Should I Cold Call Or Cold Email Prospective Clients?

Communication in business is always changing. 20 Years ago, your option for communicating with a client would be a phone call or a mailout. However, we have transitioned into emails, texts and phone calls. A lot of individuals today literally say to themselves “Should I call him/her or should I send an email?”, as we know text to be more personal, but used in business emergencies. Relatively, companies are also confused at times in choosing their marketing channel to approach – Should we Cold Call or Cold Email prospective clients or both?

A cold phone call and a cold email can be effectively used to initiate conversations with prospective clients.This is the initial stage/phase of lead generation activity when an agent reaches out without any prior contact. The term “cold” refers to a brand new client, who has never been “warmed up” (informed about the product or service you are selling). The objective of both cold calling and cold emailing is to encourage more communication while increasing brand awareness. There are both pros and cons to both approaches. Let’s look at them together:

Pros of Cold Calling:

More Personal than Emails

Sales Representatives find Cold Calling more Personal than Cold Emails. This is obviously due to having a real person-to-person connection as the customer is hearing the seller’s voice. When the seller is communicating with the client they have the opportunity to not only sell but connect to the client on a personal level.

Phone Ringing is Harder to Ignore

When the phone is ringing and you hear it, it is an actual habit for people to pick up the call. Whereas when they receive an email they will check it on their own time.

Feedback is given right away

When you are calling a prospective client they will either tell you they are interested, they are busy, or they are not interested at all and “please do not call me back” at times (lol). But hey, it’s a part of the job to get rejected. After the first conversation on the phone you can add your clients to a real lead, or to take them off the list, compared to email where you do not know where their interests lie.

Negatives of Cold Calling:

Client’s may be Busy

When you reach prospective clients at the wrong time as they can be dealing with personal or work issues, telemarketer’s generally receive the “attitude” from their frustrations – as yelling at a stranger is much easier than a person you know haha ;).

Number of Calls Individuals/Companies receive

The problem is when there are different companies using the same method of marketing, there will be overlaps. Sometimes, the receiver of the call, has gotten a large amount of cold calls that day, where they become automated in saying “We are not interested” without even giving the product/service you are offering a chance.

Can harm a company’s reputation

The issue at times with cold calling prospective clients is that depending on their mood, it can result in leaving a bad impression. Some people are not receptive and look at cold calling negatively as they feel it’s ‘bothering’ them. The issue is that it can leave a bad taste in the customer’s mouth and the negative emotion can result in a negative image being created about the company.

While there are both pros and cons to Cold calls, let’s look into the pros and negatives of cold emails:

Pros of Cold Emails:

The reader of the email is able to read it at their own luxury

A lot of times when people send emails, the receiver will read it when they are able too (Unless obviously if it is an emergency of some sort). This gives them the freedom to do it in a tense free environment, compared to a sporadic call in an individual’s day.

People have short attention spans

In today’s nonstop world of information being communicated to us, individuals have so many things going on in their day that when they get a cold call, they do not even pay attention. However when they receive an email, they can check it or browse through it quickly during their free time.

Visually attractive Emails

When cold calling, you make contact with the prospective customers through your voice, however with cold emails it is a visual image we use to connect with potential clients. When sending a cold email, companies have an opportunity to send a visually attractive email that can assist in communicating with them.

Negative of Cold Emails:

Feedback is not given right away

This issue with sending a Cold Email, is yes we do have tools such as Mailchimp and other email marketing tools, which can assist in letting us know if customers have opened our email. However, we are not able to measure how successful the email is unless there is direct action (them contacting the company instantaneously).

Competition

Cold Emails although are a form of online marketing, is also a very competitive field as customers are constantly trying to communicate with their clients (Upcoming sales, New product etc.). The issue is that when sending a cold email to a client, that same client is approximately receiving at least 5-10 cold emails a day.

Anti-Spam Laws

Whenever a company is sending a cold email to a prospective client, they must comply with the anti-spam legislation of the prospect’s respectable country. Each country has its own governing body that monitors and issues laws. In the US we must comply with the Can-Spam Act and in Canada we must comply with CASL.

Cold Email or Cold Call: Summary

As we can see there are both positives and negatives to Cold Calling and Cold emailing prospective customers. The best sales pitch over the phone and the most visually attractive email template still requires connecting with the right customer at the right time. Both approaches will have their advantages in certain situations, however they are most effective when they are used together. It is about creating a holistic marketing approach that helps you connect with your clients in the most effective way possible. If you are looking for assistance in creating the most effective marketing campaign, at Voice Logic we can provide both Cold Calls and Cold Emails using our Outbound Call Center Services and Email Broadcasting Services.

Contact us today to assist with your marketing needs!

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