Email marketing is an important aspect of growing your business, but you must approach it correctly. You won't get the opens, click-throughs and conversions you seek if you spam your email list. Larry Kim, CEO of MobileMonkey and founder of WordStream, says that the key to effective cold emailing is to supplement traditional inbound marketing with outbound prospecting.

In the September 20 issue of Promotional Consultant Today, we started the conversation about effective cold emailing with several effective techniques. In this issue, we continue by sharing Kim's tips for improving your cold-emailing skills and getting more opens.

1. Procure an already established email marketing list. The first step to cold emailing is having a list of contacts. You can create your list by manually searching for emails to add to your list. Kim recommends only doing this if you know the name or company of the person you are trying to email. You can also purchase a list using a service like ZoomInfo or LinkedIn Sales Navigator. This will save you the time of searching and provide you with many leads. Kim says the most important part of list building is using an email list verifier service. This ensures you have minimal deliverability issues, making sure you get the most out of your contact list.

2. Warm up your email address. Take the time to see if your emails work, that they look right, that they deliver properly and that they get your point across. This step ensures you don't send emails that bounce back. This helps your sender score, which is a metric that email providers use to rate how likely people are to want to receive your email content. Bounced emails are part of the equation along with spam reports. Kim suggests warming up your email address by sending emails to your friends, family or coworkers.

3. Go slowly and don't spam. Cold emailing is different than spamming. The less your contacts feel they are being spammed, the more likely they are to open your emails and click through them. Kim says that's why you should go slowly. Don't send hundreds of emails a week. Start by sending a few a day and you'll see your engagement skyrocket.

4. Make your emails more engaging. No one wants to read boring emails. Kim suggests making your cold emails pop with eye-catching subject lines and easy-to-read copy. Use imagery and appeal to your audience.

5. Use intent signals. According to Kim, intent signals are a great way to spark engagement in your cold emailing. Intent signals are those things that appeal to your audience's personal lives. For example, if you know that a company has had a change in management or has moved, consider including this in your cold emailing. You'll wind up sending fewer, but more targeted, cold emails that are more likely to be clicked on.

If you've been trying to engage your contacts and potential customers, try using the tips above to increase your open rates. When you tweak your cold emailing processes, you'll end up improving your email marketing and boosting your bottom line.

Source: Larry Kim is the CEO of MobileMonkey, a chatbot-building platform for marketers that enables mobile messaging between businesses and customers via Facebook Messenger. He's also the founder of WordStream, the world's top PPC marketing software company.