Updated on November 4, 2019
I'm a fan of more aggressive email sending techniques. Far too often founders of companies don't take the more aggressive approach out of fear that their reputation will suffer. This is true if you're trying to scam people. But if you're not selling Viagra, lying about who you are, or asking people to wire money to Nigeria, you're fine. If you believe in your product, and you've done the work to build a targeted list, then don't be shy about cold emailing.
So, start with the more aggressive sequence. Every hour is way too much.
Try every other day to start. If you get complaints, make it every 3 days.
Every week is too long; people will forget, and you need to stay top of mind if the prospect is warm. If the prospect is cold, then emailing every week might be the appropriate amount of assertiveness.
In short, the warmer the prospects, the more often you should email them.
What's the worst that can happen otherwise? You will get a few nasty emails back. It should be more than one per 1,000 emails sent, or 1 per 25 replies. In other words, you should get 1 "Hey scumbag, eat shit and stop emailing me!" for every "Thanks for letting me know. I'll file this away for when we're in the market for something like this. You can stop emailing me now."
If you get a worse response, then a few things might be wrong:
- Your list isn't targeting the right people, or it's simply not targeted enough.
- Your messaging is off. What do these people care about? What's the pain that you're solving? Your emails should be about that.
- You're emailing too often or your language about the pain point is too aggressive. Relax, be conversational, and not too pushy.
The emailing itself is not the problem! Here's why:
No one should get pissed off at you for trying to solve their problems.
And that's the essence of selling. You're not really selling, you're solving. You have a secondary motivation too, of course, and that's to make some money. But if you've been following the 2016 election cycle at all, making money makes you more trustworthy and likable. Use the Donald J. Trump effect to your advantage.