The Beauty of Bumper Emails
Guest Blog: Paul Chamberlain, RenderTribe Director of Sales
I think it’s widely accepted that to generate success in cold outbound email, personalization and relevancy are super important. SalesLoft actually confirmed this in a study where they analyzed 6 million emails to find the secret of success for cold outbound email. They found that with just 20% increase in personalization, response rates would increase on average 1.93x, with higher performing teams up to 5.27x. For the majority of sales teams that we work with, it seems like they understand that. I’m here to help you out with some sales outbound tips that have worked for me.
Why is it not Working?
The problem is that personalization takes time and effort, and by increasing the amount of personalization in an email or across an entire sequence, you’re limiting your efficiency and ability to keep up with the number of prospects you need to activate to drive outcomes. Because of this, most salespeople will customize the first email of a sequence, and then automate the next 8 – 10 email touches across a 30-day sequence. Test a few different subject lines, rotate copy around different value props, increase your sense of urgency towards the end of the sequence and see if we can generate a positive response.
In situations like this, what usually happens is that response rates to the first email will increase slightly and remain consistent with company averages throughout the rest of the sequence.
“But Paul, we’ve added personalization, but we’re not seeing any measurable results!!! Why?!?”
Personalization is Key.
Did the personalization for the first email not work? Well, let’s look at open rates. Assuming industry-standard open rates of 30 – 40% for the first email, only ~4 out of 10 people are seeing all of the time and effort you put in. If they’re not responding to that, the follow-ups are 8 – 10 canned messages that probably won’t resonate. Think about the canned emails that you get, how many of those are you replying to?
So, what’s the solution? If personalization increases the response rate by an average of 1.93x, how can we use it throughout the entire sequence?
Bumper emails.
Why Bumper Emails?
Bumper emails are an approach I was introduced to by Sam Nelson, an SDR Leader at Outreach. The goal of the bumper email is to get the eyes of the prospect back on the initial customized email you sent. Something like, ‘John, checking to see if you received my email from last week? Let me know if it would make sense for us to connect…’ or ‘Hey Stacy, just making sure you got this!’
Really? Just a couple of sentences to increase response rates. Over the past year, the first touchpoint in all of our sequences averages a 1% response rate. About 60% of those emails were sent to A-accounts and include personalization, and the other 40% were generalized emails sent to B and C accounts. Regardless of customization on the first touchpoint, steps 2 – 4 in all of our sequences are always set up as bumper emails trying to draw attention back to the first email we sent. Here’s the power of a bumper email:
By the 3rd bumper email in step 4, we’re seeing a 280% increase in responses. Instead of delivering generalized content in steps 2 – 4, we’re getting their eyes back on the 1st email that we know is highly relevant to them. Bumper emails leverage the power of automation to include personalization and relevancy throughout your entire sequence which has the potential to exponentially increase the response rate and lead generation.
I hope these sales outbound tips and this slight change of strategy can help you generate a better response rate and secure more meaningful conversations with your potential clients.
Like what you see? Email us and let’s talk about how RenderTribe can help you increase your customer engagement rates and reach your revenue goals with digital marketing Account Based Marketing strategies.
