Let’s say you run a consumer service business OR sell a consumer product and want to reach out to potential prospects to grow your business. There are several ways to communicate with potential customers and clients, and cold email outreach can be among the most successful marketing tactics there is.
For example, maybe you’re a...
- Real Estate Agent
- Financial Adviser
- Lawyer
- Pest Control Professional
- Personal Fitness Trainer
- Etc...you get the idea.
How would you know who would be a good prospect to reach out to via cold email campaigns? After all, pretty much anyone could benefit from using your products and services at some point.
But timing is everything in the email marketing world and you’re not a psychic. Unless you have a library of email templates for cold emails and follow up emails, email outreach can take a significant amount of time. Pinpointing your ideal customer can be a challenge, but as soon as you can identify their pain points, you can write cold emails and follow up emails that resonate with your ideal client.
On the flip side, maybe you’re selling a product such as:
- MLM products
- Nutritional supplements
- Makeup kits
- Consumer software products or apps
- Handmade soaps or clothing
- Etc.
Again, how would you know who would be interested in buying your product from cold emails or sequenced follow up emails? If you’re selling nutritional supplements...would you target anyone and everyone who ‘works out’ such as – people who go to a gym, athletes, bodybuilders, people who go running in the park, etc? Are these the people you would send updates and discounts to via cold email?
Maybe...possibly...that could work but, often your approach can be guided by your response to this one fundamental question – Where do you find email addresses of people who have these interests? It's very important to make sure you target your ideal customer to get the best open rate and response rate for your outreach campaign.
And, taking it one step further – How could you most effectively communicate with these cold email prospects? Keep in mind, these people have never heard from you before and have NO IDEA who you are, so your cold email sequence will need to make sense.
Well, there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about cold emailing in the B2C space. And today we’re going to focus on the referral partner play and discuss best practices for cold emails!
To learn more about email outreach and the benefits of cold emails and cold email templates, visit our email outreach page today.
What’s a referral partner and why is it important to cold emails?
A referral partner would be another business that works with or has an email list of your prospects and ideal customers, who would be willing to refer you to their audience. Even though your referral partner's audience many not be your exact ideal customer, you can send cold emails to new prospects and sales follow up emails to warm leads, which can go a long way.
Referral partners typically work in a non-competing or complimentary space to you and it's one of the best ways to get a list of cold email prospects. Sending cold emails to a referral partner's audience is one of the best ways to reach new customers.
Now, before we talk about effective cold email strategies for service-based or product-based businesses, here’s what NOT to do...
- If you were to let’s say, just build a cold email list of people who you think MIGHT be interested in what you have to offer and then reach out to these potential ideal customers...you'd just be shooting in the dark and your email open rates will suffer.
- After all, for businesses like these, there’s usually no way to know if someone really needs your help or wants to buy something like what you’re selling.
- In other words, it would be lots of effort with little return, and your email outreach campaign would be all for naught.
- Plus, your cold email campaign would generally be seen as spam to your audience, and that could damage your brand/reputation, decrease follow ups and open rates, and negatively impact response rates.
Don’t get discouraged though because like I said, there is a way to create a solid cold email strategy for B2C businesses!
Instead of the spray and pray approach where you target anyone and everyone hoping to get a bite, try the referral partner strategy. This is one of the best cold outreach tips for B2C companies out there!
Why are referral partners great for cold email?
A referral partner can introduce your product or service to their customers (oftentimes an ideal customer) - and they could EITHER get a referral fee for new customers they send your way OR the agreement could be that you reciprocate by sending prospects their way whenever appropriate.
As long as you provide relevant information as to why they would want to partner up and get across what’s in it for them, the odds should be in your favor. From what we’ve seen, businesses are more receptive to these relationships than direct sales to cold consumer prospects, because as we’ve discussed, these prospects can be tough to get in the door, if they are completely cold to you. A strategic cold email campaign with successful cold email templates will have a higher open rate and response rate.
The opportunity to expand your reach is exponential when it comes to cold email outreach. In other words, one great referral partner could introduce you to a bunch of new qualified prospects that are in-market for your product or service. And, QUALIFIED is the key here! By adding these ideal customers to your cold email campaigns, you can improve your chances of future business.
For this reason, these are some of the most valuable relationships you can build using referral partners and cold email for service businesses or businesses that sell products.
Who would make a good referral partner for your business?
Let’s go back to the Real Estate Agent example…
Who interacts with or has a list of people who are interested in selling their home or property? And how can you use this information to your cold email outreach advantage?
For example, a good referral partner for Real Estate Agents could be someone who’s a – Mortgage Broker, Home Service Provider (Plumber, Electrician, Painter, Construction Contractor, Interior Designer), Lawyer, Financial Planner, etc. An ideal referral partner will offer similar products and services as you, which can make for successful cold emails, even though you've never contacted them before.
Or for product-based businesses, let’s circle back to the nutritional supplement example…
Who would have a list or work with people who are interested in fitness and health so they can improve or stay at the top of their physical game? What would the subject line of that cold email look like to entice the user to open it?
For example, a good referral partner for people who sell supplements could be someone who’s a – Personal Fitness Trainer, Health Coach, Weight Loss Specialist, Dietitian, Gym Owner/Manager, Athletic Team Coach, etc. Again, make sure you partner with referral businesses that make sense for your product or service.
Creating The Best Cold Email Campaigns
Once you have identified a list of job titles/job functions of the exact types of professionals who would make good referral partners for your business, the next step will be to build a cold email list of professionals just like them (and we recommend starting small with cold email campaigns until you’ve dialed in your messaging copy and approach).
We discuss the cold email list building process in detail within our program whether you are using LinkedIn to find your prospects or need ideas for alternative list-builders. There are many ways to get a list of contacts that would make ideal referral partners, but the starting point is identifying the best professionals to partner with for your business.
Once your list has been built you can start reaching out to these potential referral partners to build some trust, authority, and goodwill - and of course, get on the phone with them. Keep in mind, it may take a few cold email attempts to get a response.
Like most things you’ll have to practice by talking with your prospective referral partners to determine how to make the most compelling offer for them in your cold email campaigns. But there’s often more openness to this type of discussion because these relationships should really be thought of as win-win for both parties. And, a win for the customer as well! From there, it's time to take advantage of cold email templates and cold email strategies to stay top-of-mind with your ideal customers.
At Connect 365, our cold email tool lets you utilize tried and true cold email templates and follow up email automation so you can effectively communicate and stay in front of your target audience.
Motivated? Ready to take action? Get out there and grow your referral partner list and start sending successful cold emails today! Our email automation tool is perfect for small businesses looking to grow their sales pipeline.
Oh, and if you want to learn how to start building your list of potential referral partners through LinkedIn...I encourage you to check out our new workshop -> How to Automate Your LinkedIn Outreach <-