What is a cold email?

A cold email is a message you send to people who haven’t opted in to receive your messages. You can send cold emails to businesses and still comply with most regulations, but not when you’re handling data from individuals. To comply with regulations such as GDPR, brands need subscribers to opt in to receive their emails.

Since cold emailing is problematic for brands handling the data of individuals, many marketing platforms have decided not to support companies that use this practice. Oftentimes sending unsolicited emails can lead to:

  • Low performance rates: Cold emails often see low engagement rates because recipients may not be interested in your offer. This can damage your sender reputation and email deliverability, and your emails could be flagged as spam.
  • Legal consequences: While cold emailing is permissible in the US, brands need express consent from subscribers in Canada and in Europe. To avoid legal consequences, express consent before emailing is always recommended.
  • Reputation damage: Sending messages to people who haven’t consented to receive them can damage brand reputation over time.

The bottom line is recipients and inbox service providers prefer consent-based communications. This is why consent is such a fundamental part of every marketing strategy.

What to do instead of cold emailing

To get better results from your email marketing efforts, avoid legal issues, and show respect for your audience, target only subscribers—people who agreed to receive your messages.

People who have given consent to receive your email updates are already interested in your offer, so they’re more likely to meet your emails with enthusiasm and purchase your products or services.

Follow the steps below to message your target audience the right way:

1. Identify your target audience

Determine the ideal target audience for your email marketing efforts by collecting target market data. You can do this through:

  • Forms and surveys on your website
  • Market and competitive research
  • Your social media profiles
  • Other tools in your tech stack, such as your CDP and CRM

When you collect qualitative and quantitative data on your potential customers, you’ll be able to develop buyer personas that can help you segment your email list for more personalized communication.

2. Obtain consent

You’ll need to collect consent from people who actively subscribe to your list before you email them. The easiest way to do this is to embed sign-up forms on your website that collect names, email addresses, and other information that can help you create relevant content.

3. Segment subscribers

Segment your audience into specific groups based on shared characteristics, such as their:

  • Location
  • Purchase history
  • SMS and email engagement
  • Products viewed

With segmentation, you can personalize your messaging to the behaviors and preferences of each subscriber. This is how you can make sure you’re delivering relevant emails to the subscribers who are most likely to engage with and respond to your offer.

4. Create email campaigns and automated flows

Write emails for every audience segment. To make the process quicker and easier, choose a marketing automation platform that uses templates and AI to help you design emails and write high-quality copy at scale.

For each segment, you’ll be able to create email campaigns and flows.

Email campaigns are one-time sends to an audience, also known as broadcast messages. Based on your segments, send campaigns with personalized:

  • Educational content
  • Special offers
  • Flash sales
  • Product announcements

Email flows are automated emails triggered by events, such as website engagement or purchasing behavior. Set up automated emails like:

  • Welcome emails to new subscribers
  • Post-purchase emails to customers
  • Abandoned cart reminders to people who haven’t completed a purchase

5. Test and monitor campaigns and flows

A/B testing is an efficient way to compare two versions of an email to see which one resonates with your audience. Invest in an email marketing platform that supports A/B testing so you can run A/B tests at scale and automate sending the winner to most of your audience.

Monitor click rates, conversion rates, and revenue per recipient so you’re always learning about subscriber preferences and adjusting future emails accordingly.

Create and automate relevant emails with Klaviyo

Klaviyo is a marketing automation platform that can support you in every step of your email marketing strategy. Instead of cold emailing your audience, use Klaviyo:

  • Forms: Use the custom form builder to obtain explicit consent from your target audience and expand your email list. You can choose from pop-ups, multi-step forms, fly-outs, and embedded forms to capture high-quality data.
  • Audience segmentation: Categorize your audience based on characteristics like demographics, shopping behavior, or location. Use Klaviyo’s predictive analytics to encourage repeat purchases and reduce customer churn.
  • Campaigns: Create personalized emails to announce new products or special offers and discounts. 
  • Flows: Use 60+ flow templates to send automated emails throughout the entire customer journey. Create welcome series emails, abandoned cart reminders, or post-purchase follow-ups in a few clicks.
  • Reporting: Visualize multi-channel data and get custom reports to evaluate your emails’ performance. Analyze all marketing initiatives in a single view and schedule automated reports.
  • Integrations: Integrate your email strategy with 350+ ecommerce platforms to unify your customer data and create messaging that resonates with your audience.

Ready to send high-performing emails? Sign up for Klaviyo to send the right messages to the right audience.

Additional resources