I have to get creative when it comes to Christmas presents for my husband. He is the guy who doesn’t need much and has everything he wants. A few weeks ago, I discovered the jackpot of holiday gifts for him - an autograph from one of his favorite people (and no, I’m not going to tell you who).
So, I went onto this person’s website, found his email address, and sent him a well-crafted email full of all of the tips and tricks I have learned from reading EVERY MARKETING BOOK I could devour since I started my company.
Guess what? This very famous person responded within 24 hours, not only agreeing to honor my request for an autograph, but also offering up a video message, and (even I was surprised by this) including their phone number.
So, how did I get this fame-biddy-famous person to comply with my Joe Schmo cold email request? By employing the three tactics below in my email.
1. Researched bullet points
Everybody loves a bullet point. Our eyes are drawn to them. They’re tempting - we can quickly get the gist of a large amount of text by reading just a few words. And (after an introductory paragraph), they can tempt your reader so much that they continue to read the rest of the email.
Now, I’m not suggesting just any kind of bullet point. I’m suggesting well-researched bullet points about the person you’re talking to. In the case of my husband, I got him talking about all of the cool things this person had accomplished - the nerdy stuff - and I bullet pointed those. “He raves about how you did [super cool thing here] in [cool project here] and that most people don’t recognize the work it took to do that.”
You can do this with any cold email. Research a company you’re pitching a product to and match what they’re doing to the services you’re offering. Or research an employer and match your skills to their mission or activities.
Research shows that you have taken the time to learn about the person or company you’re reaching out to and bullet points entice them to read about the work you have done.
And, at the end of the day, everyone loves to read about themselves.
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