Hiring a lead generation or appointment-setting service company for a small company or a startup business comes with many challenges. Even though every company on the marketing will promise great results, you still need to consider elements outside the service. 

Here are some characteristics that are typical of small businesses and startups when it comes to hiring lead-generation services:

• Low budget: You will likely be on a low budget and can’t afford a service that costs a lot.
• Can’t afford contract-based service: You can’t afford to pay or make long-term investments. You want results fast and can’t wait for months. 
• Only interested in ROI-driven service: You are concerned about the results you’ll get from the money you invest. You want to know what you’ll get before signing up with a lead generation company. 
• Want a customized approach: You want them to employ a unique approach to list building and targeting that is effective and representative of your brand. 

These are only a few of them. In this article, we will list the top lead generation companies that fit these criteria. We’ll also discuss why Nerdy Joe is your best choice for a small business lead generation company. 

What to consider when hiring a lead generation company for a small business

As a small business, you need to consider some factors when hiring a lead generation company that can work with you. This checklist will help you evaluate your decisions and ensure you select the best lead-generation company for your small business.

1 – Definition and source of leads

Many lead generation companies define and source leads using a unique approach. One key to selecting one of these companies is by asking questions. Ask questions about how they define their leads. Do they qualify leads based on your ideal customer profile? Or do they just surf the internet to give you tons of random email addresses? 

Also, ask questions about where the source of their leads. Do they use third-party data sources? Or do they carry out their prospect research? Asking questions enables you to understand how the company works. If they fail to give you a detailed response about what you are looking for, you may have to discontinue business with them. 

2 – Technologies 

Different lead generation companies make use of different tools to do their task. However, an experienced lead generation company will have the tools and technologies to effectively manage and optimize their campaigns. 

You can ask about the technologies they use and even research them to fully understand how it works. If you have any challenges with their technologies, it may hinder you from getting the desired result.

Some of the tools you can look out for include lead verification tools, CRM tools, email automation, call tracking, SEO and CRO tools, analytics and reporting tools, and marketing automation platforms. 

3 – Pricing

When hiring a lead generation company, you must understand the pricing packages attached to the result they promise. Sometimes, the pricing package may be too high. So, ask questions about the value of your money. 

If you are satisfied with their answers and think what they offer is worth your money, you can proceed with them. If not, you may have to consider looking elsewhere. 

4 – Measuring performance

Every lead generation company has its way of measuring its lead generation campaign. The most important thing to look out for is how they measure their campaign performance and whether it aligns with your marketing and sales objectives.

Some common KPIs you can consider include:

• Number of new prospects
• Number of sales appointments scheduled
• Number of sign-ups or registration
• Number of verified contacts
• Lead to close rate. 

Best 15 Lead Generation Companies for Small Businesses 

Need a lead generation agency to generate leads for your small business? Here are 15 lead generation companies you can consider.

1 – Nerdy Joe

At Nerdy Joe, we are dedicated to supporting small businesses and startups like yours in their growth journey by providing top-notch lead-generation services that translate into paying customers.

Our team of experienced marketers leverages a proven lead-generation process to attract and engage potential customers through cold emails and email marketing. 

What sets us apart from other lead generation agencies is our steadfast commitment to quality. We recognize that generating leads is only the first step; the real challenge is converting those leads into loyal customers for your business. 

That’s why we concentrate on creating leads that not only show interest in your product or service but are also more likely to make a purchase.

We acknowledge that every small business and startup is unique, which is why we always provide personalized lead-generation solutions tailored to your particular needs. 

We work closely with our clients to gain a deep understanding of their unique needs, and we customize our services to deliver the results they desire.

Whether you’re looking to expand your startup or scale up your small business, our team of experts has the knowledge and resources to help you attain your objectives.

Why Nerdy Joe is the best lead generation service provider for small businesses

There are a couple of perks and approaches that make us a unique lead generation company for your needs as a small business. Here are the main reasons you need to consider Nerdy Joe. 

We care about your ROI: so you pay us for the results we get for you, not for the number of emails

We understand that as a small business or startup, you are tight on your budget, and so your focus is on getting results that will increase your ROI. 

That’s why we don’t charge you based on the number of emails we send or the work we do. Instead, we only charge you for the results we deliver. 

This might seem a little confusing to you, or it may not paint the whole picture, so here is what we mean. 

There generally are four types of startup marketing companies:

• Those who’ll charge you based on the number of emails they send or the number of contacts they put in your list.
• Those charge you a monthly fee and promise you’ll get the best leads ever but never deliver on their promise.
• Those that call everyone who’s downloaded an ebook or PDF  a LEAD and charge you for that.
• Those that charge you based on the number of QUALIFIED leads they generate for your sales team.

We belong to the last type of lead generation company, which means we care about your ROI and prioritize bringing you great results. 

We don’t promise you the world with a monthly fee, nor do we charge you for every download of an ebook or PDF. Instead, we charge based on the number of qualified leads we generate for your sales team.

Our experts measure success using metrics that matter, such as the number of positive replies, meetings booked, and lead-to-close rate. We don’t focus on vanity metrics like open rate, bounce rate, or click-through rate.

For example, if you want to increase the customer base for your SaaS product, we’ll report on the number of new sign-ups, positive replies, demo calls booked, and new clients acquired. Our offerings are tailored to your company’s goals and the outcomes that matter most to you. 

Excellent, specific targeting approach: we don’t believe in a high-volume approach to cold emailing. 

This is not us being braggadocious, but we’ve reviewed most of the lead-generation and appointment-setting companies on the market. The main pattern we pick up is that when it comes to doing outreach, their main approach consists in:

• Getting a general idea of who your ICP is without diving into their pain points 
• Using a data intelligence tool to build huge prospect lists rapidly,
• Hand-curating those leads and putting them into spreadsheets,
• Creating basic personalization emails like studying a single persona and personalizing the email or message (using a template) accordingly for every prospect they target,
• Sending mass 1000s of cold emails or messages to those leads

Most lead generation companies bet on numbers. They believe in sending thousands of emails, getting a few replies, and clients closed. They imagine scenarios like sending 1000 cold emails a week, you’ll have at least 100 replies, and 10 booked calls or clients closed. 

This could work. We are not claiming that it won’t. But here is a quick question for you. How would you like your brand or company to be represented? Or here is another, which of the following lead gen agencies would you choose?  

• A: One that builds huge lists of thousands of people and blasts them with generic emails and hopes to convert a reasonable percentage of them. 
• B: On that builds a well-researched list of 30 prospects and crafts personalized, relevant and compelling emails to reach out to them and close a good deal of them.

B, yeah? That’s what we figured. 

The thing is, the A agency could get you results too. Because it’s easy to believe that cold outreach or lead generation success is a matter of volume. The more cold emails you send, the more likely you are to close clients. 

But that’s the best way to damage your brand and your relationship with prospective clients. Here are some well-known issues attached with targeting huge prospects lists. 

• ESPs and ISPs will flag your email and IP addresses as spammers.  
• They’ll kill your company’s reputation, and you’ll get a bad rap on social media. 
• The quality of the leads you get will be subpar. 
• Your domain will face severe deliverability issues.
• And more.

We believe in the power of targeted marketing and personalized messaging.

Before sending a single email, we invest time in learning about your ideal customer profile (ICP) to create tailored messages that resonate with your audience. Our goal is to make each recipient feel like we understand their needs and interests so they wonder why they haven’t heard from you before.

Unlike sending out mass emails to large prospect lists, our approach is to send a smaller number of highly personalized emails to a carefully selected group of prospects. Our ideal scenario is to send 20 emails, receive 15 replies, get 10 positive responses, and ultimately secure four sales-qualified leads or sign-ups for your business.

But what do we mean by personalization? It’s not just about inserting a recipient’s name into the email subject line. Rather, we take the time to craft each email to be relatable and timely, addressing specific pain points or challenges that your target audience may be facing.

Here’s an example of how our personalized approach can make a real impact: we recently reached out to a VP of Marketing who had a history of blocking or reporting SPAM emails.

By creating a tailored message that spoke directly to his needs, we were able to elicit a positive response and start building a relationship with this potential customer. Here’s another example where we pitched a Head of Marketing, and here’s the response. 

You might wonder where we get information about each prospect or member of your target audience we use for personalization. 

First, upon signing a new client, the first thing we do is ask about their ICP.

Manual list building with an unwavering commitment to quality

As we said earlier, we don’t send emails to huge lists. It is part of our marketing ethics not to do so. We prefer to target a short list where we can ensure quality and effectiveness. So, the first thing we do here is to seek to find out about your ICP so we can build a good list. 

We don’t purchase the lists. So, to achieve this, we ask questions like:

• Which type of clients have the highest lifetime value?
• Which type of clients is easiest to close?
• Which type of clients churns the fastest?
• What are the top 3 objections you hear from prospective clients during sales calls?
• Why did you start your company? 
• What pain points were you trying to solve?
• Etc.

By (you, the client) answering these questions, we can pinpoint precisely who we should target and why — and it gets easy to do it manually. And this type of information makes the difference between: 

“We’re targeting series A tech companies,” 

And 

“Our ICP is a CTO at a software company selling to DevOps, and his main pain points are lack of organization, time management, and team collaboration. He often refers to XYZ podcasts to get insights as to how to manage his team efficiently.” 

Once we have a clear understanding of who the ICP is, we proceed to manually build our list, and that’s what we use to run our lead generation campaigns.

Excellent prospecting research 

So, where do we get information about each prospect or member of your target audience we use for personalization? 

• We listen to podcasts your potential customers have been on.
• We read blog posts they wrote. 
• We read their LinkedIn, Twitter, and Mastodon posts.
• We read discussions on forums they’re in.

Using the data we collect, we craft first lines and icebreakers customized to each individual.

Here’s what it looks like in real life. We pitched CoSchedule’s Head of Content, Ben Sailer and asked him if we could write for them.

Here’s what he replied 1 hour later.

Here is another successful example from a similar strategy.

As you can see from both screenshots, the cold emails sent to the prospects were so compelling that they couldn’t help but acknowledge it before offering to hire us.

You don’t have to sign retainer agreements and contracts: You are free to stop your subscription based on satisfaction

When it comes to B2B lead generation and startup marketing companies, it’s common for them to ask for a 3 to 6-month contract before starting to work together. 

They explain that they need time to test and that the purchase journey is long. The problem with this approach is that you end up paying every month, even when you don’t get the results you were promised. This can be a huge investment with nothing to show for it.

At our company, we offer a subscription-based service that guarantees results from the first month. You get to decide whether to continue working with us based on your satisfaction with our service and your budget. 

Basically, our subscription-based service is designed to provide you with flexibility, risk mitigation, and accountability while ensuring you get the results you need to grow your business.

This eliminates the stress and uncertainty of long-term and binding contracts, and you know exactly what you’re paying for from the beginning. 

Pricing

Our marketing service’s pricing is crystal clear. We have three plans:

• Silver: It costs $499/month and only gives you one warm LEAD.
• Gold: This is the plan we recommend, as it gives you the biggest bang for your buck. It costs $999/month and gives you 6 hot and sales-qualified appointments or LEADS.
• Platinum: This plan is for mid-level to enterprise companies willing to fuel their sales team with up to 15 sales-ready leads on a monthly basis.

Our email marketing pricing includes the following:

• The tech stack we use to build your prospect list and send and monitor your campaign.
• A complete list of prospects that fit your buyer persona and ICP.
• The campaign setup fees.

2 – KlientBoost

KlientBoost is a performance marketing agency that helps small businesses to drive more revenue and grow massively. They have worked with various brands such as Airbnb, Juniper, Lytx, Hotjar, Upwork, Segment, FashionPhile, and more. 

They also offer various services that focus on generating leads that convert. One primary service they provide to achieve this is email marketing. Here, they conduct research and build campaigns that can guide your customers through the sales funnel. 

They also craft killer email content that your ideal prospects cannot resist. Whether it is cold email sequences, nurture sequence emails, newsletter emails, upsell/cross-sell emails, or any other types, they are available to ensure that the emails achieve the desired results. 

Contrary to Nerdy Joe, there is no pricing information on their website. However, you can contact them to receive further pricing details.

 3 – Lyfe Marketing

Lyfe Marketing is a social media management company that offers various digital marketing services for small businesses and drives results. They are featured in notable publications such as Inc 5000, Entrepreneur, CNBC, Clutch, and more. 

Although they mainly offer social media marketing services, they also offer email marketing services targeted to build your customer list and drive sales. According to their website, they have generated over $17,000 in sales. To achieve this result, they implement these processes:

• They ensure that the emails reach your audience
• They build your email list
• They ensure your CRM functions effectively
• They automate your emails
• They segment your lists
• They optimize the landing pages to increase brand engagement and traffic and drive sales.

Their pricing information isn’t available on their website. But you can fill out a form to get a quote.

4 – WebFx

Web Fx is a full-service digital marketing agency that helps to propel small businesses to new heights. They have partnered with various brands, including Kangol, Peapod, Stanley Security, Virginia Lottery, FujiFilm, and more. 

They offer various digital marketing services that can help to generate qualified leads and grow businesses. Whether it is email marketing, SEO, or paid advertising, they understand and implement strategies that can increase sales and maximize results. 

Just like the above-mentioned services, there are no pricing details on their website. But you can contact them to get more info.

5 – Sapper Consulting

Sapper Consulting is a B2B lead generation agency that can help you accelerate your sales pipeline and grow your business. They focus on helping you find your ideal prospects, spend less time cold calling, and expand your revenue base by closing deals faster.  

Here is a comprehensive overview of how they work.

• They start by asking about your business goals and needs
• They identify and deliver targeted leads that fit your small business
• They craft compelling and creative content that resonates with your ideal prospects.
• They also test different messaging variations to see the one that performs the most
• They refine and improve their strategy to attract leads that eventually convert. 

Unlike Nerdy Joe, their pricing packages aren’t available on their website. However, you can schedule a consultation meeting to get a quote and other information. 

6 – SalesAR

SalesAR is another B2B lead generation agency that generates qualified B2B leads for small businesses. According to their website, they have served over 50 industries and utilize 30+ tools to implement their strategies. Some of the brands they have worked for include Soft Serve, Logaster, Vector Software, Pharmaxi, LightCrest, and more.

At SalesAR, their main goal is to improve the sales of businesses and spread brand awareness among targeted audiences. To achieve this, they undergo the following processes:

• They identify your ICP and analyze the market
• They select companies that are interested in need of your product/service
• They search for the decision-makers of the companies
• They validate the selected contacts

Contrary to Nerdy Joe, SalesAR has a two-tier pricing plan — test and standard plan. However, you must contact them to get a quote. 

7 – InfuseMedia

InfuseMedia is a lead generation firm that helps small businesses to generate qualified leads, grow their sales pipeline, and maximize their revenue. They have an extensive database from over 15 million companies and have served top brands such as Microsoft, Google, IBM, Cisco, Samsung, Dell, HP, Adobe, Marekto, Oracle, Intel, and more. 

Although they offer various services, their lead generation service mainly involves generating qualified and engaged contacts that fit your business. To achieve this, they search for contacts that meet your specific criteria and nurture them to increase engagement for your sales funnel goals. 

Unlike Nerdy Joe, there are no pricing details on their website. But you can fill out a form or book a 30-minute call with them to get a quote. 

8 – Coldlytics

Coldlytics is another lead generation agency that helps to generate qualified leads and grow the sales pipeline of small businesses. They serve varieties of industries and utilize proprietary technology to build the prospect list for your business. 

To understand how they deliver results, here is a comprehensive overview of their processes. 

• They define your task
• They utilize their targeting tools to discover your highest-quality prospects
• Their researchers will work on the task by adding the leads to a spreadsheet 
• Once the list is ready, they conduct a validity check to verify the email addresses and begin the outreach process. 

Coldlytics offers a three-tier pricing plan for their service, and this includes:

• Lite plan which costs $99 per month
• Basic plan which costs $299 per month
• Pro plan which costs $599 per month

9 – Pipeful

Pipeful is another lead generation company that provides small businesses with accurate data needed to grow their sales pipeline. According to their website, they have sent 300 million work emails and have served 75 industries. 

Their main goal is to discover, store, and provide their clients with accurate data which helps various sales professionals and revenue leaders. With Pipeful, you can gain access to your prospect list before you make a payment. You can also get a refund for each invalid email address. 

Their pricing package is as follows:

• Startup plan, which costs $1,997 per month
• Business plan, which costs $9,970 per month
• Enterprise plan, which requires custom pricing.

10 – Operatix

Operatix is also a sales acceleration company that helps small businesses and enterprises to accelerate growth and improve their sales pipeline. Some of the emerging businesses they have worked for include Qubole, Aryaka, BigId, Actian, Sentinel, Project44, and more. 

They mainly focus on hitting sales targets and growing businesses. To achieve this, they understand your value proposition, identify and engage your top priority account, and get you in front of decision-makers to fuel your pipeline with qualified sales opportunities. 

You can use their sales pipeline calculator to find out how to reach sales targets. If you want any other details, you must get in touch with them. 

11 – Revenue River

Revenue River is a digital sales and marketing agency that helps small businesses to solve sales problems and drive better results. They serve various industries and have helped many companies, including Ecolane, Blüm, Logic, Deuter, and ORR Safety. 

Among the services they offer is sales enablement service, where they modernize your sales process to unlock a new level of growth and increase revenue. Here is a comprehensive overview of their process.

• You schedule a call with them and give them visibility into your sales processes
• You allow them to audit your current state and uncover sales opportunities
• They identify the problem and suggest solutions that can grow your revenue. 

Contrary to Nerdy Joe, their pricing details aren’t available on their website. But you can call or chat with them to request a quote. 

12 – Sales Hawk

Sales Hawk is also a lead generation agency that specializes in accelerating the sales pipeline of small businesses to increase revenue and promote growth. They have worked for various brands such as Xoran, Akorda, BulkMRO, Toucan Toco, and more. 

What differentiates this agency from its counterpart is its heavy reliance on AI technology and machine learning that derives valuable data and insights to drive business growth. Aside from their utilization of technologies, they also begin the process with a personal strategy session to build an outreach campaign that aligns with your business goals. 

Here is a quick view of their processes:

• They have a kick-off strategy call with you to understand your business and tailor strategies that drive optimal results. 
• Their developer teams set up your accounts to reach the intended prospects
• Their creative strategy team writes compelling copies that resonate with your prospects and get them interested
• They build a targeted lead list for your business
• They launch the campaign with their AI technology to reach the right people
• They track the performance of your campaign.

There is no pricing information about their service on the website. However, you can book a meeting to get a quote. 

13 – Leadium

Leadium is a lead generation agency that helps small businesses to generate qualified leads and increase revenue. They have worked for different companies such as PFL, MedPanel, Veem, SignalWire, Segment, OpenEdge, and more. 

They mainly focus on accelerating your sales pipeline by providing the necessary strategy, data, technology, and sales team to book more qualified sales opportunities for your business. They begin the process by defining the lead criteria that fit your desired market. 

Then, they source for and validate high-intent data that matches your ideal customer profile. This ensures that you receive accurate custom data that increase sales conversion. Unlike Nerdy Joe, there is no pricing information on their website. But you can fill out a form to request a quote. 

14 – REALqualified

REALqualified is also a lead generation agency that provides qualified leads for small businesses. They have worked for various companies such as Compass, Coldwell Banker, Keller Williams, and more. 

They specialize in discovering and qualifying new prospects and existing leads to fill your sales pipeline and generate more revenue. Here is a quick view of how their process works.

• Their AI system searches the target market for prospects
• Their in-house team studies the list and calls people to find who is interested in your service
• They close the deal. 

Contrary to Nerdy Joe, there is no pricing package on their website. However, you can fill out a form to get a quote. 

15 – EBQuickstart

EBQuickstart is a sales and marketing agency that helps to engage your prospects and drive revenue growth. They have partnered with various notable brands such as Kaspersky, Malwarebytes, IGI, Tripwire, Call One, Nextiva, Webroot, and more.

They provide sales teams with a platform or talent to outsource their sales services to scale their sales activities and increase revenue. To better understand how they achieve their result, here is an overview of their processes.

• They perform in-depth research to fully understand your buyers
• They convey your unique value proposition and customer’s pain point to capture their interest
• They refine their messages and approach to speak directly with your buyers
• They provide comprehensive real-time reports to ensure improvement

Although there is no pricing detail on their website, you can request a consultation to get a quote. 

Let Nerdy Joe generate leads for your small business

If you are looking for an agency that sends mass cold emails and charges high prices, then most of the companies on this list are suitable lead generation agencies for you. 

But if what you’re looking for is:

• An agency that charges you for results, not tasks.
• An agency that doesn’t require you to commit to a contract.
• An agency that does not waste your time and that’s affordable.
• A group of experts that care about your company’s reputation and relationship with prospects.

Nerdy Joe is the startup marketing agency you’re looking for. 

Want to give us a try? We’ll generate 6 sales-qualified leads in your pipeline or fill your calendar with 6 meetings with high-quality leads at only $999. Let’s fill your calendar now!

Are you in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and looking for a lead generation and appointment setting service company that can help you generate leads and boost your sales? We’ve got you covered. 

In this article, we scouted the entire UAE and listed the top 10 lead generation companies that service there. We’ve reviewed those companies and will help you understand what they do and what you expect from them. 

So, let’s get started. 

10 Best B2B Lead Generation Companies In The UAE 

Here are ten (10) B2B lead generation companies you can consider for your business in the UAE..

1 – Nerdy Joe

To be fair, we’re not a lead generation company based in Dubai or anywhere in the UAE. We’re an online-based lead generation and appointment-setting service agency that has worked with companies from every walk of life and are confident we can do the same for you in the UAE. 

So, our lead generation services aim to help businesses from everywhere in the world grow by generating high-quality leads that convert into paying customers. Whether you’re a startup looking to gain traction in your industry or an established business looking to expand, we have the expertise and resources to help you achieve your goals. 

As a small business or startup, it can be challenging for you to attract and engage potential customers. That’s where our team of experienced marketers comes in. We specialize in using proven strategies to reach out to potential customers through email marketing and cold emails.

What sets us apart from other lead generation agencies is that we understand that generating leads is only half the battle – the real challenge lies in converting those leads into loyal customers. 

That’s why we focus on generating leads that are not only interested in your product or service but are also more likely to make a purchase.

We also understand that every business is unique. That’s why we offer customized lead generation solutions that are tailored to your specific needs. We work closely with you to understand your goals and create a strategy that delivers the results you’re looking for.

Here’s what you can expect when you work with us:

• We have a proven, surefire process for generating leads and booking meetings that we’ll share with you.
• Our lead generation specialists use cold email to reach prospects and book meetings for you.
• We will work tirelessly to bring actual meetings to your table.
• A significant part of our work is to spend time learning about your ideal customer profile (ICP) in and out before we send a single email. We want each recipient to feel like you know them and wonder why you didn’t cross their paths months ago.
• We use a unique process where we manually research prospects, build lists manually, and personalize every single cold email we send — we don’t send out generic emails to a massive list — to ensure highly tailored services. 
• Our ideal scenario is that we send 20 emails, get 15 replies, 10 positives, and get you 4 sales-qualified leads or sign-ups.
• We won’t lock you into a long-term retainer agreement – you only pay for the meetings we book for you, and you’ll get results from the first month.
• We won’t bother you with metrics that don’t matter – we’ll only report on the metrics important to your business, like the number of meetings booked, the number of product sign-ups, positive replies, and interested prospects.

Pricing

Our marketing service’s pricing is crystal clear. We have three plans:

• Silver: It costs $499/month and only gives you two warm LEAD.
• Gold: This is the plan we recommend, as it gives you the biggest bang for your buck. It costs $999/month and gives you 6 hot and sales-qualified appointments or LEADS.
• Platinum: This plan is for mid-level to enterprise companies willing to fuel their sales team with up to 15 sales-ready leads on a monthly basis.

Our email marketing pricing includes the following:

• The tech stack we use to build your prospect list and send and monitor your campaign.
• A complete list of prospects that fit your buyer persona and ICP.
• The campaign setup fees.

2 – Ubrik Media

Ubrik Media is a Dubai-based digital marketing agency that offers lead generation and other digital marketing services to grow businesses in the education and B2B industries. They have generated over 2,000 qualified leads and have partnered with numerous companies such as Gourmet, Terrapinn, Thumbay, Damac, Kaspersky, Middlesex University, Dubai Chamber, and more. 

Their goal is to understand their client’s pain points and build innovative solutions that improve sales. They achieve this by generating qualified leads and boosting the ROI of your company. 

Unlike Nerdy Joe, their pricing details aren’t revealed on their website, but you should note that they charge a flat management fee. If you want to know their specific pricing information, you can fill out the form on their website and expect a response within 2-3 business days. 

3 – EDS FZE

EDS is a full-service online marketing agency that provides lead generation and other digital services to increase reach and expand businesses. Having launched over 5,000 campaigns for 900+ clients, they focus on providing innovative solutions to increase visibility and create more sales for businesses.

Through some proven techniques and advanced tools, they can target your ideal prospects through cold calls and increase the response rate by following up on emails to generate more qualified leads. Unlike Nerdy Joe, there are no pricing details on their website. But you can fill out the forms on their website. 

4 – Leads Dubai

Leads Dubai is a digital marketing company that offers various marketing services to grow businesses. Through different services, they have generated over 100,000 leads and have served 1,000+ clients. Among the services they offer is email marketing, where they use emails to drive targeted traffic to your website, build awareness and generate qualified leads. 

They also combine email marketing with other services to ensure you generate qualified leads that can improve sales. Unlike Nerdy Joe, there is no pricing information about their services. But you can contact them by filling out a form to get a quote. 

5 – DNB UAE

Dun & Bradstreet is another company that offers lead generation and other services in the UAE territory. They offer various solutions that improve sales, manage risks, and grow businesses. One of the main services they offer is sales and marketing solutions, where they assist companies in finding their most valuable prospects and accelerate their pipeline with sales intelligence. To understand their process, here is a quick view of how they work.

• They analyze and identify your ideal customer profile
• They target your audiences across relevant channels
• They engage and nurture your prospects by personalizing the buyer’s journey
• They convert the sales leads into paying customers. 

Contrary to Nerdy Joe, there is no pricing information on their website. However, you can call them or send them an email to get a quote. 

6 – HelloPixels

HelloPixels is a full-service digital agency that offers lead generation and other digital services to thousands of companies in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. They have worked for over 1,000 organizations, including Gits, Riayah, Fortius, Buying Yacht, DSR Tech, and more.

Although the company is notable for its web design and mobile app development services, it also specializes in generating qualified leads to drive traffic, improve sales, and grow businesses. They implement two approaches to achieve this goal. 

The first approach involves using various marketing strategies – PPC, SEO, SEM, email marketing, webinars, and more – to capture leads. Meanwhile, the second approach involves utilizing their sales team to nurture and engage prospects until they convert into paying customers. There is no pricing detail on their website, but you can call or email them to request a quote. 

7 – Brand Media Works

Brand Media Works is also a Dubai-based company that helps to build businesses by driving massive traffic and increasing sales. They offer various services such as brand strategy, e-commerce strategy, digital marketing consultation, and Web3 consulting. Their digital marketing consultation services focus on launching effective marketing campaigns that can drive targeted traffic to your site and boost the ROI of your business. 

According to their website, they have some proven strategies that can drive efficiencies in work processes and increase sales. Unlike Nerdy Joe, there are no pricing details on their website. But you can fill out a form to request a quote.

8 – The Social Phantom

The Social Phantom is a digital marketing agency that specializes in helping businesses reach their target audience and turn them into potential customers. Among the services they offer is B2B lead generation where they allow companies to capture leads and convert them into business opportunities that generate revenue. 

They begin the process with an online search and then use content marketing to reveal relevant prospects that are interested in your solutions. After engaging with the relevant prospects, they can nurture them into potential buyers. To get their pricing information, you can fill out the forms on their website, and call, or email them to request a quote. 

9 – HeroLeads

Hero Leads is also a Dubai-based lead generation agency that generates qualified leads and grows your business in specific industries such as education, retail, healthcare, B2B, automotive, and real estate. They have also partnered with various notable firms such as Alshaya Enterprises, Kitchen Haus, the University of Birmingham, Pearson, The Executive Clinic, and more. 

With their end-to-end solutions, they focus on generating leads that convert into sales for your business. They achieve this by sending the right messages to the right audience through the right channel. They also track the results of the campaign in their custom dashboard to understand the progress. 

Unlike Nerdy Joe, there is no pricing detail available on their website. But, you can fill out the forms, and call, or email them to get a quote.

10 – Blupord

Blupord is a full-service digital marketing agency that offers lead generation and other digital services in Dubai. They ensure that they drive targeted traffic to your site and convert them into leads. 

To do this, the firm finds an effective way to attract prospects to your website through different strategies such as Search Engine Optimization, SEM, social media marketing campaigns, and retargeting ads.

Then, they devise and test other digital strategies to achieve a cost-efficient outcome and generate maximum conversions. There is no pricing detail on their website, but you can contact them to request a quote.

Work with Nerdy Joe to generate leads in the UAE

There you have it. These are the top companies that offer lead generation and appointment-setting services in the UAE. Of course, every company is a globally acclaimed company for lead gen and has its own merits and drawbacks. 

But it is common knowledge that most lead generation companies approach the service by doing massive outreach to huge numbers of prospective clients. 

So, if what you’re looking for is:

• An agency that charges you for results, not tasks.
• An agency that doesn’t require you to commit to a contract.
• An agency that sends a few emails and brings you significant results.
• An agency that does not waste your time and that’s affordable.
• A group of experts that care about your company’s reputation and relationship with prospects.

Nerdy Joe is the lead gen agency you’re looking for. 

Want to give us a try? We’ll generate 6 sales-qualified leads in your pipeline or fill your calendar with 6 meetings with high-quality leads at only $999. Let’s fill your calendar now!

Finding the best lead generation company for your company or organization should be a really simple task. 

Because we believe if you are looking for a company to do lead generation for you, chances are that you are not growing at the rate you wish and are looking to fill your pipeline with leads. 

With that said, when it comes to lead generation, it’s only a few criteria you need to care about, indeed. You should look for a lead generation company that:

• ACTUALLY gets you ACTUAL leads that show genuine interest and will truly buy (Not people who only downloaded stuff)
• Will present your company in a way that’s representative of your brand and its philosophies
• Has experience in your industry or niche
• Offers a great, reasonable price-value deal (so you won’t get stuck in a retainer contract that only profits them)
• Won’t get you a bad rap on social media (prospects won’t be complaining about poor, annoying marketing or outreach approaches)

So we considered all this and scouted the industry to list the top lead generation companies you need to consider today. 

This list is inspired by our own experience and the companies that pop out in the hottest lead generation conversations out there. So, here you go. 

15 best lead generation companies 

Here are all the companies included in this list. 

• Nerdy Joe
• CallBox
• Cience
• SalesAR
• Cleverly
• Smith.ai
• SalesPro Leads
• Purple Sales
• FlyTech Inc
• Operatix
• Respect Studio
• Sales Nash
• Leadium
• Martial Group
• SocialBloom

Since you know the factors that can help you to compare companies, here are the top 15 lead generation agencies you can consider. 

1 – Nerdy Joe

Nerdy Joe is a B2B digital marketing agency that only offers email marketing and outbound lead generation services (i.e., cold emailing).

Contrary to most lead generation companies who are Jack of all trades, we keep our lead generation service offerings this narrow because we like the idea of offering something specific and performing it excellently. 

Working with us is pretty straightforward as we don’t require you to commit to a certain number of months, and you know exactly what you get when you choose to work with us.

What makes Nerdy Joe the best lead generation company for your needs

Here are some reasons why Nerdy Joe is the best lead generation company for you.

You want a company that sells results — not the number of emails they send

There generally are four types of lead generation companies:

• Those who’ll charge you based on the number of emails they send or the number of contacts they put in your list.
• Those charge you a monthly fee and promise you’ll get the best leads ever but never deliver on their promise.
• Those that call everyone who’s downloaded an ebook or PDF  a LEAD and charge you for that.
• Those that charge based on the number of QUALIFIED leads they generate for your sales team.

To be fair, it’s only the last type of company that truly cares about your ROI and brings you great results. 

We believe if you need help with lead generation, your situation is that you’re not growing at the rate you want and need LEADS to sell to. 

So, the value we seek to offer you doesn’t circle around the number of emails we send, the work we do, but the result we get for you. 

Because of this, our lead generation experts and appointment-setting specialists only take pride in providing value and leading with metrics that matter — not vanity metrics like open rate, bounce rate, clickthrough rate, etc.

Metrics we lead with include: 

• Number of positive replies
• Number of meetings booked
• Lead to close rate

For instance, if you want to work with us to increase the customer base for your SaaS product, we’ll report:

• The number of new sign-ups you get. 
• The number of positive replies we get.
• The number of demo calls we book for you.
• And the number of new clients we get for you.

If you’re a B2B company selling to accountants, we’ll only charge you for the number of appointments we set for your sales teams. 

Our offering varies depending on your company’s overall goal and what outcome matters the most to you.

You want a company that represents you well (strong personalization) — not one that blasts everyone with cold emails 

Say were you to choose between two companies that do lead generation for you. 

• A: They build huge lists of thousands of people and blast them with generic emails.
• B: They built a well-researched list of 30 prospects and crafted personalized, relevant, and compelling emails to reach out to them.

Which of the two lead gen companies would you prefer to be represented by?

B, yes, that’s what we figured. 

Unfortunately, the lead generation industry has changed dramatically over the past few years.

Simply go on Twitter and check what type of advice or strategies most self-proclaimed lead generation experts are chanting.

Most people believe that you need to send 1000 emails daily to get the results you want (i.e., cold outreach or lead generation success is a matter of volume).

They believe in scenarios like sending 1000 cold emails per day for a week and converting around 10 prospects at the end of the week. That does seem like some real strategy and might even make them feel like they’re working hard.  

Also, granted, this tactic probably works for some companies, but it certainly guarantees the following scenarios:

• Both ESPs and ISPs will flag your email and IP addresses as spammers.  
• They’ll kill your company’s reputation, and you’ll get a bad rap on social media. 
• The quality of the leads you get will be subpar. 
• Your domain will face severe deliverability issues.

We avoid this by being super-specific in who we target and creating personalized messages to very short prospect lists, and guess what? It works. 

We spend time learning about your ideal customer profile (ICP) in and out before we send a single email. We want each recipient to feel like you know them and wonder why you didn’t cross their paths months ago.

We also do that because we don’t want to send 1000 emails per day for a week to get 4 sign-ups or meetings booked at the end of the week. Our ideal scenario is that we send 20 emails, we get 15 replies, 10 positives, and get you 4 sales-qualified leads or sign-ups.

Now, don’t get this wrong. By personalization, we mean we make each email relatable and timely. We don’t just add [[First name]] and other variables to the email subject lines. 

Just for some context on how this works for us, here’s an example of a reply we received as we reached out to a VP of Marketing who has historically blocked or reported SPAM to anyone who’s sent him a cold email.

Here’s another example where we pitched a Head of Marketing, and here’s the response. 

Contrary to what these gurus suggest, most of our outbound lead generation campaigns are run towards 10 or 15 people, not 1000. We believe that the best sales strategy is to build trust and relationships. That’s why most of the responses we get are:

• “Wow, such a nice email.”
• “Thank you for the nice words and compliment.”
• “Let’s catch up next Thursday.”
• “Love your email. Can you follow up on the 25th?” 

You might wonder where we get information about each prospect or member of your target audience we use for personalization?

• We listen to podcasts your potential customers have been on.
• We read blog posts they wrote. 
• We read their LinkedIn, Twitter, and Mastodon posts.
• We read discussions on forums they’re in.
• etc.

The data we collect is aggregated to provide unique angles that allow us to craft personalized first lines and icebreakers.

Here’s what it looks like in real life. We pitched CoSchedule’s Head of Content, Ben Sailer, and asked him if we could write for them.

Here’s what he replied 1 hour later.

Here is another successful example from a similar strategy.

As you can see from both screenshots, the cold emails sent to the prospects were so compelling that they couldn’t help but acknowledge it before offering to hire us.

You want quality (manually built) data

Our policy is to never use client data in lead generation campaigns. As well, unlike most lead generation companies, we do not rely on data intelligence tools such as ZoomInfo or Lusha for data.

We don’t trust these data sources because they only aggregate technographic and demographic data. For example, using these tools, it’s easy to find data regarding companies that: 

• Are in the accounting software industry, 
• Have 30 to 65 employees,
• Are series B-funded companies,
• Are in Europe,
• Use Slack or Digital Ocean as part of their tech stack.
• Have a ping pong table at the office. 

The problem with this data is that it can only serve to craft obvious personalized first lines like:

So, we like to take it a little further down the personalization road. We seek and make use of psychographic data and other types of data.

How do we do that?

When we sign a new client, one of the first things we do is ask about their ICP.

We ask questions like:

• Which type of clients has the highest lifetime value?
• Which type of clients is easiest to close?
• Which type of clients churns the fastest?
• What are the top 3 objections you hear from prospective clients during sales calls?
• Why did you start your company? 
• What pain points were you trying to solve?
• Etc.

By answering these questions, we can pinpoint precisely who we should target and why. And this type of information makes the difference between: 

“We’re targeting series A tech companies,” 

And 

“Our ICP is a CTO of a healthcare software company selling to Healthcare professionals, and his main pain points are lack of organization, time management, and team collaboration. He often refers to XYZ newsletter to get insights as to how to manage his team efficiently.” 

Once we have a clear understanding of who the ICP is, we proceed to manually build our list, and that’s what we use to run our lead generation campaigns.

We won’t make you sign any retainer contract — you’re free to renew or stop your subscription based on satisfaction.

Unlike most lead generation companies that require you to sign a 3 to 6-month contract, Nerdy Joe is a subscription-based business. 

Working with us means you get results starting from Month 1, and you pay and renew your subscription depending on how satisfied you are with our service and your budget.

Also, because you know exactly what you are paying for, we don’t send you proposals based on surface-level information we have about your company. We also don’t waste your time with useless meetings. 

Here are the benefits you can enjoy from this. 

• Flexibility: Our subscription system offers you the flexibility to choose when to subscribe and when to stop. This means you can choose to stop your subscription if you are not satisfied with the service or if you no longer need it. In contrast, a retainer contract usually requires you to commit to a fixed period of time and payment, regardless of your satisfaction with the service.
• Risk mitigation: In our subscription system, you take on less risk than with a retainer contract. You have the option to stop the subscription if you are not satisfied with the service without the financial and legal implications that come with breaking a retainer contract.
• Accountability: You can be sure the system encourages us to maintain a high level of satisfaction for you. We know you have the option to stop the subscription if you are not happy with the service. In contrast, a retainer contract may lead to complacency on the part of the service provider since you are already committed to paying for the service regardless of your satisfaction.

We give you the exact bang for your buck — your chosen plan tells you exactly what you get. 

Our offerings and pricing are clear — and this is probably why we’re one of the best lead generation agencies. You choose a plan based on your budget and needs, and you know exactly what you get at the end of the month.

• No, “it depends on a lot of factors.”
• No, “Your account manager swallowed the key to his office and couldn’t work.”

If you have product-market fit and are solving a problem that most people have, it is almost everything we need to get you results.

But if you’re still figuring out who your solution is best for, then we’re probably not going to be of help.

Pricing

Our lead generation service’s pricing is crystal clear. We have three plans:

• Silver: It costs $499/month and only gives you two warm LEADS.
• Gold: This is the plan we recommend, as it gives you the biggest bang for your buck. It costs $999/month and gives you 6 hot and sales-qualified appointments or LEADS.
• Platinum: This plan is for mid-level to enterprise companies willing to fuel their sales team with up to 15 sales-ready leads on a monthly basis.

Our email marketing pricing includes the following:

• The tech stack we use to build your prospect list and send and monitor your campaign.
• A complete list of prospects that fit your buyer persona and ICP.
• The campaign setup fees.

2 – CallBox

CallBox is a B2B lead generation and appointment-setting agency that helps to manage leads, nurture relationships, monitor campaigns, and increase appointments with qualified sales. 

They implement a multi-channel marketing approach by combining phone calls, email,  social media, SEO, and chatbots to generate leads for their clients. 

They achieve their marketing campaigns for their clients through four proven steps:

• Identifying companies that match their ICP
• Profiling key stakeholders or prospects within the targeted companies
• Engaging with the prospects through various channels 
• Setting and confirming appointments with the right people

The lead generation agency also works with Pipeline and HubSpot to create a seamless and efficient process that drives sales and improves revenue. 

There are no details about the company’s pricing on their website, but you can request a quote if you want to work with them. 

3 – Cience

Cience is a B2B lead generation service and software that offers inbound and outbound lead generation services for enterprises across 195+ industries. They utilize a comprehensive lead generation approach to produce scalable results for various companies.

Some of their processes for their clients include:

• Growing the client’s pipeline through research (phone, social, email, or web prospecting) and their outbound platform
• Targeting qualified prospects across different departments in top-tier companies to create sales opportunities
• Leveraging the latest sales intelligent technologies to execute multi-channel outbound campaigns, optimize, and build the pipeline for sales success.

Some of their latest sales intelligence tools include programmatic ads tools, chatbot software, appointment setting tools, real-time chat, marketing platforms, CRMs, and project management tools.

Unlike Nerdy Joe’s subscription plan, Cience requires a minimum of a 3-month contract before generating sales opportunities for your company.

There are no pricing details on their website, but you can request a quote from their SDR.

4 – SalesAR

SalesAR is a B2B lead generation agency that focuses on B2B lead generation, appointment setting, and anti-spam services to spread brand awareness and boost sales across targeted audiences. 

Their B2B lead generation process for their clients includes:

• Accessing ICPs and analyzing the market
• Selecting companies that will likely need your products or services
• Searching for prospects (mostly decision-makers) within selected companies
• Validated the selected contacts

Upon completion of the B2B lead generation process, they can carry out appointment-setting service through customized outreach, negotiating with prospects, arranging calls and meetings, and giving their clients the warm leads to close. 

Sales AR offers its services based on three pricing plans, but you will have to request a quote for each of the plans. These plans include:

• Monthly — Test and Standard plan
• Quarterly — Basic and business plan
• A customized plan is available upon request.

5 – Cleverly

Cleverly is a B2B lead generation agency that uses cold email marketing campaign and LinkedIn to generate leads and drive revenue. 

Their typical lead generation technique is as follows:

• They build targeted and qualified email lists of prospects 
• They write clear and personalized cold outreach messages that get responses
• They send custom messages to tons of prospects each month
• They notify you when leads respond to close the deals

They offer different pricing based on the type of lead generation service you want. For example, you will have to contact them to get a quote for the cold email lead generation service. The service isn’t based on contracts but was undisclosed on their website. 

Meanwhile, they offer three pricing plans for their lead generation service. This includes:

• Silver plan, which costs $397 per month
• Gold plan, which costs $497 per month
• Platinum plan, which costs $997 per month

6 – Smith.ai

Smith.ai is a lead generation company that uses virtual receptionists to capture and convert leads through website chat, phone calls, text messages, and social media platforms such as Facebook.

They offer outreach campaigns and appointment-setting services to generate qualified leads and increase. Here is how their process works:

• First, you provide a list of prospects or clients who need an outreach
• Then, they call the prospects or client
• They send a follow-up email and text messages to boost engagement
• They schedule meetings with the qualified leads based on your preferences
• They track their campaign performance.

They integrate with various programs such as HubSpot, Salesforce, Clio, Zapier, and more to ensure that your business is responsive and wins more clients. 

They offer four pricing plans for their outreach campaigns, and these includes:

• Starter, which costs $400 per month
• Basic plan, which costs $1750 per month
• PRO plan, which costs $3000 per month
• Custom plan, which requires you to contact them.

7 – SalesPro Leads

SalesPro Leads is a B2B lead generation company and appointment-setting company that identifies quality sales opportunities for businesses in the technology industry. They offer two programs through which they identify these sales leads and execute B2B appointment-setting services. These programs include:

• Exclusive Partner Lead Program
• Target Market Program

These programs enable the agency to partner with your sales team and empower them to generate quality sales leads that produce scalable results.

There is no information about their pricing details on their website. However, you must call, send an email, or fill out their forms to get a quote. 

8 – Purple Sales

Purple Sales is a hybrid marketing and sales agency that focuses on B2B tech companies and helps them to increase their pipeline value and generate rapid growth. They mainly focus on providing B2B appointment setting and sales services for these companies. 

Focusing on their B2B appointment setting service, here is a quick view of how their process works.

• They identify your ICP
• They send cold email campaigns to a targeted audience
• They call prospects who have shown interest in the cold email campaign
• They perform a multi-channel follow-up approach on the prospects
• Their sales rep handles the rest of the sales process

They also make use of sales enablement tools to make the sales cycle faster and give a weekly performance report on their activities. There is no information about their pricing as you will have to fill out a form to get a quote.

9 – FlyTech Inc

FlyTech is a lead generation agency that helps companies to grow their pipeline by reaching out to prospects through various digital channels.

They focus on acquiring customers through targeted campaigns across various marketing and sales channels. 

Contrary to Nerdy Joe’s well-tailored plan, their process involves implementing cost-effective strategies such as curating and A/B testing copies across channels, measuring how customers respond, and scaling the most effective messaging. 

Some of the channels they utilize include:

• Paid search
• Social Targeting (LinkedIn, Meta, and Twitter)
• Direct outreach (personalized emails and LinkedIn messages)
• Channel exploration

There are no pricing details about their services, but you can get in touch to hear from them.

10 – Operatix

Operatix is a lead generation and outsourced SDR agency that focuses on helping B2B tech companies to increase their pipeline and generate revenue. They understand the client’s value proposition and identify quality leads that can provide sales opportunities. 

They also implement some account-based marketing strategies that help to grow their client’s sales pipeline and increase conversion rate. Some of the acclaimed results they deliver include:

• Account identification
• Cold prospecting
• Lead qualification
• Account-based selling
• Outbound sales development

There are no details about their pricing. You will have to get in touch with the team to get a quote.

11 – Respect Studio

Respect Studio is a B2B lead generation agency that specializes in growing sales pipelines to generate leads and increase revenue. They offer two main services to their clients.

• B2B Marketing
• LinkedIn Lead generation

Their B2B marketing service focuses on identifying prospects for their clients, focusing on their channels, and establishing a content marketing process that generates and converts leads. 

Meanwhile, their LinkedIn lead generation service involves identifying prospects on LinkedIn, engaging with them, and crafting an outreach strategy that converts them. If you want to know about their pricing, you must book a call with them. 

12 – Sales Nash

Sales Nash is a sales development company that provides appointment setting, prospecting, and sales development services for over 40 clients. The main goal is to generate qualified leads for their clients and close deals that help them to grow their business. 

Although their original focus was on the software and SaaS industries, they have now expanded into various industries such as healthcare, health tech, digital marketing, event management, and more. 

Their work process is classified into four stages which include:

• Evaluation of projects
• Preparation of projects
• Execution of projects
• On-going adjustments

Sales Nash offers three pricing plans for their appointment-setting service.

• Junior team, which costs $2250 per month
• Standard team, which costs $3250 per month
• Extended team, which costs $4750 per month

13 – Leadium

Leadium is a sales development agency that provides lead generation and appointment-setting services for various companies.

They focus on implementing sales activities to create more qualified sales opportunities while reducing customer acquisition costs and HR burdens. 

They use top-of-funnel data and offer appointment-setting services through email, SMS, phone, LinkedIn, and gifting and set up qualified meetings that can convert.

This gets them in front of more prospects, engages with them, wins deals, and generates more revenue. 

There are no pricing details about Leadium’s service. You will have to fill out a form to get a quote. 

14 – Martal Group

Martal Group is a B2B lead generation agency that helps tech and SaaS companies to generate leads and get various sales opportunities. 

They execute this process by providing a team of skilled SDRs that outsource qualified leads through outbound and inbound methodology, book appointments, and drive new client registration for your business. 

The team of experts implements the strategies by leveraging real-time data to discover companies that fit the ideal buyer personas. Some results you can get from this company include: 

• Scheduling lunch and learn meetings for prospects
• Targeting competitors’ customers through ABM
• Engaging prospects with buyer’s intent to improve conversion rate 

Nonetheless, Martal Group provides an ROI calculator on their website, which you can use to estimate your fees. For instance, ten sales appointments per month will cost you $15,000 for 3 months. 

All their pricing plans are contractual, with a minimum of 3 months. Each plan gets you different services, and you have to request a quote to know about your exact fee.

15 – SocialBloom

Social Bloom is a B2B lead generation company that generates qualified leads and sales opportunities for its clients. They focus on B2B outbound campaigns that involve manual sourcing and other strategies such as cold emails, social selling, and calling. 

They deliver their results through three main processes:

• They identify their ideal customers for the business
• They source accurate data and send personalized messages that can convert
• They manage and optimize the outbound campaigns to generate leads and book demos for the business.

SocialBloom has three pricing plans which include:

• Email campaign, which costs $3 per contact
• Calling campaign, which costs $6 per contact
• A LinkedIn campaign which costs $1 per contact

Nerdy Joe is that lead generation company you’re looking for

If you are looking for an agency that will use paid search to boost your sales, FlyTech Inc, Call Box, and the others on this list are suitable to lead generation agencies for you. 

But if what you’re looking for is:

• An agency that charges you for results (leads generated), not tasks.
• An agency that doesn’t require you to commit to a contract.
• An agency that does not waste your time and that’s affordable.
• A dedicated management team to get you more leads.
• A team that offers lead nurturing.
• A good lead generation company that offers you custom lead generation campaigns.
• A group of experts that care about your company’s reputation and relationship with prospects.

Nerdy Joe is the lead generation agency you’re looking for. 

Having a nice way to begin your email and ensuring a good first impression is crucial to creating a good atmosphere for conversation. 

Unfortunately, most people using email spend most of their time optimizing their email subject line but fail terribly when it comes to hooking their recipient with the first line.

If you’re wondering how important the first email opening line is, think about all the times you received the infamous “Dear sir or madam” and how annoying it is. 

In this article, I’ll share 180 email greetings and ways to start an email. I’ll be including unique opening lines for every situation you might need them for — and some email etiquette.

So, let’s set you up for a powerful email start. 

How to start an email: 180 email greetings and opening line examples 

Friendly ways to start an email: 8+ friendly opening lines and email greeting examples

Most of us use emails to seek friendly conversations with our prospects. Even when we seek to sell a product or service, our first goal is to establish a friendly relationship with our recipients. 

Here are examples of friendly and informal greetings you can use for this. 

Disclaimer: You can start formal emails by using any of these.

• “Hello {{name}}”
• “I’m hoping to get your advice on…”
• “Hi/Hey {{name}}”
• “It was great to meet/talk to you! “
• “How are you?”
• “It’s great to hear from you!”
• “How’s business?”
• “Thanks for reaching out”
• “I enjoyed your recent post about {{topic}}!”
• “Thanks for the timely response”
• “I hope your holiday/day off! was amazing”
• “Thanks for your help with…”
• “I trust you are well”
• “This article/video made me think of you!”

Funny ways to start an email: 30+ funny email greeting examples

While using funny email opening lines may not be ideal for all instances, it can be the perfect email opening line for someone with whom you already have a close relationship with and can help you bond some more. 

Think about that one coworker with whom you have a great relationship. Or consider that business partner with whom you’ve collaborated for so long that they now feel like a friend.

Using hilarious opening lines in your business communication can deepen your relationship further and keep you smiling.

Here are the best email opening lines you can use for this. 

• “[Any inside joke]”
• “Hopefully, you’ve had your coffee this morning”
• “Me again …”
• “Are you surviving yet another workweek?”
• “I hope the week was only mildly boring”
• “It’s X more days until Friday!”
• “Don’t worry, I’ll keep this brief”
• “I hope you’re surviving another work week”
• “Only x days til Friday”
• “Had your coffee?”
• “I hope you’re sitting down”
• “Sorry for sabotaging your inbox zero, but…”
• “Happy Fri-YAY!”
• “I hope your morning coffee was as strong as mine”
• “X days until Friday”
• “Happy Hump Day”
• “I promise that this is the last email you’ll receive from me. This week”
• “Yep – you guessed right. It’s me again”
• “Happy Not-Monday!”
• “I promise this email isn’t as long as the previous one”
• “Yep, it’s me again”
• “Hope you’re surviving”
• “Just what you want: another email”
• “Yet another message to bog down your inbox”
• “That week-end had gone fast”
• Thanks man, you’re a rockstar.

Formal ways to start an email: 10+ Formal email opening lines

Emails you send to professors, government officials, and business partners are expected to have a formal start.

Truth be told, very few of us really do need to send emails to such people. 

Keep in mind that you can address any type of person and ensure that you stay on the good side of things with a formal email opening line.

Here are some examples of formal email greetings to use in your formal emails. 

• “Allow me to introduce myself…”
• “I hope you are having a wonderful day”
• “Further to our earlier exchange…”
• “I hope your day so far has been pleasant”
• “Good morning/afternoon/evening”
• “I hope your week is going smoothly”
• “Greetings Dear {{name}}
• “I’m emailing you to…”
• “How are you?”
• “I’m hoping to get your input on…”
• “How was your vacation/weekend/etc.?”
• “It is great to hear from you”
• “I am extending a hand for partnership…”
• “It’s my pleasure to inform you…”
• “I am writing to you in relation to…”
• “Thank you for contacting us at {{business name}}”
• “I trust this email finds you well”
• “Thank you for responding so promptly.”
• “I hope this email finds you well”

Professional ways to start an email (8+ professional opening line examples) 

Professional email opening lines are any beginning sentences you can use in your email to sound polite and friendly. Such email openings help navigate any kind of situation and impersonal relationships with ease. 

Here are the best ways to start a formal email.

• “{{name}}”
• “I hope you are having a wonderful week/day”
• “All/everyone” (this is great if you’re reaching out to three or more recipients)
• “I trust this email finds you well”
• “Dear {{name}}”
• “I’m contacting you about…”
• “Greetings”
• “I’m following up on my previous email…”
• “Hello {{name}}”
• “It’s good to hear from you”
• “Hi/Hey {{name}}”
• “Thank you for reaching out to us”
• “I could use your advice on…”
• “Thank you for the prompt response”

5+ sales email opening lines 

When it comes to sales email and cold emails, we don’t believe in short email greetings or easy opening lines. Instead, we like to conduct a proper research on the prospect to create what we call: icebreakers.

As the name implies, these are simple sentences that we integrate at the beginning of our sales emails to smoothen the conversation with our prospect and make them more receptive to what we have to offer.

It helps us personalize the first line and create custom, catchy email opening lines for each of our prospects to boost our credibility as email marketers. Here are a few examples of icebreakers we use as email opening line in our sales emails. 

• “I just came across your LinkedIn profile and I must say that the recommendation {{name}} left for you is amazing. You are the type of {{Role}}  that every company dreams of. Keep up the good work.”
• “Congratulations on your new role as {{Role}}  at the {{company}}. You’re charting an impressive career path. Keep up the good work.”
• “I’m probably late to the party but congratulations on your new role as {{job position}} at {{company}}. By the way, you’re charting an impressive career path. Keep up the good work.”
• “Your career path is so impressive. Someone with your experience with a single company is a hero in my book. As you have with {{company}}. Keep up the good work.”
• “I checked your LinkedIn profile and should say, your work experience is very inspiring. I look forward to congratulating you on your second anniversary as {{Role}} at {{company}}. Keep up the good work.” 
• “Your work experience with {{company name}} is very inspiring. I look forward to congratulating you on your third anniversary as {{Role}} at the company. Keep up the good work.”
• “It’s so great to see that you have accumulated all this experience over the years helping so many companies to grow. Your career path is so impressive. Someone with your experience is a hero in my book. Keep up the good work.”
• “I just read {{name}}’s recommendation on your LinkedIn profile and I must say good job. You are the type of {{job title}} that every company dreams of. Keep up the good work.”

Ways to start a follow-up: 10+ follow-up email opening line examples

Here are a few first line sentences you can use in your follow-up emails. From building on a previous email to rekindling a silenced conversation, you’ll find any opening line you need for effective email follow-ups. 

• “Are you still interested?”
• “As promised, here’s …”
• “As we discussed in our last meeting”
• “As we discussed on our phone call …”
• “Can you please provide me an update on …”
• “Could you provide me with an update?”
• “Following up on our meeting …”
• “Here’s more information on …”
• “I know that you’re probably very busy at the moment, but I thought you wouldn’t like to miss out on {{purpose of the previous email}}”
• “I saw that you read my previous email and wanted to touch base with you about it”
• “I thought of sending a quick follow-up to my email in case it got buried in your inbox”
• “I wanted to circle back around to {{topic of the previous email}}”
• “I wanted to float this back to the top of your inbox”
• “I wanted to follow up with you…”
• “I wanted to get back to you about…”
• “I’d like to add something to what we discussed earlier”
• “I’m checking in on …”
• “It was great to meet you at [event]”
• “Just checking in…”
• “Thank you for your time”
• “Would you be so kind as to provide an update on {{topic of the

Informal ways to start an email: 13+ informal email opening line examples

This section involves email beginning sentences and proper salutation you can use to address your email message to your close ones and people you strictly have a personal connection with. 

Know that these are not appropriate for the workspace and should be reserved for outside the office communications or free time emails between close colleagues.

Here are the best email opening lines for this. 

• “Alright”
• “Could you help me with something?”
• “Dear {{first name}}”
• “Hello”
• “Hey”
• “Hi”
• “Hope you good!”
• “Hope you’re having a great week”
• “How are you doing?”
• “How’s it going?”
• “How’s it going?”
• “Howdy”
• “I hope this email finds you all well” (Ideal if you’re reaching out to multiple recipients)
• “I trust your weekend went great”
• “I hope you’re doing well”
• “I meant to contact you about”
• “I’d love to get your advice on …”
• “It’s been a while”
• “Just checking in”
• “Long time no see”
• “Nice hearing from you!”
• “Sup”
• “Thanks for getting back”
• “Thanks for the help!”
• “Thanks for touching the base”
• “Yo”
• “Good evening”
• “Good morning”
• “Good afternoon”

Ways to start a business email: 15+ business email opening line examples 

Business email starting sentences are expected to be polite and respectful. You need to consider the professional relationship between you and your recipients and keep your starting lines clean and appropriate.

Here are some good opening lines for you can use.

• “Allow me to introduce {{anything but yourself}}”
• “Hope you are having a great day”
• “I am contacting you in regards”
• “I am reaching out to”
• “I hope this email finds you well”
• “I hope this email finds you”
• “I hope you are having a {{occasion}}”
• “I hope you are having a great week”
• “I hope you enjoyed your day off”
• “I hope your day has been great”
• “I would love to “
• “I’m following up on my previous email on…”
• “I’m glad to hear from you!”
• “I’m hoping to get your advice on…”
• “I’m writing to inquire about…”
• “I’m writing to you about”
• “It is good to have a conversation with”
• “Thank you for getting in touch with…”
• “Thank you for the quick response”
• “This email is just to you know”
• “This email is to share”

Best email opening sentences when you don’t have a contact person

Here are a few email opening phrases you can use in your emails when you don’t have a contact person. These will ensure that your email begins with a polite phrase that is aligned with whoever reads your email. 

• “Dear {{job title}}”
• “Dear {{department name}} head”
• “Dear {{company name}}”
• “Dear {{company name}} {{job title}}”
• “Dear {{department name}} {{job title}}”
• “Dear {{department name}} team” 
• “Greetings”

Personal email opening sentence examples: 10+ personal ways to start an email

Using personal email starting sentences allows you to add a personal touch to your emails. They allow you to escape the business and formal aspect of your relationship and reach out to your recipient on a personal level. 

These are the perfect email openers for sending personal or celebratory emails to your coworkers or friends.

Here are the best email opening lines for this:

• “{{Mutual contact}} recommended I get in touch with you”
• “Congratulations on {{recent accomplishment}}”
• “Happy birthday to you..”
• “How did {{recent project}} turn out?”
• “I hope you enjoyed your {{event}}”
• “I loved your recent {{photo/article/social media post}}”
• “I was just laughing the other day about {{inside joke}}”
• “I was just thinking about you and {{shared memory}}”
• “I’m glad you told me about…”
• “I’m happy you were able to…”
• “It was great to see you at {{event}}”
• “Our last virtual meeting was freaking awesome”
• “This {{article/video/GIF}} made me think of you”
• “What do you think about…”

Email beginning sentences for responses to triggers

There are endless triggers you can respond to by way of email. The right way to do it is to specify as an answer to the trigger from the beginning of your email to indicate your email.

Here are a few email opening sentences you can use for this. 

• “It’s nice to hear from you”
• “{{Shared connection}} recommended I get in touch with you”
• “{{Mutual friend/contact}} reminded me to get in touch with you”
• “Congratulations on …”
• “Great to hear from you”
• “I appreciate the update.”
• “I hope you enjoyed your {{vacation/event}}”
• “I was just thinking about you”
• “Thank you for the quick response”
• “Thanks for getting back to me”
• “Thanks for getting in touch”
• “Thanks for the quick response”
• “Thanks for the update”
• “Thanks for your email”
• “This reminded me of you”

How to start an email: 14 poor examples of email openers you need to avoid

Keep in mind that what makes an email opening line great or poor will always depend on the type of relationship between you, the sender, and the person on the receiving end of the email. 

In other words, while an email opening sentence or salutation might be poor for some contexts, they might be the perfect beginning sentence for another email marketing campaign.  

So, always ensure you know your prospect really well and that your email greeting isn’t going to piss them off.

That cleared; here are the top poor email opening lines you need to avoid like the plague.

(This is based on general perception and from our experience.) 

1 – “Hi [misspelled name]”

Misspelling a recipient’s name can mean that you don’t write your email with care, and it can cost you the conversation. So, always ensure and double check the name you have inside your emails before hitting the send button. 

2 – “Dear [enter name here]” or Dear hiring manager

This mostly happens when you copy and paste email templates and click “send”. This opening line is even worse than misspelling your person’s name and is a direct red flag that you aren’t putting any seriousness into what you’re doing. People will simply delete your emails and forget about you. 

3 – “Can you do me a favor?”

Using such an opening line can spook your prospect away because it sounds abrupt (being in the beginning) and self-serving on your part. Whatever action you want them to take, be sure to give your readers a good enough reason to take it by providing value first. And if you are writing a cold email opening line, you should avoid this formula at all costs.

4 – “I know you’re busy, but…”

This beginning sentence makes you sound passive and not confident in whatever you have to say or offer your prospects. You will be better off if you, instead, explain why you’re coming to them.

5 – “Let me introduce myself”

No one will ever open your email because they’re interested in introducing yourself. Who you are doesn’t matter, what you’re bringing to the recipient’s table is, so focus on that instead. 

6 – “To whom it may concern” (e.g: Dear sir/Madam)

For most professionals, an informal greeting is the first sign that you didn’t do your homework before sending them your email. Especially if you’re writing an email of a marketing capacity, people will be quick to disengage with you. 

7 – “My name is…”

Saying your name to begin your email may sound polite and formal. But on the sales ground, it plays against you as your recipients will immediately know that they have not past rapport with you — which may cost them to be less receptive of whatever you have to say.

8 – “I work for…”

It’s okay to tell your prospects what organization you work for. What’s not okay is to lead with it. It rapidly alerts them that they don’t know you and that you are in their inbox only to sell to them. They may disengage before the conversation even starts.

9 – “I’m sorry/I apologize”

This type of opening line will only make sense if it is the purpose with which you’re writing the entire email. Otherwise, don’t begin your emails by saying you’re sorry. Whatever you’re trying to express, find a positive way to say it.

10 – “Did you know…?”

This is not an essay. No sales prospect will jump on your offer after an email that begins with such a cliché opening line.

11 – “Happy Monday!”

In general, people don’t enjoy their Mondays. So, it makes little sense to wish them a happy Monday. What might be better is to wish them a happy start to the week.

12 – “Formal greeting”

Most people think it’s necessary to keep email conversations formal. And so they proceed to use expressions like “Formal greeting” as a way to start a formal email. That’s a big mistake to avoid.

13 – “Here’s my cover letter”

When reaching out to a hiring manager, it’s important to make a great first impression. The last thing you want to do is to start a formal email with “Here’s my cover letter.” At least do your homework and research the person’s social media platforms and personalize the first line.

14 – “Dear sir or madam”

You probably know this one. It’s very popular in the industry. It shows your email recipient that you didn’t do your research.

Key takeaways

• Use these email openings as opener formulas to inspire your own. Also, know when to use humorous opening lines. Because if you don’t send them to the right person, it might hurt your credibility plus people will delete your messages. 
• As a rule of thumb, always use a formal opening line when reaching out to someone with whom you don’t have a close relationship or don’t personally in the real world. This will keep you on the good side of things and avoid you situations. 
• Also, always ensure your email, especially the solution phrase and the opening are well-written and mistake-free. These are at the top of your email, if the reader disengages from there, then your email content doesn’t matter, it all goes downhill. 

Cold emailing is an effective way to reach out to potential customers and promote your products or services.

It can be a powerful tool for sales, but it’s important to approach it in the right way.

A well-written cold email can help you establish a connection with potential customers and convince them to learn more about your product or service. 

However, crafting the perfect cold email takes strategy, planning, and attention to detail.

In this blog post, we’ll provide tips and best practices on how to write a cold email that we have perfected at Nerdy Joe over the years.

We’ll also discuss why sending cold emails isn’t just about making money; it’s also about building relationships with potential customers who might become long-term clients.

To keep in mind: This is not a blog post to read if you want to send cold emails to a sales list or blast your audience with random offers.

We believe every prospect has unique needs, and therefore two prospects shall not receive the same message. 

Why sending cold emails is not just about making money

Conducting a cold email campaign can be a way for businesses to generate leads and make money, but it’s not the only reason to send them. 

Cold emails can also be used to establish connections and build relationships with potential clients or partners, gather market research and customer feedback, and promote events or products.

You should approach cold emailing with a clear strategy and goals in mind. Simply sending emails in the hopes of making a quick sale is unlikely to be effective, as it can come across as spammy or aggressive. 

Also, sometimes, it can take a few follow-ups and cold email sequences to see any substantial results.

So, instead of rushing prospects into deals — they’ll probably ignore it — focus on building genuine connections with them and offering value through the content of your cold emails.

It’s also important to remember that cold emailing can be time-consuming and may not always yield results.

It’s important to track your results and adjust your approach as needed to ensure that your efforts are paying off.

10 steps to write cold emails that generate sales

Here are the steps you need to take to write an excellent cold email that generates sales. Keep in mind that this is the process we follow to write our cold emails at Nerdy Joe.

Step 1: Create click-worthy cold email subject lines

The cold email subject line is the first thing the reader will see, so it’s important to make it compelling. You want to grab the reader’s attention and make them want to open the email. 

Great cold email subject lines should be brief, specific, and relevant to the reader. Here are a few tips on how to write compelling subject lines for your cold emails.

• Personalize it: The first element that gets your email opened is the relevance of the subject line to the prospects. Personalized subject lines are 22% more likely to be opened than generic ones. Poorly written subject line will leave your email unanswered.

You need to show prospects that you researched and targeted them with a specific offer. You can personalize the subject line with prospects’ first names based on their job title, demographics, software uses, etc.

• Use the power of curiosity: Curiosity makes your prospects want to discover more. It gets them excited about what you want to say, and they will likely click. There are many ways you can do this. You can ask an intriguing question. Bring out a relevant fact. The sky’s the limit. 
• Leverage FOMO: Since you are making an offer, you can also try creating a sense of urgency to get your prospects to act rapidly. If you do it right, people will click to see what you have to say or offer them. No one likes to miss out on something valuable. 
• Keep it simple: Don’t use all caps, and don’t use exclamation points (unless you’re asking someone out on a date). These are quick ways to get your emails flagged by spam filters and end up in the junk box. 
• Keep it short: Long subject lines never do well. Also, long subject lines always have a poor rendering in most recipients’ email box providers (especially if they use mobile devices).
• Make it make sense: Sometimes, to be brief, you may want to try the subject with a few words. It can be a great idea, but mostly they’re evasive and vague, and as a result, the recipient fails to understand them. 
• Use no emojis: Emojis are off-limits. While they can be a helpful way to add personality and emotion to your subject lines, they are not always appropriate in all contexts. In some cases, they may not be clear or may be interpreted differently by different people. Also, they can be too casual for cold emails. 

Step 2: Commence the cold email with an icebreaker

You are probably wondering, icebreakers, what are those? 

Most marketers and sales reps start their cold emails with simple greeting opening lines. That means the phrases they use to open the email fall somewhere between the realms of the following:

• Allow me to introduce myself.
• Good afternoon.
• Good morning.
• How are you?
• I hope this email finds you well.
• I hope you enjoyed your weekend.
• I hope you’re doing well.
• I hope you’re having a great week.

Some even take it a little further, and include the prospect’s first name somewhere in the line, then call it personalized greetings. 

• How are you, Ibrahim?
• I hope this email finds you well, Ernest. 
• Good afternoon, Funmi. 
• Allow me to introduce myself, Justin. 

But yes. At the end of the day, we can all agree that these are simple greetings. I don’t know how you’d feel, but I’d feel the same about either of those opening lines (be it with my name or without it). It’s a greeting, and that’s it. 

The point is not to say that these sentences don’t work or that something is wrong with them. What we mean is that they are poor.

For a deeper explanation of why we do icebreakers instead, let’s consider why we do them in the first place. 

Why do we do icebreakers instead?

In most cases, the prospects or leads you will target with cold emails do not know anything about you or your product. So, your success depends on capturing their full attention and making a good first impression.

To do this:

1. First, you need to begin your cold emails with something unexpected and relevant to their unique personality so that you can hook the prospect to read your cold email. 
2. You need a phrase that makes your leads feel valued and makes the statement that you did your homework before reaching out to them. 
3. You need an opening line that helps you quickly build rapport with your prospects and conditions them to be more receptive to your cold email or what you have to say. 

And because of this, simple greetings simply can’t cut it. That’s why we do icebreakers. 

Icebreakers are opening line sentences integrated at the beginning of your cold email to facilitate interaction with your prospects. We use them to break the ice between our clients and prospects in order to connect with them and make them more open to receiving the message. 

Instead of simple greeting phrases, we bring interesting facts and personalized elements about the prospects to personalize the first few lines of the cold emails and make them more impactful.

Here is how we do it at our lead generation agency before launching our cold email campaigns. 

How we proceed to write icebreaker opening lines that our prospects love

We start by checking prospects’ activities on social platforms and popular online communities. 

In most cases, LinkedIn Inmail and Twitter work for most B2B professionals. 

Next, we look at their latest activities, their company’s activity, or anything else. The idea is to find a recent interesting aspect or element from their life and spark it at the beginning of the message to smoothen the conversation. 

So, we look at things like posts, likes, comments, recent promotions, job recommendations, impressive career paths, a share, a mention, a selfie, the company website, and whatever data we can talk about to create a unique first touch.

If there’s something specific about the person or situation that makes them stand out from other people—whether it be their personality or some aspect of their job—you can use this information as well. You could also compliment someone on their work or skill set.

Sure, it’s only a few lines and does not seem much like it, but it truly boosts your credibility as a marketer (or a cold emailer), and prospects can easily take an interest in what you have to tell them and read through.

Here is an example of how we keep it all in a spreadsheet before the campaign.

Now, here’s what it looks like in real life. I pitched CoSchedule’s the Head of Content, Ben Sailer, and asked him if I could write for them.

Here’s what he replied 1 hour later.

Step 3: Bring it back to the matter and validate yourself

Now that you’ve made a connection, your goal is to bring it back to the matter and validate yourself. 

This is where you get serious and start talking business. Ideally, whatever approach you use, you want your prospect to know the purpose of your outreach and what you are bringing to their table.

You can do this by mentioning the problem in a way that shows you understand what they’re facing or what could be improved in their current lifestyle:

• “I understand that {{this}} is an important issue for your company. Our {{XYZ}}…’’
• “Quick question, how do you feel about {{XYZ}}? We’ve had great success with our product and would love for you guys to try it out.”

Whatever approach you use, make sure that it explains why you’re reaching out and how your product or service can solve the reader’s problem or meet their needs. 

Don’t assume that the reader already knows what you’re offering or how it can help them. Instead, be clear and concise about the value you’re offering.

Here’s an example where we used a case study to pitch a VP of Marketing at a Crypto company. Here’s how it turned out.

Step 4: Drill down on the prospect’s pain points 

Now it’s time to drill down and offer value. You should be able to cite specific examples of how your product or service will help them overcome their pain point.

Mentioning their paint points is the best way to make your email valuable and your offer relevant to them. 

So, start by looking at your prospect’s pain points and needs. Look at the challenges they face that your offer can help with.

Analyze their business goals or the lifestyle they are chasing and how your product or service fits into that. 

From there, depending on the product you’re selling, you can find specific use cases of your product and offer that will be relevant to your prospect in your cold email strategy. From there, you can proceed to write the value section in your email body as follow:

• Use cases: Unique situations where your offering will be the most meaningful and relatable to your target audience. It covers their pain points or aligns with their business or lifestyle goals.
• Benefits: Your target audience can see how adopting your product will impact their life from reading the email body. The value you are bringing to their table or, simply, the lifestyle they will have after integrating your product or using your service.
• Examples: Real-life case scenario of your product in action or how it has done for someone with the same need and goals as your prospect.

Bullet points and numbered lists are a great way to write this part. It’ll also make your email more readable and easier to scan. 

So, use them to highlight your product or service’s key features and benefits. This will help the reader quickly understand the value of what you’re offering and why they should be interested.

Here’s an example. In this cold email, we pitched a Head of Marketing at a B2B Marketing Agency and we focused on their specific pain point.

And here’s his reply.

Step 5: Personalize the cold email message

A personalized cold email is the most effective. If you have been doing everything so far, your email should be personalized already.

Because from a personalized subject line, an icebreaker that’s specific and speaks to your prospect, and their pain points and mentions of use cases based on those and their goals, your email is up for excellent personalization already. 

Now, you just need to bring it home with a few tactics. This boils down to manually adding a few personal touches to the cold email to make the statement that you are not just another marketer sending email bulk to a list of prospects. 

Here is an excellent example of an email that’s specific and relevant to a single person.

The idea here is to include a few personal elements about your recipients inside the email. In most cases, you can do it from your cold email software.

Here are a few things you can use in this context:

• Their company 
• Their current job position
• Their competitors
• Their past positions 
• Their previous companies
• Their first name
• A common connection
• Etcetera

Step 6: End with a great call to action 

A call to action is a statement that tells the reader what you want them to do next. They help boost your reply rate and instruct the prospect on what to do next. 

Also, since you are looking to sell something or connect in some way with the prospect through the cold email, it only makes sense to include a clear CTA in your cold email outreach message. 

Depending on your goal, the right next step in your funnel or simply what you’re selling, this could be setting up a call to discuss the product further, visiting your website to learn more, or filling out a form to request a quote. Make it clear and easy for the reader to take the next step. 

Here are some CTA examples you can use in your cold emails. 

• Get 50% off now
• Learn more about {{XYZ}}
• Are you interested in {{your_offer}}?
• Will this work for you?
• Book your next appointment
• Start your free trial.
• Can you please put me in touch with the right person?
• Get results now
• Start now. Get results.
• Is this a priority issue you want to resolve?

Also, be proactive with the CTA, as it may give your prospect the extra kick they need to take action.

For example, when you ask them when they’re interested in a call, be sure to include a link they can use to access your calendar and set up the call easily. If you want them to take a step towards your brand, give them a preview, etc. 

Step 7: Test and optimize

Once you’ve written your cold email, it’s a good idea to test it and see how it performs. Send it to a small group of people or people you work with and see how many of them open it and click on it. 

Based on the results, you can make changes and try again. This process of testing and optimizing is basically A/B testing, and it can help you refine your email and improve its effectiveness.

Step 8: Follow up

It’s not uncommon for cold emails to go unanswered — especially if you target a busy person. If you don’t hear back from the reader after sending your cold email, it’s a good idea to follow up.

Following up on cold emails is important because it can increase your chances of getting a response and ultimately achieving your goals. 

Some reasons to follow up on a cold email include:

• To remind the recipient of your email: If your initial email was lost or forgotten, a follow-up can serve as a reminder to win the prospect’s attention and get on their radar.
• To provide additional information: If you sent an initial email and the recipient expressed interest but asked for more information, a follow-up can provide the additional details they need to make a decision.
• To overcome objections or address concerns: If the recipient raised objections or had concerns about your initial email, a follow-up can provide further explanation or address those issues.
• To build a relationship: Even if the recipient is not interested in your initial offer, following up can help you establish a relationship and stay top of mind for future opportunities.

When following up on a cold email, it’s important to be respectful of the recipient’s time and to be clear about the purpose of your follow-up. 

Here are some tips for following up effectively:

1. Keep it short: Your follow-up email should be brief and to the point.
2. Personalize the message: Add personal elements about the recipients and refer to specific details from your initial email to show that you’re paying attention and value their time.
3. Offer value: Consider offering additional resources or information that may be useful to the recipient.
4. Be patient: It’s important to give the recipient enough time to respond before following up. A good rule of thumb is to wait at least a week before sending a follow-up email.
5. Use a clear subject line: A clear, concise subject line will help the recipient understand the purpose of your email and make it more likely that they will open and read it.

7 tips to improve your cold email and set yourself up for success

Here are a few tips to improve your cold email and set yourself up for success and close your prospect. 

Don’t be aggressive in your cold email (offer or sales pitch)

As a sales rep or a marketer, whatever you sell through cold outreach, it’s generally not a good idea to be aggressive in your cold messages. And there are a couple of reasons why. 

Firstly, being aggressive in a cold email can make it seem like you are just trying to sell something without considering the recipient’s needs or interests.

This can make your email feel impersonal and may lead the recipient to mark it as spam or ignore it altogether.

Also, if you come across as pushy or aggressive in your cold emails, it can damage your reputation and make it harder to establish relationships with potential clients or partners.

And lastly, being aggressive in a cold email is unlikely to lead to a successful outcome as it decreases your chances of success. Instead, it’s important to approach cold emailing with a focus on building genuine connections and offering value to the recipient.

It’s generally a better approach to be respectful and considerate in your cold emails, focusing on building relationships and offering value rather than trying to make a hard sell.

This can help you establish trust and credibility with the prospect and increase your chances of success.

Optimize your cold email for deliverability

Start by getting the technical stuff right before launching your cold email campaign. Technical elements such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC can all hinder your cold email deliverability when not set up well. 

Also, be sure to avoid email spam trigger words in your cold emails or subject lines. Always keep things simple and ensure your email copy doesn’t include too many images, HTML, or other content that can be seen as spam. 

Get your cold email signature right

Your email signature and the way you sign off are also key elements that contribute to how your prospect feel about you when they’re done reading your cold emails.

Having a good subject line is great for a successful cold emails, but signing off the right helps ensure a brand recall and improve the reader’s experience. Here are some tips for getting your cold email signature right:

• Keep it simple: Your signature should be easy to read and not cluttered with too much information — especially since this is your first cold email campaign.
• Include your name and title: Make it clear who you are and what you do, as this will help the recipient understand your role and how you can potentially help them.
• Include your contact information: Make sure to include your email address, phone number, and any other relevant contact information, such as a LinkedIn profile or website.
• Use a professional font and layout: Choose a clean, professional font and layout for your signature to give a good impression.
• Be consistent: Use the same signature for all your cold emails to establish consistency and make it easy for the recipient to contact you as they know it’s the same email sender.

It’s also a good idea to review and update your signature periodically to ensure that it reflects your current position and contact information.

Avoid formal languages

You also need to avoid using formal language like “Dear” or “Ms.” If you use these opening line greetings, it might seem like you’re trying too hard to be professional—and that could make people uncomfortable.

It’s better if you can use normal names instead of titles when writing cold emails because it shows that there’s no need for formalities between yourself and your cold leads (you’re just talking directly with them).

Build rapport in the first sentence

The first sentence of your email should build rapport. This can be done by being friendly but not too familiar. You want to show that you’re a human being and not just some automated system sending out emails at random.

Close the email by thanking the reader

End the cold email by thanking the reader for their time and providing your contact information. This is a polite way to end the email and makes it easy for the reader to get in touch with you if they’re interested in learning more.

Keep the cold email brief and to the point.

No one wants to read a long, rambling email, especially when they don’t know you. Stick to the most important points and leave out any unnecessary details.

Aim for a cold email that’s around 200-300 words, or roughly the length of this paragraph.

20 cold email templates you can use for inspiration to write a cold email

Here are cold email templates that you can use as a starting point to come up with your own.

These templates are based on different angles you can take to write cold sales emails you can send your prospects. 

Template 1:  The Value Proposition cold email

Here you focus on highlighting the value that your software or tool product can provide to the recipient.

Template 2: The Personalized Approach cold email

This cold email template focuses on making a connection with the recipient by personalizing the cold email to their specific needs or challenges.

The goal is to make the email relevant and compelling so that they open it, read, and take your desired action. 

{{Your Name}}

Template 3: The Testimonial or The Social Proof cold email

This cold email template focuses on using customer testimonials to demonstrate the effectiveness of your product.

Template 4: The Case Study cold email

This template focuses on using a case study to demonstrate the effectiveness of your SaaS product.

Template 5: The Free Trial or Demo cold email

This template focuses on offering a free trial or demo of your product to the recipient in order to get them interested about it and hook them to buy.

Template 6: The Exclusive Offer cold email

This cold email template focuses on making the recipient feel special by offering them an exclusive deal or offer.

Template 7: The Referral cold email

This cold email example focuses on using a referral or introduction from a mutual connection to build credibility and establish a connection with the recipient.

Template 8: The Limited Time Offer cold email

This template focuses on creating a sense of urgency by offering a limited time deal or promotion.

Template 9: The Industry Expert cold email

This template focuses on positioning yourself or your company as an industry expert and offering valuable insights or resources to the recipient.

Template 10: The “Just Checking In” Follow-Up cold email

This template can be used for following up on a previous email or touchpoint with the recipient.

Template 11: The “New Product Launch” Announcement cold email

This template can be used to announce the launch of a new eCommerce product and generate interest from potential customers.

Template 12: The “Best-Selling” Product cold email

This template focuses on highlighting the popularity and success of a specific eCommerce product.

Template 13: The “Exclusive Offer” for VIP Customers cold email

This template focuses on making the recipient feel special by offering them an exclusive deal or offer.

Template 14: The “Customer Testimonial” Cold Email

This template focuses on using customer testimonials to demonstrate the effectiveness of your ecommerce product.

Template 15: Solve a problem

Using this cold email format will help you identify a problem that your recipient may be facing, and offer a solution through your product or service.

Template 16: Build rapport and offer

Find common ground or shared interests with your recipient, and use this to establish a connection and build rapport.

Template 17: Ask for advice and introduce your product

Show that you value your recipient’s expertise by asking for their advice or guidance on a specific topic.

Template 18: Invite to a sales event

Invite your recipient to attend an event or webinar that you think they would be interested in.

Template 19: Offer a sample to try out

If you have a product or service, consider offering a free service or sample to give your recipient a chance to try it out.

Template 20: The “personal story” cold email

If you want to share a personal story or experience that relates to your product or service and how it has helped you or someone you know, this is the combo of the right cold email template and compelling subject line that you need to get prospects interested.

Key takeaways

• In your cold email, the first paragraph should be compelling, grab your reader’s attention, and set up what comes next.
  The second should build on that premise by adding more value or information that makes it worth their time to continue reading your message (or click through).
• You also need to understand what makes your brand unique and capitalize on that in your first few sentences so people know what they’re getting into when they open your email.
• Remember, your cold email needs to be highly personalized and focused on one specific person. It should not be generic. Personalized cold emails always win. You should also include a call-to-action in your message that clearly tells the recipient what they need to do after reading your cold email.

Note: Struggling to fill your calendar with sales-qualified meetings? For $799/month, we’ll book 5 meetings with sales-ready prospects for you every month. Book a consultation call now.

Ask any sales rep what they think about the effectiveness of outbound lead gen. Most will tell you that it has fallen down the gutters of the sales process, along with the other less effective outbound sales strategies. 

They even back up this with statistics showing that outbound lead generation costs 39% more than inbound, and the conversion margin indicates that only 5-10% of the leads convert.

But that does not mean that your outbound lead generation efforts can’t yield the results you desire.

Andrei Zinkevich, Co-Founder of Fullfunel.io, conducted an outbound lead generation campaign and had a 20% conversion rate.

The truth is that most people fail to understand outbound lead generation and how it works.

So much so that they go about it the wrong way, get awful results, and convince themselves that outbound lead generation campaigns don’t work. 

Here are the typical scenarios: 

• Scenario 1: You buy email lists and send mass emails with the hopes that at least a given percentage of those purchased contacts will reply.
  
  Guess what? The result will always be a fiasco because outbound lead gen has never been about playing the numbers game.
  
  Truth is, you will get tremendous results targeting 10 people the right way than sending email blasts to 3,000 contacts.
• Scenario 2: You do not take the much-needed time to define your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), and as a result, you send the message to the wrong target audience.
• Scenario 3: You pitch your product to each of your Linkedin connections without establishing a relationship or proving your value whatsoever.
  
  Or when you do, you tout your product’s features instead of positioning it to meet your target’s needs and desires, solve their problems, positively impact or improve their lifestyle, etc. 

If any of these resonates with you, then it’s about time you reconsidered how you approach outbound lead generation campaigns.

In this article, you’ll learn how to generate and close outbound leads using proven tactics that have helped us land our biggest deals. 

What is outbound lead generation?

Outbound lead generation is when you run promotional campaigns or send marketing materials to potential customers who are not aware of your product or brand in order to generate interest in your product or service and eventually get them to buy. 

A successful lead generation strategy requires researching and deeply understanding your target audience. 

Next, you must be able to build your ICP and send them customized and value-packed outreach messages that help them solve their pain points while building product experience.

The Anatomy of an outbound lead generation campaign

Here are a few attributes and traits of a great outbound campaign and strategy.  

• Excellent product-market fit: One of the key steps in outbound lead generation is to make sure you know who your target audience is and whether your product is able to provide value and solve their problems.
• Highly personalized: there’s way more to personalization than just using [[Prospect first name]] and [[Company name]].
  
  A personalized message should demonstrate that you’ve researched your prospects and know their main pain points, needs, desires, and even dreams.
  
  Among other things, you can use customized visuals, mention recent interesting achievements of their company (and potentially their contribution), and talk about technologies they use.You can also talk about their pain points and how they’re struggling with them, craft stories using protagonists with the same attributes, traits, and struggles as them, and more. 
• Prospect-focused vs. product-focused: an ideal outreach message should be crafted in a way that addresses your prospects’ pain points. It should not be all about you or your product’s features. Features only matter as they benefit your prospects and help them achieve results.
• Targeted: you don’t just cold call or cold email people because you’ve got their email addresses. You do it because they fit in your ICP. How do you know they do? By leveraging firmographic and technographic data.

What are firmographic data?

Firmographic data pertains to the descriptive attributes you use to segment your target accounts (niche, business size, company structure and status, customer base, geographic location, etc.). 

What are technographic data?

Technographic data is information that best describes the current tech stack of your target accounts, their adoption rate, and the potential challenges they struggle with.

Inbound lead generation vs. Outbound lead generation (inbound vs. outbound marketing)

Inbound lead generation consists of creating content and campaigns that target, attract, and convert potential customers that are already on the lookout for a solution.

The big difference between outbound lead generation and inbound lead generation is that the latter supposes that the potential customer is aware of the problem and its potential solutions. 

So, they seek the solution, and you position your content and marketing campaigns to target, reach and win them over.

e.g., You write a blog post about outbound lead generation tools, plug in your software, and optimize the post for the keyword “outbound lead generation tools.” This way, anyone looking for lead gen software can find it on the SERP.

Outbound lead generation, on the other hand, supposes that the potential customer is not aware of the solution — the product you’re offering. It might even be that they are not aware of the problem in the first place. 

And so, the strategy mainly involves using cold outreach tactics like sending cold emails, cold calling, etc., to educate the prospects on the problem and the solution alike.   

Quick recap.

	Inbound	Outbound
Sales cycle	Inbound lead generation has a much longer and cliffy sales cycle. You’ll have to build funnels and create different types of content. Also, you won’t have any valid metric that can inform how you move customers across the funnels.	Outbound lead generation cycles are expressed through outreach campaigns. Marketers create campaigns that educate prospects on the product and push for adoption. It’s a much shorter and response-driven strategy.
Scalability	Scalable	Scalable
Budget	Inbound is quite affordable and can be easily implemented if you’re on a shoestring budget. Though, it can come out being more expensive considering the amount of time you should put in and the requirements. For example, it will require putting up a website and deploying content across several platforms at the same time.	Outbound, in its most traditional form, can be costly.  But activities like cold email, LinkedIn outreach, and cold calling are very low budget. You can start either without any budget. All you need is to build a contact list and kick things off from there.
How fast do you get results?	Inbound doesn’t bring in results straight away. It’s more of a slow and long-term game.	Outbound brings in more revenue, FAST. You send direct messages to your prospects and try to close them.
Targeting options	Limited targeting options. You create content and post it on your blog or social media platform. You wait for searchers to find your blog. Plus, on these platforms, you can’t really tell who is doing what with your content or how they engage with it all together.	Outbound provides you with better targeting options. You get to define the audience and target them with direct messages via LinkedIn or cold email. You can also cold call them. Each targeting option has its own merits and they work best when used together.

Does outbound lead generation still work? 

Outbound lead generation is the most effective way to connect with an audience that you’re sure is the perfect fit for the product or service you’re selling.

For instance, if your buyer persona is a super busy decision-maker, chances are they won’t spend much time scrolling social media or browsing through business directories to find the ideal solution for their needs. 

So, the vendors that approach them directly with messages that cut through the noise are the ones that will end up in their consideration set.

When done right, outbound lead generation can deliver tremendous results. Don’t take our word for it.

In one of his recent campaigns, Andrei Zinkevich, Co-Founder of Fullfunel.io, reached out to a select list of 30 qualified companies for his client (a high-ticket B2B service provider).

Andrei took the time and ensured to properly:

• conduct account research,
• warm-up those accounts, and 
• send personalized messages with unique proposals, 

Andrei’s campaign had a 37% response rate (12 out of 30 accounts responded) and a 20% success rate (2 deals closed out of the 12 accounts that responded).

In total, it was a $300,000 revenue. That’s an average of $150,000 per account. 

Another example: at Nerdy Joe, where we offer outbound lead generation services, we’ve run a campaign and closed Ross Simmonds, founder of FoundationInc. 

Here is another successful example.  

As you can see from this screenshot, the mail sent to the prospect was so compelling that he couldn’t help but acknowledge it before making an initial offer of $1400 per blog article.

In a nutshell, although many marketers trumpet inbound lead generation campaigns as the new stalwart approach, the fact still remains that outbound campaigns are stronger than ever.

All you need to do is get a handle on the strategies that make them work like fire.

3 outbound lead generation strategies

Let’s discuss the three main outbound lead generation tactics that most sales teams use. 

Cold email

Cold email is the go-to strategy for all marketers when it comes to outbound marketing. And it is so for two reasons. It is preferred, and it is effective. 

Cold email conversion rate stood around 15.11% in 2021. The average ROI for cold emails is 3,800%. Put another way; you get a $38 return for every $1 dollar you invest.

Interestingly, Oberlo observed that 81% of small businesses use it as their primary marketing source for acquiring leads and 80% for retention.

Also, a report from Hubspot showed that 80% of prospects say they prefer to be contacted via email rather than any other outreach channel.

This means of all the ways you can reach out to your prospects; cold emailing is your best bet.

But how to write a cold email that gets replies? 

1 – Know who your ICP is 

With all the fancy job titles and roles within organizations, it’s hard to guess the right person you should target for a specific offer. That’s why it’s important to conduct research and build your ICPs. 

Also, the way you search your ICP in B2B is different from B2C.

In business to business, the person you target may not be the person with the power to make the purchase decision — just the point of contact between you and the buying committee, while in B2C, it is straightforward.

2 – Research your prospects and create icebreakers

Since you are sending cold emails, it implies that your prospects don’t know who you are — which puts you at a disadvantage already.

You need something that helps you break the ice and smoothen the atmosphere before introducing your offer. That’s what icebreakers are for. 

Icebreakers help personalize your message and make it more than about a sales pitch.

They help you connect with the prospects on a personal level and take their guard down to make them more receptive of your message. 

3 – Write a catchy subject line

Your email subject line is usually the first thing your potential customer sees. It is the main factor that determines whether or not your prospect will open your email. Therefore, you want to write something catchy and irresistible.

A good subject line should be short (avg. 60 characters), personalized (mention the company’s name, the prospect’s name, or a specific pain point they’ve been struggling with), and induce urgency to get the prospect to open it.

Keep in mind that not all elements are to be used at once. But the perfect combo always wins.

4 – Use a compelling CTA 

Adding a strong call to action should be an integral part of designing your cold email campaigns. After all, it’s all about moving your prospects from one CTA to the next until they purchase. 

The CTA can also be a great way to measure their engagement. Keep it simple and be specific about what you want, and make it easy to click on the CTA. 

5 – Follow-up 

By definition, a cold email campaign is composed of several email follow-ups that you send over a specific time frame. 

Data show that it takes a minimum of 8 touches before converting a cold prospect. So, you need to send some follow-up emails before you can get results. 

Follow-up pro tip: In the body of your follow-up email, you can address the reason why you are emailing the prospect, show them what’s in it for them, provide more, or build on the value of the previous email, and add a powerful CTA. 

One of the best CTAs in this context would be to ask when you can get on a call or provide a link to your meeting scheduling tool. 

6 – Know when to stop and when to keep pushing

There’s a fine line between gently following up and spamming your recipients. Always use lead generation software to track your open and clickthrough rates to see which of your recipients has a high interest in your offer.

Doing this helps you know how long your cold email sequence should be, who you follow up with and who you remove from your campaign.

LinkedIn cold message

LinkedIn is another great way of connecting with your prospects and piquing their interest.

Not only is it easy to check their background, but you’re also able to curate your profile to increase brand awareness — which may be harder to convey over the phone. 

LinkedIn is used by top executives at all Fortune 500 companies. A recent survey of business executives also found that 76% of them use LinkedIn daily.

Here are a few LinkedIn cold messaging best practices:

1. Find common ground: scan through your prospect’s profile to find some common ground between the two of you. 
2. See if a mutual connection can introduce you: It’s always better when someone you know can introduce you to the prospect. It accelerates the conversation and increases your chances of closing.
3. Keep it short and catchy: Your prospects receive tons of LinkedIn messages every day. Don’t waste their time. Be straight to the point.
4. Save the selling for later: Build relationships first and sell later.
5. Give them a good reason to reply: Always lead with what’s in it for the prospect. It’s not about you. It’s about them.
6. Keep track and follow up: Don’t give up on the first outreach. Follow up and make sure to be top of mind.

Here’s an example of a LinkedIn cold message with a connection in common.

Here’s another example of a LinkedIn cold message without any connections in common.

Cold calls

Cold calling is far from dead. The real question is how you use it. We understand it can be a bit intrusive.

So from our point of view, the best way to do cold calls is after a few cold email touches when the prospect knows you or when they’ve gone silent on your messages. 

Here are a few cold calling best practices most sales and marketing teams use. 

1. Know your prospect
2. Craft a personalized calling script
3. Don’t be attached to the script
4. Provide value 
5. Hold conversations that build relationships
6. End every sales call by confirming what the next step is.

9 metrics for measuring outbound lead gen campaigns

If you run your campaign without having any set KPIs, it’s very easy to get off track, waste time, effort, and budget on things that are not necessary.

Outbound KPIs are important in the sense that they help you uncover the weak spots on your track and define the best ways to deliver and attribute effective results.

So, if you’re unsure of how to define your KPIs, here are some pointers.

General outbound lead generation metrics. 

• MQLs (marketing-qualified leads): any potential customer that has been thoroughly vetted by the marketing team and meets the necessary criteria to be passed on to the sales team.
• SQLs (sales-qualified leads): an MQL who has been picked up by one of your sales representatives and is deemed ready for the next stage in the buying process. They’ve clearly displayed intent to buy.
• Lead-to-prospect rate: it is the percentage of leads that move on to become prospects. The average of leads that have demonstrated that they’re preparing to make a purchase decision. 
• Lead-to-close rate: it represents the percentage of leads that are converted into clients. 
• Time to close: this is the average amount of time that it takes for leads to become customers. It helps you compare time to close between different campaigns and assets.
• Customer lifetime value (CLV): it’s a metric that predicts how much profit a single customer is expected to bring to your company. 
• Customer acquisition cost (CAC): it shows how much it costs to convert a potential lead into a new customer.
  
  CAC represents the ratio between how much a company spends on acquiring a new customer and the total number of new customers acquired within a certain time.

Specific outbound lead generation KPIs

What are cold email KPIs to track?

• Total emails delivered: the number of emails sent by your SDRs. 
• Bounced emails: The number of emails failed to be delivered to your prospect’s inboxes. To calculate: Emails sent divided by emails delivered.
• Open rate: The percentage of emails opened. To calculate: Emails delivered (minus emails bounced) divided by emails opened.  
• Response rate: The total number of emails responded to, regardless of negative, neutral, or negative responses. To calculate: Emails opened divided by prospect responses. 
• Appointment rate: The rate of appointments scheduled per contacts touched. To calculate: (Prospects contacted divided by appointments scheduled) times 100. 
• Conversion rate: Of all the leads you reached out to, how many were you able to convert into customers?

What are cold calling KPIs to track?

• Number of calls made: The total number of phone calls made by SDRs within a certain period of time. 
• No answer: The number of unanswered calls. 
• Unreachable: The number of calls that failed to reach a certain phone number. 
• Voicemail: The total number of voicemails left to the prospects. 
• Types of Responses: The number of calls that lead to a follow-up, referral, positive conversation, or appointment. The number of calls that reached out to a gatekeeper (not the right person or the right prospect). 

What are social media outreach (LinkedIn) KPIs to track?

• Invitations sent: The number of invitations sent to potential prospects during a certain period of time.
• Invitations accepted: The number of invitations accepted.  
• Types of responses: The number of positive, negative, and neutral interactions, and the number of appointments set. 
• Connection rate: The number of accepted invitations out of the total number of invitations sent. To calculate: accepted invitations divided by invitations sent.
• Response rate: The total number of answers received (regardless of the types of responses). 

Key takeaways

• Outbound lead generation is the best way to sell to people who are not aware of your business or how your services can help them. 
• Cold email is the most effective and friendliest way to reach out to your prospects. Which makes it your best bet for a solid outbound lead generation campaign.
  
  It’s a result-driven approach that allows you to connect easily with your prospects. Just make sure that you put in the necessary work and investment. 
• General KPIs and metrics will not always inform on your campaign success. So, after an outbound lead gen campaign, always be sure to focus on the campaign metrics that matter to your specific strategy. 

LinkedIn InMail and email are the two most discussed prospecting and outbound lead generation strategies. There are many differences in the benefits each strategy offers. 

The basic differentiator is the price. LinkedIn InMail requires a premium monthly or annual subscription. Email, on the other hand, costs absolutely nothing. 

But as a marketer or SDR looking to discover the best strategy to approach, engage, educate, and convert your prospects, you need to further compare the two tools. We’ve got you covered.

In this article, we will compare LinkedIn InMail and email based on the advantages and limitations each strategy has, taking into account your needs and objectives as a marketer or SDR. 

Note: Struggling to fill your calendar with sales-qualified meetings? For $799/month, we’ll book 5 meetings with sales-ready prospects for you every month. Book a consultation call now.

TL;DR

Comparison Values	InMail	Email
Shorter processes	Yes ✅	No 🚫
Limited messages	Yes 🚫	No ✅
Limited sendings	Yes 🚫	No ✅
Extra pay for more features	Yes 🚫	No ✅
Higher and faster engagement	Yes ✅	No 🚫
Analytics	No 🚫	Yes ✅
Segmentation features	No 🚫	Yes ✅
Automation features	No 🚫	Yes ✅
Follow up flexibility	No 🚫	Yes ✅
High-value prospects	Yes ✅	Yes ✅
Restrictions and ban risk	Yes 🚫	No ✅
Professional	No 🚫	Yes ✅
Potential deliverability issues	No ✅	Yes 🚫
Bulk messages	No 🚫	Yes ✅
Best timing for sending	Yes ✅	No 🚫
Personalization features	No 🚫	Yes ✅
Flexibility and scalability	No 🚫	Yes ✅
Gives more work	No ✅	Yes 🚫
Best bang for your buck	No 🚫	Yes ✅

What is LinkedIn InMail?

InMail is a premium LinkedIn outreach service that allows you to send promotional messages to your target LinkedIn users on the platform. It is also known as sponsored InMail. 

Think of it as an emailing tool integrated into LinkedIn that lets you reach any LinkedIn member you want, without having to search for their email addresses or sending them a connection request. 

How does inMail work?

LinkedIn has a native messaging system that all (free and premium) LinkedIn members can use to send messages to one another between connections. 

The problem is that in order to do lead generation, you have to send messages to people you don’t necessarily have a relationship with.

 In the context of LinkedIn, that comes down to people outside of your connection. This is where InMail comes in handy.

Normally, you can only send a LinkedIn message to someone if you are connected to each other.

InMail is a premium feature designed to allow you to send LinkedIn messages to people outside your network, usually 2nd or 3rd connections. 

Always keep in mind that you’ll have to first pay for LinkedIn Sales Navigator or upgrade to a LinkedIn premium account to get InMail credits (the number of people you can target as per your plan).

The main advantage of using InMail messages is that it allows you to target the prospects you find on the platform—right on the platform. 

This saves you time, and your prospects can easily check your LinkedIn profile to see who is targeting them.

You won’t have to worry about your message being rejected or reported as spam. You can also use users’ data on the platform (i.e., their latest activities) to create personalized messages to send them. 

On top of that, you can use LinkedIn message subject lines to boost your success rate.

In a nutshell, there is a much higher chance that your recipient will trust your message and eventually read it. 

It’s fast, and you won’t have to worry about performing too much research as you would with email.

Read more: How to Write Cold Email Opening Lines That Get Replies

What is email?

(Cold) Email is one of the oldest outbound lead generation channels, and multiple companies have grown on the back of email outreach strategies. 

It mainly involves searching your prospects, creating an email list by finding their personal email addresses, and sending them promotional emails or autoresponders in order to engage and eventually get them to buy your product or offer.

How does email work?

Unlike LinkedIn InMail, email is not limited to a single platform, and it’s completely free to send an email. 

You can reach out to any person as long as you have their email address.

But you will have to do the extra work to research your prospects, organize and segment them, personalize your emails, and always create catchy subject lines, pique their interests, and overall stand out in their inbox. 

Keep in mind that you may need to purchase an email service provider or a CRM with an email service integrated. 

The latter option facilitates prospect segmentation, outreach, and lead management on the same platform. 

Let’s compare both sales and marketing outreach strategies with more vivid criteria.

LinkedIn message vs email: comparison with parameters that matter the most for B2B cold outreach

By now, you have a clear understanding of what LinkedIn InMail and email both entail. Now, let’s see how they both stack up, considering the needs and wants of marketers and sales reps in the B2B sector.

LinkedIn message vs Email: Price

As precised earlier, the price is the first key differentiator between emails and LinkedIn InMails.

Emails are literally free; you can program and send as many emails as you need to close your prospects without paying an extra penny. 

You will only have to subscribe to an email service provider tool like Hunter.io, MailChimp, Lemlist, etc., to help you create emails, reach prospects, and collect and make sense of campaign data. 

On the contrary, InMail requires you to upgrade to a LinkedIn premium account or subscribe to a Sales Navigator plan. In other words, it costs extra, and only premium users can access the feature. Ideally, you will pay:

• $29.99 per month for the premium career which gives you only 5 InMail credits. 
• $47.99 per month for the premium business, which gives you 15 credits. 
• $79.99 per month for the Sales Navigator Core which gives you 50 credits. 
• $125 per month for the Sales Navigator Advanced which gives you 50 credits.

If you have to bill monthly, the prices tick up.

Interestingly, LinkedIn offers a credit back for every response you get, positive or negative, within 90 days of the sending date.

You can contact the LinkedIn service team to purchase more credits for InMail messages if you need. 

Be aware that an extra InMail credit will cost you around $1.6 each in the Sales Navigator Core — it all depends on the type of account you have. 

LinkedIn also limits the number of monthly InMail credits you can combine, and it is 150 — you can’t get or send any extra within 30 days. Also, InMail message credits expire after 90 days. 

With InMails, you are literally paying a dollar and a half for each message you send.

At the same time, you can send thousands of emails—with no connection request, without worrying about the price, sending limitations, or your account being banned or restricted. 

LinkedIn message vs. Email: Follow-ups

You can’t possibly reach out to your prospect with the product price and expect them to buy immediately. 

You need to break the ice. Prove your worth. Provide value. Educate them on your offer or product. Create some product experience and more before you can get prospects to consider you. 

Case in point, statistics show that 50% of all cold outreach sales or conversions occur after the 5th touch.

So, the question is: Can you follow up on your previous messages and build meaningful relationships? 

The answer is yes for both channels.

You can send as many follow-up emails as you want, and a LinkedIn InMail message without a reply is counted toward your InMail credits and the 150 monthly quotas. 

LinkedIn InMail vs Email: Automation

Both channels let you automate the sending of your messages and follow-ups. You can create and send multistage message sequences to your prospects. 

You can also send automated trigger-based messages based on recipients’ actions. 

But here is the difference, while most email service providers (ESPs) you use to send your emails offer this as a native function in the single plan you pay for, you’ll need to pay extra to integrate an InMail automation tool with your LinkedIn account. 

LinkedIn InMail vs Email: Analytics

We cannot overstate the importance of analytics in marketing and especially cold outreach campaigns. 

Analytics offer information you need to make sense of your outreach result and improve for the future. Luckily, both cold email and LinkedIn InMail provide you with outreach analytics. 

All ESPs offer campaign analytics as a native feature. Users get reports regarding the number of opens, clicks, bounces, and all.

You can attach and track the attached documents. You can even expect specific reports pertaining to a specific email. 

LinkedIn lets you see response and acceptance rates after you send InMails. You can also see how many messages have been declined or received no response. 

But contrary to ESPs, LinkedIn does not provide analytics for free. You have to fork out extra dollars to get analytics for your campaigns.

LinkedIn InMail vs Email: Segmentation and Personalization 

These two outreach practices constitute the first step to any successful cold outreach strategy, be it on LinkedIn or by email. 

People are sick of generic, templatized message blasts. They want messages that indicate the sender knows them and understands their unique problems and needs. 

That’s where segmentation and personalization come in—especially if you send bulk messages.

Chances are, you’ll have multiple ideal customer profiles (ICPs), and you cannot feed them all the same content.

You need to be able to classify your prospect into groups in your sending tool, and that’s the very reason you need segmentation and personalization features. 

Here again, most ESPs you will use to send email campaigns allow for segmentation and personalization.

You can set your prospects into groups, create different funnels, and customize the message they receive. 

Even better, you can automate the insertion of the recipients’ names, job titles, and other details you need to personalize and make the message specific to them. But none of it is possible with LinkedIn InMail messages. 

LinkedIn InMail vs Email: User Engagement Rate

So, on which channel is your message the most likely to be read and replied to?

Here are what the figures say about this. 

• The average open rate for LinkedIn InMail messages is about 57.5%
• The average email open rate is about 21.6%
• The average response rate for LinkedIn InMail is between 10-25%
• The average email response rate is anywhere between 1 to 10%. 

Obviously, InMails have better engagement rates than email. This can be explained by the fact that InMails are more interactive, and recipients can easily check your LinkedIn account to see who you are. 

Also, InMail lands in recipients’ inboxes as a personal message, and most people use LinkedIn on their mobile devices. On top of that, LinkedIn notifies them, which makes it easy to quickly pick up the phone and check out. 

Keep in mind that these are industry-defined figures and are in no way indicative of the engagement rate you should expect. 

You can always get a 100% response rate on your email or InMail, should you approach it the right way. Case in point, we had a 93% open rate in one of our cold outreach campaigns at Nerdy Joe.

LinkedIn InMail vs Email: Sending Time

Sending your message at the best time can make the difference between a message that gets opened and one that gets ignored. 

While a lot of marketers have theories about the best time and frequency to send emails, Linked InMail wins this battle.

The simple reason is that it is an engagement-driven platform, and LinkedIn’s active status feature lets you know who is online and who is not. It even lets you know the last time the user logged into their account.

This makes it easy to send the message exactly when prospects are online, and it helps maximize engagement.  

Read more: How to Create Cold Email Sequences That Generate Sales (Pus a Sequence Template)

Why LinkedIn InMail might be a better choice than email?

Here are a few instances where using LinkedIn InMails might be more beneficial than using emails. 

You can’t find prospects’ email addresses

Let’s face it, even with the superpower of prospecting tools like Hunter.io, it’s sometimes hard or just impossible to find certain email addresses. 

So, if you’re having a hard time finding your prospects’ email addresses, then sending them an InMail can be a nice alternative. 

An even better alternative than sending the message to another person or sending it with a “redirect note” to info@domainname.com.

You are targeting a very short prospect list

If you are targeting a really short prospect list, ideally between 5 to 10 prospects, it can be a great idea to use LinkedIn InMails over emails.

This will save you time, and you can send the InMails one-on-one. 

Also, since you will not need many ESP features, you can create a spreadsheet and manually enter your campaign metrics and analytics and treat them to your content. Understandably, it can take a lot of effort and be hard to scale. 

You prefer a single platform for prospecting and outreach. 

If you already own a LinkedIn account that you use for prospecting and want to do both prospecting and outreach on a single platform, then you can dig into LinkedIn InMails. 

You want fast results

People check their social media notifications more than they check new emails. So if you can create highly personalized InMails, you can expect high opens and response rates in record time with LinkedIn InMails.

Especially since LinkedIn allows users to add inmail subject lines, you can get your prospects to open your messages really fast.

Prospects do not respond to cold emails.

If your cold emailing strategies are not cutting it, you can consider using InMails to reach out to your prospects. 

Why sending a cold email is the best option over inmail?

Sending cold emails is a better option than sending LinkedIn InMails almost all the time. Here are the main reasons why:

You can send more emails than InMails

While InMails are limited by your monthly plan and have a 150 quota, you can’t exceed, ESPs lets you send as many emails as you need to close your prospects. Plus, technologies like Hunter.io and ZoomInfo makes it easy to find contact information. 

You can access segmentation and personalization features

If you can’t segment your prospects’ list and add their personal details to the message, your outreach campaign is bound to flop.

You need to ensure each prospect feels the message they receive is specifically targeted to them. 

With these features, ESPs allow you to separate your prospects into groups of people with common traits.

You’ll be able to add their personal info to the message to personalize it. You can add their names, unique icebreakers, personalized PS notes, and more. 

Read more: How To Write A Follow-up Email After No Reply (+ 10 Templates)

You will not get restricted because of heavy activity

Using LinkedIn for both prospecting and outreach might not be a good idea because the platform has strict rules against unusual activities, especially if you have a new account. 

For example, the platform controls the number of connection invites you send, monthly searches you perform, the number of profiles you visit, and of course, the number of messages.

If your activities appear to be unusual, you’ll see your account restricted.

Meanwhile, you can search for as many email addresses as you need and send them emails; no ESP will ever restrict your account. 

However, you need to ensure not to spam your recipients. If too many people send your emails to the spam folder, you will struggle with deliverability.

But as long as you send valuable and legitimate emails, you’re fine. No matter which platform you use, prospects will respond to you if you provide value and capture their attention.

Read more: 30+ Effective Sales Email Subject Lines To Get More Replies

You will have more data to chew on

One of the main reasons cold emailing is so darn effective is that you can use your previous campaign statistics to improve your next emails.

ESPs provide you with such email marketing metrics and KPIs as the open rate, click-through rate, reply rate, deliverability rate, and more. 

At the same time, not only is it a paid feature with InMails, but you will not have as many campaign analytics. It only reports opens and responses.

But ESPs give you more analytics of your campaign. These can help you understand what’s not working in your messages and improve them.

For example, a low click-through rate indicates that your content may not be as valuable as you think. And so, you need to improve. 

Read more: How To Write A Follow-up Email After No Reply (+ 10 Templates)

Prospects do not respond to your InMails

If someone does not respond on one platform, they might on another.

If your prospects are not responding to your messages on LinkedIn, check their LinkedIn profiles and search for their emails. Then email them. It is an even more professional way to approach them. 

Read more: 450+ Spam Trigger Words to Avoid in Your Copy

Key takeaways

• Emails facilitate outreach with personalization and scalability features. You can send mass emails and reach out to as many targets as you want. You define the number of emails needed to complete your campaign, and you can segment your prospects and personalize your message. You can automate the sending process, the follow-ups, and more.
• LinkedIn InMails are ideal if you want to target a short list of high-profile targets in a short time period without too much hassle. You can find them on the platform and send them personalized InMails. Plus, InMails have better engagement results than emails, so you’ll have more chances to engage with busy people. 
• Emails cost almost nothing compared to InMails. With InMails, you literally pay for each and every message you send—plus, you must keep an eye out for a monthly limit. With emails, you only need to pay for your ESP, and you’re good to go. You can send thousands of emails to thousands of prospects. 

Power words are easy ways to boost your email open rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, and overall ROI. 

They are effective in creating compelling headlines and crafting engaging marketing copy that attracts your audience right to your page — website or social media platforms. 

In this guide, you will learn about 650+ power words you can use to boost your email conversion rate and increase your ROI.

What is a power word?

Power words are persuasive, emotional, punchy expressions that elicit an emotional response from readers.

They are effective in hooking readers and influencing them to take a specific action. You can think of them as the main drivers behind a marketing copy.

Marketers strategically include power words and phrases in their content and headlines to boost engagement and prompt action from their audience.

When used correctly, power words can help you attract visitors to sign up for your email list, read a blog post, or buy a product or service. 

Here is an example from Fiverr.

Here are the main power words Fiverr included in this email

• last chance, 
• hurry, 
• today 

The purpose of such power words is to catch the attention of their audience in subscribing for their service. If you are still unsure, you should use power words in your email marketing campaigns, read on.   

650+ power words that increase conversion (+ real-world examples)

40+ simple power words

Also known as sloth power words, power words that help make your phrases and headlines sound more digestible are based on the idea that your audience should make lots of effort to understand what message you are trying to convey. 

And so, these are literally words that soften the complexity of your sentence and make it easier to understand.

These words are most often used to make offers easier to understand or to make them sound commonplace in order to get the audience to take action. 

All the power words below will help you create power phrases using a few words to get your target audience to understand and take action.

Column A	Column B	Column C
A breeze	Effortless	List
Accessible	Elementary	Manageable
All-inclusive	Elements	Manifest
Basic	Factors	Mere
Building blocks	Fail-proof	Minimalist
Cheat sheet	Fill in the blanks	Minutes
Child’s play	Formula	Model
Cinch	Free	Mold
Classic	Freebie	No nonsense
Clear	Gift	No problem
Complete	Guide	No sweat
Components	How-to	No-brainer
Comprehensive	In less than	Nothing to it
Copy	In record time	Now
Digestible	Index	On demand
Down to earth	Ingredients	Painless
Downloadable	Instant	Pattern
Easy	Itemized	Picnic
Economical	Kickstart	Piece of cake
Efficient	Light	Plain
List	Painless	Simple as ABC
Manageable	Pattern	Smooth
Manifest	Picnic	Smooth sailing
Mere	Piece of cake	Snap
Minimalist	Plain	Steal
Minutes	Printable	Step-by-Step
Model	Quick	Steps
Mold	Ready	Straightforward
No nonsense	Replicate	Stupid-simple
No problem	Report	Swipe
No sweat	Roadmap	Template
No-brainer	Rules	Tools
Nothing to it	Savvy	Tricks
Now	Simple	Tweaks
On demand	Simple	Uncomplicated
	Zero effort

60+ lust power words that stir curiosity 

Stirring curiosity allows you to catch the attention of your potential customers and drive them to take a specific action. 

Using curiosity-stirring power words, you can incite your audience to be inquisitive about what you have to offer. It can motivate them to want to find out about your products and eventually convert them. 

Utilizing these types of power words in your blog headlines, sales promotions, email subject lines, landing pages, or even social media platforms can entice readers to your website.

Examples of these power words include:

Column A	Column B	Column C
Alluring	Elusive	Outlawed
Amazing	Epic	Polarizing
Astonishing	Explosive	Priceless
Astounding	Exquisite	Private
Awesome	Extraordinary	Psycho
Badass	Eye-opening	Remote
Banned	Forgotten	Restricted
Be the First	Greatness	Secret
Behind the Scenes	Heavenly	Shh!
Bizarre	Hidden	Shocking
Black Market	Hilarious	Sneak-peek
Blacklisted	Incredible	Spellbinding
Bomb	Incredible	Spoiler
Brilliant	Insane	Strange
Cash	Insider	Stunning
Catapult	Interesting	Sublime
Censored	Invitation	Supersecret
Charming	Jaw-dropping	Top Secret
Classified	Key	Trade Secret
Confidential	Kickass	Triumph
Controversial	Legendary	Unauthorized
Cover-up	Limited	Underground
Covert	Login	Undiscovered
Crazy	Members only	Unexplained
Dark	Mesmerizing	Unheard
Defying	Mouth-watering	Unique
Delicious	Myths	Unleashed
Delightful	Nail	Unsung
Dominate	Odd	Untold
Dreamy	Off the records	Unusual
	Withheld

If you are confused, here is a real-life example to see how you can use a power word. 

For instance, an article published by Entrepreneur has the headline, “4 Top Secret Instagram Growth Tips From a Celebrity Advisor.” 

In the aforementioned example, the power word “top secret” stirs curiosity especially when it is coming from a celebrity advisor.

50+ fear power words

If you are in a niche where the audience needs to always be on the right side of things like the healthcare domain, using power words that strike fear can really make the difference between what content the audience takes time to check out and what they pass on.

Power words that call on fear alert the reader and motivate them to take action.

Here are a few fear words you can incorporate into your writing to alert your audience, get them to click, and boost conversions. 

You can use these fear words in your blog post, on your sales pages, you can also incorporate them into your landing page copy to create a psychological or emotional response from your target audience.

Column A	Column B	Column C
Agony	Lunatic	Embarrass
Apocalypse	Lurking	Fail
Armageddon	Massacre	Feeble
Assault	Meltdown	Fired
Backlash	Menacing	Fool
Beating	Mired	Fooled
Beware	Mistake	Frantic
Blinded	Murder	Frightening
Blood	Nightmare	Gambling
Bloodbath	Painful	Gullible
Bloodcurdling	Pale	Hack
Bloody	Panic	Hazardous
Blunder	Peril	Hoax
Bomb	Piranha	Holocaust
Buffoon	Pitfall	Horrific
Bumbling	Plague	Hurricane
Cadaver	Played	Injure
Catastrophe	Plummet	Insidious
Caution	Plunge	Epidemic
Silly	Devastating	Searing
Slaughter	Disastrous	Shame
Slave	Doom	Shatter
Strangle	Drowning	Shellacking
Stupid	Dumb	Shocked
Suicide	Collapse	Poison
Tailspin	Corpse	Poor
Tank	Crazy	Prison
Targeted	Cripple	Pummel
Teetering	Crisis	Pus
Terror	Danger	Reckoning
Terrorist	Dark	Refugee
Torture	Deadly	Revenge
Toxic	Death	Risky
Tragedy	Deceiving	Scary
Trap	Destroy	Scream
Vaporize	Looming	Cringeworthy
Victim	Last chance	Fugacious
Cataclysmic	Worry	Wreaking havoc
Buffoon	Invasion	IRS
Reckoning	Jail	Jeopardy
Dangerous	Lawsuit	Suffering
Trauma	Volatile	Vulnerable
Annihilate	Warning	Nerd
	Wounded

25+ trust and confidence power words

Although quality service often determines how prospective customers trust your business, power words can help more. 

It doesn’t matter whether you are writing a blog post or crafting your newsletter; having power words helps you to convince your readers with ease, thereby boosting their confidence in your brand.

Here are some examples for you.

Column A	Column B	Column C
According to	Fully refundable	Reliable
Accredited	Genuine	Research
Anonymous	Guaranteed	Researched
Approved	Improved	Results
Authentic	Ironclad	Safety
Authoritative	Lifetime	Scientifically proven
Authority	Moneyback	Secure
Backed	No obligation	Studies show
Because	No questions asked	Sustainable
Best	No risk	Tested
Best selling	No strings attached	Track record
Bona fide	Official	Try before you buy
Cancel anytime	Pay zero	Unconditional
Case Study	Privacy	Verify
Certified	Professional	Well respected
Dependable	Protected	Worldwide
Don’t worry	Proven	Zero waste
Endorsed	Recession-proof	Refund
Ensured	Recognized	Expert

How many power words can you see below?

Here, OptinMonster used the power words free and secret to increase trust and confidence.

60+ value-based or greed power words

By utilizing these power words, you can increase the value of your offer or content and prompt the audience to act.

Rich Page observed a 12% to 50% boost in their conversion rate after incorporating these power words into their website pop-ups.

These power words are also known as greed power words and are effective in triggering a greed bias to exude confidence and credibility in your writing. Here is a list of these power words. 

Column A	Column B	Column C
Ahead of the game	Cash	Extra
Amplify	Cheap	Fast
At the top	Clever	Feast
Attractive	Costly	Final
Bank	Crowned	First
Bargain	Dazzling	Fortunate
Beautiful	Deadline	Fortune
Before	Discount	Foxy
Best	Dollar	Free
Big	Don’t miss out	Freebie
Billion	Double	Frenzy
Bold	Drop-dead	Frugal
Bonanza	Economical	Genius
Bonus	Effective	Gift
Booked solid	Elegant	Giveaway
Booming	Elite	Golden
Boost	Exclusive	Good-looking
Boss	Exclusivity	Gorgeous
Brassy	Expires	Greatest
Bright	Explode	Guilt-free
Triple	While they last	Up-sell
Turbo charge	Whopping	Value
Ultimate	You	Waste
Unbeaten	Savings	Wealth
Undefeated	Six-figure	Wealthy
Skyrocket	Smart	Soaring
Handsome	Money-saving	Knockout
High-end	Money-making	Luxurious
High-paying	More	Massive
Hurry	Nest egg	Prosperous
Inexpensive	Never again	Quadruple
Instantly	New	Quick
Jackpot	Notable	Quick-witted
Kick ass	Noteworthy	Reduced
Marked down	Now	Money
Last chance	Optimal	Special
Legendary	Pay zero	Rich
Limited	Premiere	Monetize
Lowest price	Price break	Successful
Lucky	Prize	Profit
Running out	Super-human	Sale ends soon
Money-draining	Sassy	Save
Surge	Treasure

10+ urgency power words

These are some of our favorite power words, and chances are you love them as well.

Urgency quickens customers to take action out of the fear of missing out (FOMO, if you will). As a marketer, you can use these words to motivate them to carry out a specific action. 

For instance, if your business is carrying out a promo within a specific timeframe, power words that imply urgency can prompt  them to act before time runs out.

To be more explicit, here are some power words you can use to imply urgency. 

Column A	Column B	Column C
Astonishing	Beware	Craving
Urge	Today	Invasion
Exclusive	Edition	Early
Bonus	Now	Rush
Delayed	Limited	Warning
	Craving

So, let’s take a look at a real-life example. Grammarly encourages its users to upgrade to its premium package by popping some power words into an email.

In the above image, you can see four — today, hurry, midnight and end — power words that encourage users to change their current Grammarly package. 

Another example from ASOS utilized three power words to catch the attention of the audience to ultimately convert them. 

15+ authority power words

Power words that establish authority enable your audience to pay more attention to your brand and trust you more. In some instances, they help you build credibility and sound like an expert. 

Establishing authority through power words propels your brand in an unrivaled position and could persuade your prospects to take actions such as signing up for your email list.

If you want to place your brand in an authoritative position, here are some power words to use.

Column A	Column B	Column C
Ideal	Tested	Scientifically proven
Legit	Data	Unparalleled
Guarantee	True	Confirmed
Actual	Flawless	Accurate
Flawless	Ultimate	Perfect
Smart	Magic	Amazing
Remarkable	Fearless	Spectacular

Check out how The Guardian nailed the headline through these power words

40+ encouragement and safety power words

Doubt and anxiety push customers away from your product/service. It’s a basic and natural human tendency. They make us feel it is not good enough and that it may not produce the outcome we hope. 

When you find yourself in this situation, the best option is to introduce power words that ease anxiety and suppress doubt. In other words, safety words.

You don’t want your customers to worry too much, but the right power words can persuade them into taking the appropriate action. 

For instance, if you engage in photography, your customers may worry that the images not turning out well or their friends or family members not liking them.

You can address that pain point through persuasive words that ease anxiety. Let them understand you recognize their worries, but offer a solution that can assure them.

You can try out all the power words below to suppress doubt and create anxiety-easing marketing copy. 

Column A	Column B	Column C
Above and beyond	Guarantee	Reliable
According to	Guaranteed	Research
Accredited	Guilt-free	Results
Anonymous	Healthy	Risk-free
Approved	Improved	Rock-solid
Authentic	Ironclad	Safe
Authoritative	Legitimate	Safety
Authority	Lifetime	Science-backed
Automatic	Miss Out	Scientific
Backed	Mistakes	Scientifically proven
Bankable	Money-back	Secure
Because	Moneyback	Studies show
Best-selling	No obligation	Sure-fire
Bona fide	No questions asked	Survive
Cancel anytime	No risk	Take advantage
Case study	No strings attached	Tested
Certified	No-fail	That never fails
Clockwork	No-Risk	Thorough
Dependable	Official	Track record
Don’t worry	Panic	Trusted
Endorsed	Permanent	Trustworthy
Ensured	Privacy	Try before you buy
Expert	Professional	Unconditional
Foolproof	Protected	Verify
Fully refundable	Refund	Well respected
Genuine	Proven	World-class
Recognized	Recession-proof	Worldwide

In this example, some power words ease anxiety among the audience. Can you guess what it is?

How to use power words?

Although you may know some of these power words, you may not get the desired results if you don’t use them well. This segment discusses how to use these power words effectively in your email.

Power words in email

Power words in your email body can serve various purposes.

Whether it is to address the pain points of your customers, evoke emotions, create urgency, or persuade them to act on a call to action, they can help you achieve many things. 

For instance, if you are addressing the pain points of your audience, you can capture their attention by using power words that introduce the benefits of your products or services.

Grab their attention by specifying the solution you are offering. 

You can also combine sensory words with visual words or simply call on emotional power words to tell beautiful stories.

Meanwhile, if you want to appeal to emotions or create a sense of urgency, you will need power words that communicate such ideas. Some examples of power words you can include email body include:

Column A	Column B	Column C
Save	Quickly	Fast
Increase	Improve	Learn
Gain	Ready	Advantage
Now	Today	Limited Offers
Stop	Avoid	Change
	Limited Time

Power words in email subject lines

Power words for subject lines must arouse urgency or excitement in your audience. They must elicit an emotional response from your audience. Why? Urgency or excitement prompt clicks. 

In other words, when you hold your subscribers to a deadline or let them know they can participate in an activity, you are indirectly persuading them to take an action.

Here are some situations that encourage you to use power words that evoke urgency or excitement.

• Setting deadlines to register, buy, or sign up for a product or service
• Inciting the fear of missing out on a special or scarce item. For instance, AliExpress used power words – huge discount- to attract its audience.

• Informing them about a new/unique product
• Informing them about a special item that isn’t readily available to the general public

Using power words associated with urgency or excitement encourages your customers to quickly take action because of the fear of missing out (FOMO).

Such powerful words have the ability to make your audience go from not-ready-to-buy to I-need-to-buy-it-now.

Power words in email preview 

Using power words in the email preview or email opening line can also influence whether the recipient would open your email or not — just like with your email subject lines.

Since you have to catch your readers’ attention within a few seconds, it is essential to use the right power words before they toss your email aside and focus on others. 

You can do this by using emotional power words or powerful words that create urgency, strike curiosity, or address your audience’s pain points.

You can also use sensory words to invoke imagination and get your recipients to read your email. If used correctly, your email may appear more substantial to your recipients.

Also, you can introduce power words to email previews through meaningful stats or trends. Since many statistics are available online, you can always find one that relates to what you’re talking about.

Note that an authoritative source must back up your claims to avoid smearing the reputation of your brand. 

Finally, you can use keywords to highlight the context of your email body.

Keywords make your email concise and give the subscribers a clear idea of what your email is all about. Such action influences the open rate of your emails. 

If you are not sure about these power words, here are some examples for you. 

Column A	Column B	Column C
Announcing	Breakthrough	Surprising
Crucial	Trending	Unique
Gear up	Discount

Power words in opt-in pop-ups

Email capture popups are also a good place to use power words, especially since they require a few seconds to attract the attention of your audience.

If you use the right words, you can hook your audience and entice them to perform the next action.

Power words in call to actions (CTAs)

As the name implies, call-to-actions compel individuals to act. One should not use weak words to direct your audience to carry out a specific action.

Instead, you use power words to entice and persuade them to click for your product/service. 

Note that CTAs consist of fewer words unlike the subject line of the email body. This is not to say that you cannot utilize longer words, but shorter power words are more effective and get the job done quickly. 

This is because short power words are easier to read and won’t escape the reader’s eye.

Examples include:

• “Buy Now!“
• “Grab your Copy Now!“
• “Give Us a Call Today,“
• “Don’t Miss Out on our Free Offer Today,“
• “Get Our Products at [figure] Discount,”
• and more. 

Read more: How To Write A Follow-up Email After No Reply (+ 10 Templates)

Why should you use power words?

Selecting and using the right words is essential for every marketing copy you craft, especially when you want to cut through the noise, grab your audience’s attention and boost your conversion rates—and that’s why power words are important. 

Power words attract prospects by evoking their emotions and compelling them to take your desired action.

Using power words can help you persuade your prospects to carry out any action actions — whether it is to :

• purchase your products/service,
• sign up for your email list,
• read a blog post,
• trigger curiosity through content on social networks with powerful blog post headlines,
• create an intense desire to take on a call to action,
• play on word choice to improve your click-through rates,
• create better headlines or
• make more money from your sales pages.

Read more: 15 Cold Email Templates to Boost Your Sales

Two Tools you can use to see if your power words work 

MonsterInsights

MonsterInsights headline analyzer allows you to check whether your power word is impactful and truly works. All you have to do is to insert the subject lines in the empty box and click on “analyze.”

Although the headline analyzer guides you in writing SEO headlines that drive traffic and help you rank better on the search engine result page, it also checks the strength of the power words in your headline by giving it a score, usually in the form of a percentage. 

For instance, the 25% score in the above image shows the power words in the headline, “5 proven tips to sleep better at night.“

When compared with another headline, “4 ways to grow your business fast,” there were no powerful words to attract the audience’s attention.

MonsterInsight also recommends some power words for headlines which you may find useful.

CoSchedule

CoSchedule is another tool to check if your power words work. Just like MonsterInsights, CoSchedule also has a Headline Analyzer feature that gives a detailed explanation of the words you use for headlines. 

CoSchedule analyzes each word by categorizing it into various segments – common, uncommon, emotional, and power words.

All you have to do is to input the coined headlines into the headline analyzer. 

It analyzes each word and measures its effectiveness by stating each score. If your power words don’t work, you will have a low score. 

To make your power words work, CoSchedule also gives out recommendations that you can use to boost your email conversion rate.  

Power words mistakes to avoid

Although power words are effective in getting marketing results, you still need to avoid some mistakes. Here are three mistakes you should avoid when using power words.

Excessive use of power words

When crafting marketing copy, it is okay to use power words sparingly to catch the reader’s attention. But going overboard with the power words can make you sound unrealistic. 

For instance, using “amazing,” “shocking,” and “unbelievable” in the same subject line could sound obnoxious to your readers. They could mark you as spam or view you as a dishonest person. 

The most essential point is to avoid using too many power words by striking a balance where necessary.

Making promises you can’t keep

In a bid to get results, many marketers often use alluring subject lines to attract their audience. For instance, here is an example.

Using power words to make huge claims relating to revenue or ROI can truly attract the audience.

However, if you fail to deliver your claims, you could mess up the trust you have already built with your clients. 

As a result, your audience could unsubscribe from your list or mark you as spam. In short, don’t promise what you can’t deliver. Always be realistic with your marketing copies.

Remember, the line between power words and spam trigger words is just fine.

Creating exaggerated urgency

Yes. Urgency delivers great results. However, you do not have to use the power words to create tension in the mind of your readers.

Words such as “limited,” “warning,” or “last chance” are effective only when you use them where they truly apply. Else, they will only result in a rift when it gets to your subscribers.

Key takeaways

• Power words are simple to use and they drive the best result you can get. 
• Don’t be a slave to some boring or generic words when you can utilize power words to boost your email conversion rate. 
• But be sure not to overuse them because it’ll make your content sound spammy and exaggerated. Also, combining too many emotional power words makes your content ineffective and less prone to drive results. Only incorporate power words where they make sense.
• Keep in mind that lust power words and anger words are generally associated with spam words. That’s why didn’t include them on our list of power words. But if your business call for them, be sure to use such words sparingly.

If you have been in SaaS for at least a few years, odds are you know that the internet was not short of email marketing solutions at the time ConvertKit established itself as one of the most prominent email marketing software. 

In fact, prior to hitting $2.7M+ MRR, ConvertKit has gone through some tough times to achieve success, especially in the flourishing days of many heavy-hitters like MailChimp, AWeber, and Hubspot. 

Now that leads us to the billion-dollar question: How did a small fish like ConvertKit make a name for itself in that big pond? 

• $2.7M+ MRR

• $26+ Million Cash Flow

• 5.47 Million Visits Per Month

• 44K+ Active Users

• $60+ ARPU

• and more
• and more to come…

Many articles describe the bumpy road that Nathan Barry, the founder, and CEO of ConvertKit, took to bring his company from the bottom to today’s industry leader. In fact, you can see it all here.

But the one thing they fail to mention is the email marketing strategy that encouraged this growth. 

So we’ve taken it upon ourselves to break down ConvertKit’s SaaS email marketing strategies that helped achieve an MRR of over $2.7 million, with actionable takeaways to get you up and running quickly.

Now for the sake of this article, we don’t mean that email marketing is the only marketing channel that helped ConvertKit grow to $2.3 million in monthly revenue.

Let’s start with an in-depth look at the SaaS email marketing strategy ConvertKit used to achieve a $2.3+ million MRR.

How ConvertKit Built and Grew Its Email List

One of the best techniques Nathan used to grow his business was to position it in a specific niche. 

But niching down is only one piece of the puzzle. There was also a well-thought-out SaaS email marketing strategy behind the phenomenal Convertkit’s success.

To start, Nathan built an email list and found ways to expand and grow it. Then, he used that list to promote Convertkit and get subscribers to pay for his services. 

Nathan needed to develop his prospect and customer base to grow his business. And as you know, developing an email list of prospects and customers isn’t the easiest thing on earth.

So here’s how he did it. 

#1 Leveraging lead magnets and a community

Nathan is a marketing genius.

Creating a community for his target audience helped him build an audience for ConvertKit, long before the actual launch of the software. 

In addition, it gave him a channel to communicate with prospects and customers and encourage them to promote ConvertKit’s tools and email list.

How?

By gating access to the community. In fact, to join the community, every user is required to sign up with their email address.

On top of that, since most community members are people with a huge fan base, they quickly spread the word, which sparked virality around Convertkit.

Some people like to call it influencer marketing, but it’s more like leveraging the power of user-generated content.

More on that further down in the next section.

To get members to spread the news about the community, Nathan used to share his knowledge for free.

This strategy was successful mostly because the type of content Nathan was sharing for free was the kind that influencers at the time were selling for $997.

#2 Using user-generated-content to capture leads

When you have a community made up of your customers and potential future customers, you don’t have to do the talks every time to grow your business.

The content created by the people inside the community will do just as fine.   

Here is an example:

Actually, any content associated with your business created by someone who is not an actual member of your company is a kind of social proof you can use to promote your business and attract more leads. 

But, more importantly, it’s free advertising for your business.

How ConvertKit Leverages Its Email List to Make Money

#1 Building a powerful onboarding sequence

When a customer buys a product from your company, you have one and only one chance to make a great first impression.

Once that impression is formed, it can be very difficult, if not impossible, to change their perception. 

Nathan and his marketing team understand that getting someone to become a customer is only half the battle. Delighting the customer enough to stay for the long term is the biggest challenge.

Statistics show that 74 percent of consumers expect to be onboarded as soon as they buy a product.

In addition, it has been proven that new leads are most engaged within the first 48 hours of subscribing. 

One surefire way Convertkit turns every user into a long-term fan is by using a powerful onboarding email sequence. And this is what allows them to minimize churn rate. 

Nathan and his team’s secret sauce is to prove to each subscriber that they are important — and not just another email address in Convertkit’s large email list.  

When you subscribe to Convertkit, you receive a succession of emails that aim to establish a long-term relationship that is not just transactional.

For example, the first email you receive is from a person named Angel.

This email is recipient-centric and doesn’t ask much of the recipient. More importantly, it contains no intention to sell or discount.

The second email in the onboarding sequence is from Nathan Barry himself.

In the email, he talks about why he created Convertkit and offers to help grow your email list and get your first 10 email subscribers.

He also makes an introduction to Tradecraft, their online publication to help creators earn a living.

The third email is from Haley, who is the Community Manager of Convertkit.

This email is an official invitation to join the community.

Again, it’s an offer that suits the Convertkit user because it will give them a chance to connect with other users and share experiences.

Here is what makes these three emails great:

• The pronoun “YOU” was used 84 times in the three emails combined.
• The pronoun “I” was used 9 times in all three emails. 
• Each of the emails came from a person which gives them a human feel. 
• The copy contains 0 promotional words. 
• Instead of asking, Convertkit gives and hosts a free webinar to any new subscriber who is struggling to find their way around. 

Read more: How to Create Cold Email Sequences That Drive Sales

#2 Turning subscribers into fans by teaching and educating them

At Convertkit, the culture of giving is strongly accentuated. This is nothing new.

Since the beginning of the company, Nathan Barry would do the migration from an email service provider to Convertkit for his subscribers for free. 

This same culture has continued over the years and is now part of Convertkit’s DNA.

According to Nathan, “the more you teach and giveaway, the more your subscribers will trust you.“

In the early days, when Convertkit was in development, Nathan would give away his knowledge for free in exchange for subscribers’ email. 

This allowed him to gain the trust of subscribers and turn them into real fans who would be willing to buy from him. 

But Convertkit wasn’t just about ebooks. They were also giving away free courses while most companies and online entrepreneurs were selling theirs for $997.

As a result, more than 100k people visit Convertkit’s website per month expecting to learn and go away with something valuable.

But Convertkit didn’t stop there. In each of their email broadcasts, they’re more likely to help the recipient instead of selling them a product.

This has created a craze among the recipients and as a result, Convertkit is getting over 100k visitors to their website.

Oh, did we mention that those 10k+ visitors came from their email list alone?

By applying Nathan Barry’s philosophy, which is “Teach everything you know, and turn your customers into true fans,” Convertkit has managed to build a true fan base that is willing to spend on the brand’s products.

#3 Using email as a channel for direct sales

If there are 100 people in the world who know the value of an email list, Nathan Barry is one of them. No doubt about it.

As mentioned above, opt-in forms were one of the first elements Convertkit featured in the early versions of their website.

It allowed them to quickly grow their email list. More importantly, it allowed them to have a customer base ready to buy their product.

But before the list was warmed up, Nathan would look for emails from authors who use his competitor’s services — like MailChimp, AWeber, and InfusionSoft — and offer them to use Convertkit.

According to Nathan himself, it was this strategy that allowed Convertkit to grow from $1,300 to $725,000 MRR. 

How did they do it?

At first, they targeted authors — who don’t have a large community — but since that wasn’t scalable, they re-focused their direct sales outreach on professional bloggers with 30,000 to 250,000 email subscribers.

This brought them clients like Pat Flynn, Suzi Whitford, and many other internet sensations.

And that’s when they started to see momentum because the emails gave Convertkit traction and it quickly turned into referrals.

Here’s an example of the email Nathan sent to bloggers who use Convertkit’s competing services.

And each time, they classified each lead in the category in which they fell in the sales funnel.

But despite the success of this strategy, Nathan remained obsessed with the size of his email list.

Recently, Convertkit acquired FanBridge, a leading email marketing platform serving musicians since 2006. FanBridge added a list of 25 million emails to the more than 100 million active emails that Convertkit has.

Read more: 650+ Power Words to Boost Your Conversion (+ Templates)

#4 Sending promotional emails to encourage upgrades

As of this writing, Convertkit counts 44576 active users.

And of all these users, 32% are free users, that is 11959 users in total.

To convert these free users into paid customers, Convertkit uses promotional emails. A study proved that 75% of consumers report scouring their inboxes just to look for relevant discounts. 

Read more: 15 Cold Email Templates to Boost Your Sales

Being aware of this, Convertkit offers coupons that incentivize recipients to upgrade their plan.

And thanks to these promotional offers, the number of upgrades is constantly increasing.

To sell or increase upgrades through emails, Nathan Barry has a very specific framework. Here is what the framework looks like.

In a more practical way, here is how Nathan uses it.

This strategy allows you to gain subscribers’ trust and show them that you care about them. 

Read more: How to Write Cold Email Opening Lines That Get Replies

Key Takeaways

There you have it. The folks at the company used SaaS email marketing to boost the growth of ConvertKit.

Yet, Nathan didn’t put email at the forefront of growing his business, but he didn’t achieve success without it either.

And the email marketing he used was very effective. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

• Expand your prospects’ base

Expanding your prospect base entails all the effort you can put into building and growing your email list.

This is the starting point of any email marketing strategy. Find ways to attract as many people as possible to your business. You can create a community like ConvertKit or employ email tactics to grow your email list. 

• Teach and educate them

The ideas and knowledge you have make you an authority in your business niche. As you’ve seen, ConvertKit teaches its subscribers to turn them into true fans. Teaching works just like giveaways.

It makes you cool in the eyes of your subscribers. It doesn’t have to be about your product, you can teach them anything valuable that you know that’s worth sharing.

They will adore you and will keep coming back for more. Way to grow your business through word of mouth.

• Send promotional emails

This is where the magic happens. Promotional emails simply help you market your products to your subscribers.

But before you send your emails, make sure you design emails that your subscribers can relate to. Segmentation and personalization are key.

So be sure to have a great email copy, and send as many promotional emails as possible. 

In our early days, we made some mistakes and no one replied to our cold emails.

But as time went on, we learned from our mistakes and wrote emails that got replies from CEOs of 9 figure businesses and even from Y Combinator venture capitalists.

The secret? 

We use subject lines that entice our recipients to click open.

If you’re looking for tips on how to craft subject lines that work? Then you’re at the right place. 

In this article, you’ll learn the different techniques and sales email subject lines you can use to create stellar sales emails.

What Makes a Poor Subject Line (Mistakes that will kill your performance)

First, what defines your sales email subject lines as good or bad will always depend on the product or service you are marketing and how your approach to crafting pertains to or hits your target audience.

Here are the most common sales email subject line mistakes we found. 

It inspires nothing (or it’s vague)

The worst thing that can happen to you as a sales marketer is that recipients read your email subject lines and have no clue about the email/offer or feel no internal envy to want to click on your email. 

That’s what we mean by email subject lines that inspire nothing.

Mostly, subscribers feel like the email has nothing to do with them or anything they care about. The subject line fails to pique their interests, and the email is left unopened. 

The problem here can be narrowed down to targeting the wrong people or not conducting proper research to learn about your targets prior to sending your emails.  

It is too long

Long email subject lines don’t do well. If your email subject lines are too long, you’re missing the point. 

Email subject lines are meant to be short phrases with the sole purpose of introducing the email. Also, long subject lines always have a poor rendering in most recipients’ email box providers (more on that later).

It offers no real value.

You can think of this as email subject lines that promise nothing about the email’s value. For the sake of argumentation, here are potential email values most recipients will expect from you as a sales rep. 

• Solving a problem. 
• Making a product/service offer. 
• Discussing something they genuinely love or care about.  
• A learning opportunity. 

If your email subject lines don’t give away or portray a glimpse of these benefits to your audience or customers about your email, then it offers no real value. And thus gives them no reason to open it.  

It’s clickbait.

A sales email subject line click baits can have many facets. Any offer or promise that seems unrealistic can tip off your audience, and your subject line will come across as clickbait. 

It can even be subject lines recipients judge as annoying or which contain exaggerated claims or unethical or legally questionable words. 

Also, promising something in the email subject line and failing to deliver it inside the email body, product, or service will hurt your open rate — in the future. 

Because you might get away with subject lines that don’t live up to their emails once. But your subscribers or recipients will most certainly know better in the future.

Read more: 15 Cold Email Templates to Boost Your Sales

What Makes A Great Subject Line (Attributes that makes them successful) 

Now that we are clear on what makes a poor email subject line, let’s discuss the main characteristics of a compelling subject line.

1- It’s descriptive

At its core, an email subject line aims to tease off the content of the actual email. In other words, it serves to tell recipients what the email is about shortly and sweetly. 

So, even when crafting a sales email and using several tactics, you should ensure that your subject line does not go far from the content of the actual email.

Read more: How AppSumo Writes Subject Lines That Drive $37+ Million In Revenue Per Year

2- It keeps the audience in mind

The language, messaging, offer, technique, words, and everything else included in the email subject are aligned with the audience. 

It’s only a few words, but you should ensure that the target audience quickly identifies with it by making it specific to them.  

Here’s an example from Ernest, pitching a guest blog idea to a marketer. Instead of playing around, he decided to use a common connection to stir the recipient’s curiosity.

Doing so made it easy for the recipient to relate, and here’s how it turned out.

3- It’s brief and concise (Optimized for devices)

Sales email subject lines should be one-liners that quickly explain what the email is about and what recipients will benefit from it. You don’t need too many words for that.

The ideal length of an email subject line will always depend on what devices the target audience uses to access the email. 

Mobile, desktop, and tablet devices produce email subject lines differently. 

What may seem like a good length on a desktop device will most likely render poorly on a tablet or mobile device. So, it all depends on the target audience. But there is a sweet spot. 

According to Campaign Monitor, a subject line should be 41 characters long to appear on desktops, mobiles, and tablets. 

But, email providers usually recommend and limit the subject line to 60 characters. So, you can go for 60 characters if you are sure it accommodates your target audience devices.

Here’s an example from a cold email Ernest sent Tim Soulo of Ahrefs.

Tim liked the email and in spite of his busy schedule made sure that the email was read by the right person. So, he forwarded the email to Joshua Hardwick, Head of Content at Ahrefs.

And here’s how it turned out.

4- It’s interesting

Successful email subject lines always come with an element that entices recipients to open the email. Your audience wants to know what’s in the email for them before opening it. 

So, will they learn something new? Will they get a unique product offer? Is it about a challenge they face that you want to solve? 

Will you help them hit their goals faster? Are there areas that could be improved in their current strategies or processes? Etc.

You need to ignite the benefit to elicit interest from your target audience and entice them to open your email. The question above will help you develop subject line angles that boost your open rates.

Here’s an example of a value-based email subject line.

This subject line is straight to the point and tells the recipient what’s in it for them. Here’s the outcome.

5- It avoids spam trigger words

Spam trigger words are annoying for most people, and they can hurt your deliverability rate. 

Even worse, they can make your email subject line seem clickbait and nullify all chances of getting your emails opened. Successful subject lines are simple and look natural. 

You should ensure not to overpromise and use spam words, drug-related keywords, or words that pressure your recipients. 

Here’s an example of a subject line that uses clear wording to spark the Rand Fishkin of Moz’s interest.

Although the outcome was not positive, it nonetheless caught the recipient’s attention and got him to reply.

How to Write Effective And Catchy Sales Email Subject Lines

There are countless ways and tips you can follow to craft compelling email subject lines. Fun fact, there can be as many tactics as they are email marketers and sales reps. 

Also, researching and constantly using the same subject line secret sauce will bore your target audience out of your email list. 

According to HubSpot, 47% of marketers continuously experiment with different subject lines to optimize their email campaigns.

So, you need to espouse and normalize A/B testing and constantly develop creative ways to craft subject lines to keep your open rates at their best. 

That said, here are eight approaches to crafting excellent sales subject lines. 

1. Personalize it

Chances are, as a sales rep, you already know that sending mass emails with random subject lines that seek to be inclusive for everyone won’t get any results. 

No two prospects are the same, and people want to feel individual. Not surprisingly, emails with personalized subject lines are 22% more likely to be opened.

Prospects want to know that you took the time to research and target them with a specific offer tailored to them. 

And that’s how specific your subject lines need to be. You should make sure your subject line is catered to the persona of the people you are targeting. 

You can personalize the subject using prospects’ first name, making it specific to a specific demographic, job title, or group of people using the same software, etc.

2. Leverage FOMO

The fear of missing out (FOMO) is deeply rooted in our personalities. It’s no secret that no one likes to miss out on something valuable. 

Leveraging FOMO boils down to creating a sense of urgency so that recipients will want to open your email and check it out in a given time frame. 

The urgency factor can pertain to a product deal recipients will miss out on if they don’t act quickly, or it can be an urgent request. 

Even if they are not particularly interested in the product or promotion you offer, the FOMO can make them want to see what the offer is about, so it’s almost a sure open. 

But while you’re at it, you may want to watch how often and where you make urgent requests and time-sensitive offers. 

It is only a thin line between creating a sense of urgency and coming across as an annoying sales rep.

Read more: 650+ Power Words You Can Use To Boost Conversion

3. Strike curiosity

Striking curiosity is a tried-and-proven tactic for creating subject lines that drive more email opens. Curious people always ask questions and search for answers. 

Curiosity-striking subject lines easily pique your prospects’ interests and make them want to learn more about the actual content of the email.

4. Mention the value.

This depends on your product and what you’re offering in your email. The value you offer recipients through your email is part of the elements that interest them and make them want to read your email. 

So, if you are offering something unique or exciting, you need to make it known upfront by mentioning it in the subject line. 

That said, are you offering:

• A discount?
• A free trial?
• A giveaway contest?
• To solve a problem?
• To help uncover churn?
• New experiences?
• Etc.

What benefits will prospects get from reading your emails? 

Whatever value you bring to their table, if you can sparkle in the subject line, it will help you win more openings and drive more interested people.

5. Create a sense of mystery. 

Creating a sense of mystery works in the same way as a striking curiosity. It intrigues recipients to want to learn more about whatever your subject line is about, and their direct action is to open the email and read it. 

But creating a sense of mystery doesn’t mean you should make your subject lines enigmatic or obscure—because these will do more harm than good. 

Not only can they trigger spam filters, but they can also annoy recipients and cause them to give you the silent treatment. 

The best way to leverage mystery in your subject lines is to tell recipients just enough to know that you are legitimate and professional and not enough to make them want to check you out or learn more by opening your email. 

6. Leverage name recognition.

Name recognition is one of the most effective approaches to crafting subject lines, and it works like a charm. 

We all have celebrities, influencers, or like-minded people that we respect, admire, or/and look up to. 

Learning about your audience and mentioning the names of figures they respect and recognize in your subject lines can pique their interest and make them want to read what you have to say.

Mind you, relevance is a fundamental factor to success with this. 

Mentioning people that are in no way associated with your brand, product, or service just throwing out a name for the sake of recognition won’t get you any results. 

Note: What works even better is when you offer people your audience respect a service, and they appreciate and give you validation. That’s literally milk you can cow when targeting prospects. 

Think of it like a super testimonial that breaks all potential objections your audience might have—we’ve landed many clients with this. 

We created a case study about AppSumo’s email marketing strategy and took it in front of Noah Kagan. Noah loved it and hired us. 

Then we created an email with the subject line “Noah Kagan thinks we should talk“. 

We got up to 98% open and click-through rates. The better part, we were also able to win and work with top marketers like Ross Simmonds, Irina Maltseva, and more. 

Read more: How To Create Cold Email Sequences That Generate Sales

7. Use emojis.

One of the best ways to get your audience to action is to elicit emotions; emojis are the best way to do this. 

A single emoji can help you convey a more profound message than words could ever portray. Using emojis can also make your subject lines fun, light-hearted, and better connect with recipients. 

But you should know that emojis won’t hold value in a context that demands an objective voice. So, using it will depend on your goal with the email and your target audience. 

Also, overusing emojis can trigger spam checker algorithms and flag you as a spammer. 

8. Allude to a story.

This is another curiosity-striking approach to crafting email subject lines that get your emails. As the saying goes, stories sell best. Plus, people love stories. 

So, alluding to an exciting story in your subject line can intrigue curious recipients to want to learn more about it and open your email. 

The key is to ensure that the story fits your offer and aligns with your brand. 

30+ Effective Sales Subject Line Templates and Why You Should Use Them

10 subject line templates for cold emails

Here are a few sales email subject line templates you can use when cold emailing your prospects. 

Template 1

When you mention someone prospects know and respect, it naturally makes them curious and wants to learn more about you. 

It works very well, especially when you have a testimonial from a mutual connection with the Prospect or a popular figure.

Template 2

Questions call for answers. When you ask an intriguing question in your cold email subject lines, it makes prospects want to check you out and see what you have to say. 

Question-driven subject lines also foster a conversation with prospects and drive more replies.

Template 3

This personalized subject line clearly states the benefit/value it wants to offer prospects. 

It is a simple approach that reassures prospects about the relevance of your email and gives prospects a reason to open your email. The key is to ensure that your offer/value/benefit is enticing enough. 

Template 4

The quickest way to your prospects’ hearts is to solve a problem or challenge they are struggling with. 

Mentioning a genuine pain point of theirs indicates that you truly know them and immediately teases off what they can expect from your email. If you do it right, it’s a sure open. 

Template 5

Everybody loves free ideas. Also, adding a number can catch the eye and make your email even sexier. 

Keep in mind that the specificity of your tips or idea towards the topic the Prospect cares about will make you successful here.  

Template 6

The idea behind this subject line template is to pair your offer with the Prospect’s goals to make it relevant. 

Every person at a company is working towards some goal; when you can tie up your offer to their goal, it makes your email relevant and interesting. 

Template 7

This is also a personalized, pain point approach which indicates that you’ve done some homework before reaching out to your target prospects. 

Template 8

This is like mentioning a pain point the Prospect is struggling with. The mere fact of mentioning a tool they’re having issues with makes you interesting.  

Template 9

Hitting preset goals and solving our pain points are important to all of us. People will be interested to find out what you want to ask, and they will open the email. 

Template 10

First, it’s personalized. Second, it’s relevant to their goal. They’ll want to know how you want to help and open the email.

10 subject line templates for follow-up emails

Here are subject line templates you can use for follow-up emails. 

Template 11

This is only logical. If you came up with an interesting idea or offer in the previous email, you can use this to tell prospects about the next moves you will take together.  

Template 12

Did you promise something in your previous email? Deliver it. This will keep you top of their minds and the conversation moving forward.  

Template 13

Offering a plan or a solution to your prospects’ pain points is also an effective way to move forward. 

Template 14

Did you give prospects a free trial? A discounted offer? A free product? Or have they purchased from you? 

You can use this subject line to collect their feedback and keep the conversation going.

Template 15

This works well when prospects are reluctant and have doubts about taking the next steps. Making a low-commitment offer can get them to beat their fears and take the step. 

Template 16

You already know prospects will have a lot of objections and what-ifs that can hinder your sales process. 

This subject line supposes that you want to tell a story of someone who had similar reservations and how it played out for them. They will be interested to know.

Template 17

Got an idea on something your prospects will love? Like a blog post they will enjoy or a free trial they can benefit from. 

Personalize the subject line by mentioning their name and letting them know they will love it. 

Template 18

I had this idea since we last spoke

Have an excellent perspective or a new approach you want to share with prospects? This is your subject, your subject line. Also, it encourages them to recall your last conversation.

Template 19

This subject line helps you move the conversation forward with the prospects. Keep in mind that it assumes the Prospect had replied to your previous email.

Template 20

Want to follow up with a meeting? Make it clear in the subject line. 

6 subject line templates for “meeting requests.”

Meeting requests are an essential part of sales prospecting. Here are a few subject line templates you can use for this. 

Template 21

Think of how much time you will need for a sales discussion with your prospects and let them know in the subject line. 

Template 22

This can also be a good strategy for handling objections. Ask them for a demo call to show them the value of your product or tool. 

Template 23

This subject line lets your recipients know why you are reaching out to them. It invites them to decide and let you know about the next steps. 

Template 24

This provides an alternative, easy way to attract new prospects or re-engage with dormant ones.

Template 25

Want to send a meeting invitation? This is your subject line. Plain and straightforward.  

Template 26

This is an effective meeting email subject line for you to send to partner companies and link up with them.

5 subject line templates for “after no response.”

Here are a few subject line templates you can use when your prospects are not responding to your email.

Template 27

This is the simplest email subject line example you can use to break up with prospects. 

Template 28

This is a good subject line you can use at the end of your sales email sequence for prospects who still don’t reply. 

Template 29

Should I stay or should I go?

Have prospects that are having trouble making up their minds? You can’t convince them of the value of your offer all the time. Give them an ultimatum and let them make up their minds.

Template 30

The subject line of this breakup email encourages the Prospect to move forward. The question can also get them to respond so that you know their position.

Template 31

This can be a breakup subject line but still allows you to rekindle the relationship. 

Key Takeaways

• Always keep your sales subject lines short and concise. Make sure it’s stripped of any words that can trip up the audience and trigger spam filters. 
• Make sure it’s aligned with your audience and that it is action-oriented. After all, your goal is to get your prospects to open your sales emails and take your desired action. 
• Set yourself up for success by ensuring you always find an angle that hooks your prospects. Whether you leverage FOMO to create urgency or emojis to elicit emotion. Always find an angle that best aligns with your goals.