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Josh Braun

dog poo

Published 11 months ago • 1 min read

Pop quiz!

Would I respond to this hyper-personalized, short cold email with a good CTA?

Subject: Dog Poo

“Josh - Your story about the angry guy stepping in poo at the dog park made me smile. I really enjoyed your two cents on moving with the harmony of things.

We sell poop in a bag. No more bending down and picking up poop. Is this of interest?”

Of course, I wouldn’t respond. Why? I don’t want dog poo.

I’m being hyperbolic, of course, but prospects always get cold emails like this.

Swap poop for SEO services, marketing funnels, and conversion rate optimization.

To motivate skeptical prospects to respond, your cold email needs three things:

  1. A desired result they want but don’t have.
  2. Proof.
  3. Risk reversal.

Don’t believe me? I’ll prove it to you.

Let’s say your job is booking meetings, or you manage a team of people tasked with booking meetings.

Would you respond to this cold email?

“Give me $75, and I’ll book a meeting with any prospect you choose. Pay after you’ve had the meeting. Here are hundreds of testimonials.”

Assuming your job is to book a meeting, you’d probably respond. Why?

  1. It’s something you want but don’t have.
  2. There’s proof (hundreds of testimonials).
  3. It reverses the risk (pay after the meeting).

Number three is a biggie.

Anyone can say “we increase conversation rates by 11%.” Few can say “If not you pay nothing.”

Here’ another example of a risk reversal: “We offer a no-cost one-week proof of concept and only request that you move forward with us if you're satisfied with our work.”

Does your cold email check all three boxes?

Josh Braun

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