In a world obsessed with the shiny and new, the 50-year-old technology of email remains a cornerstone of digital sales and marketing strategies in 2024.
And while the cat-and-mouse game of email tactics and anti-spam standards may seem neverending, there’s a clear line between crafting a compelling cold outreach campaign that opens doors to new opportunities, and spam that will tarnish a brand’s reputation.
Understanding the distinctions between these two approaches is crucial for any sales or marketing professional looking to effectively communicate with potential customers. And with the seemingly nonstop advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) tools for sales, email best practices are becoming even more important.
Here are nine key differences between quality lead generation emails and spam that every go-to-market professional should know.
1. Personalization vs. Generic Messaging
Cold Outreach: Tailored to the recipient, cold outreach emails typically start with personalized greetings and mention details specific to the individual or their company. This approach shows the sender has done their homework, and shows genuine potential for a mutually beneficial relationship.
Spam: A spam message is the polar opposite, with generic greetings like “Dear Sir/Madam,” or no personalization at all. These emails are sent in bulk and lack any specific details relevant to the audience and the business they’re targeting.
2. Relevance vs. Randomness
Cold Outreach: Even though your messages might be considered “cold” because you’re making the first move, a truly valuable outreach email is highly targeted and sent to individuals or businesses that have been specifically identified as potentially benefiting from the sender’s products or services. The content is crafted to address the recipient’s possible needs or pain points, making it relevant and timely.
Spam: These messages are sent out to a wide, indiscriminate audience without any consideration for the recipient’s interests, needs, or even industry. The lack of relevance — with no targeting, customization, or forethought — is a hallmark of spam emails.
3. Unsubscribing: Respectful Compliance vs. Deliberate Evasion
Cold Outreach: Demonstrate respect for the recipient’s autonomy by providing a clear, straightforward method for unsubscribing from future communications. This is not only a legal requirement under laws like GDPR and CAN-SPAM, but also a sign of a company’s commitment to maintaining a respectful relationship with its customers. By making the unsubscribe process simple — and honoring it promptly — senders communicate that they value the recipient’s preferences and consent.
Spam: Actual spam will make it difficult, if not impossible, for recipients to opt out of future messages. They may hide the unsubscribe link, make the process convoluted, or ignore unsubscribe requests altogether. This approach frustrates recipients and violates email marketing regulations, clearly demonstrating a disregard for recipient preferences and a focus on the sender’s agenda above all else.
4. Value Proposition vs. Empty Promises
Cold Outreach: Provides clear value to the recipient, whether it’s through informative content, an offer, or an invitation to discuss potential solutions to their problems. The intention is to start a conversation based on the recipient’s potential needs and interests. This offer should have tangible value.
Spam: Offers little more than empty calories, packed with exaggerated claims and offers that are too good to be true. These emails are typically self-serving, offer little value, and aren’t beneficial or relevant to the recipient.
5. Frequency and Timing vs. Bombardment
Cold Outreach: Emails are sent thoughtfully and at a frequency that respects the recipient’s time. Follow-up emails are often spaced out to give the recipient time to consider the offer without feeling pressured. Non-engagement over time should lead to a sunsetting policy where the recipient is automatically removed from the marketer’s list.
Spam: Sent repeatedly and at random, flooding the recipient’s inbox and often prompting them to mark the email as spam. Regardless of engagement, emails will continue to be delivered as long as the email does not bounce.
6. Professional Branding vs. Suspicious Elements
Cold Outreach: Reflects professionalism and includes proper branding elements that reassure the recipient of the email’s legitimacy. These emails are well-written, free of errors, sent using a brand-specific domain, and aim to build trust and credibility.
Spam: May contain suspicious elements such as misleading subject lines, poor spelling and grammar, or a lack of professional branding. These emails often raise red flags for recipients about their legitimacy.
7. Building Relationships vs. Immediate Conversions
Cold Outreach: Seeks to lay the foundation for a lasting relationship, recognizing that trust and rapport are prerequisites to conversion. These emails prioritize engagement and dialogue over immediate sales.
Spam: Eyes the short-term prize, pushing for a quick conversion with little regard for the recipient’s readiness or interest. This short-sighted approach overlooks the value of building lasting connections.
8. Authentication: Trustworthiness vs. Anonymity
Cold Outreach: Conforms with traditional email authentication standards such as the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) that points back to the sender’s email domain, and have a DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) policy published to the sender’s domain. These technologies help verify the sender’s identity, ensuring that the email genuinely originated from the stated domain and wasn’t altered in transit.
When companies demonstrate their commitment to security and trustworthiness, recipients and email service providers can more easily verify the legitimacy of these emails, which helps build trust and improve deliverability rates.
Spam: Less likely to use authentication methods effectively, if at all. Spammers often attempt to disguise their identity or use compromised accounts and domains to send messages. A lack of proper authentication often indicates that email is illegitimate and undermines trust between the sender and the recipient.
9. Ethical Sourcing vs. Dubious Collection
Cold Outreach: Ethical sourcing of email addresses is a hallmark of legitimate cold outreach. Commercial email providers must operate in strict adherence to regulations such as GDPR by informing individuals about the collection and potential use of their data, including clear notices and opportunities to opt out. Such transparency ensures that recipients are aware their email might be used for marketing purposes and have consented to this possibility, either directly or through informed consent.
Spam: Typically little or no transparency about how email addresses were obtained, with recipients not given the opportunity to opt out before their information is used or sold. This not only breaches trust but also violates numerous privacy regulations.
Rethinking Cold Email Outreach
Distinguishing your marketing efforts as high-quality cold outreach rather than spam is essential in today’s digital marketplace. Add the nonstop advancements in artificial intelligence for sales and marketing, and these best practices become even more crucial.
By focusing on these nine key considerations, marketers and sales development leaders can ensure their emails are received positively and open the door to meaningful relationships.
Remember, effective email marketing is not about the quantity of emails sent, but the quality, respect and relevance of the communication to your target audience.
Before hitting send, make sure you’re working with data providers and email apps that emphasize strict adherence to industry and government privacy standards, significant investments in data hygiene and R&D, and high-quality, wide-ranging buying signals that help ensure your email outreach is targeted, relevant, and in compliance.
Happy emailing — for both sender and recipient.