What's going on, folks! Nick and I just wrapped up one my favorite recordings ever on how to build your outbound playbook from scratch.
Most outbound sequences send 3,000 emails, smashing you with the exact same message 24 times, only to get a fat block of TAKE ME OFF UR LIST and zero meetings.
A good outbound sequence has different “attention snapping points” instead of hitting someone with the same message over and over again.
I’m gonna break down the outbound sequence structure we use at 30MPC in this two part series (this week and next week). Part 1 will cover the first 3 emails in our sequence and part 2 will cover the cold calls and LinkedIn touches in-between.
- The 4-sentence problem email
- The nudge bump
- The case study + offer combo bump
Bump bump beedump bump bump beedump bump.
(PS: If you want our full sequence template, get it here for free)
(PPS: We can help you build your sequences and make your team really good at cold email)
(PPPS: We give away 99% of our content for free so don’t hate me if I plug 1% so we can pay for Nick’s Sweetgreen he eats so much of it it’s like i’m feeding a damn rabbit farm)
The 4-Sentence Problem Email
A great cold email is not 17,000 pages long. Nor does it lead with your solution. Nor does it have a bunch of buzz words that no one other than your marketing team understands.
You only need four sentences to write a great cold email (in dumb human language):
- Personalization: What you know about them?
- Problem: What problem does that create?
- Solution: How do you solve that problem? (WITHOUT JARGON)
- Test Drive CTA: Why should they take the meeting even if they never buy?
Ours looks like this (notice this builds a bridge from the customer to us):
They don’t care about our solution. We need to start with something about them. Then a problem that they care about. Only then is a solution relevant.
Now for subject lines, the general rules are:
- 2-4 words (short)
- All about them (no selling in the subject line)
- Designed to pique the interest (no full sentences)
Example subject lines we’ve used:
- 42 → the # of 30MPC fans at their co
- Bill & Jane <3 30mpc → two 30mpc super fans on their team
- cold emails in tahiti → the location of their last RKO
Now because this is the email that you are going to put the most personalization calories into… we're going to use it TWO MORE TIMES.
The nudge bump
The reality is there were a lot of times where I've received cold emails that were interesting, but I just had too much going on to reply.
Or I needed the sales rep to be just a little bit persistent to be like “ahhh ok i’ll take the meeting.”
Your best email is the one with the personalization perfectly attached to the pitch. Keep your first bump email on the exact same thread and make it mega short:
Fun fact: This 2nd email currently has a HIGHER reply rate (5%) than our 1st email (4%).
If you're making cold calls alongside your cold emails, this is usually when I like to also reference the fact that I am cold calling, which will also boost your reply rates by about 2-3x per Gong data.
The case study + offer combo bump
Now for our final bump. We're going to keep this on the same first email thread (no new subject line, we're giving this personalization one more chance to be seen.
But now instead of being annoying and doing another "any thoughts" bump… we need to find a way to add something in it for them to justify following up again:
Notice there are two parts of this bump email:
- A case study proving the results
- An offer to see scripts (shoutout to Jason Bay who teaches our cold email course for coming up with “offers” → what will they get out of the meeting even if they never buy)
At this point if they don’t reply, you’re gonna start a new email thread with the SECOND biggest problem you solve.
But we don't have time for that here.
Check out the rest of the touchpoints free sequence template here or below.
And also, we can literally help your team build this stuff if you work with us too.
Otherwise, stay tuned for next week’s noozy on how to use calls and social touches in-between these emails to drive up your replies.
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