Prospecting is a primary marketing channel for many B2B startups. It is the process of engaging with key people with the purpose of converting them into qualified leads through email marketing or phone calls. The goal is to generate sales opportunities: meetings on the calendar with the right people at the right companies.
Prospecting usually involves building a targeted list of potential customers (based on your persona analysis) and reaching out to them via email (or calls, but we’ll focus on email in this post).
Sounds straightforward enough, right? Not so much.
Prospecting, like everything else in marketing, is both an art and a science. From building the initial list to crafting the perfect subject line, it takes creativity, persistence, and a little military strategy (see below).
In this video, Blue Seedling team member, Erez Dafnai, shares how to develop and launch a successful prospecting strategy.
Here are some key takeaways:
When writing prospecting emails, some best practices are:
- Keep them short.
- Personalize them by using your contact’s first name and referencing where they work in the email body (you can automate this with most email marketing tools).
- Don’t be afraid to ‘logo drop’ – to mention companies you work or integrate with + publications that have featured your company – in the subject line, body or signature of your email. This adds credibility and social proof.
- When using email automation tools, make sure your email looks and feels ‘natural’ as though you sent it yourself (and not some robot). This applies to design (think: plain text version) and tone of voice.
- Always send at least one follow up email.
- Use Upwork to build prospecting lists (more in the video).
- Case Study – The Conference Blitz: Learn how Erez and the team conducted a ‘military style’ operation and scheduled 32 conference meetings prior to the conference. Hint: Being first matters.
You can watch the full video here.
