How to combine quality with quantity in cold email outreach

Over the years it’s become constantly easier to build lead lists and launch email campaigns for cold outreach. This has resulted in a boom in outreach volume. The problem is that it’s also led to lazy, low quality outreach. The thought process naturally was that if a certain amount of leads would convert anyway and with volume you can keep adding leads to the top of the funnel to keep pipelines full and hit sales targets. Unfortunately with so many teams employing similar strategies, cold email reply rates took a massive hit (currently at around 22%) and pipelines became harder to fill. 

It has never been more important to reintroduce quality into cold email outreach. Teams can’t afford to burn through lead lists anymore. The challenge, as always, is how to perform quality cold outreach at high volume. When we talk about quality we’re referring to outreach that is relevant and personalized for the recipient. 

Here’s what you can do to successfully implement high quality, high volume email outreach:

1. Well defined ICP(s) → know exactly who it is you’re reaching out to and why they would care. Knowing who they are, what their role is and what keeps them up at night helps you write better copy. 
2. Faster research → research is key. Good research helps us write relevant and personalized messaging based on information related to the person or their company. Research takes time so it’s best to use tools like Reach, ZoomInfo or LinkedIn Sales Nav to help you at scale. 
3. Relevant templates for each ICP → templates are your friend, but you need to make them targeted. Break up your outreach targets into well defined groups. Write tailored templates for each group that’ll resonate with their specific role and responsibilities.
4. 20% personalized → fortunately you don’t have to personalize the whole message for each lead. Use targeted templates and add 1-2 lines of personalization based on your research. For truly personalized lines at scale you can use Reach. Otherwise find relevant information for each account and take a similar angle with each lead at the company using different wording e.g. news, headcount growth rates, quotes from executives etc. 

Combining quality with high volume outbound is doable. It’s not automatic but can be made scalable. It comes down to tools and process. By creating targeted templates and using tools for faster personalization and for personalized icebreakers you can achieve quality at scale. Generic email outreach won’t suffice anymore.