Learn How to Appropriately Use Data in Your Sales Outreach Emails?

93% of marketers use email for content distribution, while 72% of customers prefer doing business via email over any other channel. That goes to show how this sales channel is one of the most efficient mediums for reaching out to new leads and converting them into clients.

But the thing is…

In order for you to launch winning outreach campaigns, you need to craft high-quality content that’s both relevant and personalized. You have to work constantly on improving your emails and templates to get closer to your sales objectives.

That’s when email outreach data becomes a necessity.

In today’s guide, you’ll learn how to track and use data to run successful email campaigns. We’ll also share with you some unique tips to help you enhance your email marketing results.

So let’s get into it!

What is Email Sales Outreach Data?

Email outreach data is any trackable information that can help your company make better-informed decisions in the future. It’s the set of metrics that your sales and marketing people can rely on to make your email outreach campaigns more efficient.

For example, by analyzing your performance for previous campaigns, you can better understand your target audience, improve your content, and further optimize your sales funnel. 

The most popular metrics to watch out for in your email outreach include:

• Open rates
• Click-through rates
• Conversion rates
• Response rates
• Unsubscribe rates

Aside from that, you can also use email data to calculate the ROI for specific campaigns, monitor sales results, or evaluate the efficiency of your internal teams. 

To gain access to this data, you can use a variety of free and premium tools that help you track your campaigns. Some email marketing software will allow you to automate your campaigns while monitoring other key metrics.

You may also use Google Analytics with tracking codes to optimize your outreach campaigns and track target prospects beyond email.

How Can Data Help You Run Successful Sales Outreach Campaigns?

Having access to data will provide you with unique insights that can significantly improve your sales outreach. But it’s not always evident how setting email KPIs and tracking them might be beneficial for your company.

So:

Before we get into how to appropriately use data in your sales outreach emails, you first need to understand how tracking can help you run better campaigns.

Here are four benefits of relying on data when developing your emails outreach:

1. Better Personalization

Personalizing your emails is a straightforward way to enhance your results and improve engagements. By making leads relate to your marketing messages, you’ll push them to engage with you and respond positively to any email you send them.

Collecting prospects’ data enables you to identify key details about prospective clients, including their needs and interests.

You’ll know where they are in the sales cycle and which products or services they need the most. You’ll also know what they expect from you and how you can help them overcome their challenges.

2. Higher Open Rates

One of the best ways data can help you run better email campaigns is by improving your open rates. By looking at how different subject lines have performed, you can choose the best ones and focus on them in your email sales campaigns.

The subject line is the title of your email, which is the first thing the prospect will see in their inbox. Many sales and marketing professionals consider subject lines as the most important element in their emails. Simply because emails that don’t get opened are a waste of time, money, and opportunities.

Now:

In order for a title to be effective, it has to attract the receiver’s interest and make them curious about what’s inside. It also helps if your email subject line is personalized to enhance a sense of familiarity and urgency.

A data-driven approach when writing your email campaigns is vital for crafting attention-grabbing subject lines.

3. Better Response Rate

The average response rate for email across all industries is around 5 to 10%. But it’s even lower for cold outreach where the average is as low as 1%.

To be fair…

These statistics might be a little discouraging, especially if this is your first time reading them. After all, it’s never your goal to build a list of 100 prospects and have only one of them respond to you.

The answer?

Collecting data.

Analytics will help you send your response rate through the roof by optimizing your campaigns and personalizing your content. You’ll be able to create great subject lines, body content, and calls to action to keep your prospects engaged.

By relying on data in your approach, you’ll also know which topics your prospects are interested in and which of your offers are most attractive.

4. Faster Sales Cycle

Did you know you could use data to accelerate your sales cycle?

A data-based email sequence will help you push new leads down the funnel and convert them into clients with minimum effort on your part. You can set up an automated sales email campaign and structure it based on existing analytics to maximize your results.

You need to launch a new campaign and optimize it using the best-performing elements from each email you’ve sent in the past. To do that, you have to analyze your best previous campaigns so you can identify what made them so successful.

By the end:

You’ll have a new sequence with multiple emails that have highly-effective subject lines, opening sentences, and copy. You’ll be able to send new leads through your automated funnel and save your sales team time to focus on other important duties.

How to Use Data In Your Sales Outreach Emails: 5 Steps to Converting More Sales Prospects

It’s one thing to monitor data metrics related to email, but it’s another to be able to make sense of the reports and use them to optimize your sales outreach campaigns.

There are a lot of ways data tracking can help you enhance your results when using sales outreach software. And different KPIs will reflect the efficiency of different elements in your email.

For example:

A low open rate would suggest that you need to write better subject lines or send your emails at a different time when your prospects are in front of their devices.

Each email you send has the following components:

• Subject line
• Salutation
• Body (with an opening line, call to action, and a closing line)
• Signature

By keeping a close eye on your email performance, you can identify all the problems in your campaigns and easily solve them. So depending on which metrics you want to improve, you have to pay attention to certain elements and work on them. 

All in all, here are five ways you can run better email sales outreach campaigns using data:

1. Craft Captivating Subject Lines

Let’s be honest:

You don’t always need data to know whether a subject line will work. Some email subjects are just bad because they’re irrelevant and don’t capture attention or imply urgency. 

But sometimes, you may get stuck choosing between a few final options for your next campaign. It may be hard to tell which subject line is most effective no matter how experienced you are.

So what should you do?

By tracking specific metrics such as open rates and response rates, you’ll be able to determine which subject lines work best for each email you send. You can split test multiple subjects at once for different campaigns and then compare your results over an extended period of time.

The average email open rate across all industries is around 21.33%, as per Mailchimp. But it could be even higher for cold emailing since you’re going to be targeting specific prospects using curiosity-enhancing subject lines.

The thing is:

You can write the best email subject line, yet your response rates will still be low if the content of your email isn’t interesting. That’s why you should mainly focus on open rates to track how effective your subject lines are.

2. Create Personalized Templates

In addition to subject lines, monitoring your sales outreach results allows you to develop multiple samples that you can use in your future campaigns. If you know which email versions have performed best, you can create your own templates and personalize them for each prospect.  

A template is a ready-made email body that you can customize and reuse with different prospects. It’s an easy way to personalize your outreach depending on the information and data you’ve collected about your leads.

Some of the ways you can personalize your emails using templates are:

• Referring to prospective clients by their first name or company name
• Writing attention-grabbing first lines
• Referring to prospects’ needs and challenges in the email body
• Offering personalized solutions, content, and answers

Email templates will save you a lot of time and effort in your outreach. They allow you to reach out to hundreds of prospects in a short time without having to rely on any spray-and-pray tactics. And you wouldn’t have to sacrifice any potential sales opportunities.

To know which email templates work best for you, you must compare your click-through rates, conversions, and response rates. Depending on your marketing and sales objectives, pick the email sample that gets you closer to your vision. 

3. Write Captivating CTAs

The closing line is just as important as the first line in your email. Because while the opening line grabs attention and keeps your prospects reading, the closing line can push them to take certain actions or fuel their curiosity further.  

There are a few ways to end an email:

• Write a simple sign-off — such as thank you, best, or regards
• Call for a desired action that the recipient needs to take (reply to the email, visit a website, download a document, etc)
• Ask an interesting, open question to spark a conversation and get people to reply

Again…

It’s impossible to tell what can bring you the best results in your outreach campaigns without testing. You need to try different closing lines, questions, and CTAs to see which version is best for your email campaigns. Using split testing with data analytics will grant valuable insights and help you make better-informed decisions.

Here are a few email writing tips for writing better closing lines before you start testing:

The call-to-action you add needs to be short and direct. The easier for your leads to understand what you want, the more likely will they be able to respond.

You should also avoid using too many CTAs in the same email as that’s only going to confuse your target prospects. It’s better to focus instead on a single desired action and bring attention to it throughout your email.

As for asking questions, this is a great way to initiate conversations with prospective customers and avoid getting ignored. Leaving a question that’s easy to answer can help you improve your response rate and attract more qualified prospects to your funnel.

4. Identify The Right Time to Send Your Emails

When is the best time to send outreach emails?

Answering this question is important because sending emails at the right time means the difference between sales success and failure. An email that’s seen a few hours after sending is guaranteed to get you higher open rates and engagements. 

Now:

The ideal time for launching your campaigns changes a lot by the hour depending on many factors. During the pandemic, for example, people didn’t have to commute early in the morning every day to get to work. Consequently, emails sent between 08 AM and 10 AM got the best results for many marketers.

Email sending times is another thing data collection can help you with in your outreach. 

You can experiment with sending emails at different times of the month and different days of the week then analyze your performance metrics. You should also aim to identify the best hours in the day for reaching out to ensure that the majority of your leads are checking their inboxes.

5. Segment Your Leads Effectively

Lead segmentation is the process of dividing potential clients into smaller groups based on demographics, interests, behavioral data, etc. It allows you to improve your marketing and sales approach by delivering the right message to the right prospect.

Here are some of the most common questions salespeople ask when it comes to lead segmentation:

On what basis should I break down my lead lists? How do I know if I’m effective in my segmentation? And how should I structure my email sequence to accelerate my sales process?

You can easily answer all those questions by relying on data. In fact, one of the most effective ways to segment leads is by separating them based on where they are in the sales funnel.

You can have multiple categories starting with awareness and interest all the way to the action stage. But to be able to do that, you need to track various email metrics while relying on web analytics reports to complete your analysis.

For example:

Prospects clicking on an informational article that you sent them can be placed in the awareness stage. Whereas those who are replying to your emails or scheduling meetings are probably in the consideration stage.

6 Excellent Tips to Enhance Your Sales Process With Email

Now that you understand how to use data to improve your email outreach, it’s time to learn some additional tips for running better campaigns.

Data will indeed help you optimize your email outreach and meet your target leads where they are. But it’s never enough on its own — especially if you’re neglecting the basics of email marketing.

Here are 6 brilliant tricks for running successful sales outreach campaigns by email:

1. Use an Engaging Writing Style in Your Emails

Writing good email copy is an art that can take your sales outreach to a whole new level. You’ll be able to turn uninterest prospects into clients and keep them loyal to your brand for many years to come.

For starters:

Aside from personalization, the body of your email needs to be well-aligned with your subject line. You must follow through with the promises you make in the subject line if you want your leads to trust you. It’s also best for each email to only focus on a single topic so that you avoid confusing the readers.

Moreover…

Your writing style needs to be concise and on-point. It’s important to write in the second person to keep readers engaged and make them relate to your outreach messages.

Most importantly:

You must use an easy language with short sentences and break down lengthy paragraphs to increase readability. By making your copy scannable, you’ll guarantee that potential clients are going to read and understand each word you write in your emails.

2. Avoid Over Personalization

Collecting data about your prospects and using it to launch successful email campaigns is great. In fact, today’s customers expect companies to send them personalized offers, and most of them are easily turned off by generic interactions.

However…

Overpersonalization is an even more guaranteed way to turn off potential clients. Showing prospects that you know too much is the easiest way to creep them out and give them a bad feeling about your business. That’s why most internet users are hesitant about sharing their personal information. 

So what do potential customers expect from you when it comes to personalization?

Harmless personalization is about regarding your leads as individuals with needs and challenges. By understanding your prospect’s interests, you’ll be able to provide them with tailored solutions to their specific problems. You’ll know which of your services they might need, and at what time your products must be delivered.

So when writing your emails, be sure to rely on the basic contact details that the prospect has shared with you. You may also use any information that’s easily available online such as demographics, interests, and behavioral data to best tailor your messaging.

3. Improve Your Subject Lines

As we’ve already mentioned, the subject line is the first and only element your leads can see after receiving your emails. Thus, it can either skyrocket your open rates and bring you endless sales opportunities or get you ignored.

To craft great subject lines, you need to look at things from your potential client’s perspective. They probably already have +100 unopened emails waiting — so they’re only going to open new emails if they find them relevant and interesting.

The worst thing you can do is hype up your leads with clickbait for things that you’re not going to deliver in your emails. In fact, this is the fastest way to get your brand ignored by highly-valuable leads.

Instead:

Your subject line should get recipients excited about opening your email and learning more about what you have to say without lying. You want to be authentic from the start and promise only what you can offer.

Also:

When writing subject lines, make sure to avoid trigger words that can send your email to spam. Expressions like Buy Direct, 100% Free, Call Now, etc may look shady and can get flagged by lots of mailbox providers.

4. Follow Up Regularly

A follow-up email is any message you send to a prospect after your initial outreach. It could either be a new email or a reply to an existing one that you sent in the past.

A prospect could just forget to reply to you or might be too busy to engage in a conversation instantly. Therefore, your follow-ups will serve as reminders for any on-hold discussions or ignored emails in their inbox.

Following up is extremely important for boosting your email marketing results and getting more leads to respond to you. It shows how much you value your prospects and proves you’re truly interested in helping them solve their problems.

Email follow-ups are also crucial for creating new sales opportunities and keeping business conversations going. You can build a new email sequence to nurture leads and take them on a journey — from not knowing anything about your business to seriously considering your offers.

You can send up to five or seven times follow-ups before you finally give up. But while doing so, you have to consider emailing frequency and sending times.

It’s a good thing to be persistent, but you don’t want to spam your leads with new emails every day. On the flip side, spacing out your emails by more than seven days will make you lose all the momentum and progress.

Also:

You need to schedule your follow-ups at different times of the day so you can identify peak hours and increase your open rates.

5. Use a Professional Email Signature

The email signature is perhaps the most overlook element in any outreach campaign. Many marketing and sales professionals neglect their signatures because they believe that doesn’t affect their results.

The truth is:

Adding a signature to your email helps you brand yourself as an authentic business person with a real role and a company. It allows you to introduce yourself briefly while standing out from the rest and leaving a memorable impression on every lead.

To create a brilliant email signature, you need to:

• Include only essential contact details such as your website, physical address, and phone number
• Use a simple design with a clear hierarchy to emphasize your name and company
• Add direct links as CTAs to important pages on your website
• Avoid HTML-heavy email signatures as those may cause problems with certain mailbox providers

There are many online websites you can use to design modern email signatures. You can do a quick Google search to create a new one and use it in your next campaign.

6. Automate Your Sales Email Campaigns

Looking for a quick way to improve your email sales outreach and achieve better results?

Automate your outreach campaigns.

Automation is a strategy where you use a tool to plan and handle your sales outreach via email. Automation software will help you schedule your campaigns and send them to specific prospects at specific times to deliver the right message.

By automating your email campaigns, you’ll free up your sales development rep’s time to focus on other crucial aspects of the business. You’ll have the opportunity to send as many emails as you wish without having to worry about tracking or follow-ups. And with that, you can achieve better personalization and be more accurate in your outreach no matter how large your lead list is.

Wrapping It Up

The problem with email outreach is the lack of clear rules that are also always shifting. Your target leads’ behavior can change rapidly depending on new trends and technological transformations. So that makes it impossible for you to run winning outreach campaigns and grow your business.

Thankfully:

The solution has always been in adopting a data-driven approach to guide your efforts and help to make the right decisions. In fact, email outreach data has been a lifesaver for many organizations as it allows them to launch successful campaigns and optimize them continually.

Your sales and marketing team can now monitor all your email campaigns and split-test different variables so you can achieve optimal results. For example, you can try out new subject lines, body content, closing lines, or calls to action and use the ones that yield the best results for your company.