Well, it’s a million-dollar question. When sending your cold emails, you may have also wondered how much text you should put on them. After all, you want your prospects to read the email. Then you want them to prompt a reply or take specific actions.
You are writing great emails. But, just writing an engaging and personalized cold email is not enough. You should also be careful about the right amount of ingredients in the recipe, right?
That means maintaining the correct length of the email text. So, how long should a cold email be? Don’t worry! We have you covered with the answer. So, let’s start.
The Ideal Length of a Cold Emailing
Do you know only less than 24% of sales emails are opened by prospects? And you have to utilize the chance you get. You have to deliver your message precisely.
The answer to optimal email length is not a straightforward one. But some studies showed us the best performing results after analyzing various email performances.
According to a study by Boomerang, the best performing email length is between 50 to 125 words. Boomerang’s data showed that the response rate was the best at more than 50% at that length.
In another study, Constant Contact suggested that the length of the best-performing emails is 20 lines of text. After analyzing 2.1 million customers, they suggested this email length has the highest click-through rates.
Well, 20 lines of text translate to about 200 words, higher than Boomerang’s suggestion. But, from the two suggestions, one thing is certain. You should keep it short enough. So, for better practice, try to keep your email within 50-200 words. To make your email short, you can use personalized images and videos from Hyperise. It really helps.
Still, you are thinking about when to keep your email shorter and go with some more details? Ok, keep reading to get the answer.
When Should You Keep it Short?
We know, that the attention span is decreasing day by day. And people communicate more with small screen devices.
When you keep your email short, that means you value their time and attention. And because it’s short, the chance of prospect reading increases. Short messages are to the point and catch the prospect’s attention to the main facts.
They work better when you take your prospects to learn more about you. In this case, you opt out for a short message and take them to a link where you have the details.
However, short messages are not always the best choice. And there are scenarios where a longer email works the best.
When Should You Keep it Longer?
If you have brand recognition and prospects already know much about your business, you can use short emails. But in most cases, the scenario opposes, prospects have no or little idea about you.
So, still, you should keep your subject line short, but your mail needs to be longer. After you draw attention to the subject line, you have to provide the details.
Before you jump to the point of your value proposition, give your reader enough information. Will you take any action without knowing much about the business? The answer is no, and it works the same way for your prospects.
Giving enough details is even more important when your call-through-action is not a simple click, but you want more engagement and conversion.
So, keep in mind that your readers don’t know about you. And to convince them, you need to introduce yourself. In this case, providing more details will make you more authentic to the prospects in the sales process.
How to Write a Great Cold Email Maintaining the Ideal Length?
Now, we’ve come to the cold email strategies. How do you maintain the ideal length and write an effective email? Let’s go through the following –
Write a short and catchy personalized subject lines
Writing cold emails with a short and catchy subject line is immensely important. Because most likely, your prospects get a bunch of emails. And people only open an email if they feel there is something important or interesting inside.
Well, don’t send an automated one to save time. Instead, make it personalized. That means your subject line should convince the prospects that the sales email is especially sent to them. For example, you can add their name, company name, or something like that.
And what about the length? We again go back to the Boomerang report, and it found that cold email subject lines with 3 to 4 lines got the highest response. Reasonably, sometimes your subject line will be a bit longer than that.
However, to the best practice, stick closer to that limit. If necessary, it is advised to keep the subject line no more than ten words.
Start with strong opening lines
Email opening lines are immensely important. It’s your first chance to catch the reader. It’s where you leave the first impression.
When writing opening lines, keep your prospects’ needs first. For example, if you start talking about their problem, they will be more likely to read the message.
Your opening line can be a short greeting. Or a question that your prospect would care about. However, you need to make sure that you start short, simple, and catchy.
Write in an easy tone
A hard-to-read chunk of text is a real turn-off. To get more click-through rate, write with an easy tone because an informal follow-up email is more engaging than a formal one.
Be natural. Focus on communication. If your email sounds like you are talking about your customer’s success story, you will win more attention from them.
Another important thing is – to show your personality in your sales outreach emails.
Put something happening in your life or business and how you feel about it. And what about adding some humor? Yes, these things work.
Also, you can use personalized images from Hyperise to make your email short.
Ask questions
Again, asking questions is an excellent spot for more prospects’ attention and engagement in cold email marketing. You can ask for some information, updates, or their time to discuss something. Whatever you ask, keep it simple, ask it directly.
It’s a proven technique. An email with questions performs far better than an email with no ‘ask’ in it.
A question can intrigue your prospect to learn more. And that will create more interest in your proposition. Yes, it works that simple.
Present your value proposition
Now you come to the point to tell your message receiver what you demand from them. That means the cold email pitch. So how do you write a good pitch?
First of all, avoid sounding like you are selling something. Rather, be subtle. If you talk more about your business, readers won’t care. So, focus on what value you offer them.
Because the relationship with your proposition or the sales you make depends on how much you benefit them, tell them how you can solve their problem. Or how your offers would make their life better.
To keep your message short and relevant, avoid describing product or service features so much. Instead, highlight the benefits precisely.
A/B testing your email length
You have the guideline above to determine your cold email length. However, your audience’s reaction to a short email may differ from what you expect.
In that case, A/B testing is a great technique to enhance your success and identify the ideal message length that works best with your prospects.
How can you do it? Well, for example, you can create two versions of your email.
In one version, you describe your core benefits within 25-50 words, and in your call-to-action, ask to learn more. In other versions, you go with more details and ask for a reply or a lead in your call-to-action.
Now, you have the performance data of the two versions in your hand. And you know more about which length is working the best.
Final Words
Being successful with your cold email is not about how much information you deliver. Rather, it’s more about what information you present and how you do it. It’s about delivering your message in the best way possible.
When your message is clear, you can always cut out the extra words and make your email to the point.
So, follow the above guidelines of how long should a cold email be for email length in your cold email campaigns and develop your strategy for better success. And check out Hyperise for making personalized images and videos for your emails.