I find it so interesting that you are never personalizing your Invites to Connect! Do you still manage to expand your network or generate leads at the desired pace?

Anyways, I would love to connect!

Group #3

Hello Steve (varies), 

Thank you very much for participating in my poll. I saw that sometimes you personalize your Invites to Connect, and sometimes you don’t. I am curious to know how you make that decision!

Anyways, I would love to connect! 

Summary

LinkedIn Poll is the new content on the rise. 

Therefore, use it wisely. It will not only serve the instant market research, but online promotion, opportunity for prospecting on LinkedIn and lead generation as well. 

Finally, if you are new here and want to know more about how Skylead can make your sales (and life) easier, talk to out wonderful Customer Support Team. They will answer all of your questions and show you how to start 7-day free trial. Test it out for yourself and decide. No strings attached! 

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 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. 

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. 

If you’ve ever wondered if switching from LinkedIn Basic to LinkedIn Premium Account would change your filtering options, the answer is no. 

However, going for the LinkedIn Premium Account is highly recommended because of an Unlimited Profile Search and 5 InMails Credits per month. Not only. You also get to view and engage with a much greater number of profiles when having a Premium account, as you decrease the chances of getting jailed or restricted on LinkedIn. 

However, if you want an ultimate filter experience, we recommend signing up for Sales Navigator. Of course, this implies learning how to use Sales Navigator Filters for better targeting.

In this blog, we will cover all the options you have for narrowing down your search results on LinkedIn Basic and Premium Accounts. 

Let’s get started! 

Where can I see LinkedIn filters? 

Type your keywords in your LinkedIn Search Engine or just hit “Enter” while leaving the Search Engine blank. 

This action will lead you to the following choices that help you further narrow down your LinkedIn search. 

• People;
• Jobs;
• Courses;
• Posts;
• Schools;
• Event;
• Groups;
• Companies;
• Services. 

You can also click the “All Filters” option and see them in one place. 

In this blog, we will cover the three filter blocks that we recommend for better LinkedIn prospecting - “People”, “Posts”, and “Events”, and reasons why we consider them quite convenient. 

“People” filters on LinkedIn 

Connections

The “Connections” filter allows you to filter leads based on the type of your LinkedIn relationships. 

You can be somebody’s 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-degree connection.

1st-degree connections are members that you are already connected with on LinkedIn. 

2nd-degree connections are 1st-degree connections of your 1st-degree connections. They are available to be added through an Invite to Connect and are perfect for expanding your network. 

3rd-degree connections are 1st-degree connections of your 2nd-degree connections. They are also excellent for expanding your network. The only difference is that LinkedIn doesn’t recommend reaching out to them through Invite to Connect, rather getting in touch via LinkedIn InMails.

You can send paid InMails to anyone who is not your connection on LinkedIn while only those who set their profile to “Open to InMails” can be reached out via free InMail. 

You can also check out our guide on 13 LinkedIn InMail examples to improve your response rate.

Connections of

Filter your leads by choosing only those that are 1st-degree connections of your 1st-degree connections.

You can put in more than one contact. 

Locations

The “Locations” filter narrows down your leads based on the city, region, geographic area, and country. 

Current company 

Use this filter to narrow down leads based on the company they currently work at. 

Past company 

Filter your leads based on their past company. 

School 

You can filter your leads based on the school(s) they attended/are attending.

Industry

Track your leads based on the industry they listed on their profiles. 

Industries are predefined. 

Profile language

LinkedIn Profile is available in 24 different languages. 

However, this filter offers only a 5-language search. 

Open to

The “Open To” option filters your leads depending on whether they are open to “Pro Bono Consulting and Volunteering” and/or “Joining a Nonprofit Board”. 

Service categories 

Service categories are also predefined. 

You can go ahead and target your leads based on the services they offer listed on their profiles. 

Keywords

You can use the following option to search your leads via keywords. 

This filter supports the so-called “Boolean” search. That is, it gives you the option of combining keywords with modifiers such as AND, NOT, and OR to produce more relevant results. 

For ultimate targeting, consider using “Posts” and “Events” filters. 

“Posts” filters on LinkedIn 

“Posts” filters can be quite useful to gain insight into the latest industry trends and hot topics. You can also benefit from it to learn what kind of posts your ideal leads like to engage with and then use it for your outreach.

Targeting users who reacted to a certain post

There are two benefits of targeting users who reacted to a certain post. 

The first benefit is that it implies that these users are active on Linkedin and most likely interested in that particular subject or have jobs in the same or adjacent industry. 

The second benefit is that you can use their interest to ultimately personalize your outreach. Your pitch can be based on the fact that you both liked the same post and then develop your conversation from there. 

This kind of approach increases the acceptance and response rates. 

Automating post engagement campaigns 

If you want to target prospects who reacted to a certain post but would also like to save time and reach out to as many of them as possible, automating this process could be the right decision! 

Skylead offers the opportunity to automate targeting users who reacted to a certain post thanks to its “Post Engagement Campaign” options. Yes, there is a type of campaign dedicated exclusively to these types of leads! 

To use a post as a source for generating leads all you have to do is click on the 3 dots at the top right corner of said post and choose the “Copy Link to Post” option. 

Paste the generated URL to the Skylead dashboard.

From here, Skylead will take you to the Campaign Settings page. You will be able to adjust your campaign in a way that fits your business needs best.
Here is an example of a multichannel Skylead campaign.

As you may see, Skylead will not limit your Lead Generation to LinkedIn only. Thanks to its multichannel outreach and “if/then” condition, you are able to build as many possible paths to your lead.

For example, in case someone is not answering on LinkedIn, Skylead’s Email discovery & verification feature will enable a business email outreach.

The above campaign is just one of many options at your disposal thanks to Skylead’s Smart Sequences. 

Also, the dashboard allows you to create the sequence and write out message copies all in one place. 

Just by clicking on the step, you will have an option to insert your messages.

If you would like to see a step-by-step guide on how to create your first Skylead campaign and have an insight into all the steps/options, check out our blog “How to build your first campaign at Skylead”. 

Filters for posts

The following filters will allow you to narrow down countless posts on LinkedIn to the ones that are of high interest to your target audience. 

Thanks to LinkedIn’s filtering options, you will be able to find a post that your ideal prospects find relevant to their business and/or interests. 

The most important filter is the keyword. It is your best bet for finding the industry’s most relevant posts. 

Then, you can further narrow them down by using: 

Posted by

You can search posts depending on whether you posted it or someone from your network. 

Date posted 

You can search posts depending on the timeframe within which your leads posted them.

Sort by

Author industry 

Search by the author’s industry. You can add multiple industries. 

Author company 

Search by the author's current company. You can add multiple companies. 

“Events” filter on LinkedIn

Just like with “Posts” filters on LinkedIn, reaching out to prospects attending a specific LinkedIn event can be beneficial for two reasons.

The first reason is that users attending a particular event on LinkedIn are most likely highly interested in the subject and therefore make a perfect target audience. 

The second reason is that you can use the event reference to ultimately personalize your outreach and be more appealing to those to whom you reach out. 

In case you would like to target a larger number of leads, Skylead has a solution for you! 

Automate targeting leads attending a LinkedIn event

First, choose the event which leads you would like to target and click on “Attend Event”.

You will not be able to see the list of leads attending the specific LinkedIn event unless you are one of the attendees.

Once you’ve signed up, you will see the list of people who attended or were planning on attending the event. 

You can further narrow down your leads list by including other filters. 

Once you are satisfied with your search result, copy - paste the URL to Skylead’s Campaign Creator. 

Check out our step-by-step guide on how to target leads attending a specific LinkedIn event and you will see all the options and tips when it comes to automating this outreach with Skylead. 

Use this reference to highly personalize your outreach.

This filter doesn’t have options of being further narrowed down except using a specific keyword in the search engine.

Summary

Targeting is the first and most important step in your LinkedIn lead generation.

By taking the time to get to know LinkedIn or Sales Navigator filters, you will narrow down your audience to people who are most likely to be truly interested in your products and services. 

This will automatically affect your lead generation and conversion in the most positive way. 

And if you ever decide to scale your business and opt for a Sales Engagement Tool, schedule a demo call with a Skylead representative and get to know the range of options available to you!

You already have your marketing agency and a few prosperous clients. Lately, you’ve been thinking of expanding your service list and offering more. What is it that would fit your clients’ needs best and still be in line with your industry? It’s outreach. Here’s why. 

If you already offer social media management, content writing, copywriting, SEO, web development, or similar, it is high time to start thinking one step ahead of your competitors. By adding outreach, you will undoubtedly keep up with the times and give your customers a valuable reason to stick around longer. 

Not only. 

There are a series of reasons why incorporating outreach into your Lead Generation Agency would be the right call. Here are a few. 

Customer loyalty

By adding the service of identifying and nurturing potential customers for your client’s products or services, you will be covering probably the most important segment of their prospecting. If they confide in the way you do their outreach, the chances of them staying loyal to your Lead Generation Agency increase, as you are controlling an additional sales channel of their business.

Furthermore, incorporating outreach in your marketing business will give your clients a well-rounded experience of generating leads on LinkedIn or via other methods. 

Outreach as a new marketing segment 

Adding outreach to your service list can also be a great way to attract new customers. Initially, newbies might only be interested in you identifying and nurturing their potential clients. However, if satisfied with your way of doing business, they might extend their request to other services that your Lead Generation Agency offers. 

Additional revenue growth 

By introducing a new marketing segment, you are raising your revenue stream.

Simply, adding an extra service means company growth. It also implies greater economic security, as your Lead Generation Agency doesn’t depend only on one or a few services. 

Stand out in the lead generation industry

By incorporating outreach into your Lead Generation Agency, you might be making one step ahead of your competitors. 

In case they thought of it first, draw attention to yourself by offering an impeccable, high-quality service. Better service attracts and retains better clients. 

Also, think about your and your competitors’ Value Proposition. What is it that makes your outreach service stand out in comparison to your competition’s?

Outreach is easy to incorporate 

You are probably already doing outreach to get more clients for your Lead Generation Agency. Therefore, you are familiar with the entire process of attracting new prospects and nurturing the old ones. All you need to do is expand your expertise to your clients. The more you develop this service for yourself, the better it will become for your customers as well. By growing your Lead Generation Agency, you will be growing an entire service within. Also, the better you become at doing outreach, you will most likely attract more clients for your Marketing Agency as well. 

Minimal cost

The only things that you need for outreach are a laptop and internet connection.

Create your client’s ICP (Ideal customer profile) and a cold outreach template with several follow-ups, and you can already start.

However, if you want to make this process far easier, you will need an Automation Tool, Scraping Tool, and an Email Finder. 

Luckily for you, there is a Sales Engagement Software that has all of these incorporated for as low as $100 per month. Long story short, it will save you both time and money.

Namely, Skylead combines LinkedIn Messages, LinkedIn InMails, and Emails scrapes publicly available emails of your 1st-degree connections, has an “Email Discovery & Verification” feature for discovering and verifying your leads’ business emails, as well as “Image and GIF hyper-personalization” tool in case you want to do a bit of an unconventional outreach. 

Therefore, Skylead contains an Automation Tool, Scraping Tool, an Email Finder, and more. 

If you would like to know more about Skylead, feel free to schedule a demo call with our team specialist.

White-labeling a solution 

Think about white-labeling the Sales Engagement Tool that you are using. 

A white-label product is a product or service produced by one company that other companies rebrand to make it appear as if they had made it.

By white-labeling the Sales Engagement Tool of your choice, you will:

• Boost your brand’s visibility;
• Enhance your customers’ loyalty;
• Eliminate the need for a development team of your own;
• Save time and money on your outreach;
• Upgrade your service;
• Scale your business;
• Strengthen your revenue stream.

That being said, know that you can white-label Skylead. To know more about this option, schedule a demo call with our team specialist. 

How to start implementing your outreach?

Start with offering your service to the most loyal customers first 

The advantage of offering your new service to the already existing and most loyal customers first is that you are very familiar with their business. That is, by handling other marketing segments for their companies, you have already gained a major insight into their business goals, targets, and preferences. This allows you to do prospecting on LinkedIn and outreach leads with major precision and manage their outreach with more efficiency.

Furthermore, your already-established business relationship and cooperation will most likely reinforce. Upgrading your customers’ service package increases the possibility of enhancing their loyalty to your marketing agency. Additionally, you will be giving them a well-rounded Lead Generation experience.  This approach, often adopted by top advertising agencies in the US, ensures that your clients receive a comprehensive service.

Attract your new customers by offering outreach first 

In case you don’t want to introduce a new service before “testing it out”, try attracting new customers by using outreach as a bait. This way you don’t risk losing loyal customers in case something doesn’t go as planned. Additionally, you have space to learn, grow, and perfect your service before you offer it to your long-time clients. 

Summary

In conclusion, incorporating outreach into your Lead Generation Agency has more upsides than downsides for sure. 

By deciding to go for it you will:

• Enhance your customer loyalty;
• Attract new clients;
• Strengthen your revenue flow for introducing a new marketing segment; 
• Stand out in the Lead Generation Industry. 

Additionally, you have the option of making your life easier by going for a Sales Engagement Tool that has all the necessary features for a top-notch outreach.

Why Skylead?

For as low as $100 per month, with Skylead you can have an Automation Tool, Scraping Tool, and an Email Finder, all in one software. 

Furthermore, thanks to the implementation of Smart sequences, Skylead allows you to create the highest number of personalizable touchpoints with your prospects. 

Five times more in comparison to other tools, to be precise. 

It gives you the chance to combine LinkedIn Messages, InMails, and Emails with other LinkedIn features such as View, Follow, and Invite to Connect. Additionally, it has an Email Discovery & Verification feature. Therefore, no need for a separate Email Finder or Scraping software. 

Actually, white-label it and make it your secret weapon!

To know more about the advantage of Skylead over other Sales Engagement Tools and to get to know its features, schedule a demo call with a specialist from our team.

If already our customer, feel free to reach us out on the Support Chat or schedule a success call with our Customer Support and Success Manager. Improve your service by knowing Skylead better. 

Multichannel outreach implies using different channels to get in touch, connect, and engage with your target leads.

First and foremost, it is important to find out what platform your prospects prefer to use when interacting with other brands and businesses. 

Clarifying your message and communicating it in the way your leads want to hear it will make them interested in finding out more and potentially doing business with you. 

As it turns out, the multichannel outreach obtains the best results. 

However, have in mind the importance of seamlessly integrating different channels of communication for an optimal outcome.

Advice for a more effective multichannel outreach:

• Focus on at least 2-3 channels;
• Create personalized messages;
• Set up reasonable time between sending them;
• Analyze results and stay with the strategy or change it. 

What are the benefits of a multichannel outreach?

A well-planned multichannel outreach campaign will bring brand awareness, lead generation, and conversion. Also:

Your lead will not feel like some mistargeted recipient

The best case practice is to do the prospecting on LinkedIn well and know what kind of approach or content will most likely draw their attention of your target audience. Have in mind that you are the one required to know your prospects' preferences and communicate them in an authentic and trustworthy way. 

Customers that notice that you “have done your homework” and reached out to them on their preferred channel will perceive you as loyal and forward-thinking. Additionally, if you share targeted content (as you should be doing) you are giving your leads an extra opportunity to engage valuable information.

Excuses, excuses! 

Exactly, no more excuses! 

Let’s say you choose to reach out through LinkedIn, but your lead does not answer for whatever reason. You always have the option of sending a follow-up Email and checking up on your prospect.

Maybe they did not see the first message. Or LinkedIn is not their preferred platform. Have you ever thought that their LinkedIn or Email is overloaded and therefore it makes it hard for you to get noticed among numerous messages? The reasons are infinite. 

Skylead, for example, has LinkedIn Messages, Emails, and LinkedIn InMails integrated and at your disposal at any time. The additional benefit lies in the automated messaging stopping at each platform the moment the lead answers. You have the option of replying manually or getting the prospect back to the campaign. 

Furthermore, Skylead has an advantage of an all-in-one-place chat room filtrable by the campaign and conversation independently from the channel you used. No need to log in and out of a LinkedIn account, Sales Navigator, or Email Inbox to manage different conversations, just switch from one lead to another and see where you stand.

By knowing their interests you will conquer their hearts 

Using different channels allows you to get to know your leads’ habits, interests, and preferences. Sending targeted content via messages, Emails, LinkedIn InMails, or other channels, such as social media, will increase customer engagement and conversion rates. 

Why is customer engagement so important, you might wonder. 

Let’s say you publish a post on LinkedIn and lots of people comment, share, or like it. Thanks to Skylead’s “Post Engagement” campaign, where just by copying the URL of the post, you can collect the available leads’ data and connect to those interested in this type of content. Every now and then take some time to send out similar material via Email or LinkedIn messages. Feed your prospects’ interests. 

By building this kind of relationship, your clients will feel loyal to your business. Therefore they will be more prone to purchase from you than from your competitors. There is nothing more valuable than conquering your prospects’ loyalty and keeping your brand on top of their minds. And that's part of generating leads on LinkedIn or via email done right.

Patience, patience, please! 

Multichannel Outreach is especially useful if you are a small business and don’t have many resources to invest in advertising. The multichannel approach allows you to broaden your reach to an enviable number of clients with little or no extra cost. 

If you are a small business indeed, here is an extra tip to make your outreach campaigns stand out.

Think about some creative ways to draw attention to your product/service and make your outreach fun, easy, and moving! Check out Skylead’s Image and GIF hyper-personalization feature and let your creativity flow.

Analyze and adapt

By reaching out through multiple channels you get the chance to analyze which one of them brings the best results and if they interfere with each other in any way. You will easily spot where you need to make improvements or maybe even consider removing a channel that continuously underperforms. 

Extra tip: Whatever channel (or more) you opt for, make reasonable time in between messages. You don’t want your leads to know that you are using an automation tool or bombard them with content and make them mark you as a spammer.

Skylead’s Smart Sequences are groundbreaking algorithms that allow you to use multichannel outreach and personalization to its maximum potential. 

Following the trends of LinkedIn’s newest restrictions and changes in their policy and with Lead Generation moving to other channels (such as Email for example), Skylead’s Smart Sequences are undoubtedly the most innovative and exhaustive path to reaching your Prospects and increasing conversion rate. 

Not only. 

Due to the previously mentioned LinkedIn restrictions, Smart Sequences are actually the only effective way of generating and nurturing Leads. They combine LinkedIn features (LinkedIn InMails, Connection Requests, Messages, Follow) with Emails (found and verified by Skylead) and create the highest possible number of personalized touchpoints with your Prospects. 

As you may see, Smart Sequences bring the Lead Engagement Process to a whole new level. 

Possibilities. Yes. So many possibilities! 

Before introducing Smart Sequences, your options were, more or less, limited to predefined threads. 

Now you have the possibility to combine the same features and operations you had before (and some new ones) in an unimaginable number of ways. That means using the potential of every channel to its maximum, within the safe limit range.

While the old predefined threads are still available, now you have the option of making an entire branch of steps and operations the way you think it will work best for your business goals. 

Consequently, just when you thought your communication cannot get any more humanized, Smart Sequences give you a Super-duper-hyper-personalized outreach! 

Let’s see how it all looks in practice. 

Smart Sequence N1 (The Simple One)

As you may see from the algorithm’s diagram, after the Email Verification step, this Smart Sequence is set up for several options. 

In case Skylead discovers and verifies the Prospect’s Email, we can continue our communication through the email channel. If not, the sequence will proceed with the Connection Request. If the Prospect accepts it, the LinkedIn branch of communication will send a Message, and if not, there is always the option of Following the Lead just as a subtle reminder to our attempt to connect. 

Email Verification Step

Skylead will try to find and verify Business Emails from your list of Prospects BEFORE connecting with them. The success rate varies between 20 to 40% which is 500 to 1000 valid Business Emails from one Sales Navigator Search that generated around 2500 prospects.

Smart Sequence N2 (The Post Engagement Campaign)

NOTE: It has been proven that Post Engagement Campaigns have been extremely successful when it comes to acceptance and response rate (ranging between 75-90%). They are an excellent ice-breaker, as you start your conversation with Prospects with a topic, interest, or connection that you have in common. 

As you may see from the algorithm’s diagram, after the Connection Request, this Smart Sequence is set up for several options. 

The thread will check if the Prospect’s profile is open to Free InMails. If yes, the right branch of our Smart Sequence will proceed in that direction and send InMail #1, and then InMail #2 (a follow-up). 

If not, the Smart Sequence will change its direction and try to discover and verify the Lead’s Email. In case the Prospect’s Email is available, the thread will reach out through this channel. If not, it will just Follow the Lead as a “final” reminder of our attempt to connect.

Smart Sequence N3 (The Complex Sequence)

This Sequence is interesting as it diminishes the need for Connection Requests by using other personalizable channels.

First, the sequence will check if the lead's account is open to InMails (leads you found by prospecting on LinkedIn). If yes, it will continue with this option. Have in mind that with Skylead, you can send up to 800 Free InMails a month. 

Secondly, if the Prospect’s account is not open to InMails, the sequence will proceed with discovering and verifying Emails. Skylead can generate thousands of emails a month just by using information available on Linkedin, which permits so many additional personalized touchpoints with your Leads. 

In case neither Email nor InMail is available, the sequence will proceed with a Connection Request.

Wanna see how easy it is to make a Smart Sequence? 

All you need to do is choose between elements (InMail, Email, Message, etc.) and conditions (If Email Verified, If Open to InMails, etc.) on your right and drag them to your left to create the flow. 

For each element that requires text, you have the option of inserting it immediately and use all of the available tags. You also get to decide how much time you want it to pass between sending that particular InMail, Email, Message and the step before. The same option applies to conditions. 

As simple as this. Take a look. 

Image and GIF Hyper-Personalization Tool

Image and GIF Hyper-personalization tool is a flexible and unique feature that Skylead puts at your disposal. It is perfectly compatible with LinkedIn messages, InMails, and Emails used for building Smart Sequences. 

Image and GIF Hyper-personalization tool works outstandingly when it comes to distinguishing yourself from the competition and creating a surprise factor thanks to its unconventional way of communicating what you have to say. 

Due to its hyper-personalized copy and the visual effect, it is hard that it will leave any of your Leads indifferent. 

Check out more about it here. 

Why Multichannel Outreach? 

Because a Multichannel Outreach increases the response rate by least 17%!

Is that reason not good enough for you or what?!?

Also, not only does it offer a plethora of features such as LinkedIn Messages, LinkedIn InMails, and Emails, but now it gives you the freedom to combine channels, operations, and build your threads. In other words, you are not limited to generating leads on LinkedIn only. So, go wild! 

And don’t be afraid of LinkedIn jail and restriction or that your Emails will finish in your Prospects’ Spam folder. Skylead has your back. We always monitor your campaigns and make sure that they stay within safe limits. 

That’s right! You are safely hyper-humanizing communication with your Leads while being fully protected.

There is a process between the point of getting a new lead and the point where they convert into your new client. The space between the two is called lead acquisition.

Constantly generating new leads is one of the best ways to get a bunch of new clients whether using LinkedIn or other channels.

However, this is easier said than done, right?

Don't worry. You’re not the only one. We were in your shoes, and we needed to learn it the hard way.

Luckily for you, we’ve got you covered.

In this article, we’ll get through what lead acquisition is and how it differs from lead generation. We will also show you some highly effective tactics that you can use to get more clients in the future.

What is lead acquisition?

There is a difference between lead generation and lead acquisition. However, not everyone is sure about the meaning of these terms, probably because they are related.

Both of them are phases of the customer acquisition process. But they are different processes, necessary for the long-term growth of your business.

The lead generation is the process of connecting with your potential customers and getting their contact information. The lead acquisition is the process that comes after a lead is generated.

It’s the process of gaining, filtering, and later getting your leads to become a part of your sales systems.

Check out what the customer acquisition process looks like.

The lead acquisition also includes purchasing qualified leads from different lead vendors.

Namely, it usually starts with previously qualified and filtered leads. There is no need to start from scratch and create lead magnets to generate leads.

You can simply buy prepared leads that match your target criteria. This makes it easier to connect with them and later do sales, without wasting time on lead generation. 

When it comes to purchasing leads you need to put your best leads into the appropriate conversion processes and remove those that are not qualified.

We’ll go through some procedures that you should do to get the most relevant target group for your customer acquisition process and convert those leads successfully.

5 strategies to make lead acquisition right

The source from which you’re getting leads in the lead acquisition process is of huge importance for your future actions.

Usually, it’s the website or landing page where you get new leads. But, as we said, you can purchase them from a lead vendor too.

When you buy leads from vendors, you usually get a huge target audience for quite a low price. It is a lot cheaper than generating leads by yourself.

But just because it’s cheaper, it doesn’t mean that those leads are warmed-up to your product or service.

Generating leads by yourself costs $5-$10, and purchasing them costs about $1 per lead.

To increase your lead acquisition effectiveness, take a look at the advice below. They could help you find prospects and prepare them for your offer.

Find the right vendor

When choosing the right vendor for your business purposes, find out about them as much as you can. 

You don’t want to buy leads from someone unknown. Let alone find out that the leads are not qualified or not in your target group.

After you get data from the vendor, make sure that all the emails they’ve sent are legit. If there are any fake or incorrect email addresses, remove them.

Sort your leads for better results

First classify the leads into those that you’ve generated through your website, LinkedIn account, another channel, and those that you’ve bought from vendors.

Those categories differ in their level of interest for your product. Therefore, it’s best to separate them by lead source and traffic source. 

When it comes to LinkedIn, using tools for LinkedIn lead generation and multichannel outreach can simplify the process of managing your leads.

Also, you will need to warm up the ones from the purchased list later.

Collect information about your leads

In the lead acquisition process, your leads are the ones that make up your target audience. However, it’s up to you to convert them. Not all the leads will be interested in purchasing your product. At least, not right away.

What you can do to increase your conversion rates is to find out more about them and their problems.

The strategy we’re going to show you can simplify your prospecting on LinkedIn. You won't have to contact everyone on LinkedIn separately to find out more about your leads.

Once you create your account on Skylead, go to the “Create new campaign” option.

Click on “Import” to upload the list of the leads you’d like to contact.

Enter the name of the campaign, upload your leads in a CSV file, and then hit “Next”.

In case you’re not connected with some of your leads on LinkedIn, that can be solved in a second.

Just click “Invite to connect”, type your personalized message, let your lead know if you know each other, and then hit “add additional step”.

After we connected with the new leads, we should find out more about them. 

To do that in an additional step, click on “Message”.

Here you can find more about your leads. Ask them what they’re working on, what they’re struggling with, and maybe how you can help them overcome some issues they're having.

With all that information, you’ll be able to create a more personalized offer to solve their issues in order to sell your product or service.

The following action in Skylead will save you a lot of time when it comes to contacting your leads and meeting their needs.

Choose your CRM wisely so that it fits your needs and helps you build an effective campaign.

Warm-up your leads and bring them value

The leads that you buy are cooler. They will have to get to know you better . On the other hand, you will have to earn their trust if you want them to become your client.

You can’t be too salesly in the beginning. With the first message saying something like ”Let’s schedule a call”, they will decline you. 

Your focus should be on creating a strong relationship with your leads. Bring them value so that they would be willing to get more of it later when you call them to action.

Also, if you give them a piece of cake for free, they will be more likely to get a cake from you for a price. So, be generous to leads - it will pay off.

Create an irresistible personalized offer

When you acquire leads on your own, you can filter them out and choose any demographic you want in order to create a personalized offer.

After you find valuable leads and create a strong relationship with them it’s important to make your offer irresistible.

For example, you can give them a valuable portion of your service or product while promising that it is only a part of the value that they will get if they decide to become your customer.

Also, make sure that your offer is simple and with a clear call-to-action. 

Don’t make your offer about you. Let it be about your leads and the benefits they will get if they accept your offer.

Summary

If you want to increase your marketing efforts and get new leads, performing lead acquisition in the right way is crucial.

Also, it’s important to understand what makes it different from lead generation.

Successful lead acquisition is the one that is scalable, produces more clients, and functions in a way that helps you test and track your campaigns.

All the customer acquisition data, whether from a lead vendor or from your own lead generation database, will be immensely useful in your way of producing quality leads and increasing your sales in the future.

If you are hoping for positive results, you should invest more effort into making that process right.