Julians Hints, Tips and Hacks

Cold emailing can be an effective tool for generating leads and boosting revenue. However, many Email Service Providers (ESPs) make this very difficult. But features within HighLevel enable us to upload cold email lists and email them. But even so this has to be done carefully.

Guide to Sending Cold Emails With HighLevel

Understanding Cold Email

Cold emailing involves reaching out to potential prospects with whom you’ve had no previous contact. It aims to establish relationships that could convert into sales. For instance, an accountancy practice may use cold emailing to attract new clients and so increase sales.

Reasons Email Accounts Get Blocked

The idea that sending cold emails will block your account is a myth. Accounts get blocked when the sender breaks the rules.

Common Reasons for Email Blocks Include:

• No SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records
• Excessive spam complaints
• Excessive email bounces (non-deliverable email addresses)
• Sending too may emails per day
• Using spammy words in copy
• Shared sending domain provided by email sending service. (one bad sender damages the reputation of everyone else)

Best Practices for Sending Cold Emails with HighLevel

1. Set up Your Sending Domain: In the Email Services in the HighLevel account settings be sure to set up the Sending Domain. If you do not want to use your main website domain then purchase a new domain that looks similar. If using your main website address be sure to set the email sending domain on a sub domain – to ensure you do not “break” your regular email service. Then in Company settings, set up the Branded Domain with a sub domain. This ensures any links that go out in emails are the same domain – so everything matches. And if you can match the From email address in the email to to the sending domain then all the better.
2. Warm Up Your Email Account: Gradually increase your email volume to avoid being flagged as spam. Start with 50 per day and work your way gradually to larger volumes
3. Craft a Targeted Prospect List: Clean your list before sending. Remove generic emails eg sales@. info@ etc
4. Verify Email Addresses: Switch on Email Verification in your HighLevel account – this will check the email is valid before attempting to send the email. So reducing the bounce rate. A key indicator for the spam filters.
5. Personalize Your Messages: Address recipients by name and include relevant details. So the email looks less spammy and recipients are more likely to engage
6. Look to create engagement: Spam filters measure the engagement generated with your emails. If you get low engagement, then you are more likely to get your emails filtered into spam. Ways to generate engagement – ask people to reply to your emails – even just asking them to reply “yes, they got the email” is enough and does not require a response. Send links they will want to click – a link click is engagement. Create an Indoctrination Workflow – every new contact goes into a 1 week, non salesy campaign where you look to build Know, Like and Trust to your brand and create engagement.
7. Avoid Spam Triggers: Steer clear of words like “free,” “deal,” or “discount.” AVOID SHOUTING WITH CAPS and excessive !!!!! punctuation in subject lines.
8. Limit Links and images: Too many links can make emails appear suspicious. (Would you send a friend or colleague an email with 20 images and 20 links? – by stuffing the email with links and images you flag yourself as a spammer to the spam filters
9. Manage Your Email Volume: Ideally keep your daily emails per account under 50 to maintain deliverability. With large lists this may not be feasible – but gradually work up to larger daily volumes. Within your HighLevel campaigns and Workflows we can switch on “drip” mode.
10. Balance Text and images: Prefer text over images to avoid triggering spam filters. Definitely do not send emails with just one huge image with your entire copy embedded. Filters do not like this as they cannot “read” what you are saying.
11. Include an Unsubscribe Link: Allow recipients an easy way to opt out. By default this is switched “on” in HighLevel. But unlike other email services, in HighLevel we can disable this if required which gives us the flexibility to create out our own bespoke unsubscribe link which we can control. Use HighLevel Trigger Links to do this
12. Monitor Metrics: Keep tabs on deliverability, open rates, and other important metrics. A great feature with HighLevel is that if they have concerns about your emailing then they will reach out to you and your HighLevel agency with an email to let you know that there is an issue and make valid suggestions on how to correct the issue. And the provide useful resouces. If you should notice that email deliverability drops off then in HighLevel we have the option to switch to a new sending domain.

Sending cold emails with HighLevel can expand your network and grow your business if done correctly. By adhering to best practices, you can ensure your emails reach the intended inboxes without getting blocked.

If you would like to arrange a call to discuss a particular issue you are experiencing please book a discovery call here.