Cold Email Outreach For SaaS: 5 Principles Backed by Research

Any growing SaaS team needs traction.

Traction comes from new leads, and leads come from effective outreach.

Outreach provides the initial engagement to get potential customers interested in your product or service.

Today, outreach campaigns borrow elements from psychology, human behavior, and sales. 

They transition from the "good-old" mass emails to a more personalized, 1-to-1 connection.

And they do it at scale.

Of course, all that takes time, effort, and a bit of creativity.

That's why we collected the best cold email outreach principles, examples, great results, and stats.

1. Start With a Solid Foundation

Naturally, the success of your cold email outreach campaign starts with a great foundation.

While this might sound obvious, it's often overlooked.

So, what do you need to get started?

According to HubSpot, the best ways to create a positive sales experience are:

• Listening to buyers' needs: You need to listen to your prospects and customers and note their objections or issues. Customers who are unsatisfied with what you're offering won't be interested in buying.
• Not being pushy: You should be assertive but not pushy. You must understand that you're building relationships, so tread lightly and always lead respectfully.
• Providing relevant information: Ensure you provide relevant, valuable information to your prospects. This will help build trust and show them that you understand their needs.
• Responding promptly: Always respond to inquiries and questions on time. This will show your prospects that you value their time, respect them, and are always available for support.

These principles also apply to cold email outreach.

The better you know your audience, the easier to connect with them personally.

For instance, you can create better subject lines, tailor the content of your emails and focus on personalizing each one.

Of course, it's also essential to pay attention to the basics.

Double-check your contact details, use an email signature, and keep it brief.

2. Focus on Levels of Awareness and Sophistication

Before you start your outreach campaign, consider your audience's awareness and sophistication level.

• Are they aware of your product?
• Do they understand what it does and how it can help them?

These are the types of questions you need to ask yourself.

• 19% of buyers want to connect with a salesperson during awareness.
• 60% of them want to communicate with sales during the consideration stage
• 20% want to talk during the decision stage

Knowing where your prospects are in their buying process and understanding what they need will make it easier for you to structure the content of your emails.

For example, if you're targeting prospects in the awareness stage, you should focus on introducing and explaining your product.

And if you're targeting prospects in the consideration stage, focus on educating them about the specific benefits and features they can get.

By tailoring your content to your audience's level of awareness and sophistication, you can create a more personal and relevant outreach experience.

3. Personalize Your Campaign

People love to feel special, and that's what personalization does. It makes your audience feel like you're talking to them, not just anyone.

And it's not just us saying that.

Personalizing your outreach emails can increase responses by up to 600%, according to Experian.

An even more surprising study reveals that using someone's first name in an email subject line increases open rates by 18.3%.

So, personalization is a must if you want to make an impact with your cold email outreach campaign.

Some personalization best practices include:

• Using a recipient's first name in the subject line
• Segmenting your list and sending relevant content to each segment
• Tailoring your message to the individual
• Adding context by highlighting mutual connections or shared interests
• Showing that you've done research on them and their company
• Crafting a message that shows you understand their needs
• Offering something of value

By personalizing your outreach, you can make your emails stand out from the crowd and capture the attention of your prospects.

4. Find a Mutual Connection

Roughly 9 out of 10 people trust referrals from people they know.

It's human nature to trust people we have a prior relationship.

So, finding a mutual connection between you and your prospects can increase the chances of them responding to your cold emails.

Start on LinkedIn and see if you have any mutual connections with the person you're trying to reach out to.

LinkedIn is a great way to search for the right person and learn more about them.

It's also a great platform to establish relationships with your prospects before you send cold emails.

Another great way to find mutual connections is by looking for people who work at the same company as your prospects.

These people can introduce you to your target and increase their chances of responding to your emails.

Finding a mutual connection can help you create a more personalized experience for your prospects and increase their chances of responding to your emails.

5. Never forget the follow-up

Don't give up if you don't hear back from your potential customer after the first email.

On average, 6 out of 10 customers say "no" four times before saying "yes."

So, don't be afraid to follow up. Just make sure you're not being too pushy or intrusive.

A few best practices include:

• Keeping the tone of your follow-up emails light and friendly
• Personalizing each follow-up by referencing your previous emails
• Offering something of value to encourage a response
• Adding context and highlighting mutual connections or shared interests
• Not sending too many follow-up emails

Also, don't forget to track which of your follow-up emails get the best response.

By doing this, you can create a follow-up series tailored to your prospects' needs and maximize the success of your cold email outreach campaign.

Now it's your turn!

In this world of decreasing attention spans, standing out in the inbox is essential to get your message across.

Fortunately, you now understand some mechanisms you can use to do just that.

It's time to put what you've learned into practice and see how cold email outreach can help you achieve your business goals.

Meet the author

Joran Hofman

Back in 2020 I was an affiliate for 80+ SaaS tools and I was generating an average of 30k in organic visits each month with my site. Due to the issues I experienced with the current affiliate management software tools, it never resulted in the passive income I was hoping for. Many clunky affiliate management tools lost me probably more than $20,000+ in affiliate revenue. So I decided to build my own software with a high focus on the affiliates, as in the end, they generate more money for SaaS companies.